Are We Calling Them Generation Z?

I was speaking at a conference the other day, and the discussion turned to Generation-Y employees.  In fact, it’s been coming up for some time now, ever since these folks started to enter the workforce a few years ago.  They present a challenge to managers and organizations, and as I was speaking, I mentioned my own kids as part of a story I was telling.  Right then and there, it occurred to me that as concerned as I have been about what kind of women we’re raising our girls to be, I haven’t spent one second thinking about what kind of employees I’m raising.  Is that even my responsibility?  Crap.

What kind of employees will my delightful children become?

When I think about myself as an employee, I can absolutely point to my parents, and specifically, my dad, as the place from where I inherited whatever work ethic I have.  He was loyal to his organization and expected the same from them.  He was truthful and honest with his customers, and this I know to be true, as he has remained in contact with many of them as friends, many years after his retirement.  It’s the same with his co-workers and the people who worked for him.  He was the kind of employee and boss, and co-worker that I aspire to be.

I learned everything I know about work from my Dad.  And Michael Scott.

I look also to my lovely wife Laura, and it’s clear that her notions of work also come from her parents.  Before she dedicated herself to motherhood, she was serious about her work, and she did it well.  She knew exactly when starting time was, and when the clock struck 5, she was outtie… Nothing wrong with it…it’s what she grew up knowing and it worked well for her.  We have very different ideas about work, and it’s just become clear to me the reason behind that.  Our parents bred into us our ideas about work.  It’s actually a bit of a relief to find the real source of so many of our arguments over the last twenty-plus years (or at least that’s what I’m telling myself).

Oh, we've had some doozies over work. 

Up until this week, it never really occurred to me to think about what my three girls are going to be like as employees.  And now, it’s all I think about.  I love them dearly, but I can’t possibly conceive of them as working adults…or working teens.  I look around at the service type roles that appeal to working teen-agers, and I just can’t see it.  They also don't seem to be developing the skills that hopefully are going to help them get jobs, and keep them-one doesn’t think spelling is important; one thinks all things get handed to her on a silver platter; and the third will likely poke your eyes out if you look at her the wrong way.   For god’s sake, I want to fire them on a regular basis.

Can I get the Donald to fire my kids?  I'm sure he's fired one or two of his own

My thirteen year old has been test-driving her teen-age attitude for at least the last 2 years.  Now that she’s past the magical 13^th birthday, it’s full-on attitude.  As I do with work, I tend to pick my battles with this beautiful alien creature.  I don’t call her on every sarcastic little comment she makes (in fact, I’m pretty happy that she’s developing this evolving sense of sarcasm, I just don’t like it when she turns it on me).   I can only imagine what she’s going to be like when she gets her first job in a drive-through and some sorry chap gives her some lip.

If even Ronald lashes out, watch out for Haley and her attitude

She fights tooth and nail when it comes to going to swimming lessons.  It’s something that her mother and I have forced on her (poor her).  She’s 13 and she’s at the end of lessons and right at the beginning of her lifeguard training.  She doesn’t understand at all that as a lifeguard, she can get some rockin’ jobs that will pretty much guarantee that she’ll never have to ask people if they want fries with their order.    I suppose, however, that the last thing you want is a sarcastic lifeguard who will most likely mock you if you start to drown.  Maybe that plan needs a complete re-think. 

The biggest battle we have is with her expectations, and from everything I read and everything I’ve experienced, this is the very biggest challenge for managers when they are trying to sort out how to manage the newest working generation.  These new kids at work want prizes for showing up (like they got in soccer and hockey and baseball…’even though your team sucked and didn’t win a game all year, here’s the same trophy that the championship team got…great work').  They want to be vice presidents within a couple of years of exiting the womb, and if not, they’ll get their mothers to call and sort it out for them. 

Ya, I'm the VP...Better listen to me, or I'm calling my mom.

I remember years ago, as a manager of a small resort hotel, I was hiring housekeepers, and placed ads in newspapers across the country.  I can’t even count the number of calls I got from anxious moms…not just before they got hired, but during their employment, and again, once they got canned.  I felt more like a counselor at a summer camp than a manager.

Best job in the world...unless you're really a hotel manager.

We worried for a couple of years that my delightful, beautiful middle daughter (and a middle-child she is, in every single sense of the word) was going to grow up to be a stripper.  For many years this child loved to roam around with no clothes on, and swing on the banister pole at the bottom of our front hall staircase.  As she’s grown, she’s become more attached to her underwear, which is a huge relief to her mother and me. 

You never wanna think of your daughter and a stripper pole in the same thought.

With her, however, I suspect that getting the job is going to be the challenge.  I’m pretty sure she’ll be able to hang onto it, but unless job interviews change drastically into a purely ‘texting’ experience, she’s going to be hard pressed to sit there and have a conversation.  I noticed it on the phone with her today.  She’s so distracted and busy doing other things, that she doesn’t really string together enough words to complete a sentence.

They don't talk...how are they going to survive a job interview?

On the flipside, when she does get started with a story, she couldn’t find her point with a GPS.  She is all over the freaking place, and sometimes I’m so lost that neither of us knew why she started talking, or what she was trying to say.  I’ve interviewed people like that, and I didn’t hire them.

I love that child, but when she gets going, there's not a point in sight

Which brings me to my third and youngest.  To look at her, she’s a smart, cute little pixie.  As much as I love her, this child has a side of her that is going to get her into wicked trouble at work.   I suppose as a third child she needs to fight for every little victory, and every bit of space she ultimately gets to occupy.  She will look into your eyes, smile, and lie her little ass off.  She’s been doing it for years.  

If only her nose grew when she told a lie...would be so much easier to spot

When that little chick hits the workforce, watch out.  If you’re working with her, there’s a good chance she’s gonna take you down.  If you’re managing her, you’re gonna wanna pull your hair out.  And God forbid, if she’s managing you, you’d better learn to manage up.  And start looking for somewhere else to work.  In order to make life easier for future generations of employees and managers, we’re trying to break her of her evil ways, but it’s a struggle.

This devil wears Prada...not sure what my little devil is gonna wear...

So based on what it’s like to be a parent of one of these Gen-Z’s (or whatever we’re calling the generation after Gen-Y), I can only imagine what trying to manage them is going to be like.   I was at a parent-teacher interview one day a couple of years ago, and all the teacher did was talk about how hard her class was to manage.  Apparently she had a higher percentage of ‘only children’ than she’s ever had before, and she spent the majority of her time managing the inability of those kids to fit into the classroom environment.  They were demanding and difficult.  I don’t know about you, but I have enough challenges at work, the idea of managing the residual impacts of ‘only-childness’ on future employees makes me shudder.  And that's why I play the lotto.

Uniform for the workplace of tomorrow?

 

PS...I love my girls more than anything...and maybe at 9, 11, and 13 it's too early for me to be worried about what kind of employees they're going to be...but if how they are today is any indication of what their generation is going to be like at work, they better add a new chapter to the 'How to be a Manager' handbook.