One of my favorite parts of academic life is “spreading the gospel” of good business and communications practices beyond the classroom. I recently got to spend some quality time with a group of managers from a regional manufacturing facility. While being some of the most fun and friendly people I’ve ever worked with, they pulled no punches when it came to their biggest workplace challenge: Communications.
They described scenarios in which the newest hires, primarily Gen-Z-ers, would avoid interpersonal communications at any cost. This lack of ability or willingness to speak up had produced situations where employees would stand at a malfunctioning machine and say nothing. Production had literally come to a halt multiple times because young employees simply would not let someone know there was a problem.
On a daily basis, I face Gen-Z in the safe confines of a
college classroom, but such a phenomenon was something I had never considered.
I had (naively) assumed that a strong organizational culture (such as the one
in this company) would remedy the problems. Directly, people acclimate to
situations and scenarios or they leave (thanks, attraction-selection-attrition
theory). Instead, the indirect communications style learned over decades (and
likely further honed over the pandemic) persisted into a manufacturing
environment.
I shudder as I write this to fear how my tone is already
beginning to sound. “Kids these days.” “When we were their age, we knew what
work meant.” “That kind of behavior wouldn’t have flown MY house.” While I
admit to rapidly becoming a middle-aged GenXer (that means older AND inherently
cynical), I don’t think that the concern for this generation’s place in the
greater workforce and society is an over-reaction.
According to recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, if all current “skilled” workers (think trades) were employed, we’d still have a 35% vacancy rate in these professions. 2023 is rapidly becoming the year of the white-collar layoff while manufacturing and skilled labor are experiencing record demand. At the same time, these work categories are also within fast-paced, high-demand, and often dangerous work environments. A failure to communicate can cost time, resources, and, in certain scenarios, human life.
For readers of certain age (including this author), it is
very tempting to blame “these damned kids and their smartphones” for the
current scenario. Instead, I encourage you to avoid blaming the individual for
their traits. I will be the first to say that the inability to have in-person
conversations (or to answer questions in a classroom) can be confounding to
educators, bosses, co-workers, and customers…but these young people are products
of what has happened around them.
Consider the lineage of the average 18-22 year old. These
individuals:
- Have never lived in a U.S.A. that wasn’t involved in a global war on terror; they were the first generation to always hear “be safe” instead of “have fun” when they left the house
- Don’t remember a world without ubiquitous internet and access to information
- Got their first smartphone by age 10
- Watched their parents live through two economic downturns (2008 financial crisis and the 2020 pandemic)
- Were conditioned by standardized tests to relate to black and white thinking within their school systems. In many cases, critical thinking and the ability to think abstractly have been abandoned in favor of “right or wrong” answers
- Have put off getting their driver’s licenses because so much of their social life happens online
- View themselves as technology experts (but frequently don’t understand the use of tech as a business tool)
- Grew up with social media, cyber-bullying, and viral internet sharing of content
My point? The kid who is standing at a broken machine doing
nothing may not be inept or lazy; instead, he may be a product of the world,
parenting style, and situational scenarios that shaped him.
Make no mistake; I’m not implying that it’s ok to let such
behavior persist. Production targets have to get hit and all members of
organizations have to be held to standards. Asking managers in high-demand jobs
to resort to texting new employees in lieu of all face-to-face conversations is
not the answer...but neither is writing off an entire generation of workers. We
appear to have three options in front of us as a labor market: Do nothing and
get the same results, give in to emerging approaches to work and watch
productivity disappear, or find a way to develop younger employees and meet
them “in the middle.”
While situational factors will always come into play, I
suggest the following approaches:
- Acknowledge that this scenario can be frustrating. In this case, yes, it actually might BE them….but remember that…
- These employees are products of decades of conditioning. Their approach to the workplace is likely not them avoiding you.
- Take time to explain how the work they do ties into the overall company structure; such conversations can imprint meaning.
- Incentivize good communications practices. I don’t mean that you have to give someone a gold star or free lunch every time they speak up, but thanking someone for letting you know about a problem or issue might spur them on to do so again the next time.
- Listen to input from these individuals; it doesn’t mean that you have to integrate it, but this generation has been told repeatedly how important they are and they are used to having their say. Again, try to separate this trait from the individual; once they understand the workings of your organization, such sessions may be needed less frequently.
- Demonstrate the linkage between effort and reward…and be transparent in how pay increases and promotions can be had. Employees of all ages will likely appreciate the approach.
These are first steps and won’t fix 18-22 years of learned
behavior overnight. There will still be employees who question why, as the new
person, THEY have to take the weekend shift. Meeting “in the middle” will mean
more effort and patience for managers, but the alternative is watching
America’s best business days in the rear-view mirror. As in any scenario, as
managers and leaders of “a certain age,” might learn something new from their
perspective as well. A failure to make this effort might not bode well for any of us.
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