A British entrepreneur reports on his experiences with Gen Z: They have problems with phone calls and generally behave unprofessionally.
Leicester - People often complain about Gen Z: Young people are lazy, unmotivated and don't have a good work ethic. This generation is rarely praised for its ideas about a good work-life balance. A British businessman also has no positive words for Gen Z. In an interview, he described his experiences, which he describes as a “nightmare”.
According to the entrepreneur, many Gen Z employees already have difficulty during job interviews
The 38-year-old entrepreneur reports that many young employees have questionable attitudes to work. They had difficulty completing an interview and refused to make phone calls. Some even refused to do their duties on the first day of work.
The entrepreneur, who now runs the car leasing company
Ready2Lease
, was previously head of the sales team for a company that obtained music licenses from companies. He often received applications from 20-year-olds, i.e. representatives of Generation Z, who were interested in a position in his company. Generation Z, which follows Generation Y and is born between 1997 and 2012, is considered the first generation of true “digital natives”.
Some Gen Z workers refused to work on the first day
In an interview with the British daily
Telegraph,
James McNeil describes the behavior of some representatives of this generation as a “nightmare”. He notes that many of them are unable to conduct a normal interview. “We invited people to interviews, but people either didn’t come at all, came too late or were completely unprepared,” he says of his experiences with young applicants.
He further reports that some young employees were barely able to cope with the interview and showed no willingness to pick up the phone. He describes cases in which applicants completely refused to work on the first day.
Entrepreneur reports on Gen-Z work ethic – “My old job sucked”
Another problem he noted during interviews was the negative attitudes of the young applicants: “They were quite negative.” McNeil emphasizes that you should have a positive attitude when applying. "But they made comments like 'my old job sucked', 'my boss was terrible, I hated him', things like that that immediately turn you off as an employer."
He gives specific examples of these behaviors: “We had two occasions where I hired people, one of which wasn't even a junior position, but a senior sales position. It wasn't a top position, but it was £35,000 a year (around €41,000), company car, laptop, telephone. In both cases they simply didn't show up on the first day. They never contacted us again, didn't answer the phone, didn't respond to emails, nothing. They just disappeared from the face of the earth.”
Many Gen Z people are convinced that everything can be done with an email or text message
He adds that some applicants are even “afraid of talking on the phone” and firmly believe that “everything can be done via email or text.” His final verdict on Generation Z is: “They are good with technology, but not good with life skills.”
A Gen Z influencer lost her job after complaining about it on TikTok.