Gen-Z in the Workplace: Bridging the Communication Divide

Looking to bridge the communication gap between generations in the workplace?

In our latest episode Finbarr Goode Begley - Senior Research Analyst is joined by Caitlin Quinn, Cavell's Junior (Gen-Z) Consultant. Discover the findings of their research on intergenerational communication, including the burning question of whether or not Gen-Z enjoys video calls.
 
If you're struggling to connect with younger employees, this episode offers insights and solutions to bridge the communication gap. Understand how to improve communication and foster a more collaborative and productive work environment. Listen in and join the conversation today.

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Transcript

Hello, and welcome to this new episode of the Cavell Cloud Conversations Podcast. I am Finbarr Beckley, analyst at Cavell and I'm joined today, not by my usual assistant, Patrick, assistant slash co-host of course, and I am instead joined by another member of the Cavell team. Caitlin, why don't you introduce yourself to her?

Hello to the podcast. I'm Caitlin Quinn. I'm a junior consultant at Cavell I've been here since about September and yeah, so I'm just working with, on the consulting side of the business. Brilliant. Caitlin is one of our, I guess, the people driving the team forward in terms of innovation. The, the main thing we're here to talk about is, Because we had an event recently at the Cloud Comms Summit and one of the most interesting and most talked about panels at that event was based on some generational research that we did, charting the differences in how different generations communicate within the workplace.

So why don't you tell us a little bit about that, cuz that was your, you know, your, your project. Yeah, so another sort of younger cove employee. So me and my coworker Katie, we thought it would be really interesting as sort of young workers ourselves. So we, members of Gen Z, so I'm 24, she's also 24. We thought it might really be interesting to.

Think about how communication preferences change different generations. So I was, I'm a worker who sort of is working my first job in the wake of a pandemic, and so using things like Microsoft teams and Zoom during my uni has sort of influenced the way I think about communicating. So Catie and I thought that it would be really interesting personally, but also for providers and people in the telco industry to think about.

How a younger generation of workers were becoming sort of increasingly an increasing percentage of the workforce, like sort of work differently, communicate differently than maybe Gen Z millennials, or not Gen Z, sorry, millennials, boomers, silent generation. So that was sort of the impetus for, for the research, so personal and also sort of interesting for the industry.

Yeah. I mean it's always, I mean, as definitely as analysts and consultants, it's always interesting to ask that question, you know, how is my subjective experience different from the objective experience of my peers? Right, right. Did you find like, you know, a lot of differences between how you like to talk and how other people are communicating?

Yeah, so what was sort of really illuminating about the research and there was a lot of really interesting findings and I think what was sort of most surprising to all of the older generations of workers in the room are that Gen Zers, we really don't love communicating on video, and I think that's something that's, you know, intuitive to me.

So I live in a really tiny flat, I have a flatmate who is a nurse, so she's sort of like around during the day. So it's quite inconvenient for me to have my video on and sort of when we, um, Presented that finding to like an older generation of workers, you know, product managers, they were like, what Gen Z?

You know, gen Z workers don't like video. So that was something that was kind of interesting so that our living situations being sort of less stable. We don't have home offices maybe the way that older generations of workers do. We don't like video as much. But then also sort of expectedly, like we're pretty tech savvy, you know, we really like sort of integrating our.

Social media with our sort of workplace communication. So some of that stuff was expected, but it was really interesting to sort of see. The look of surprise on the faces of older generations of workers when they're like, you know, thinking about the way that Gen Z work work basically. So it was kind of cool.

I find it funny because one of the earlier sort of projects I worked on in marketing, so about Ted years ago maybe, uh, we were working for Callcom and they had this, this marketing idea for the board mobile generation, which was everyone who was born between. Like after, basically after the year 2000 because they were born with smartphones, you know, cuz right.

I don't know if you know this, but I didn't have a smartphone, but I was, when I was. Child when I was 10 or 11, maybe 12, I got my first phone. Yeah. And I could play snake on that phone. And that was very high tech. I got my first smartphone when I was 21. Oh, wow. Okay. Which, you know, so imagine living your life up until like, what, four years ago without, without a smartphone.

