Gen Z workers are not tech-savvy in the workplace – and it’s a growing problem
1–10 of 87 posts
Re: Gen Z workers are not tech-savvy in the workplace – and it’s a growing problem
#2I swear I read the same article about my generation when I entered the workforce, about how millennials were expected to be magic tech wizards by growing with the internet through osmosis
Re: Gen Z workers are not tech-savvy in the workplace – and it’s a growing problem
#3Is half the problem that gen Y grew up with email as a communications platform and had actual computers with actual mice and actual software installed on said computers.
Gen z may be plugged into their phone, but a phone is a far cry from the tech that is actually used on the office. And Tik Tok isn't like an Excel spreadsheet.
Further, prior generations had to write letters etc which transfers across to email in a professional setting more than YOLO lol .
Re: Gen Z workers are not tech-savvy in the workplace – and it’s a growing problem
#4> One in 5 of the 18-to-29-year-olds polled in the report, which surveyed 10,000 office workers in 10 markets including the U.S. and U.K., said they felt judged when experiencing technical issues, compared to only one in 25 for those aged 40 years and over. Further, 25% of the former age group would actively avoid participating in a meeting if they thought their tech tools might cause disruption, whereas it was just 6% for the latter cohort.
Industry newcomers are embarrassed about everything, though, in my experience. They're stressed they're not working hard enough, or that they're not smart enough, or that they caused a serious issue in production.
When I've managed or mentored newcomers to tech it takes constant reassurance to make them feel like they belong. Or at least a number of people require this sort of reassurance.
I think it would be more interesting if these folks they interviewed felt like this only about tech-savvy and not about other aspects about the job they might feel judged.
Re: Gen Z workers are not tech-savvy in the workplace – and it’s a growing problem
#5I swear I read the same article about my generation when I entered the workforce, about how millennials were expected to be magic tech wizards by growing with the internet through osmosis
This one is a thinly disguised "we need everybody to come back into the office" trojan horse, though.
Re: Gen Z workers are not tech-savvy in the workplace – and it’s a growing problem
#6Is half the problem that gen Y grew up with email as a communications platform and had actual computers with actual mice and actual software installed on said computers. Gen z may be plugged into their phone, but a phone is a far cry from the tech that is actually used on the office. And Tik Tok isn't like an Excel spreadsheet. Further, prior generations had to write letters etc which transfers across to email in a p…
Gen Z uses laptops and Microsoft/Google Docs/Sheets/Slides in school.
Re: Gen Z workers are not tech-savvy in the workplace – and it’s a growing problem
#7[deleted]
Re: Gen Z workers are not tech-savvy in the workplace – and it’s a growing problem
#8I have only my personal experience and perceptions, but I think most people here (likely technically savvy) would agree that, quite simply, most people of any generation are not technically savvy.
While I don't "get" TikTok, I understand how it works, on a broad technical level. A 20 year old might understand the social scene of TikTok and "get" it, but my guess is the average 20 year old will have no idea how a webpage even shows up in their browser, let alone how an app like TikTok works.
I think most people would struggle to diagnose technical issues with web-conferencing tech. The older folks in the workplace have had the advantage of observing the rituals other people do to try and get it to work (turn it off and on a again, restart your router, etc.)
Re: Gen Z workers are not tech-savvy in the workplace – and it’s a growing problem
#9I swear I read the same article about my generation when I entered the workforce, about how millennials were expected to be magic tech wizards by growing with the internet through osmosis
Well if you were on the internet 10-15 years ago you were at least somewhat familiar with computers. These days smartphones mean you can use the internet without ever using a PC.
I think the dumbing down of devices will reduce the tinkering in younger generation.
I got into programming because I was gifted an old pentium 1 with DOS and QBasic installed - trying to figure out how to play games on it.
If someone just gave me a gaming console I'd just be glued to that.
Re: Gen Z workers are not tech-savvy in the workplace – and it’s a growing problem
#10The curse of knowledge applies here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge Most/all of these things are so basic it's hard to remember learning them, and thus hard to remember that each new hire needs the basic onboarding to Slack or whatever.