Reply to How to work with Gen Z minority woman employee

Forum Index » Jobs and Careers

Reply to "How to work with Gen Z minority woman employee"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP - this is a tough spot for you.  And a potentially dangerous one.  If you make this about her race (which you shouldn't, obviously) even in the hope of trying to figure out her world view, you put yourself in jeopardy.  You need to focus exclusively on performance.

[b]FWIW, I occasionally ruminate on what a disaster of an employee i was straight out of school.  Smart, but undisciplined, anti-authoritarian, and smug.  I thought I knew best and was reluctant to take direction.  And I worked very inefficiently. Some people were more patient than others, but what finally snapped me out of it was somebody laying down the line and telling me I needed to accomplish X by open of business the next day, no exceptions.  I stayed at the office until 2pm trying to get my code to work.  And something clicked that I wasn't entitled to employment, I was there to earn it.[/b]

I wasn't a model or a minority and there was none of that complexity for me.  But the path to success was the same.  Somebody - sometimes multiple people - explaining to me in clear terms what the expectations were.

Keep it simple and uncomplicated.  Focus on the work and don't get distracted by social elements.  That's the fastest way to success for her and the least risky way for you.[/quote]

In many ways this was me too,  but the gen x leadership was slow to adapt in the mid 2000s… it made new college graduates like me who understood technology a bit impatient and smug.  I think we were inefficient because we were working in outdated systems and processes that were inherently inefficient and we understood things could be a lot more efficient. I’d say I simmered a bit but the folks who are in their 50s and 60s modernized.

For this example, it is useful to reference how the world was when you graduated, how you fit in, where leadership was in your first job, and how everything shifted in the years after… it will likely reveal that no matter how much of an outlier she seems, some parts of her approach, if they’re indeed common to her generation, will seep into the mainstream eventually…[/quote]

This is every generation. I am Gen X and had to work with older Gen X/ Boomers who did not want to learn new technology. If I sent them a spreadsheet they refused to look at it unless I printed it out. Gen Z is not unique and the next generation will come along sneering and looking down on them as well.[/quote]

I am 62 and every single day you use things I helped create. In fact the biggest leaps forward in IT was around 1984-1999. If you have a mortgage, broker dealer account, bank account all things I worked on.

I even did Flash Trading and Crypto. Right now working on building out AI enhancements in banking.

My kids know Tic Toc and Instagram and Spotify and think they are PC experts.

[/quote]

I can tell you’re an engineer because you think one data point is proof that boomers don’t suck at technology. [/quote]

That’s multiple data points[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics