Much has been said about the workforce behavior of Generation Z, the oldest of whom will turn 30 next year. They’re distracted and unprepared for the workforce. They lack the soft skills to succeed in certain roles, including critical thinking and attention to detail. They’re disengaged, easily stressed and overly focused on time outside the office.
In fact, Gen Z may be less of a problem in the workforce and more of a canary in the coal mine, Dan Rust, vice president of global leadership development at Infopro Learning Inc. and author of “Workplace Poker” and “The Unbearable Lightness of Leading,” told HR Dive.
The bluntness and disengagement of Gen Z that may read as unprofessionalism may actually be an honest reflection of the culture leaders are furnishing in the workplace. “I think that Gen Z is not more disengaged than the rest of us,” Rust said. “I think they’re just worse at hiding it.”
What makes Gen Z different
In some ways, complaining about younger generations is timeless. Millennials got it for years, receiving some of the same kinds of criticism now leveled at Gen Z. If employers imagine a continuum on which workers fall, Gen Z just falls further along the line than millennials did, revealing an evolving generational relationship with work across time.
While millennials have a more egalitarian, partnership-oriented mentality — part of what makes them widely seen as good managers — Gen Z has separated a bit from that, Rust said. Part of that is a wariness at having watched generations of workers before them being poorly treated or dispensed with, including through sudden layoffs and power yanked away when the economic tides shift.
“You don’t grow up in a dysfunctional family without it affecting your behavior,” Rust said. “You watch and observe, and this gives you your sense of how things are.”
As a result, Gen Z is less willing to simply buy into the workplace culture if they’re suspicious of or don’t believe in what’s being sold. While employers often view that stance as a problem to be solved, they might benefit from considering why their younger workers feel that way — and whether that reality might reflect a broader feeling that’s going largely unvoiced.
“Maybe if they’re not buying a concept or an idea or a strategy or a vision — or they’re just not understanding ‘why do we need to produce this report?’ or ‘why is this due on Friday?’ or ‘what’s the purpose of this?’ — man, if they’re asking the question, that’s probably really good information,” Rust said.
Rather than view the feedback as obstructive or impertinent, employers could treat the question nonjudgmentally and consider whether they either need to rethink certain workplace choices or more effectively communicate the reason behind them.
Leadership that works
Rust used the example of remote work as a perfect illustration of the kind of tension Gen Z can help illuminate.
While most workplaces that were able to went remote during the COVID-19 pandemic, many have pulled back not out of necessity but out of feeling a lack of control, Rust said. This “heavy” leadership style is typified by greater surveillance and a stronger grip on employees.
While the shift is framed as important for culture, “the reality is, I, as a leader, need to walk out of my corner office and hear the clicking of keyboards across the floor. I may not think of that consciously, but that’s embedded in me. That feels like, ‘Okay, everybody’s working because I hear that, or I perceive that vibe,’” Rust said. “I think that is a reflection of the lack of depth of relationship.”
In contrast, a “light” leadership style sees disengaged behaviors and understands and approaches them differently, Rust said. It’s about forging a deeper connection with employees and consequently being able to “take full advantage of their mental and emotional energies.”
While employers should never tell employees they’re family, Rust said, managers can still create stronger and more organic relationships with their employees that foster deeper personal ties that similarly deepen engagement. This means one-on-one conversations that touch as much on workers’ personal lives and interests as work projects.
Work and progress would be approached similar to how friends regularly update each other on life events.
Performance reviews “wouldn’t happen once a year. [They] wouldn’t happen once a quarter. A performance review probably happens all the time. It’s probably an ongoing thing where, if there are performance gaps, they get noted in the moment,” Rust said. “The way we do with family members, with other friends. If you’re annoyed because somebody doesn’t show up on time for the coffees that you schedule, you probably mention it if it’s important to you.”
Rust used the example of a leader he spoke to recently who owns 17 fast food restaurants and was able to name and describe the stories and motivations of the general managers at every one of the stores.
“The key thing that he said to me was, ‘I expect them to have this same connection with their employees. So when I go to one of the stores and I visit with the general manager, I ask them about their people, and what I’m looking for is that same level of connection,’” Rust said. “‘The guy who is working the midnight shift. Why does he do that? What’s his story? What’s going on? Why does this job work for him? The lady who is always looking to take on extra shifts because she needs to make more money. Tell me her story.’”
This type of light leadership works with Gen Z — and all other employees, he said.
The franchisee told Rust, “I recognize if someone is making sloppy burritos, it’s not about the sloppy burritos. It is the fact that we haven’t grabbed them yet. They don’t care enough yet. So our goal is to understand them enough, so that they understand us.”