My 3 Takeaways from "Gen Z @ Work" by David Stillman

🔖 Summary in 3 Sentences

A book wrote by a father and his son. Help us to see the world from the perspective of different generations. Shows you what kind of changes needed to be made by the older generations to welcome Gen Z to join the workforce.

‍🧑🏻 Who Should Read It?

Bosses that are starting to recruit Gen Z. Or anyone that's starting to leading or teaching Gen Z.

🔑 My 3 Key Takeaways

Different generations see the world differently.

Too often when two generations bump up against each other; they try to figure out who is right or wrong, better or worse. Those conversations lead nowhere because the truth of the matter is that the generations are just different. Each generation has its own point of view that is valid. Rather than work hard at figuring out who is right or wrong, better or worse, the generations need to try to understand where the others are coming from and why they think the way they do.

Recently, I watched a documentary on Netflix about 911. It happens in 2001 when I'm 6 years old. It's an event that changes the course of the US for the next 20 years. In the documentary, you can feel the pain, the panic, and the anger of the people. An event like this changes the whole generation that has been through it. Different generations can't agree on the same thing not because one of them is right and the other is wrong. It's because they were born in different generations. All the things that happen around them are different. So learn to see from their perspective, that's how different generation can work together.

Side hustle.

A side hustle is the idea of having your own side business while still being gainfully employed. As we've noted, there are so many resources to help you launch and run your own business, that you can even do it while working somewhere else.

From my own experience, when I'm working as a programmer, I also have side projects. It's not so much as a side income for me (although I hope it is), but it's a way for me to learn new skills. Now, I recruit programmers to join my team, I like to see if they got any side projects they are working on, and that's the best way for you to know more about this person. For this new generation, you can't limit your employee to only work for you and discard all the side projects of his. In contrast, you should help them to grow, and encourage them to learn new skills that are beneficial to their personal and professional life.

Privacy.

In our business, we have been hiring a lot of Gen Zers. One of the biggest differences we see with our Gen Z employees is that they are fine with the occasional team meeting, but when it comes time to rolling up their sleeves, they want their own private space. Many ask if they can work remotely. At first we thought that they didn't like us, but we just had to adapt to the fact that they want to work in new ways.

In recent years, we see the rise of open-concept offices. A lot of company starting to tear down their cubicle and turn their office into big open spaces, and allow their employees to work at any desk they want. But for myself, I prefer to work in a private space. In my company, we all work at our home office. We can schedule our work according to our productive hours of the days. Have time for our friends and family. Skip the commute. Get full focus when we do our deep work without the interruption of colleagues.

💭 Afterthought

This book gives a lot of insight into the new generation. Gen Z is the generation that was born between 1995-2012. The book discusses mostly the people in the US, so it might have some differences between their culture and ours. But it discussed a lot of attributes of Gen Z that are quite accurate. It certainly helps me to see the upcoming workforce with a new perspective.

🛍 How to Buy?

I bought this book on Shopee's BigBadWolf for RM16.50. But it's sold out now. You can find it on other seller on Shopee.

📭 If you like the content,

Subscribe to my newsletter so you won't miss any content I posted here!

💌 Love to hear from you,

If you have any comments or feedback, feel free to drop an email at barnabas@ebteq.com. Cheers✌️