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.

  • @Smoogs
    0•1 year ago

    They are likely quitting because you are not putting forth an effort to build trust with people who are different to you(you’re favouring genx within just a few sentences so that is saying loads about where your glaring blind spots are).

    Bad management is indeed the leading cause of unemployment https://www.hcamag.com/us/specialization/industrial-relations/why-bad-managers-are-contributing-to-the-great-resignation/322106

    https://hbr.org/2022/08/quiet-quitting-is-about-bad-bosses-not-bad-employees

    It’s also possible If genz are unhappy, so are genx. You’re just seeing through the lens of a manager.

    Genx have just been soul destroyed enough (due to years Of being told bad management is part of working, a concept handed down by the boomers to make genx more pliable) to not have any standards to quit which is problematic because they are more likely to sit through abuse without reporting it causing a missing stair syndrome which anyone else is easily picking up on and not wanting to deal with all the fixing of alone.

    So just cuz a genx doesn’t quit doesn’t let you off the hook. You all just found your level. It’s not a good level.