eh.. I'm a gen xer, and I'm not interested in advancement, either. I like my work/life balance, too. Planning to retire early.

You are confusing ambition to advance with chasing more money. They aren’t building a career and really doing much in these 12 month stints — they just want to maximize salary above all else. It works in current labor market, it may backfire if we have recession. But they aren’t willing to work hard without IMMEDIATE REWARD.

We must work with different GenZers. They definitely want to advance here. They have absolutely no patience for coasting by or staying in one position for more than 12-18 months.

This makes sense. We max productivity and we need to diversity how money is made. Think of a time where agriculture was the main method of producing, then people moved on to manufacturing. When manufacturing was maxed (outsourced), people moved into service economies. Now service economies are efficiently run, they are creating new pathway to influence society - content creation & entertainment. As society we move forward and they are leading the way.

Anonymous wrote:When the economy changes and they need more money they will change their tune; this post COVID economy where one doesn't really have to work hard to support a lifestyle is deceiving. Also, if they are living at home, on mom and dad's cell phone plan, etc, it is easy to be idealistic

The theme of this thread seems to be that they’re NOT idealistic but cynical to a point where they don’t trust their hard work will be rewarded.

When the economy changes and they need more money they will change their tune; this post COVID economy where one doesn't really have to work hard to support a lifestyle is deceiving. Also, if they are living at home, on mom and dad's cell phone plan, etc, it is easy to be idealistic

Anonymous wrote:Gen Z doesn’t trust pie-in-the-sky unless they’re the ones baking it.

I love this quote.

Of the Gen Z kids I know, they watched the millennials get thrashed and said "no thank you." Two teenagers in my family could go onto pretty decent colleges based on their grades, but one is choosing to go straight to employment and has a job lined up already, and the other is going to a small branch of a state uni in his hometown. He said he didn't want to take on a loan or have his parents pay a lot.

Gen Z knows what's important and doesn't put up with bullshit, and I am here for it.

Yes. Let’s make broad generalizations about entire generations. The ollder generations get their feelings all hurt when people do it lol

Same. Overall they seem to be good at work and could go far - which I didn't always think was true of many in my millennial gen - but they just don't want to. Honestly I think they're just young and all harboring the dream of working for themselves via content creation/social media. I assume the tune will be different when they're 35 with a kid who needs a college fund and they need to buy houses. Though IDK I could be wrong - they seem very true to themselves so maybe even then they'll maintain their boundaries re work being work and family (rather than content creation or gaming) being most important.

Anonymous wrote:I think Gen Z/young millennials has watched their parents work well over 40 hours a week and sacrifice their personal lives. They don't want to spend their entire lives at work and I think it's great.

Exactly. Social media has allowed them to discover that hard work doesn’t usually correlate to advancement without the special sauce of a mentor/uncle/college sports team bro to pull you up. Working really hard is for rubes in general.

Gen Z doesn’t trust pie-in-the-sky unless they’re the ones baking it.

I think Gen Z/young millennials has watched their parents work well over 40 hours a week and sacrifice their personal lives. They don't want to spend their entire lives at work and I think it's great.

That tracks. Honestly my Gen Z employees are some of my best - smart, hardworking, creative, and dedicated. But they also are absolutely clear that work is work and their life goal isn't to become CEO or anything like that.
I suspect some of them may want to advance more when they truly outgrow their current roles. For now, I'm thrilled with them.

This is correct. Younger millennials too. No desire to be biglaw partners or execs either.

I have a fantastic employee who is Gen Z. He has a great attitude and work ethic. He always overproduces on projects, never misses a deadline, and my favorite of all - his work needs very little editing.

I have a lead PM who put in her notice and I absolutely think this guy would be a fantastic fit. The team she was leading also skews young so promoting him wouldn't ruffle any feathers of some of my employees who have been here longer.

I called him in for a meeting Friday morning to tell him about the upcoming position and let him know I'd like to toss his name in the ring for the position. He declined. He said he's happy at his current position, even after hearing the salary bump, because he doesn't want more duties. He said his current workload is perfect for his work-life balance. I think I made a face when he said that because he clarified that he's working on building his brand in his downtime because his ultimate goal is to be able to support himself as a content creator and streamer.

I guess he is a Twitch game player in his free time. I've heard of Twitch but I'm not super familiar with it. He explained it to me and basically let me know that while he loves his job, it's not his passion like gaming.

I had my son show me some steamers this weekend on TikTok and Twitch. He explained how both platforms monetization works. It is still blowing my mind that people pay to watch another person play a video game. Anyway, I was chatting with both BILs who are also in management and they've noticed the same thing. Gen Z are great workers but overall, don't care about advancement. Anyone else seeing similar?