Is it wrong to fire a Millenial/Gen Z for not wanting to do a task?

[notherhalo]

So I have an industrial parts ecom company

One GenZ came in for paid internship, daughter of a sales rep we like.   I asked her to call vendors and ask if some phone numbers, etc are up to date.  She flat out told me, "Im not going to make phone calls".  I fired her that day.

Another guy, helps me with the creative team, I asked him if he could keep time in the meetings and let people know when its time to move on, he just said no, he doesnt feel like its something he really wanted to do.   Im put up a job for his replacement

Im told this is something that millenials/genZ are well known for, follwed by "quet quitting"

 

Is that wrong?  Feels like the modern way is to not fire them instantly

[Blarg]

Just move on until you find that kid that gets it and understands to stand out is simply standing up and saying, yeah, I'll take care of that right now. That's the one who will be your manager in five years. The rest will be baristas making your coffee down the street. 

[T.G.]

So notherhalo fired Taylor?

[CaliAngel]

1 hour ago, notherhalo said:

So I have an industrial parts ecom company

One GenZ came in for paid internship, daughter of a sales rep we like.   I asked her to call vendors and ask if some phone numbers, etc are up to date.  She flat out told me, "Im not going to make phone calls".  I fired her that day.

Another guy, helps me with the creative team, I asked him if he could keep time in the meetings and let people know when its time to move on, he just said no, he doesnt feel like its something he really wanted to do.   Im put up a job for his replacement

Im told this is something that millenials/genZ are well known for, follwed by "quet quitting"

 

Is that wrong?  Feels like the modern way is to not fire them instantly

This millenial/genz attitude is they should be able to show their nudes on the internet, or have a snapchat with thousands of followers, and they should be millionaires. Their perspective on reality and getting paid to work is quite skewed. 

As far as I can tell you're acting like a practical business owner, so I don't see anything wrong with what you're doing. 

Eventually you'll find someone that has a strong work ethic and non-shitty attitude, keep firing them until you do. 

 

[St1ck]

2 hours ago, notherhalo said:

So I have an industrial parts ecom company

One GenZ came in for paid internship, daughter of a sales rep we like.   I asked her to call vendors and ask if some phone numbers, etc are up to date.  She flat out told me, "Im not going to make phone calls".  I fired her that day.

Another guy, helps me with the creative team, I asked him if he could keep time in the meetings and let people know when its time to move on, he just said no, he doesnt feel like its something he really wanted to do.   Im put up a job for his replacement

Im told this is something that millenials/genZ are well known for, follwed by "quet quitting"

 

Is that wrong?  Feels like the modern way is to not fire them instantly

That's just a straight shooter with upper management written all over him.

[Lhalo]

6 minutes ago, St1ck said:

That's just a straight shooter with upper management written all over him.

[Taylor]

3 hours ago, notherhalo said:

So I have an industrial parts ecom company

One GenZ came in for paid internship, daughter of a sales rep we like.   I asked her to call vendors and ask if some phone numbers, etc are up to date.  She flat out told me, "Im not going to make phone calls".  I fired her that day.

Another guy, helps me with the creative team, I asked him if he could keep time in the meetings and let people know when its time to move on, he just said no, he doesnt feel like its something he really wanted to do.   Im put up a job for his replacement

Im told this is something that millenials/genZ are well known for, follwed by "quet quitting"

 

Is that wrong?  Feels like the modern way is to not fire them instantly

These kids sound entitled, but were these tasks included in their job descriptions? Before you hire someone, it would be beneficial to tell them up front what kind of work they will be doing.

[Taylor]

2 hours ago, T.G. said:

So northerhalo fired Taylor?

Looks like you need an editor. I'll PM you my rates.

[Taylor]

As a side note, you guys love to complain about the generations that you helped raise.

[UndertheHalo]

People love pretending that things that are not new are new.  Maybe you could have communicated their role more clearly.  Or maybe they’re bad workers.  I’m not going to speculate on that.  There are many, many, many “gen Z” and “millennials” in the work force that work very hard. 
 

it’s just a dumb broad brush that people who watch too much of our moron news love to paint with.  Worker productivity is higher now than ever.  

[AngelsLakersFan]

5 hours ago, notherhalo said:

So I have an industrial parts ecom company

One GenZ came in for paid internship, daughter of a sales rep we like.   I asked her to call vendors and ask if some phone numbers, etc are up to date.  She flat out told me, "Im not going to make phone calls".  I fired her that day.

Another guy, helps me with the creative team, I asked him if he could keep time in the meetings and let people know when its time to move on, he just said no, he doesnt feel like its something he really wanted to do.   Im put up a job for his replacement

Im told this is something that millenials/genZ are well known for, follwed by "quet quitting"

 

Is that wrong?  Feels like the modern way is to not fire them instantly

Tbh if you told me to do some stupid shit like keep time for you in a meeting I’d probably just quit.

Millennials and I assume gen z’s have a different attitude about work than their parents generation. Given that we aren’t going backwards in time it’s in your best interest to keep up so you’re not the one moved into the basement when these guys grow into upper management.

[Stradling]

I certainly wouldn’t fire them but I’d send them home and set aside time to talk them through the consequences moving forward. Those consequences would be termination for refusal to do tasks that are delegated to them.  I’d also use it as an opportunity to teach them responsibility. 

