Generational workforce blues! Zoomers get on Boomers’ and GenXers’ nerves

The more things change, the more they stay the same! The youngest generation of workers entering the workforce isn’t earning high marks from the older generations, to put it mildly.

Generation Z aka the Zoomers are the “most challenging” age cohort to work with, according to a survey of 1,344 managers and supervisors by ResumeBuilder.

Three out of four managers say employees in their 20s are difficult to manage, motivate and deal with on a day-to-day basis. “[Interaction] can be exhausting because they lack discipline, and they like to challenge you,” an HR director told ResumeBuilder.

Sound like any of your younger workers?

Here are the top 5 specific problems cited by business leaders in the ResumeBuilder survey about Generation Z:

• lack of technological skills (though many think their tech skills are strong)
• they’re not motivated enough
• often distracted by non-critical matters
• they’re too easily offended, one of the top reasons Zoomers end up getting fired
• dishonesty (not owning up to mistakes cited as a big problem).

Among the 74% of managers who cited problems with Zoomers, 11% say the workers are “always diffiult to deal with” and 39% say they encounter problems “much of the time.” Only 10% reported mostly positive dealings with the young generation.

About a third of all managers surveyed say they prefer to deal with Millennials. To be fair, just a few years ago, the Millennials were driving a lot of managers and co-workers nuts. So clearly there’s hope for the Generation Zers trying to make their mark. It just may take time and a lot of patience.

If they don’t communicate, it’s best to cut bait

We all know how important it is for new and inexperienced employees to communicate and get along well with their co-workers. Folks who can master these two skills will always earn more time and chances to improve their skills if they’re easy to deal with.

Managers can alleviate headaches early on in a younger employee’s tenure – and give that novice worker a valuable life lesson – by stressing how important it is to communicate well. Those who can’t or won’t improve in this area hurt productivity and irritate productive people and teams they interact with.

Adam Garfield, marketing director at Hairbro, told ResumeBuilder he finds Zoomers to be “highly innovative and adaptable” and “not afraid to challenge the status quo and bring new ideas to the table.” But some “may lack some of the interpersonal skills required for face-to-face interactions … [needed] to build stronger relationships with colleagues and clients,” Garfield noted.