In case you haven’t noticed, members of Gen Z make terrible employees. Not everyone in the workplace under the age of 30 is “entitled, too easily offended, lazy and generally unprepared for the workplace.” Enough are that the stereotype fits like a glove. A poll of “966 business leaders across the country” has the entire community talking about the issue.
Employees not coping
Now that the workplace has been saturated with Gen Z employees, people are beginning to realize how useless they are. They cost more in pay and benefits than they produce.
Not only that, they all seem to believe they should be starting at the top with a salary to match. When reality doesn’t meet their expectations, they throw a tantrum and walk out the door.
Online education magazine Intelligent took a poll last month. After tallying up the results from “966 business leaders across the country,” they came to the dismal conclusion that anyone born between 1996 and 2010 is likely to be a terrible worker.
Gen Z simply didn’t produce the sort of employees corporate America wants to hire. Considering those born in 2010 are only 14 right now, it’s going to be a while before we learn if the next generation will perform better in the work force, or worse.
Three fourths (75%) of the execs surveyed “felt most of the recent college grads they hired were unsuccessful.” Also “60% said at least some of them had to be fired.” Most of the rest quit on their own.
Newly hired employees, even ones with college degrees, are “largely unprepared for the workforce, can’t handle workloads and are unprofessional.” Everyone in the HR offices will tell you they avoid hiring Gen Z any way they can.
Too difficult to manage
The respondents ranged from “C-suite execs and business owners to senior and human resources managers at companies with more than 10 employees.” Across the board they report “they’ll refrain from hiring Gen Z workers in the coming year.” The youngsters are too smart for their own good.
According to Huy Nguyen, chief education and career development advisor for Intelligent, “with Gen Z, they’ve got a ton of access to information, a lot of different content, news sources and influences.” In a previous life he was hiring manager for a Fortune 500 company.
“So when they go into a company that has more traditional norms, you get a situation where it doesn’t always mesh.” That’s putting it mildly. “About 17% of leaders” believe Gen Z employees are “too difficult” to manage. “39% said they have poor communication skills.” Those are the good points.
Business mentor and speaker Jessen James explains that “some Gen Zers struggle to articulate themselves, don’t look you in the eye, and don’t project their voices. They lack charisma and personality skills.” They really don’t respect authority. “I don’t feel they are in tune with what it takes to impress others.”
“It’s almost like you have to walk on eggshells around them, being super sensitive when managing them, in case you offend them, upset them, or push them too far.” You know you’re in for trouble when a twentysomething brings a parent with them to the job interview. Management likes employees who are docile and productive.
Today’s fresh graduates “are often late to work” and “frequently hand assignments in late.” If they feel they want a raise and don’t get it, instead of getting “confrontational” and asking for more money, they’ll simply quit. While complaining loudly on the way out the door about how underappreciated and overworked they had been.
