Ask Lemmy

No, you don't know how to manage genZ (or any other cohort) because that's not a fucking thing.

Start here:

Fight to pay them more. Period. This should be at the top of your daily to-do list. Your team is the reason you have a job, and they're the reason your shareholders live such splendid lives. So, you want to keep your position(s) of benefit & security? Then never stop fighting for worker's pay & benefit INCREASES. It is really hard to care about management, production (or shareholders 🙄) when you can't take care of yourself or your family.

Curate a safe, work-focused environment that supports the life-cycle of a product that actually solves current, real-world problems like - global warming, profiteering, equality, etc.

Stop managing and learn how to lead.

Leaders:

Know how to say, "I don't know."

Show / do by example

Share knowledge

Support and foster knowledge sharing.

Shut their goddamn mouths and trust their teams to succeed (that's why you hired them in the first place right?) and when the team/member falls short of PREVIOUSLY AGREED UPON goals you work together to address the extenuating circumstance(s).

Every company's greatest asset and product is the verve, innovation, and vision of its employees. Squash, or worse, fail to invest in any of these aspects of your workforce and the human beings you're trying to "manage" will "manage" themselves into better working conditions elsewhere.

hold leadership accountable, provide a clear path to advancement and pay them well

I'm a millennial but have insight. Think about the 90s. Didn't even have MapQuest yet. No cell phones.

Okay, now you're at work, and your sister miscarries her pregnancy. When do you discover this? 6pm? 8pm? Later that week?

Gen Z finds out between customers. Or emails.

In the idle time you used to spend daydreaming about your girlfriend or lackthereof, gen Z is learning about wildfires that will reduce their air quality. They're googling rent worldwide to figure out if it's time to seriously consider moving somewhere cheaper and colder.

What am I getting at?

We as a society get ever more connected. We are therefore ever less present from our 9-5. There is so much going on that is relevant to us, and an 8 hour chunk of my day is really asking too much to sacrifice.

If your employees are at a computer, let tell them outright it's totally okay to watch Netflix or YouTube, or reddit, or lemmy, whatever as long as the work is getting done on time.

If your employees are serving customers, let them take frequent 10 minute breaks to use their phone or be away from humans.

Let them know you understand they have WAY more going on in their lives than your job which barely pays bills. Then, act that way.

But also, gen Z knows that no one gives raises like new bosses. So, don't expect them to stick around long.