And then so it is, it is different, but, What I found funny, not funny, but interesting about your presentation. So we think about this bored mobile generation. Yeah. Bored with a smartphone at hand almost, and trained on these tools. But one of the things that you found during the research was that actually when it came to.

Business tools. Mm-hmm. That didn't necessarily transfer like the confidence Yeah. With teams or WhatsApp didn't actually necessarily transfer to the things that maybe the older generation is used to dealing with on a daily basis like crm. Yeah. And, you know, Excel and, and all these other Yeah. Tools, you know.

Yeah, that was a really interesting part of our research. I think there was sort of a duality there. So yes, you know, a lot of Gen Z respondents said that they, you know, like using social media, they're comfortable using social media, but that doesn't always translate to, as you say, the business comm. So, no, I think.

Maybe our older employers think that, oh yeah, you know, a 24 year old is just as savvy with PowerPoint, with Word, with crm, you know, with some of that other business comms, but we're really just not. So I think it has less to do with maybe our overall tech savviness and more to do with what we grew up using.

So, you know, I think we have about, I got my first. You know, smartphone when I was about 11. So I have about, you know, over a decade of experience using social media technology. But you know, if day one of my job someone asked me to use Salesforce, you know, that is as sort of foreign to me as it would be to a 45 year old.

And it's interesting cuz it, it leads to the question of how intuitive these technologies really are. Mm-hmm. So I think maybe, you know, an exec might think, oh, well, you know, Salesforce is as intuitive as, you know, WhatsApp or Instagram. But you know, I don't know whether or not that's the case or what it, or if it's the intuitiveness of the platform or if it's just how familiar you are with using it.

So it's an open question, I would say. Yeah. But I think that does highlight kind of like, you know, these, these platforms that are aiming for more simplicity, more user experience. Mm. And I would ask a question just as a researcher, cuz I think that's the sort of question that would be interesting is that when you're doing your user experience polls mm-hmm.

Your panels to discern dive, whether or not your platform's easy to use, you know, what generation, what gender. Totally. You know, what background are the people who are on those panels? Yeah. Because. Yes. I think the research has demonstrated that if you get a group of, you know, the, the largest percentage of people in the workforce at the moment come from the millennial generation.

Yeah. You know, and if you get a group of those in the room, you are not having maybe as many user experience programs cuz they've encountered a CRM before, they've had a bit of training, you know, and they're more confident with it. But, you know, one of the things our research highlighted was that, you know, there are a lot more.

People from younger generations entering the workforce and that generation probably hasn't yet been adequately trained or properly prepared to use those tools and may also require a use or experience redesign to, to make it feel more intuitive for them. Right. Totally. Yeah. It was interesting. We sort of had some product managers come up to us, to Katie and I after our, our presentation.

They were like, it's crazy how we sort of don't do, you know, research or sort of, what is it called when you put people in a room and ask 'em about a product? I'm forgetting the name screws. A focus group and we d yeah. So he was like, we need to be having more focus groups about the U N U I X that include y sort of younger people.

He was like, it's crazy that we haven't been doing that. So, you know, with that in mind, it definitely could change sort of the, the way that these sort of companies are thinking about how they're developing their products and who they're geared towards. So that was, yeah, it was a really interesting sort of trick to, to be a part of as a young, as a young worker.

So it was, it was, it was great. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Because one of the things that we've been talking about a lot, just, I mean, moving away from, from our research specifically Yeah. Is this idea that, you know, it, there's a gap in the workforce culture where, you know, there's a gap between generations, I guess.

Because we were talking about this yesterday in terms of like, it feels like there's sort of a three year gap in the transference of, of social culture in the, in the office and, and the lack of working in person. Cause a lot of these, a lot of these, you know, technology communication practices are kind of learned.

Practices. Right, which you get directly from your employees. So yeah, you know, in my case, it was joining the workforce in 2010. No, sorry, 2012. Let's give myself a few years. And the first thing that happens is someone's been like, well, no, we have this conference call software. You dial this number, you put in this passcode, everyone puts in the same passcode.

