What traits do top job candidates have that Gen Zers can learn from?

I am old school… If I am offered a job, and agree to accept the job, for the pay I am offered, then it is my responsibility to fulfill my obligations to the company that hired me. If I cannot fulfill the expectations of the employer and I cannot fulfill my obligations and responsibilities, there are consequences. I will be replaced.

I recently attended a conference and one of the many topics were “how Gen Z see the workforce”. There was a panel of 5 Gen Z people, nice looking, well dressed and good communication skills. My take-a-way from that entire 45 minutes was a comment made by one of the five, while the other 4 were agreeing.

“I don’t understand why I can’t do the work while holding my phone in one hand while I’m working? Why is that a big deal?”

for any position?

“yes, there are people that I communicate with frequently and as long as I am getting my work done, why should it matter if I am texting or chatting on my phone!”

So you are saying that with one hand, and not fully focused on the job at hand you can be just as effective as a two handed person who is 100% focused on the task.

“Yes, I should not have to work that hard or fast… I have people that want to communicate with me.”

I know you can’t take one person point of view and say that all GEN Z people are that way. But there were 5 panelist, and they were not disagreeing. The panelists were chosen as representatives of GEN Z.

I speak with a lot of business owners and a lot of them say “I cannot find anyone who wants to work”. They are trapped in their businesses due the fact that the workforce available to them does not want to work.

I blame it on us, the baby boomers. “ I don't want my children to go through what I went through.” is a popular sentiment. The bank of mom and dad is never closed. They can guilt us into paying for things.

In my small group meeting a single mother, no, a mother, was telling a story about her 7 or 10 year old boy. He left his bike out overnight and it was stolen. “And I gave him a piece of my mind. He won’t do that again! He is sorry that happened!” I asked “did you buy him a new bike?” she answered “Yes”.

I said lets recap. I have a bike, its not great but its functional. I mistakenly left it out overnight. It was stolen. That’s bad! I get fussed at for 10 minutes by mom and I get a new bike.

What’s the lesson here? When does it stop? high school? College? Marriage? Their children?

Or here is another point of view. My cats have trained me. I office at home, and when they want out or want to eat, it starts with them standing at my office door, and if I don’t respond, they come in and start rubbing on my desk, and if I don’t respond, they start knocking stuff down, or pulling on cables. Then I’m up, fussing at them and they are laughing at me… “whatever, feed me”. My larger cat, if we are at stage 4, she starts a fight with the other cats. It’s just noise, but she knows we will get up and tend to her needs. “I guess I showed you” as she saunters across the room.

I think we’ve done that to our children. They don’t want to work. They want the money… but they don’t want to work.

It’s just my opinion… be nice.