Starting a career has increasingly felt like a right of passage for Gen Z and Millennial workers struggling to adapt to the working week and stand out to their new bosses.
But it looks like those bosses aren’t doing much in return to help their young staffers adjust to corporate life, and it could be having major effects on their company’s output.
Research by the London School of Economics and Protiviti found that friction in the workplace was causing a worrying productivity chasm between bosses and their employees, and it was by far the worst for Gen Z and Millennial workers.
The survey of nearly 1,500 U.K. and U.S. office workers found that a quarter of employees self-reported low productivity in the workplace. More than a third of Gen Z employees reported low productivity, while 30% of Millennials described themselves as unproductive.
Millennials finally realized that working for soulless corporations is a necessary evil for many of them and shouldn’t rule their lives. Then they passed that news on to Gen Z. The Boomers who thought they had to put their entire lives into working 40 hours a week for shit wages in order to increase shareholder profits don’t get it, especially when they were able to do things like buy houses on their salaries.
Gen x: “we got ours but we didn’t know the truth until it was too late.”
Speak for yourself but I’m Gen X and I’m gonna need to work till I die. No retirement unless you count hospice
Story of our generation.
Smallest generation bookended by two massive cohorts and yet we are expected to pay the brunt for everything because we are the “adults” as our parents get older and need care and our kids and grandkids need support.
All we want is to put our heads down, do our work and check out when it’s all done. All everyone else does is bitch about eachother.
FML.
I’ve been laid off 5 times since I started what was my career over a decade ago. After the second time I learned to always keep a second or third source of income, which meant I never had a day off or a vacation for years. After the 4th time I gave up on corporate jobs but still took a position when a friend offered it to me. This time I will not go back, thankfully my side work of being a handy person landed me a job in the solar industry somehow and the pay is even better than my senior position at the last “career” job.
Cool. What are you doing in solar?
Honestly just the basic installer, I travel, which is paid for and put panels up and run wire on commercial sites. I also do residential installs but those pay less, but fill time between the commerical jobs.
bosses aren’t doing much in return to help their young staffers adjust to corporate life
I can’t recall when this was ever a thing. It has always been do or fail.
Depends on the boss. Some can be good and actually try to manage, but most tend to be lazy and not care much about working with their staff. Figuring out how to get the most out of your employees is part of every management training course I’ve ever seen, but a lot of managers/bosses tend to pick the things they like and not necessarily the things that work best for their employees.
I like that more and more of the kids these days are willing to settle for shitty stuff. Most of the people in my generation (+/- a generation) just deal with it and shut down anyone that thinks things can and should be better, and that sucks.
and shut down anyone that thinks things can and should be better, and that sucks.
I know I sound like a broken record at this point, but you should consider if the person you’re listening to is legit, or astroturfing, before weighing their words.
Corporations have a benefit to their bottom lines to shape narratives a certain way.
You mean like a corporation got some coworkers hired and doing actual work at the place I’m working at just to tell me I need to deal with my shit job? That seems a bit on the paranoid side.
I have a good job now.
You mean like a corporation got some coworkers hired and doing actual work at the place I’m working at just to tell me I need to deal with my shit job?
Have no idea how what you just said can be response to this…
and shut down anyone that thinks things can and should be better, and that sucks.
Corporations have a benefit to their bottom lines to shape narratives a certain way.
I’m talking about astroturfing comments on forums that are pushing back against positive change.
Yeah, I gathered what you were talking about. But you’re responding to me talking about me talking to coworkers. I get that I didn’t specifically say that, but I also don’t say anything about comments on forums.
but I also don’t say anything about comments on forums.
But, you did say this…
and shut down anyone that thinks things can and should be better, and that sucks
I read that sentence and thought that you were not happy about the fact that people want to shut down conversations about things that could be better.
My thought process was to try and cheer you up (“and that sucks”), by letting you know that you should realize it may not be just regular everyday people who don’t want things to improve, but actual astroturfers who don’t want things to improve, for their own personal benefit reasons.
And by saying that to you, you would realize that more people potentially think the way you do, want positive change conversations, and cheer you up a little bit.
So, my response to you…
I know I sound like a broken record at this point, but you should consider if the person you’re listening to is legit, or astroturfing, before weighing their words.
Corporations have a benefit to their bottom lines to shape narratives a certain way.
Yeah, get that. I get where you went wrong as described in my last post.
I am not happy with a lot of people in my generation wanting to shut the conversation down. Astroturfing doesn’t apply since the people that were doing it, were in person, face to face, coworkers. Not astroturfers.
What does make me feel better is that millennials and later seem to be more on board with me on this.
The survey of nearly 1,500 U.K. and U.S. office workers found that a quarter of employees self-reported low productivity in the workplace. More than a third of Gen Z employees reported low productivity, while 30% of millennials described themselves as unproductive.
