Gen Z office workers not replying to emails

We see you trying for age based hated divide and conquer.

You mean it isn't just a Gen Z thing? It's a recent thing, that's for sure!

How is it a recent thing? You observed a couple of people you believe to be Gen Z not replying to emails, and now you've decided the entire Gen Z workforce do not reply to emails, and it has destroyed all business functionality. This is pathetic. .

r3, the old timers always seize on anecdotes to make "millennials" and "Gen Z" look bad, but don't do the same with people their own age who are racist and homophobic Trump voters

Gen Z is lazy as hell and they don’t have the attention span for email. Hell, they can’t even write cursive or read a hand clock. The most they can do is text and maybe use Slack (an appropriate name).

They don't pick up the phone, either. One coworker would sit at her desk, ignoring her ringing phone. Then she'd listen to the voicemail and reply via email.

Clearly an epidemic of business dysfuntionality, r6. Fire all Gen Z at once, lest the entire economy crash due to their insolence!

[quote]How is it a recent thing?

I have to send out a lot of emails. A few years ago, it was normal that the majority of emails were answered promptly. Not so now. But more strikingly, some aren't answered at all. I have to do followups, and sometimes chase up by phone to get answers. And they're always young workers. I got so pissed off recently by the utter slackness I wrote a letter to the Global CEO. Boy did that put a cat amongst the pidgeons!

r8, you need to read my entire reply at r3, not just the first few words. I was not actually asking you how this was a recent thing. I was questioning your assertion that it was. Mainly, because it's not a recent thing. It's not a Gen Z thing, it's not threatening to undo all business functionality. This is a piss-poor attempt to turn your whining about a few co-workers into a generational trait that proves millions of people in the workforce right now cannot do their jobs. You may personally feel that way, but I guarantee you, that is not true.

Why would we answer emails? We’re not a secretary. I delete all my emails first thing in the afternoon. Hate clutter.

I think DL would beg to disagree R9. Including on their grasp of basic business courtesies. But good for you for waving the flag for Gen Zs!

Finally this generation does something I approve of.

Good Lord, you are SO fake r10, like we could not tell you are Defacto

NO ANSWER IS NOT AN ANSWER!!!

I'm a boomer, and frankly, I get so many insipid emails every day, and copies of emails forwarded to me by people trying to cover their asses or get someone else in trouble, that I frequently don't answer them. Its just too much. I prioritize what gets my attention, and make no apologies. I'd much rather get a text, or if absolutely necessary, a QUICK phone call.

It's time to get off the cross about cursive handwriting. It's obsolete and never coming back.

I don't read email until 11am. Too fucking annoying in the morning.

Let me have my coffee and stay away from me until email time.

This is why working in a virtual environment won’t work for lower tenured employees. They need collaborative communication, not having the skills to read and understand more complex corporate communiqués on their own. We are required to dumb down memos to a 9th grade level- (Outlook will review this for you) and these are for college graduates. This is not true for all. The smart ones are always going to cut a bitch to stand out and get ahead. I work in a senior management position and we know and promote the plugged in employees. The left behinds will be changing jobs in 4.3.2…

If you want to get someone's attention these days you have to text. Phone calls and emails are looked at as a nuisance.

And no, it's not just a young person thing. I'm later Gen X and lots of people my own age feel the same.

I'm reminded of the bit in Hacks where Ava tells Deborah she had a nightmare that she got a voicemail and Deborah didn't understand what she meant by that.

They're going to be replaced by robots, so it doesn't really matter that much in the long run.

My dude, I am not interrupting my avocado toast just to reply to your racist, colonialist tech. Dat ain't it.

They'll learn how to work eventually. Some will get their ass fired. Emails text calls and face to face are all different and called for accordingly depending on the work.

Recently, some people didn't reply to my emails. I cancelled the project for unprofessionalism and they got into trouble and had to scramble.

R6 - That's how you get work done. 99% of the time, a call is not needed. A VM can be more than enough.

I used to work for a small company and people would often try to call and talk to our accountant. Unless she was actively expecting someone (or was looking for a break for whatever she was working on) I always offered to take messages.

