Tara’s
Takes
We’ve all heard it — Everyone is hiring. Everyone is short staffed. If that’s the case then why are both Forbes and Fortune reporting that six in 10 employers surveyed have fired Gen Z workers within the first year of hiring them? Most of these new hires are straight out of college.
The most common reasons for the firings: Employers fear Gen Z hires are not punctual, don’t know how to dress for the work place and cannot communicate.
As an employer, I don’t disagree. What I am questioning is who is at fault? In all honesty, it’s us as parents and those in the “village” helping raise the next generation.
Employers surveyed said new hires were unorganized and unmotivated. They complained of employees consistently being late to work or to meetings, not dressing professionally or using inappropriate language in the workplace. Over half of those surveyed felt that the next generation are not prepared for the world of work.
That training for the world of work begins at home.
The Forbes magazine article pointed to the decrease in teen employment. The number of students who have jobs in their high school years has been declining for decades, hitting an all-time low in 2020. Covid probably affected the end of those numbers but the trend was already there.
Having a job as a teen, even just babysitting on a Friday night, is more than just a paycheck. It’s about professionalism, accountability, responsibility and more. Even just required chores around the house can start to teach our next generation of workers the skills they need. But those requirements start at home.
Speaking of starting at home, I’m going to address some of the most common complaints in the article and how we are at fault.
1. Showing up on time. It’s quite simple, as a student, your first job is to go to school. There is a start time for that. However, sit in the parking lot at any local school at 8:05 a.m. when school starts at 8 a.m. You would be amazed at the number of students who are being dropped off or driving themselves to school and are late. Now I agree, mornings with kids are chaotic, but being late should be the exception and not the rule. And if you are rolling into class with a fresh cup of coffee or an energy drink you had time to stop and get, you are teaching your kids that being on time isn’t important.
2. Dressing professionally. This topic came up at a recent industry meeting I had. The topic involved sales staff and dressing appropriately for a sales call. Overall, in America our acceptable work attire standards have decreased greatly. We used to save our pajamas for the house. Now, pajamas are acceptable for running errands, attending events, and school and more. However, if you are meant to be taken seriously in a job, how is an employer supposed to do that when we roll into the office in our torn jeans or pajama pants and oversized hoodie? No, I don’t wear a suit everyday. My advertisers would think I’m crazy. But we should take care that we are setting ourselves up for a good first impression. Those lessons start at home.
3. Appropriate language. Have you sat at a high school basketball game lately as students come into the stands? Have you heard how some, not all, but some kids speak to their parents after games? If I had spoken to my parents like that I would have gotten to know the wooden spoon very well. Now, I’m not advocating for physical punishment. That’s not the world today. But I’m battling this every day with my own kids. They say things in a rude or disrespectful manner and when I get after them, I get the, “I’m just joking, calm down.” However, if it’s rude enough for me to notice, it shouldn’t be said, joke or not.
I am very far from a perfect mom, but I do know my number one job is not running a newspaper. It is raising good, kind, respectable, hardworking kids. The hardest part of that is being their parent more than their friend. I’m in the teenage and young adult stage with all three of my kids. This means absolute chaos when it comes to schedules, meal time, work, etc. The easiest thing would be to worry less about these things and just let them be kids like their friends. But in the long run, that is not going to help.
So when it comes to training our new generation of workers, it starts with us, with our standards for punctuality, responsibility and organization. We owe it to our kids to make sure they are prepared to be good adults. Plus, we need them to have good jobs so they can take care of us when we get older!
