Be honest - were you a good employee when you were young?

[Anonymous]

I was always punctual and would always complete tasks like taking and sharing notes, attending meetings, etc. I was polite and professional at all times. These are reasonable expectations.

Many young people need help understanding appropriate dress, behavior, expectations. Sometimes it needs to be handled sensitively. Example: one employee frequently smelled bad. This was on a travel program. Turns out he didn’t know how to get his dry cleaning done between flights. It sounds silly but some young people just haven’t dealt with these types of things before.

I do think it’s weird to knock on hotel doors. It’s invasive. It’s like going to someone’s house, basically. Inappropriate. I’d actually apologize for that. As someone said, if they’re late they are late and they suffer the consequences.

I try to be firm but caring. A lot of young people have anxiety about how to act in public/professional settings. But we are doing them a great service if we can guide them with high expectations combined with respect and compassion. I don’t embarrass them but I do hold them accountable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am 32. I think I was a GREAT employee: I went to a T25 school but (for a variety of reasons, many of them my own fault) graduated with a lower GPA and no job. I got a job about a month after graduating and was very grateful, I remember one day my car broke down going to work and I was frantically trying to get a taxi to take me to the metro so I wouldn’t be late! I started out making only $50K a year and now make close to $200K, I was able to advance pretty well (not at the same company, but it did put me on a good path).

I see very little work ethic in the 22-25 year olds I supervise, unfortunately. I had one announce to me at around noon that she needed to WFH the remainder of the day. Okay, fine. Come to find out ‘working from home’ meant heading to the airport, going through security, etc. and not being available to actually work, only sporadically respond to teams messages. I had to explain PTO or comp time needed to be used for those circumstances and same day notice was unacceptable. I would’ve never done this!!

I had this happen too! I called our IT guy with an extremely urgent problem and he snottily responded that he was at the airport and couldn't talk. He was on the clock as WFH!!

[Anonymous]

Yes, I was an excellent employee when I was young. Much better than I am now!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First, don’t knock on their hotel room doors. That’s inappropriate. Call or text them, don’t go to their hotel room. That’s treating them like your kids.

Second, not being ready for a scheduled 10:00 am meeting is not acceptable. I would never, ever have done that. I was a good employee, I showed up on time, I tried to do my best, and I respected authority. I’m Gen X.

+1. Also GenX.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:By now I would have told these team members the expectations, and asked them whether they understand that not following these expectations will lead to losing their jobs. If after that discussion, they are still behaving like this, I would be planning to let them go as soon as we return from the trip.

+1 tons of young people (and others) are looking for jobs right now. If they don't shape up it should be easy to replace them.

+2. Just let them go OP. They are easy enough to replace.

[Anonymous]

I was very reliable, but I was often pretty hungover.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Currently on a business trip and we have a couple new Gen Z team members and it’s been interesting.

We have meetings scheduled for 10am sharp. At 9:55 I get texts “just hopped in the shower!” or “ran out to get coffee!” Today I preemptively knocked on their hotel doors at 9am to make sure they were up on time and ready, and nope, they still weren’t. Also I don’t know if they aren’t wearing deodorant or what but they SMELL.

I definitely remember not taking work as seriously as I do now when I was that young, but I definitely don’t think I waltzed into meetings 45 minutes late with an iced latte.

I was young but also had very jealous older women who made my life difficult. Had they gave me kindness and guidance I would have done better.

[Anonymous]

I was punctual, smart and hardworking, but I was also emotional, immature, too honest and didn’t understand the business part of the job well. Over time I became very good but there were bumps. I’m not even sure I recognized some of the bumps. I had a good manager who took me under their wing so I did well eventually, outpacing others in quality, but never a workhorse like others. Mommy tracking and becoming less sensitive with experience also factored in.

[Anonymous]

Can you not fire them?

I am a mid 30s millennial and, while younger gen z coworkers are flighty and do a lot of job hopping the ones we’ve hired show up on time and make an effort.

[Anonymous]

I’m GenX and definitely had a strong work ethic but didn’t focus that on things like punctuality or dress (though I was fine on those counts). I was all-in on working both efficiently and long hours. We had five metrics of performance and to be rated as fully successful you had to reach the highest level on at least two of them. I hit that level on all five most years. A senior colleague once asked me “why do you work so hard?”

Nowadays I confess I’m not nearly that driven, as I feel like I spent so much of my life giving and giving and not focusing as much on myself. I misspent my youth and didn’t have fun or travel as much as I should have. So I’d give these GenZ kids a little leeway on their style - but if they aren’t producing well, cut them loose.

[Anonymous]

I was an excellent employee. I have never been let go because of performance. I have been rehired about 15 times total by 4 different employers.
My boss from 2002 just traced me down and asked if I wanted to 'help him'.
I went years without being sick or taking a day off. I have worked sick with high fever and/or puking. Wasn't my choice.
I was the only person at my last job who had not taken a day off in 10 months. There were 70 of us total.
I worked years for 10-12 hours without even a 5-minute break.
Ofcourse I did extremely well once I decided to work for me.

[Anonymous]

I recently (voluntarily) left one of the large local consulting firms that had layoffs. Many of the ‘COVID hires’ - the new college graduates who came in after 2020 - did not know how to function in the workplace. Some were genuinely hard workers and wanted to do a good job, but needed more explicit laying out of basic expectations than I’m used to (for example, a crop top is inappropriate at a client site; being on TikTok during a meeting, regardless of what is being discussed or whether it applies to you, is unacceptable). Others were lazy AF, ‘worked from home’ but were impossible to reach, and acted like basic tasks like notetaking and scheduling meetings were beneath them. Guess which ones just got laid off for poor performance. I think it’s going to be a rude awakening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you not fire them?

I am a mid 30s millennial and, while younger gen z coworkers are flighty and do a lot of job hopping the ones we’ve hired show up on time and make an effort.

+1. To me, this is grounds for dismissal. You don’t treat business trips like personal vacations.

[Anonymous]

Gen X and always on time and worked hard. I would never tolerate people being late for work meetings. Don’t need to be on time, don’t need the paycheck.

[Anonymous]

Was a terrible employee till I was 36. I then took it serious and had a big corner office by 45. Kids are kids to almost 40.