ThrowawayR2
16 hours ago
Even more interesting than the article itself are the hundreds and hundreds of comments that more or less say the same thing. Are all of these people "out-of-touch boomers" or is there some truth to the story?
wrp
4 minutes ago
Taking this seriously, I'm not sure how to establish "truth to the story" besides surveys, which will always have biases. I'm sure TFA comments are biased by self-selection. I can only offer here some personal experience.
I have mostly worked outside the USA over many years, but the COVID disruptions and consequences have kept me here more. As a result, I've been interacting with local offices of various sorts that I had largely avoided for nearly a generation. I have been constantly exasperated at the performance of the youngest cohort of office workers. They usually will not bother to answer business communications. They seem unable to follow any but the simplest directions. Work frequently doesn't get done because they just didn't feel like it. I wonder how businesses will survive as they become more reliant them.
toomuchtodo
14 hours ago
My hot take is Gen Z workers are simply not compliant like older cohorts and managers don’t know how to handle that. This will continue as millions of Boomers continue to leave the workforce each year, and Gen Z workers are the only option: you can only offshore and outsource so much.
Edit: From a comment in another thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41675831
> The problem is, in the last ~20 years we went from ~7% of the population being retired to ~20%. Over the next 10 years, it's going to get close to ~30%. —- u/onlyrealcuzzo
LarsAlereon
13 hours ago
This is a good point. I've tried phrasing this a few ways, but ultimately it seems like Gen Z workers think they know the value of their work, and will balk when asked to do more than they're being paid for. I don't think entry-level works are more immature or less-prepared, but they're a lot less tolerant of corporate excuses.
Boomer Manager: "Great news, we think you might be ready to move from a Junior to Senior role! We're going to start assigning you Senior-level work, and if you succeed at it you'll get your promotion in 3 months or so!"
Zoomer: "If you want to assign me Senior work then promote me to Senior. If you don't think I'm meeting standards in that role you can put me on a PIP."
ahazred8ta
11 hours ago
Surely some GenZs are this way, but there are millions of HS graduates who cannot remember instructions, cannot follow simple rules even when reminded many times, cannot follow multistep procedures even when holding a checklist, and can't be bothered to read anything longer than a page. These are the 'employees' that HR is failing to onboard.
user
7 hours ago
user
13 hours ago