Then you joined a conference school on your spider phone in your meeting room, right? Mm-hmm. And there was a lot of etiquette tied into. How to start those calls. The admin user had to start it, so you had to be there two minutes early. Like there's all these little things that you learned to be good at doing that with good etiquette and, and good preparation.

And yeah, now we've got easier platforms, but also, you know, There's that question as to how much of that cultural transference is happening, you know, when there was this huge break due to covid and this huge break due to people not being in the office. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's, it's definitely different. I think the handoff got muddied somewhere along the line.

Mm-hmm. So I think you're, you're totally right that if I was entering the workforce even, you know, maybe four years ago and say for example, I was entering into a, a big company, you know, I'd probably be in the office every day. I would probably have a really defined work persona, work communication habits that I, you know, was using every day, picking up from my managers, et cetera.

But now there's a lot more and sort of, Workplace communications, like even the idea of hybrid working, whereas, you know, two days a week you have certain communication habits and then three days a week you're at home and have other communication habits, sort of the imposition of the personal self, like on the workplace.

Whereas I feel like, you know, entry level employees didn't used to have sort of. Home offices. I just don't even think that was a thing. Yeah. That, yeah, I know. It was, was a perk You earned. It wasn't something you got Right, right. By default. Yeah. Yeah. So now that you have this idea that, you know, you have 24 year olds who live with flatmates, you know, in like little, little apartments and they have to be, you know, their most productive corporate selves, I just think it really adds a number of variables into the conversation that didn't exist before the pandemic.

And yeah, I think now it leads space to question or sort of. Doubt or what's working and what's not working. Whereas I think, yeah, if you were going into the office every single day doing the same thing, I don't think there would be the same space for, Hmm, do I like this? Do I not like this? What do I want to use to communicate today?

Am I gonna be a person in the office? Am I gonna be a worker at home? I just think that there's a level of flexibility that is sort of changing the way that our generation feels about. These things or gives us the room to have an opinion, whereas I don't think that would've existed before, perhaps. Now here's a question, which is a bit off the wall, but I just thought about it.

Yeah. Do you find that prospect of having an opinion, having freedom, being able to act as an individual in the workplace? Yeah. Do you find that intimidating? Because I, as a new worker, say 10 years ago, and I remember this, drew a lot of comfort from just turning to our manager and saying, What, what am I expected to do?

Like, what does this client, like, how, how are they gonna expect me to talk on this call? You know, do I use their LA like last name? Do I, mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You know, talk about like what's the formal etiquette? And when I was told what that etiquette was and I learned it by watching my manager, I felt a lot of comfort because I could draw directly from that experience.

And that was even. Not just with clients, but internally within the company. My manager taught me how to speak to my boss because I didn't, right. As a young worker, know the best etiquette with my boss. Now maybe you don't feel, cause we're a smaller company, you don't feel that that barrier is there, but mm-hmm.

Like, do you think that's an intimidating prospect as well as. You know? Yeah, I, I think the, yeah, it's definitely a double-edged sword. I think many of my friends, when they started working, there was this level of panic and terror when they first started their jobs because they didn't quite know how to regard.

You know, the people mm-hmm. That were above them or even their colleagues. It was funny. Like we, you know, ran a po like a question in this generational research about, you know, using gifts or not. Mm-hmm. And like, that's silly, but I do think that it speaks to this question of, I think without, I think hybrid working and post pandemic working has sort of led to a bit of j just questioning about, um, You know, authority and the correct way to treat, you know, higher ups and clients.

I think it's not as spelled out, and I do think it can be alarming as well as sort of liberating, like I think on one of my first calls at Kave for some reason. Both my bosses who are a lot older than I, like, they both had to go grab the door or something. So I was left on this phone call with a private equity company and I was in like my first month and I was frozen.