“In a given week I maybe do fifteen minutes of real, actual work” - Peter Gibbons, 1999
All of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again.
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This has always been the case. Socrates talking about children “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”
I don’t know about gen z, but it’s probably a similar story. Millennials are better behaved, better educated, more intelligent had less teen pregnancy and less violent crime than any recorded generation before them. The kids these days aren’t getting worse, the seem to be getting better.
Millennials are also more productive, especially productive relative to inflation adjusted cost. Productivity has been rising and real wages have been stagnant. Millennials make up the most productive part of the workforce right know. The prior generation are retiring and the younger are still junior/eduction.
Coming up? I’m Millennial, and 43.
It’s just news shitting on a group and not realising who they are.
If you’re born in January 1981 then you’re basically Gen X and therefore, a boomer. I bet you remember the first Gulf War.
I’m hoping with the rise of the internet, millennials break the cycle for Gen Z. There’s a lot more awareness now and Gen Z are pretty alright
I’m a millennial and I straight up consider Gen z the same as us.
I hope this doesn’t offend anyone if we’re like considered boomer af, but I just see the same social views and the same issues. The generational divide feels dead post Internet.
I tried explaining this to my gen x dad, about my gen x brother and I’d views, and dad got stuck on “but you guys are 10 years apart!” 😂
My sister and I are both Gen X, her late 60s and me late 70s. When she got her first digital camera, she took the memory card to CVS, got her prints made, and deleted the digital files to take new photos. It’s funny that people think these generation labels are actually meaningful blocs instead of a useful statistical tool for policy makers.
All I need them to understand is to pay me a fair wage and don’t fucking talk to me on my days off and just let me do my job.
Yes, but also some fucking healthcare so I can get medication for ADD is necessary. I felt like a horrible human being for twenty five years for having a terrible work ethic. And then I went on meds and suddenly I’m productive and motivated. Made me realize I’m not a shitstain on the drawers of humanity, just someone who needs help regulating brain chemistry and is capable of great things when I get that help.
That gives me great empathy when people are crying about laziness. I suppose some folks are lazy, but I wonder how many of them wouldn’t be if they could get help.
I’m actually off meds right now for various reasons (job change and related insurance fuckery) and I can’t wait to be able to resume them because I’m a tenth of the person I can and want to be.
Yeah same, and the whole song and dance with a shrink to get amph is just so disrespectful after everything
*rite of passage
ITT:
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“I’m smarter than my boss that’s why I don’t care” “no you’re not, and yes you do.” “Yeah, actually, I am, and no, actually I don’t.” “‘Actually’ they don’t care, which is why you’re complaining about it. The only people that don’t care in this scenario are your boss and me.” “Nuh uh.” “Ya huh.”
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“This has happened before, it is always like this.” “No it’s not, we’re uniquely smart and capable and they’re particularly not and not.” “Ok, you’re brilliant but no one cares. That must be what’s happening.” “It is!” “It isn’t.”
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“The olds are so old and work culture is bad, we need better work culture.” “What does that look like?” “Doing things I care about when I want to and being paid a lucrative salary for it.” “That won’t work.” “Yes it will.” “Ok, but it won’t. Good luck.”
Sanded it down for you all. These threads were getting a little knotty and overgrown.
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I’ll bite …
crushing the productivity of these workers
What “crushing” of productivity are you delusionally on about?
https://assets.weforum.org/editor/HFNnYrqruqvI_-Skg2C7ZYjdcXp-6EsuSBkSyHpSbm0.png https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/11/productivity-workforce-america-united-states-wages-stagnate/
I can find any number of sources showing that productivity has been on the rise for decades, and has continued to rise as Millenials and younger entered the job market. There is no “crushing the productivity”.
The rise of the internet and social media has led to a culture of instant gratification … This sense of entitlement
Millenials and younger have gone through their entire school life being told “you need to do well this year at school, to get into the top set next year, to get into a good university to get a good job”. We/they have been told this by every generation above them, for their entire lives. The have followed this, listened to their elders, worked hard through school, sat meaningless exams, gotten good meaningless grades, they have gone to university. They have worked hard their entire lives …
Just to be told, “culture of instant gratification” “you’re entitled” “you’ve not done the grunt work”. It’s selfish of the previous generations to not recognise this.
Your entire comment rings as “needs evidence” to me. To the point I’m not sure if it’s satire or not. You’ve failed to put in any grunt work, evidence anything or source it as anything more than conjecture.
They expect to be rewarded simply for showing up, rather than for producing quality work.
This is the opposite of how I see the world, as it stands. Look at the people calling for maintaining or increasing working hours. Look at the people calling to work in office. It’s the previous generations expecting people to turn up, in office and sit there for hours so they can be paid. They are expecting people to be rewarded simply for showing up.
