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.
I can tell you why I’m quitting. I’m a millennial. I generally loved the people I work with. I like the work environment. Or I did. We have several old timers quitting right now. The attrition rate is through the roof. Retirement is upon a lot of the old guys and they’re leaving either for better jobs or for ones that are less stressful if they aren’t retiring. The younger ones (millennials and gen z) don’t see the point in sticking around if the older cohort leaves and take their knowledge with them. There’s no one to train us, and worse still, changes to the way that my worksite is managed make staying untenable. We don’t want to be left holding the bag so to speak. Blamed for low productivity after the older guys are all gone and the knowledge gap becomes more apparent. We aren’t really paid well enough, and we don’t see the kind of COLA adjustments we should.
Additionally, there is a shortage of us, we have expenses on tools and so on that add up and the company I work for doesn’t manage slow times and busy times. So I can’t even count on overtime. Sometimes it’s mandatory. Sometimes it’s nowhere to be found.
I have brought up multiple issues with safety and legal responsibility and been told by my manager that they need to think about it - repeatedly. I feel like my concerns aren’t being addressed. I want a good home/work balance. I spend 10 hours or more a day at work, and sometimes that’s 4 days a week sometimes it’s 7.
Worrying and stress are a big part of why I am leaving. I don’t want to be worried or stressed all the time. I don’t want to think about work outside of work.
You sound like a good boss who is engaged in the development of your employees. That’s good. But sometimes it’s just that we often take jobs because we have to, not because we want to. And when something better comes along we feel like we have to take the chance.
God, when some of our senior team retires, I’m immediately finding a new job. Shit will hit the fan, and the age gap is like, 30 years. And we are probably still understaffed since most of the team is nearing retirement.
Yeah. There’s a lot of new technology but nothing can make up for having thirty years experience on the old tech that’s still in use.