So many people who call assume that your time is their time. It's not. If it's important, leave a message. If it's not, I'm glad I didn't waste my time.

I always take every call. I have no problems or hangups. And I'm very productive.

R16 = Gen Z retard who can barely spell his name

Nobody wants to talk on the phone because there’s usually a bitch or a moron on the other end.

gen z is special needs

Slack too difficult for you, grandpa?

Most if not all Gen Zers are certifiable retards. They need to be given lots of rope for that reason.

Maybe, it's only you, OP. People despise you massively.

Learn to troll more competently, fat cunt troll.

How are these Gen Z retards landing jobs? Sucking cock and getting fucked? Because it certainly isn’t because of their intelligence.

R19, in my experience, that’s very true wrt personal emails, but not work email.

I can tell if an email is something auto generated and sent to a mailing list and I may or may not look at it. Anything sent to just a few people or to just me gets read almost immediately. Anything that asks a question always gets an answer.

I have trouble understanding how people can treat email any other way. Just looking at it as a numbers game, it’s unlikely that people are getting overwhelmed with emails sent specifically to them. Because that would imply that, on average, all the other employees are spending a huge amount of time generating those emails. Are some senders including a ridiculous number of recipients? A younger employee included in an email about something they are only tangentially involved in might think it was presumptuous for them to respond with minimal or no helpful info (and I tend to agree).

Emails coming from outside your organization are different. If it’s a cold call, nice to respond but not necessary. If it’s related to your job, like you are in accounts receivable and someone is looking for clarification on an invoice, than that should be given even more priority than an internal email.

These are just my experiences. What kids of emails are people not responding to? What kinda of emails are you getting or sending that expect a response, but don’t get one?

Hang In There!

Several recent articles (here's one below) have claimed some younger workers will only answer email on certain days. The ravages of a recession will eventually make it harder for the average inexperienced worker to set their own rules.

No, OP. They're just not replying to your emails.

Any requests such as "do you want to have drinks tonight" gets shit canned immediately. Even newbies can see right through your billowing caftans.

r26 cursive is over. And I'm actually Gen X

I was always aware of that. You need to text Gen Z. What is frustrating is the Gen Y who refused to reply to emails. It's there Generation that made it a priority and us Gen Xs got use to it. It bothers the hell out of me.

What the fuck is Gen Y? You mean Millennials?

If someone is younger than 50, you have to text to get their attention. Phone calls and emails are a nuisance to anyone under that age. It's not just a "young" thing.

I can’t help but wonder, is the CEO going to personally text me with the latest process updates. I am apparently to busy to be inconvenienced with an email. That seems realistic, yes?

Not with the CEO r41. Just with the cunts you're forced to work with.

OP? That's because they can barely read and write, even the college grads.

You're welcome.

[quote] If you want to get someone's attention these days you have to text.

text, schmext

^out of a little plastic box

Email—where ideas go to die

Maybe because those emails arrived in their mailboxes sometime longer than 8-9 minutes earlier? Why would they have any interest in paying attention to information or news that occurred during a period they'd consider to be such a long time ago?!

How will you people function when Vlad turns the electric off?

I have, in fact, noticed it. Essentially, they're slackers.

r48 I can assure you I am not a Russian.

They don’t respond until things blow up. They’re idiots. They spend all their time watching Netflix and on social media. Unbelievable dumbasses.

Generational flame fest #3,716.

Ghost, block, delete..

It’s funny that Gen X was labeled as slackers. I assumed these Gen Zs would be smarter since they stay in college for forever and they all pay up their asses to get PhDs.. then bitch about their student loan debt. Incredible.

We're all just....turning into jello.

Yep, fuck them emails. Just text me

I'm not giving my cell out. I don't want to be expected to answer at all hours. At least you can log out of email.

Lol at the ancient middle management grandpa OP with zero power who expects his inane emails that have zero impact on the company to be answered by his juniors at all hours. There’s no reason for them to respond to you OP, because you don’t matter and they know that. One of the wonderful things to come out of the pandemic is being able to ignore the entrenched power structure garbage and the endless pointless bullshit it generates.

