Gen Z and millennial productivity is being crushed by bosses who don’t understand them, top university research says
Gen Z and millennial productivity is being crushed by bosses who don’t understand them, top university research says
Around a third of Gen Z and Millennials report low productivity, and it's their bosses' faults.
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.
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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.
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Yeah man my boomer dad gets a fucking pension! Blows my mind, except it doesn't because he was in a great union. I actually remember being on vacation once when they were doing contract negotiations and my dad calling his buddy each night to see if there was news. Kind of put a damper on the vacation but he only has that pension because he was in a union who was willing to strike.
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What my boomer dad doesn't get is that so much of corporate enterprise, like even the thing they are ideally making or doing in the world, not just the working conditions or profit sharing, is not unquestionably good for us. He's an engineer from a time when it looked like technology would save the world. My zoomer kid feels conflicted just starting a hobby thinking of the consumption and waste it requires. If they could believe the companies they work for shared their values I think it would go a long way, but i don't see that happening very quickly.
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And then came the mass layoffs, and everybody that came after that knew that long term loyalty was gone. Long term promises and careers didn't mean anything.
Then the budget for raises dried up suddenly, and the only way to get more wage was to change company. Any short term loyalty was gone, and putting in the hours for something that wouldn't come by the end of the year is now considered foolish. A career was a sequence of hops.
These are the kids that grew up seeing how this works and what it did to their parents. Now companies are shocked these kids don't want to play the same game.
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These are the kids that grew up seeing how this works and what it did to their parents.
I was half-raised by my retired grandparents because my parents worked so hard. I have done everything I could to spend as much time with my daughter as possible. Which means not bothering with extra job shit.
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Gen x: “we got ours but we didn’t know the truth until it was too late.”
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I didn't get mine but I was at least able to see the floor collapsing before it happened and adjust my life accordingly. I won't have to work till the day that I die, but my home has wheels.
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Nobody ever mentions Gen X in these articles/posts, I wonder why?
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Gen X
Its a silent X
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right of passage
...
“They’re like, ‘Nah, I’m not feeling it today, I’m gonna come in at 10:30 a.m,’” Foster said of her younger colleagues in an interview with The Guardian.
Every single generation has thought this about the younger generation. Every single one.
In this case, I think the whole issue is exacerbated by the fact that giving sincere effort at work is so clearly a mug's game. It used to be that being disciplined about showing up and doing your job was difficult, but at least there was a reason to do it and develop the skill over time. Now? Unless you have some sort of unusual job where the management gives a shit about you, why would you?
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Hard work gets rewarded with addition work. Im half assing for my own sanity. If I was paid enough to be comfortable things could be different.
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I'm in the highest paying workplace for my field in the country and it's still not worth putting in any extra effort.
Capital just fundamentally doesn't understand that monetary incentive has an inverse relationship with performance and that you can't hire 9 Women to have a baby in 1 month.
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I was late to work last Friday, intentionally, because my cat fell asleep in my lap while I was eating breakfast. That moment meant more to me than making sure I was there in time, no matter what it may have impacted. Working to live, not living to work, is the rallying cry upper management needs to come to terms with.
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Every single generation has thought this about the younger generation. Every single one.
I think you’re right. My guess is that as companies get greedier and work offers fewer and fewer benefits, people are less and less willing to work as hard as their parents did. Employers that don’t understand this are either genuinely ignorant or just pretending to be ignorant.
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I sincerely doubt the idea that people are working less. I worked at a college with a lot of boomers. Great people, but I was radically more efficient than any one of them. The woman who had my job before (college print shop), would complain about the work load. I only really worked until lunch and caught up on every single thing I needed to do. Watched YouTube and coded the rest of the day. Helps that I had a boss that didn't care as long as I was caught up.
Alas, the whole campus shut down last August.
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Strategic ignorance. You can exert more pressure on someone if you genuinely believe the crazy self-serving things you're telling them with a straight face.
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I spent a over a year trying to get a promotion while an ex boss who's team I left was secretly sandbagging me.
I got an offer elsewhere and suddenly leadership asked "what number would keep you". That was exciting until they followed up that raises and promos were frozen so I'd have to wait indefinitely.
I left.
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I'm easily fooled into productivity with a median wage that adjusts with inflation and quantified growth goals.
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What? Ridiculous. You want fair pay and non-arbitrary, non-shifting performance metrics? Cold day in h*ck when that happens!
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It's this actually something that can meaningfully be said of Gen Z / millennials, or it's just "young people".
I ask because millennials are not just starting their careers, millennials are in their 30s and 40s. I've been in my career more than a decade and I'm a millennial.
I'm also less productive now than before because I have too much to meaningfully accomplish it all, so I say no to a bunch of work but still end up working on random things an executive asks for instead of deep focused work that could really push the company forward. But if you don't do what an exec wants you get fucked.
