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'The moment they get stuck they COMPLETELY shut down': Managers discuss the challenge of managing the younger up-and-coming generations

Every generation since the dawn of time has probably looked down on the younger ones with a hint of smug satisfaction in knowing that their upbringing was simultaneously harder and better (and faster and stronger) than the upbringing the kids these days were getting. Sure, we got to eat dirt, drink out of the hose, and hit each other with sticks repurposed as makeshift swords or lightsabers. We also got to explore the last blocks of forests remaining around the towns where we grew up that hadn't yet been logged for housing developments. 

But by the time Gen Z came along, those forest blocks had probably (definitely) been logged, and parents had decided that letting their children roam unattended and aimlessly—and that losing a kid or two to the wild unknown—wasn't an acceptable risk anymore. So, whereas our parents did their best to keep us away from the dark horrors of the internet, their parents, who had embraced the technology, handed them an iPad and locked them in a room with it for 15 years. As a result, the generation was raised digitally, and as we older folk would argue, they might have missed out on some vital life experiences and social cues along the way. 

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Posted by Brad Dickson
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  • While there certainly are differences in the upbringing the generations incoming to the workforce might have had, this all begins to sound like the "avocado toast" accusations that Millennials faced from older generations 15 years ago: A displacement of frustration from aging persons who have little patience for those with less experience and an inherent bias (in the form of their own memory) of what they were actually like at that age. 

    I, too, have been quick to get frustrated with new hires who lack the ability to complete basic tasks with oversight. If I was being completely honest with myself, when I was just starting out in my working life, I was absolutely like the workers that the managers in the thread below described. I was so afraid of making any mistake that I couldn't do a single thing outside the scope of what I had been asked to do. Luckily, I had strong mentors in the jobs I worked in the summers of high school and immediately after graduation, who taught me not to be afraid to take initiative and that failing was just a part of making better judgment calls.

    So what's the answer here? Well, it's probably a bit of both. Both that we're experiencing the differences inherent in a different generation and that we crotchety aging folk have forgotten what it was like to be young and just starting out. 

    See the below thread and discussion as it originally took place within this small community where managers discuss issues, concerns, and interests pertaining to their roles.

