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August 1, 2024
Business Insider recently shared that #GenZ is eschewing traditional tech careers (at places like Google , Meta , Apple , and Salesforce ) in favor of ‘kinder environments’. Not too long ago, the tech juggernauts were a No.1 pick due to their star quality and high salaries. Now, "They're [GenZ] looking for an employer who will take care of them and be nice to their workforce," says Christine Cruzvergara, the chief education strategy officer at Handshake
Wait. What? Hang on. They want a workplace that is going to coddle them? Before you react, read these recent accounts:
Offering Help is NOT Bullying
A good friend and veteran event producer arrives for his monthly meeting with his client: a tech giant. This tech company produces major events at CES and SXSW . But its events team has been fractured, disconnected from one another and needed unification to build executional excellence. Hence, my friend’s role.
His process was to divide event needs among the team and alternate who led each effort such as badging, food, hotels & transportation, branding & signage and so forth. At each team meeting, the ‘heads’ for each effort reported on status for the upcoming event – the focus was to assist one another. This delivered dimension about how all the pieces fit together culminating in extraordinary engagement.
A new employee repeatedly requested to join the events team for 6 months. When the request was granted, her first ‘lead role’ was badging and credentialing. At the team meeting, my friend goes around the room asking each leader to share an update. She mentioned having difficulties with the vendor “not getting back to me.”
My friend points to the woman leading branding, “Didn’t you work with this vendor last time?”
Other lead: “Yes.”
Friend: “Great, can you help her navigate the issue? Thanks.”
Event unfolds and six weeks later he’s back for another monthly visit. On his way in, HR asks him to stop in. Thinking it was about his contract renewal, he complied.
HR: “We have a little issue that came up with NAME. She seems to think she felt bullied in your last session.”
Friend: “Bullied?”
HR: “Yes.”
Friend: “I don’t understand.”
HR: “It seems after your last meeting she was in the bathroom in tears. A coworker asked what happened. She replied that you called me out in front of everyone. Made me feel incompetent. I feel bullied.”
Coworker: “If you really feel that way, you should tell HR”
HR: “I think you need to apologize and we can make all this go away.”
Friend: “I’ll talk with her but I am not apologizing.”
A meeting was scheduled with this young woman along with a company rep and someone to read the minutes from the last all-hands meeting.
Friend: “I understand you felt ‘less than’ or something to that effect.”
Name: “Well, yes – I was very upset at the time.
Friend: "How’s that?”
Name: " Well we were going around the room and I said I had an issue with the vendor. You made me feel incompetent and you singled me out. Like I couldn’t handle it."
Friend to minutes reader: “Can you read what transpired so we can recall from 6 weeks ago exactly what happened.
Minutes Reader: "You said you were having difficulty with the vendor. Friend: Jane* you had this vendor, right? Can you help her navigate this guy?”
Friend: “Is this how you remember it happening”
Name: “Yes”
Friend: “Did I offer a past contact for that vendor to help you overcome the obstacle?”
Name: “Yes”
Friend: “How is that bullying?”
Name: “Making me talk about the fact that I was having a problem in front of everyone”
Friend: “Did you not hear every other lead cover their status (issues and wins) in that meeting? Did you think you should be treated differently? This is the team you asked to be part of. Let me see if understand this correctly: I made you feel less than b/c you were new to the group, having an issue, and I sought help for you so that you could fix the problem.”
Name: “You called me out.”
Friend: “That was not your first all-hands meeting. We update as a group – you offered an update. We offered to help. Let’s cut to the chase - in 40 years of experience my opinion is you will not last in this industry if you felt bullied by this interaction. It was help. Not bullying.”
She was gone in less than 6 months. (side note: bullying is a trigger word that, if we are not careful, can lose its impact and meaning. Think of headlines about the drastic acts real-life bullying has incited. Being asked to do the job you are hired for does not equate.)
@Sheryl Sandberg’s Advice
Many of you reading this have worked in restaurants. As a proving ground for defining SERVICE, there are few better alternatives: You are client facing; Things go awry and you need to fix it; You collaborate in a hierarchical system. Restaurants are a microcosm for any service industry.
Dining with the former president of #NeimanMarcus Beverly Hills – who achieved the first $200 million store revenue in the chain’s history – the following unfolded. Keep in mind, this man knows a thing or two about service.
We all order the tasting menu and our young server is suitably chipper and breezy. The plates arrive all at once – obviously a kitchen timing flaw. Server shows up, apologizes and offers to bring over new set-ups as the current ones were used. “Thank you, yes.”
Time goes on – no set-ups. Incidentally no water after asking three people.
Finally, she comes over for the obligatory check-back and we say the set-ups never arrived. She literally began to cry. To be clear, the tone was not blaming. She was not being called out. We were pointing out a mistake.
She then proceeded to actively avoid us for the rest of our dinner which was meant to be a celebratory event.
This reminded me of something Meta's Sheryl Sandberg said in an interview when asked what advice she would give incoming applicants. She said, “Learn to receive feedback.”
Simon Cowell was vilified for being ‘mean’ to contestants on American Idol . Was he? Or was he a realistic experience all contestants would likely encounter? The recording industry is filled with rejection. If you cannot take it, toughen up or move to another dream. You will be told ‘no’. You may be laughed at.
As Marcus Aurelius says in #Meditations, no one is coming to save you. Or in this case ‘coddle’ you.
Yes, your feelings are important – but are they more important than getting the job done? Than fixing the problem? Than providing the experience the customer is paying for? Than LEARNING from this situation? In a recent interchange with Roy Sexton , he shared a conversation with a colleague who said “I needed to share my feelings.” His reply was “Yes, but at what cost?”
That last line: at what cost?
This is not about telling GenZ to toughen up – it’s meant to elucidate for GenXers and others who interview for roles: find people who can receive feedback. Those who focus on learning first, feelings second. No company is going to coddle you. Get on with the task at hand and cry about it later. (for the record, I’m not against emotional release – but like the Stoics, I believe you cannot let emotions get in the way of judgment).
We began by citing #BusinessInsider and how GenZ is seeking employers who are softer, nicer, kinder. According to Jeanne Whalen at The Wall Street Journal , “Americas’ once-in-a- generation job market has come to an end.” What happens when you can no longer dictate the kind of employer you want?
What do YOU think? I’m curious for reactions and stories from this…
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