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Oh my god haha. So relatable. And then they complain about progress on your core tasks for which they hired you. Eh, whenever that happens I point out to them that it's not in my job description and that I did them a favor. Shuts them up most of the times about the part where I was hired for.
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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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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.
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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.
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Ya when I'm not on my meds I can't even function like an adult and it fucking sucks.
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Okay, as another person with adhd- THIS. but also maybe I shouldn't have to regulate my brain chemistry. What if we could just fucking be allowed to exist unproductively, what if we didn't have to take pharmaceutical grade meth to function normally? Why is that pressure there? Considered reasonable? Why is this acceptable? Gods it's unfair, and it makes me want to watch the world burn tbqh
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Yeah same, and the whole song and dance with a shrink to get amph is just so disrespectful after everything
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don't forget hiring more people when the workload increases instead of just dropping it on an already overburdened team and then get shocked when they just quit
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Better yet, hire more before the workload increases so you aren't training newbies during crunch time.
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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.
What the hell does this even mean. How is starting a career considered a "rite of passage" when the average American works 50-60 hours a week between 2 or more jobs? A career in a single field is straight up considered as unattainable as buying a house is by Millennials (46% of whom own a house, compared to the average of 65% for other generations). Plus Millennials have been in the workforce for multiple decades now. We're in our 30s and 40s. And nobody has "struggled" to adapt to the work week since the 40 hour week was created after unions fought for the right to 2 days off a week. Children are indoctrinated to this cycle in kindergarten! And it's a lie anyways with the modern culture of bosses demanding people be available to call during nights and weekends. The average corporate work week was closer to 47 hours even 10 years ago. Do they mean working at a single company for more than 3 years? Because that's often a loss in pay compared to changing companies.
We're off to a bad start before even hitting the paywall...
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The 50 to 60 hour week over multiple jobs does happen. However that is not the average nor the norm. Though I'm sure you were using it for effect more than an actual data-point.
According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, for 2023, the average American works 38.5 hours per week. If you drop part-time workers (<35 hrs / wk), a full-time worker does an average of 41.9 hours.
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I forget where exactly the 50-60 hour average comes from, I wanna say the Census Bureau's reports from 2021, but it was specifically pointing out that the average American works part-time at several jobs now. But, yes, it was mostly for effect rather than accuracy, as full-time employment has been becoming less common as people are replaced by contractors.
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They beat you at home and they beat you at school
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Unemployment might be relatively low, but the job market It's kind of sucking for skilled labor.
Unskilled jobs don't pay enough to get the "American dream" Even beginner skilled jobs aren't footing the bills anymore.
Rent is through the roof, housing prices are immense. Food is inflated, wages are not. I've been working 60 hours as long as I can remember. It shouldn't need to be that way. Especially not for young adults in the workforce now, thinking about starting a family.
As far as the beef with managers The consensus here is not wrong. I'm a Gen x manager and it's honestly a fight. I've been doing the job for 30 years and probably for the first 20 of them shit didn't really change All that much. There was a good way and a bad way to do x. I'm inclined to ask you to do x and tell you to make sure you do it the good way. What I don't know is that 9 years ago someone went why the f*** is there a bad way to do x and they changed it now there's no bad way, but I sound like an idiot grandpa telling you to watch out for something that's no longer an issue.
Sure I try to do trench work as much as possible but I've got budgets, reviews, and planning meetings. The best I can do on an average day is to remember that I'm not an authority on everything anymore and rely on my team. Hey do x, I remember the last time I did x you had to make sure that y and z weren't an issue, that might not be the case anymore so please do x and use your best discretion if Y and Z are still a thing make sure that they are covered. Hopefully they give me feedback on y and z or I'll just be crazy grandpa again in another decade. Worst case, their best discretion was a wrong choice and they waste their time we all feel bad about it and the work has to be redone.
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Most of my career is showing how we could solve problems, being told not to because the morons above me don't comprehend abstract, being thrown under the bus, finding ways to do what is needed anyways, and only after the fact, after proof is shown that it was the correct thing to do, getting some meager acknowledgement that perhaps I was right amd know what I'm doing.
But it still never causes these idiots to actually trust me the next time. It doesn't seem to matter who is above me. If they are even slightly older than me, they don't ever trust people like me.
I see this same thing happen to a lot of my peers my age and younger as well. The high quality individuals suffer because the world is full of idiotic managers.
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Quite probably managers have ended up where to they are at due to the Peter Principle:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle
They might have been great at their jobs at some point, and kept getting promoted until they couldn't succeed any more.
This principle helps explain why any hierarchy will eventually be shit.
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That happens all the time. But usually they don’t really want to give up the task that they were good at and end up a micromanager. Good management is hiring capable employees and clearing the deck so they can do their best with a minimum of BS and stress.
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I think these last few years of geriatric rule is just going to be a lesson of what not to do for when we take control.
