i recently lost my job and it’s horrible being in the ‘unemployed’ class – you’re made to feel worthless, you have to take advice from people, perfectly well meaning of course, that are basically encouragement on digging your own grave - i love being in the position where i have to do some fake elizabethian courting...
That’s true, but it’s basic human nature. Given two candidates who are both qualified but have different strengths, most likely the hiring manager will pick the person that seems easier to work with. This won’t always be the person who’s bubblier, but will usually be the person who’s more engaged during the interview. It’s not just about what someone’s like on paper, it’s also about being able to create enough of an impression with whoever’s hiring them that they’re memorable in a positive way.
This isn’t malicious, it’s just how almost everyone works. It, of course, also presents challenges for people who are neurodivergent. There’s no easy solution here, telling the hiring manager they’re neurodivergent is a mixed bag.
Part of why the interpersonal part matters is because most every person who has hired someone has been burned by someone who seemed fine on paper, so they gave the new hire a shot despite some flags during the interview. It’s happened to me, it sucks and feels shitty. When that happens, if they’re competent, the manager starts going for people who seem more engaged during the interview (as opposed to super eager, which can be a red flag).
Lastly, hiring people is a skill. Some people are good at it, I am not. At least I learned very quickly that I should let others handle it, which I hope prevented future mismatches between the candidate and the job.
Actually the biggest difference I’ve seen isn’t in effort but ability. I work with everyone from Boomers to Gen Z and by far my Gen Z coworkers have the hardest time with being given a general task and completing it without detailed instructions. Even with detailed instructions, I often have to repeat the instructions due to mistakes and check my younger colleagues’ work more closely.
I think this is, in part, because Gen Z grew up with things that just worked or that they needed to go to a third party to fix if there were issues. Boomers fixed their own cars and did a lot of DIY home repair, Gen X and Millenials both learned to navigate computers and the internet before there were any real instructional guides or helpful UIs. Shit, we used to program games on our calculators for fun. I think many in Gen Z just never had that because many of those DIY elements require proprietary tools now. A smartphone just works and is designed to be so intuitive a baby can figure it out. It’s not their fault, but it does mean that some critical thinking skills are absent because they’re used to outsourcing the solutions to those problems.
But, again, I have never perceived that they’re not hard workers. On the contrary, I’d argue my Gen Z coworkers, when they’re on their game, are way more efficient than everyone else and definitely work smarter, not harder, which I try to learn from them.
That’s pretty true of every generation. If you give anyone a seemingly boring task with no explanation why it matters, they’re going to suck at it. What I’m saying is I can’t give my Gen Z coworkers an open ended task without detailed instructions, even when I explain why it’s important.
The other half that a lot of kids (me included when I was younger) miss is the stuff that seems useless is still building a base of knowledge and shaping how you think critically. Just knowing more stuff allows you to connect more things in your head, enabling you to problem solve in completely unrelated areas better. It’s not obvious how helpful that knowledge foundation is until you have more life experience.
I love gen-Z's attitude towards corporate culture ( lemmy.world )
i recently lost my job and it’s horrible being in the ‘unemployed’ class – you’re made to feel worthless, you have to take advice from people, perfectly well meaning of course, that are basically encouragement on digging your own grave - i love being in the position where i have to do some fake elizabethian courting...
Gen Z is prioritizing living over working because they've seen 'the legacy of broken promises' in corporate America, a future-of-work expert says ( www.businessinsider.com )
A future-of-work expert said Gen Zers didn't have the "promise of stability" at work, so they're putting their personal lives and well-being first.