Gen Z, please talk to me: what management works and what does not?

I am an Xer who manages a small but crucial team at my workplace (in an EU country). I had a lady resign last week, and I have another who may be about to resign or I may have to let go due to low engagement. They are both Gen Z. Today it hit me: the five years I've been managing this department, the only people I've lost have been from Gen Z. Clearly I do not know how to manage Gen Z so that they are happy working here. What can I do? I want them to be as happy as my Millennial team members. One detail that might matter is that my team is spread over three European cities.

Happy to provide any clarification if anyone wants it.

Edit. Thanks for all the answers even if a few of them are difficult to hear (and a few were oddly angry?) This has been very helpful for me, much more so than it probably would have been at the Old Place.

Also the second lady I mentioned who might quit or I might have to let go? She quit the day after I posted this giving a week's notice yesterday. My team is fully supportive, but it's going to be a rough couple of months.

foggy ,

I'm a millennial but have insight. Think about the 90s. Didn't even have MapQuest yet. No cell phones.

Okay, now you're at work, and your sister miscarries her pregnancy. When do you discover this? 6pm? 8pm? Later that week?

Gen Z finds out between customers. Or emails.

In the idle time you used to spend daydreaming about your girlfriend or lackthereof, gen Z is learning about wildfires that will reduce their air quality. They're googling rent worldwide to figure out if it's time to seriously consider moving somewhere cheaper and colder.

What am I getting at?

We as a society get ever more connected. We are therefore ever less present from our 9-5. There is so much going on that is relevant to us, and an 8 hour chunk of my day is really asking too much to sacrifice.

If your employees are at a computer, let tell them outright it's totally okay to watch Netflix or YouTube, or reddit, or lemmy, whatever as long as the work is getting done on time.

If your employees are serving customers, let them take frequent 10 minute breaks to use their phone or be away from humans.

Let them know you understand they have WAY more going on in their lives than your job which barely pays bills. Then, act that way.

But also, gen Z knows that no one gives raises like new bosses. So, don't expect them to stick around long.

hellothere ,

I agree with most of this, but this bit

If your employees are serving customers, let them take frequent 10 minute breaks to use their phone or be away from humans.

Is comically absurd.

GenZ are not the first people to have things they'd rather be doing than work, or to be tired due to human interaction. The latter is called emotional labour and has been a thing across all service industries for literally a hundred plus years.

I'm not saying that people don't need breaks, everyone does, especially in jobs which are physically/mentally tiring, but to say people need frequent breaks solely to check their phone is derisible.

TexMexBazooka ,

Fine: People need frequent breaks to do whatever the fuck they want

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