Look at the people calling for unlimited holiday and reduced workhours, where failure to deliver is a disciplinary issue. Look at the people calling to work from home, and have the quality of their work assessed, not their dress sense or punctuality. Look at the people driving quick delivery, rapid review and peer appraisal of work. These are the people who are focussed on delivering quality, and not getting paid simply for showing up.
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Wow, 5 paragraphs, with an introduction paragraph and a conclusion paragraph. Looks like something I’d write in high school, except for the topic.
Did you remember to take your blood pressure meds this morning? Cherish them, kids these days can’t afford healthcare, lmao.
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Yeah but are you going to back your statements above up with data or are these just your feelings?
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Looks like someone found ChatGPT to help them write this.
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should’ve just admitted to chatgpt. That paragraph makes you look old and disconnected. You made a lot of assumptions about people you don’t know, and clearly don’t know the current age you’re in. It’s not entitlement or some need for instant gratification. People are actually getting less than they got when you started working. And generally a lot of jobs are also expecting more, especially now that computers allow for deeper, more analytical, and less empathetic tracking of employee activity.
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It would look less embarrassing if you didn’t actually write it, that’s how bad it is.
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Lol what? So many things have changed since the last two generations entered the labor force. None of which is their fault. First, older generations cashed in their kids futures for a second house and boat in Florida. Second, labor today is vastly different than it was 40 years ago. 80% of work today in the west is services not production. Add in the lose in union protections, and you have a whole generation working at Walmart and McDonald’s type jobs. Third, the purposefully crippling of education. Those in power knew education needed to be wage gated or made so expensive that no one could dig out from under it in order to force educated individuals to work for lower wages. I can go on and on, your take is uninformed. Gen Z and Millennials will change this because we suffered through it and it’s all a lie.
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To address this issue, younger workers need to understand that success is not handed to them on a silver platter.
Ha, you mean the way boomers working a minimum wage job that could buy them a house and support 2.4 kids weren’t handed that on a silver platter?
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Considering the minimum wage (in modern dollars) is about the same as it was in 1945 and now is 5 bucks lower than it was in the 70s, I’d say the economy was pretty different.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1065466/real-nominal-value-minimum-wage-us/
yeah I can’t believe how much I was making as a teenager in terms of like number of eggs I could buy per hour.
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Do you make barrels for a living? Do you forge iron with a big hammer? Do you rivet? I would wager not, and this is due to the people who employ people changing with a changing world. Add humans into the equation, and you can see how employers also need to assess that aspect of their operation; changing with the people who themselves change with the world around them.
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When a job is required to survive, it’s not a privilege.
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Having productive workers isn’t a right. If your company needs productive workers to remain profitable, then pay your employees more so they’ll be motivated to work harder. Simple. Don’t expect workers to lower their standard of living just for your benefit. That is entitlement of the worst kind.
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“No society is more than three meals away from a revolution”
A society that cant take care if it’s own people will collapse into bloody revolution
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It’s not a privilege. It’s a contract with two parties. If either one of those doesn’t like it, they can go elsewhere.
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I would say it’s neither.
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Nope, this article focuses on just one side however it is and should be a two way mutually beneficial deal, like any successful relationship. Good managers understand their employees and work within business needs to make their people happy.
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I think you’re both right. Employees are free to choose jobs they like, and employers are free to hire people they like, for the most part. In theory.
Of course, the economy isn’t in great shape, and hasn’t been for almost the entire adult lives of millennials, so it’s not like people really have much of a choice in practice. You work at Soulless Company A, or you work at Soulless Company B…or you starve. Individual job-seekers don’t control the job market.
Similarly, companies don’t have that much of a choice, either. They can’t just exclusively hire senior citizens. They don’t control the hiring pool. It is expensive to hire and train new employees, and infeasible to replace a large percentage of your workforce on a short time scale.
Anyway, if you have a corporate culture that is hostile to the majority of employees under 40, you’ve got a big culture problem. You can’t just dig in your heels and expect two entire generations to come around to your geriatric worldview.
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Yes, I would encourage everyone to take as little shit from their job as possible. Frequent job-hopping has been the norm for millennials, because it’s typically the easiest way to increase your salary.
I think it’s more useful to think in terms of trends than in terms of individuals. This isn’t about one person or one company. One person can leave one company, no problem. Millions of people cannot leave thousands of companies. There’s nowhere else for that many people to go.
It seems more realistic for a small number of companies to adapt to a large number of individuals than vice-versa. If you have one unproductive employee, then they’re a bad employee. If you have hundreds or thousands of unproductive employees, then you are a bad employer.
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your hired! get in the wood chipper… scab.
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Real question? If you like companies so much, why are you on Lemmy?
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