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To summarize a long story, I (a millennial) put in a task request to a Gen Xer, including step by step instructions. I knew what to do, I just don't have access to do it.
Xer told me that was the wrong service, it's this other one, he can't find the settings in the Other Service. We went back and forth a few times, he repeated I was wrong, until finally he showed me a screen capture from Other Service that showed "managed by service 1" that proved I was right in the first place.
If he were willingly to accept I might know what I'm talking about and looked at the instructions, it would have been done in minutes instead of dragging it out over 11 days.
Obviously this is a hand picked anecdote, but yeah, bosses and non- boss elders definitely get in the way of productivity.
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I can’t make total generalizations about a generation but I’ve got a high schooler, and it’s amazing to me how their assignments are spoon fed to them. Every assignment is posted on Google classroom, the syllabi the teachers create are amazingly comprehensive, writing assignments are broken up into multiple milestones with separate deliveries for research, thesis, draft, etc. Then the grading rubric has very detailed instructions about how the assignment will be graded with hyperlinks to examples. Then the assignment is due at midnight the day after the last class session.
It’s no surprise to me that a kid would expect work to function the same way. What is so often missed is that the person assigning the task doesn’t know how to complete the task or what the process should be. We hire someone to help us figure it out.
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My pay is barely enough to get by on, so I’m only going to do the bare minimum to get by at work.
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Research by economists should not be trusted in matters of employee well-being.
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Call me crazy but the fact that no matter how hard a millennial or gen z person works: they still lack job security, most of their wages go in bills/rent, they often act as a carer in some capacity, and are generally not doing work related to their studies might also have something to do with it...
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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.
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Cool. What are you doing in solar?
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New sun.
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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.
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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.
Couldn't this just mean gen x/boomers feel more productive? Doesn't sound like it really speaks to the output of the employees
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Definitely.
I suspect many genx/boomers don't feel productive either - BS jobs don't discriminate - but they have probably seen enough layoffs to know when they need to appear busy - when a reporter asks is one of those times...
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Millennials/Gen Z:
- Uses computer to finish day's tasks in 4 hours, browses internet for remaining 4.
- "Wow, I feel like a useless piece of shit."
Boomers/Gen X:
- Spends 2 hours reading every single email in full as if they are addressed specifically to them, getting angry that people are telling them useless information. Spends an hour printing & collating papers for the day's tasks. Spends 5 hours doing the tasks because paper is less efficient. Stays 1 hour extra for scanning/data entry when the whole thing could have been done on the computer in the first place.
- "Gee golly, I sure am swamped."
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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.
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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.
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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.
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It's almost like nobody is able to give 100% at all times.
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if you have 30% and you give 30% you fucking gave 100%
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I give 100% every week. About 10% on Monday, 20% on Tuesday…
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I've seen that when I first started decades ago. The department I was working on was filled with more senior staff and I was the only one in the department under 30.
There was very little in intentional teaching during that time. I'm not talking about training classes, but even basic things. It was just try your hardest and get comments back on your work. There were also cases where it was easier and faster for me to do certain tasks on the computer, but they weren't used to that idea.
And so you've got a lot of bad teachers in the workforce that have been doing their job forever. And because there aren't that many Gen X, there weren't that many in the middle ground to teach new staff.
And I feel like some elder millennials are taking the generational trauma of shitty mentoring and carrying it forward like a rite of passage.
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And I feel like some elder millennials are taking the generational trauma of shitty mentoring and carrying it forward like a rite of passage.
People who never got decent mentoring don't know what it looks like. It's rarely intentional, they just believe that's how it is in the business world.
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Right, there's a weird amount of romanticization going on here, it seems like, about how things used to be. Or some sort of victimization need.
There's plenty of things that have gotten worse, like average wages, benefits, minimum education requirements, etc. But this doesn't seem like one of them.
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OMG. A headline that doesn't lay the blame on millennials and Gen Z?!
I guess it was only a matter time. Millennials are hitting their 40s now. Now we can start blaming whatever-comes-after-Z for everything!
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The youngest Zoomers are still 12 or so. Gonna be a long time before we can start blaming Alphas for the death throes of the Boomers
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I know right? I just don't care about these articles anymore, not that I ever really did. We're all experienced and effective in our own ways.
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*rite of passage
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Exactly as every previous person experienced for at least fifty Years.
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The oldest millennials are in their mid-40s. You're pointing at the same thing.
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A: your millennial age fact is irrelevant as they were not in the work force at birth.
B: yes, that is what I posted. This is nothing new and in no way unique to millennials.
C: what was your point?
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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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Ha yeah I'm old now how do I get a job? A career I mean.
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So far most of what I've seen is "want to stare at phone a day", "can't I work from home?", "stopped working at the first excuse or (god forbid) difficulty".
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I can't even understand what you are trying to say. You must be a supervisor.
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