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.
Brave of you to assume everyone else is happy, and not just used to putting up with a job because they need the money.
Hey fair enough. But they are, and they tell me all the time because we talk constantly. It was the Zoomers I could not talk to on Skype/whatsapp/signal/slack …whatever platform they wanted. So how did I fail to reach them? That’s what I am wondering as a manger because, yeah a job is just a job, but it doesn’t have to suck, and I as a manager can make it suck much less. It’s within my power, but I cannot do the thing if you don’t ask for the thing despite multiple attempts. There must be something wrong with how I attempt to engage them.