You need to just be put out to pasture, Boomer. Your day in the sun is LONG over. Don’t you have a shithole in some awful tax free red Southern state to “retire” to? BYE

Gen Zs at my company are so on top of their shit sometimes I just want them to chill. They will reply to almost every email and include details and evidence on everything as if every project is the most transformative thing. Meanwhile I just write single fragmented sentences as my reply. They impress me.

Email should be reserved for documentation and sharing of same.

Why don't workplaces have an internal messaging service for small matters?

Phone for instantaneous response necessary.

This kind of routing tells you how important things are and thus how quicklly and in what format to respond.

My office using Microsoft Teams for instant messaging.

Good for them. Email is stupid.

I love you r58!

R4 LOL. Gen Z doesn't need ANY help looking bad. Everyone knows they suck in the work place. Companies have to have entire training programs to teach everyone else how to work with them. And as much as many of you hate to hear it, the tide is turning. I hire the best person for the team and the job. Lately none of these people have been Gen Z. Sorry kids, you can't handle it. Hopefully a future generation will be less shitty. But rest assured, I place much of the blame on the idiot parents who raised these idiots. Enabling their bullshit. Good thing I am old and rich.

I wanna be there when they find out they missed that email directing them to do a project or get fired.

“ Don’t you have a shithole in some awful tax free red Southern state to “retire” to? BYE”

BITCH, Delaware ain’t the south anymore and you slut keep coming here to buy our shit. Fucking asshole.

This is a classic corporate strategy. Instead of paying attention to what the executives are doing, and how their decisions impact your life, you bicker about the young people with no professional experience. You hate them because they remind you of your mortality. So go ahead, hate read the provoking articles about the millennials and the gen z's. Yes, they're the reason why you can't get anything done at work, and your stock in diamonds and brick-and-mortar retail tanked.

Gen Z truly are retarded. My friend and I were getting some coffees at McDs and I told him: watch how dumb this fat Gen Zer is. I asked him if he drinks coffee. He says: No, I'm just a kid, I don't drink coffee. I said: how old are you? He goes: 19. WTF! 19 is not a kid and I started drinking coffee when I was 12. So, then I told him the complete history of McDs coffee and why it is awesome. So he says: I have absolutely no idea about coffee. My friend and I laughed at him. Deaf, dumb, and literally retarded.

I'm Gen X and we were drinking and smoking cigs by 16 at the latest, usually a bit younger. We couldn't wait to be adults.

[quote]You hate them because they remind you of your mortality.

So, that's why, R67? No. Gen-Z's aren't inherently hated and it has nothing to do with this jealousy you assume corporations have about youth. You learn to hate them when they refuse to do the job you pay them for. And when it comes to that you fire them and find someone who's professional enough to do the job you pay them to do, regardless of how young they may be. And the smart young ones gain the experience at those jobs that enables them to climb the corporate ladder.

How long ago did you realize your shit doesn't stink, R67?

[quote]So, then I told him the complete history of McDs coffee and why it is awesome.

A whole bunch of Italians are laughing their tits off right now.

Do try to travel beyond the U.S.A. one day, Sweetie. You're embarrassing yourself. American coffee isn't worth pissing in.

You’re a retard, r60. Just fucking do your job and shut up

Fuck Italians and fuck their shitty coffee. Catholics are universally hated and a joke among xtians.

My partner is a professor who tells me that the Gen Z students don't want to read, write papers, memorize essential concepts, take closed-book tests, attend a three-hour class, listen to a 20-minute lecture or meet deadlines. They want endless do-overs, written instructions, an example of the finished product, and endless praise. Supposedly, they're lovely people.

Um, ok r73. How is life in the Kennedy era?

Also, the Gen Z need groups to accomplish anything, according to my partner.

R76 Like groups will do anything with a bunch of clueless illiterate morons.

I think younger folks grew up with email and internet, and therefore have always viewed it similarly to glancing at your Instagram - no obligation to respond to any of it, but they do at least glance at everything.

But that's not how all young folks are. In my company, you get fired if you aren't prompt and polite with your communications, regardless of your age.