I had absolutely no idea how to regard them, speak to them. Do we chat about our days? Do we stay silent? And I think that if I had been in a boardroom, For an in-person meeting, it would've felt much more organic. It's like my, yeah, natural social skills would've come through, but over a team screen, I, I was like, I have absolutely no idea how to deal in this situation, and I think that that is a good, it's an illustrative example of the thing that you're talking about, whereas like, there was, there was no sort of handbook that told me how to deal in those scenarios, and he definitely floundered.

So I think it's a blessing and a curse in some ways. Yeah, I mean, I, I thought of it because my sister. Who now works at a consulting company as well. Just was tired one evening and responded with a gift to like her manager's, manager and, and I, and she was just panicking about it being like, what? And the guy just like, thumbs up the message he did.

Like it was, it was a drama. Yeah. You know? Yeah. She was like, I probably shouldn't do that again. I'm like, eh, you know, you don't know. But as they say, in a company like cabal, it is kind of set by our bosses and you know, there are. There are companies who would just let the package not deliver Right. And would stay on the meeting with the private equity company.

But yeah, I feel like, I mean, I, I guess in some ways with clients, it's kind of determined by, they know who you are when they start working with you a lot of the time. Right. Which, which gives you a bit of protection. And then I guess internally it's just set by your bosses. But it was kind of like, It seems like there was maybe, maybe, maybe I'm not, I, I don't wanna be un unfair to, to.

The people on the call with you, because they're obviously my boss as well, but mm-hmm. You know, maybe there was a bit of a failure in transference of expectation in terms of, right, right. Yes. Yeah. You didn't know that that was something that could happen to you. Right? Right. And therefore you had no idea that you would be expected to field Yes.

A client by yourself after what? But because a lot of companies would not let that happen. Right. Ever. Ever. Right. You wouldn't even be on that call, you know? Mm-hmm. But what's sort of interesting is when I think like a similar thing happened when I was, you know, in an in-person client meeting, similar time, you know, but I was in a boardroom and then I felt like, you know, and I was wearing trousers and a soup jacket, and it, it felt like I had my, like, work persona was much more stable or sort of, I felt like, okay, you know, I'm in this.

Yeah, sort of public space. I sort of know what to do. Whereas, you know, when I'm sitting there at my in, at my kitchen, in my flat, you know, and I'm like all of a sudden thrown into my corporate persona when I'm in my work from home sort of persona. And it did just sort of destabilize that a little bit.

Whereas again, I just don't think five years ago I could have even had. The diff, like there wouldn't have been a difference between the two or I wouldn't have had both of those. So it is just sort of an interesting thing and I, and I do think that it's just changing the way that our generation feels about working and yeah, corporate life and those hierarchies, things like that.

I was gonna say, cuz if you're in an in-person meeting, I think the, the, I wonder if the difference is participation because like if you're in an in-person meeting, you've already got it. You've already said hello. You've already communicated through body language and nodding and, and all these like mm-hmm.

Reaffirmation that you're engaged in the conversation. Yeah. You're doing all the thi if you are on a teams call and you, you, you know, you're taking notes in the background or you're taught once every 10 minutes when your section comes up. Yep. You know, you kind of don't feel like you're as engaged. Then when someone's like, no, the ball's yours.

Mm-hmm. It's kind of like you have to make a bigger shift really to get into Yeah. Yeah. Into the gear. Right. And again, this goes back to, I think I learn, and I think my colleagues, my younger colleagues might feel this way. My younger friends who work, I learn a lot more in person mm-hmm. Than I do in a sort of, you know, teams environment.

And I think that that's something that, you know, Bosses can be thinking about. I think all training honestly should be in person. I think that it really fosters learning and engagement and training. Mm-hmm. Whereas I just don't know if that necessarily can, is transferrable in a sort of virtual space and I think it in.

I think in-person communication I think increases buy-in. And another interesting thing that we found from our research is young workers like going into the office. Mm-hmm. You know, not just for sort of the social aspect of it, but I think, you know, we're more productive. That's what our research found.

We sort of just enjoy. You know, working, you know, in, in person, which I think maybe an older worker might not, or an older boss might not sort of intuit from what they think about a Gen Z worker or a Gen Z person that we just wanna be sort of hold up on our phones or on our computers, you know? Speak antisocial, but I just don't think, and I, you know, I don't speak for everyone, but it, that sort of was shown in our research as well.

