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.
Some people here are posting with rather wishful thinking. I think the most cost-effective actionable advice I can give is that Zoomers don’t buy into the whole “we’re a family here” thing. They understand that their success and their company’s success are not necessarily correlated. You can act on this by expressing an interest in your team’s improvements on the basis of the personal goals they’ve achieved rather than with corporate metrics.
This implies that millennials haven’t come to the same realization. Company loyalty more or less ended with millennials, I think. Though helping employees reach their personal goals is a great suggestion in general. Their personal improvement aligns with company improvement anyway.
Yeah, millennials and Gen Z are very similar in their thinking on corporate culture
Except gen z are more marketable so gen x tends to stay (not out of loyalty)
I don’t think that’s it, I think it’s moreso what others mentioned along the lines of gen z having a lot less responsibilities tying them down to a certain job.
I know many millennials who own houses, I don’t know any Gen Z that aren’t like… Influencers or kids who had wealthy parents who own houses.
Also kids
This is what my Zoomer son said when I asked him as well.