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  • 1
    "REALLY struggling with 18-25 year old employees."
    Via Annie Spratt
  • 2
    G r/managers ⚫ 2 hr. ago Add_Service REALLY struggling with 18-25 year old employees Business Owner The majority of my staff are 25-40 years old. You can give this group some decent general direction, just as a random example, "please organize the storage closet, go ahead and buy/expense bins or whatever you need, put food near the closet door for easy access, IT in the middle, xmas/holiday/rarely used in the back, heavy stuff on bottom shelves" and they are capable of doing it with not much add
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  • 3
    have to explain that candy doesn't get stored with beef jerky or something trivial, but by and large, they are self-sufficient and figure it out. But for whatever reason, all of the 18-25 year old kids we are hiring nowadays, this is NOT the case. And it wasn't like this 5-10 years ago. The current group (gen.. z?), if you give them the exact same task, 15 minutes later they are asking "how do they fit the xmas tree in a box." Idk man order a bigger box?? "Where do they put the sparkling waters?
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  • 4
    like I said, anything heavy bottom shelf. "Do the HDMI cables go in the same box as power cables?" FIGURE IT THE OUT. It's like every single task, the moment they get stuck, they COMPLETELY shut down. Every task, you have to hold their hand so much, it is literally faster just to do it ourselves. There has to be something cultural, education, something causing this. I pay easily 50% above competitor and market rate. My firm is very well known for paying extremely well. I've tried highly educated
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  • 5
    with no college, I've made HUGE deals in interviews that I am looking for someone who can get general direction and complete a task, exhausting. My 25+ year old it's managers are no kidding about to fire 3 of these kids today over this issue. In reviews we bring this up, the feedback is "we need to be taught how to do stuff", but this isn't a training issue. I've tried making it EXTREMELY clear that you need to figure it out, pick a path, if it's wrong it's okay! Still, they get like mentally sh
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  • 6
    is the deal, and what is the best path forward? I am getting genuinely concerned with hiring and training replacements for aging staff, every single solitary kid we've hired has had this exact same issue.
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  • 7
    SipexF 1h ago • As a millennial I was very much like this in my early years at work, not enough guidance on taking agency for myself combined with anxieties of thinking anything I think of must be incorrect. The Gen Z folks I've worked with these days don't seem to be particularly bad about this, although I haven't trained one straight out of college. 42 Reply ↑ Share
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    MonkeyFu 7h ago You have to remember we have become "recipe" and "test" based. Students are taught to follow a recipe. If they fall off the recipe and make a mistake, they are given a bad grade. If it happens in front of class, they can be socially attacked. We didn't teach them to explore and problem solve. We have helicopter parents that taught "stranger danger" and don't let their kids do things outside unsupervised.
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    So the kids don't feel they are actually ALLOWED to make the decisions, and if they are allowed, and make a mistake, they will likely get punished for it. Let's make schools exploratory instead. Let's grade kids on creativity and persistence in problem solving, not just getting the answer right. Let's teach them that mistakes are inevitable, and as a society, let's embrace mistakes as tools for learning, rather than attack people for making them. 109 Reply 1 Share
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  • 10
    • sylverbound 7h ago Go check out the teaching subreddits. I tutor and see this exact same issue with students at the college level right now. Zero ability to problem solve, constantly "stuck" and asking what to do next. There's a major educational issue that has now impacted a huge crop of people. As a non-manager who is still trying to sort out my career path...hey at least I might become extremely competitive soon since I am actually intelligent and self- sufficient... 91 Reply ↑ Share
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    roxxon 6h ago • Lack of exploration and discovery in schools. Curriculum is heavily based around testing and standards so tasking must be very prescriptive since that's how they learned. 13 Reply ↑ Share
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    • Struggle Usual 6h ago Edited 3h ago • I've been noticing the same trend for probably ~7 years now, though it's definitely worse post covid. And as someone who's hired remotely it's very much not just a US trend. I'm under the impression it's an education thing. Schools became so scripted and emphasized standardize testing rather than creative thinking skills. I had to pivot and learn to train for those skills instead
    Via Add_Service
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  • 13
    of just hiring someone in already with them if I'm looking for more entry level roles. It's hard but possible, but I don't think many companies have the tolerance for that training level plus tbh a lot of companies seem to appreciate the scripted process following. A big corp with the kind of ridiculous employee surveillance that's becoming more common.... these new hires were trained to work better there. Sadly for everyone though those employers are toxic in general and no one wants to put up
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    beetus_gerulaitis • 6h ago I suspect this goes back to early childhood development. Previous generations spent more time playing with actual IRL physical objects: blocks, legos, trees, wiffle , etc. That sort of play teaches you how to solve physical problems like the ones you're describing. I think the current batch of 18-25 year olds are the right age to have grown up after the advent of the personal tablet and
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  • 15
    gaming device. These kids didn't do as much physical play. They solved easily resolvable challenges designed to be "age appropriate". In the virtual world rules are simple and you just need to learn the algorithm to accomplish the task.....a task which is designed to be solvable by children. There's probably a bunch of skill sets lacking in today's young adults.
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  • 16
    I also think it's funny how OP is saying that the problem is a lack of initiative in doing some basic function like stacking and sorting....a task which should not need to be taught. But half the responses are sympathizing with the 18-25 year olds who haven't been trained to stack and sort. 19 Reply ↑ Share
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    • _ Opportunity _ 6h ago High schools actively squash agency. Just give them SOPs for everything and get rid of your local school board. 6 Reply ↑ Share
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  • 18
    smalllllltitterssss . 5h ago My youngest employees (and I'm not old, I'm 29?) are so needy that they cannot make a single decision for themself. They are not self sufficient and they do not have problem solving skills. + ↑ 6 ⇓ Reply ↑ Share
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  • 19
    • snappzero 7h ago It's funny because common sense is actually not so common now a days. It's definitley the education system and upbringing. I think you change your screening. There still needs to be leaders within their peer groups. If they are the team captain or were the president of xyz club or took responsibility as a baby sitter they have had to make decisions on their own. Really lean into solution based problem solving questions. ....
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  • 20
    Ask them about a time where they failed. If they don't have an example of them triumphing over failure, pretty sure they aren't going to solve these issues without help. Alternatively, have them solve a logical problem. If they give you a "feeling" answer, they are not the fit for you.
    Via Add_Service
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    Positive_Panda_... . . 7h ago Edited 7h ago COVID. The kids you're hiring missed out on one or two years of the most important developmental period of their lives. Their social and critical thinking skills are absolutely shot, and they all have anxiety. This is the new normal. If you're going to hire in this age group, your management needs to be more hands on - possibly to a degree you find extreme. 41 Reply ✓ Share
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  • 22
    Restinginjireh • 5h ago Gen Zer here. I used to be a "figure it out- er" and now I work for the most micromanaging person I've ever experienced in ten years of work. The first five things I figured out very well I was told I was not spoon feeding my direct reports enough. This came from a millennial supervisor. I've now resorted to what we call Malicious Compliance with my supervisor. You don't like the ways I figured things out? OK. You can figure them out.
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  • 23
    That sounds like part of what has happened here. If there's not a culture of trust and integrity they don't trust that you'll be OK with their work. So now it's a you problem. I've made leaps and bounds with my team becoming independent by actually saying out loud "I trust you to make the best decision for the company and if there's a problem we will problem solve together" You can either have it exactly to the wire how you want it or you can have an independent team that makes good decisions. Y
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    JumpCity69 • 5h ago Have they worked before? Do they understand that you are paying them to in essence "figure it out"? Mistakes are fine, we can fix, not everything needs to be perfect and as manager you will review. Just got a 23 yr old coworker and he does the same thing. My response is generally "give it a go and I'll watch you to make sure it's right". Also encourage him to reference other things to figure out the answer. Stop spoon feeding answers and train them to figure it out or mess up
    Via Add_Service

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