So, but I mean, it, it makes a lot of sense. I mean, you know, when you're at home, you work from your living room. I'm working from my bedroom. I have a very, very nice desk, but it's still in my bedroom. Whereas, you know, other people we know and in the company have office sheds. In fact, quite a lot of the older Yes.

Parts of this company. Yeah. Have office sheds and. Yeah, the ones that don't have a five floor house that they can dedicate an entire floor to, to be their office. So, you know, there is that, that gap in terms of actual just readability of working at home and Exactly being in the office, not having to worry about anything that's going on at home.

Or just being in an annoying environment like bedroom, kitchen, dining room. You know, I dunno if you can hear the siren that is coming right by my window, but exactly as I, oh, I can actually, let's call from, from home. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's definitely something to be said for. Just don't be surprised if your young employees get fed up of working from home.

Yeah, exactly. Um, and just want to be in the office and have a chat and, you know. Yep. Because we were talking that maybe, maybe it doesn't, I mean, it doesn't necessarily need to be a huge central office. I mean, people are building these micro offices in different parts of, of cities and things like that, and just finding out where their employees are concentrated.

But the main thing is just to get people in front of other people so that they can learn more naturally and yeah, feel like they're engaged in the enterprise really, rather than it all. Yeah. It also behooves the city. I mean, I was listening to some interesting podcasts about how towns are sort of dying in post pandemic.

Life like San Francisco, which, you know, at one time had sort of all of like the huge, huge, huge tech boom, which led all these people into downtown SF and the states. And then, you know, really revitalized the sort of lunch scene, coffee shop scene, bar scene, sort of in that, in that city is now sort of just completely.

Dying out when there's all these sort of empty skyscrapers. So I think in ter from like a general economic view, you know, like getting people in the office is just sort of good for the health of cities and sort of keeping them alive and robust and kicking. Yeah. So I think that's a positive thing. I mean, that's from our enterprise research as well.

Like a, a third reduction in office space usage by companies. Yeah. In the next three years. Well, three to five years as contracts start to run out, and there's a big discussion as whether those will be turned into flats. So you never know. You might find yourself living, you know mm-hmm. In the city center with a flat five minutes walk from your office.

Also in the city center. Then it doesn't matter if you know you, you're not gonna work from home in that environment. Right. Because yeah, if, if you live that close to your office, you're just gonna walk to your office and, yep. You, you know, enjoy all the amenities. Exactly. And that's kind of like this great sci-fi vision of the future that imagines mm-hmm.

People having corporate sponsored housing in the same skyscraper as their Yeah. Office and then everywhere, like I. It was one idea that just had these mega skyscrapers, right? And everything outside, it was just converted into a park, so Yep. Mm-hmm. You'd have this cluster of mega skyscrapers and then for like 20 miles around would just be this amazing park.

Right? But everyone would live in these glass towers and work in the same tower. Mm-hmm. And then you wouldn't actually. You know, need to go outside except to enjoy yourself. Right. You know, just Right, right. Anyway, we're getting very off topic, but you know, as listeners of this podcast will understand a tangent is good because it takes you to places where, you know, a scripted conversation neel would.

So that is it for us today. Thank you all for listening to the Covell Cloud Conversations podcast. You know, lots of ground covered about generational research. Lots of really interesting things happening. Um, We have sort of missed our regular cadence on our podcast recently. There's been a lot of events and things going on, so we will be returning to that biweekly cadence soon.

So if you're listening to this and you're wondering, when can I hear more from Keve? You will hear from us very soon. We also have a. Potential surprise guest coming on the next podcast who is from a very large blue chip manufacturer of very interesting things. So that will be a surprise. It's not a, not a sponsored podcast or anything, you know, he just said, Hey, can we have a chat?

So look forward to that. So that's the goodbye from me, and of course I won't say goodbye for Caitlin. She can say it herself. Bye bye listeners. Alright, thanks everyone, and we'll speak to you all very, very soon. Thank you.