Donald Burns and a colleague argue workplace problems stem from leadership, not hiring. Gen Z, raised on iPhones and tablets, handles confrontation worse than millennials did. COVID-19 made it worse by cutting face-to-face time, eroding the skills people need to manage conflict.
Do you think it's really a hiring problem or do you think it's more of a leadership problem?
I think it's more of a leadership problem because I think it's more of how you speak to people, right? And how— right? It's a different generation. The Gen Z, you know, I'm a millennial. So Gen Z is— it's just a different breed, right? It's a different— like how they were brought up. Is, you know, they were on— they had iPhone, they had their, you know, Macs. And even like, I see a lot of my, you know, my nephews and nieces are, you know, 5, 6, 7 years old and they're on their tablets. So they're— it's a leadership problem because you need to know how to treat them and how to talk to them versus millennials or other generations where it was a little bit different. They I feel like, you know, with Gen Z, it's, um, they don't handle like confrontation as well.
Oh yeah, definitely not.
Be careful how you, how you say things. Um, whereas millennials, like, I would— like my boss, like when I was working at restaurants, they would literally chew my ear off and I would just take it, you know, and I'd be okay with it, you know, carry on, right?
Um, you know, I think it was the big turning point for that with the millennial— with the Gen Z I think COVID was a big turning point with that because when COVID happened, they didn't have that face-to-face contact, so they lost a lot of those interactions, those human skills, those interpersonal.
And it's like, me and my fiancée talk about this all the time. As soon as you like walk into an elevator, as soon as you, you know, go somewhere, people are on their phone, right? They just, they immediately go to their phone. It's like, they're unique. You need that little like awkwardness, right? Yeah, yeah, little like uncomfortable
If your restaurant only works because you work 80 hours a week, it doesn't work.