[Taylor]

49 minutes ago, Stradling said:

I certainly wouldn’t fire them but I’d send them home and set aside time to talk them through the consequences moving forward. Those consequences would be termination for refusal to do tasks that are delegated to them.  I’d also use it as an opportunity to teach them responsibility. 

Have you ever asked a fry cook to keep time for you in a meeting?

[cysomeawfulpitcher]

People need to research what their job is regardless of age and I say this as someone of the ignored middle child generation, xennials.  This is no different from that Karen who complained that 2011's Drive wasn't action packed and was a nihilistic and brutally violent "art house" movie.

[AngelsLakersFan]

3 minutes ago, cysomeawfulpitcher said:

People need to research what their job is regardless of age and I say this as someone of the ignored middle child generation, xennials.  This is no different from that Karen who complained that 2011's Drive wasn't action packed and was a nihilistic and brutally violent "art house" movie.

Drive was not action packed and it clearly was a nihilistic and brutally violent art house movie.

[Stradling]

10 minutes ago, Taylor said:

Have you ever asked a fry cook to keep time for you in a meeting?

No. But his job isn’t simply to be a fry cook. His job is to follow directions. 

[Catwhoshatinthehat]

We’ve had people take minutes in meetings and keep track to move things along.  Some things you do in most jobs aren’t explicitly in writing as you’d have to have pages and pages of possible job functions to cover the possibilities. I’ve never thought to say no when asked to do something and would only do it if it was illegal, immoral and/or I took serious issue with it. I think most people get further by being willing to say yes but to each their own. 
 

[Blarg]

Tough but fair.

[arch stanton]

Seems like a chance for you to enhance your communication skills to deal with a generation that you're not a part of. Some people need things spelled out for them.

Any time I've interviewed someone for a position I make clear that small things may pop up that aren't an obvious part of the job description but have to be done. If you're too good to help the company succeed then you're too good to take the company's money every week

[notherhalo]

It's not that they didn't do it, it's the attitude of "it's okay/encouraged to say no"

The way I started 20 years ago was that you were nearly a soldier.   They told you to do something, you did it - or you quit.

It's the new age thing of getting hired, than saying no with all this confidence like you are modern, left and right to all these tasks.   The intern said no to most of the stuff on the job description after being hired.

FYI there's other millennial/GenZ people here who are fantastic 

Edited August 11, 2023 by notherhalo

[Tank]

every school year i "hire" a couple of 9th graders to be my readers. i usually pick kids that have been good students while i taught them in 7th and 8th, and knowing each other often makes things better when it comes to work.

the one thing universal thing i've noticed over the last 15-20 years is that the internal motivation for kids has dropped off significantly in that time. there are too many kids that have to have even the simplest things spelled out for them on what to do, or what to do next. the internal mechanism of a lot of successful people is "okay, i finished this task, what should i do next? is there something i need to ask my supervisor about, or is there something i can jump into without being asked?" That kind of drive is missing for so many. I've had it in a few kids, but it has dropped off a cliff in recent years. i also realize that their job with me is almost always their first job period, so i take time at the beginning of each year to teach/train them the things i need/want them to do, and talk with them about this sort of stuff. 

i've got a new worker for this coming year (and hopefully a second worker), and i'll have this experience with them in just about ten days.

[Taylor]

14 hours ago, Stradling said:

No. But his job isn’t simply to be a fry cook. His job is to follow directions. 

Sure, but employees aren't robots programmed to follow orders. It's reasonable for them to know what their job entails ahead of time. If they're unclear about expectations, their manager hasn't communicated very well.

[Taylor]

40 minutes ago, Tank said:

every school year i "hire" a couple of 9th graders to be my readers. i usually pick kids that have been good students while i taught them in 7th and 8th, and knowing each other often makes things better when it comes to work.

the one thing universal thing i've noticed over the last 15-20 years is that the internal motivation for kids has dropped off significantly in that time. there are too many kids that have to have even the simplest things spelled out for them on what to do, or what to do next. the internal mechanism of a lot of successful people is "okay, i finished this task, what should i do next? is there something i need to ask my supervisor about, or is there something i can jump into without being asked?" That kind of drive is missing for so many. I've had it in a few kids, but it has dropped off a cliff in recent years. i also realize that their job with me is almost always their first job period, so i take time at the beginning of each year to teach/train them the things i need/want them to do, and talk with them about this sort of stuff. 

i've got a new worker for this coming year (and hopefully a second worker), and i'll have this experience with them in just about ten days.

If the motivations and attitudes have changed, what do you think are the reasons for the change?

Genuinely curious because we're now raising two "gen alphas."

[cals]

LOL at the “too lazy to work hard enough to afford a house” guy trying to defend laziness of young millennials and Gen Z.

[Tank]

58 minutes ago, Taylor said:

If the motivations and attitudes have changed, what do you think are the reasons for the change?

from my limited view, what i see is a whole lot of kids who don't have to work for anything they want. they just ask mom and dad and they get what they want. so when they have a job, they lack a lot of skills - i don't want to do this or that, i guess that's all i have to do, what should i do next, and so on. so when they get hired, they don't know much about how to be a good worker, like taking initiative or finding something to do. lazy? probably a fair amount of that mixed in for some. but a lot of them need step-by-step instructions on so many things.

there are always exceptions, and i've had a number of kids who were self-motivated, driven, and had been taught to work for things they wanted, but even then there's a difference when you start working for someone else. 

Edited August 11, 2023 by Tank