At NEP we work with accounting and legal firms with as few as 5 people, up to thousands of people, and regardless of the size, we are hearing similar feedback from Partners…
Junior staff just don’t want to work.
I had one Partner from a smaller accounting firm say to me that a junior person asked if they could have overtime for working until 5.30pm instead of 5.15.
Another Partner at a large accounting firm told me that junior staff used to always come to him looking for extra work and that hasn’t happened since 2019.
Another Partner in a mid-tier accounting firm was saying that people aren’t looking for extra work and instead often saying how tired they are, even though he wasn’t seeing the chargeable time to warrant that.
So it appears we have a disconnect between expectations of senior leaders and junior staff…
So what’s causing this disconnect?
Now before we come across as bashing Gen Z, I would like to highlight that they are actually doing some things pretty well, and senior leaders could probably learn a thing or two from them.
Yes, the workplace landscape has changed, and that’s not altogether a bad thing.
The root of any disconnect generally comes down to different belief systems.
Belief systems are caused by the sum of experiences.
Put very simply, senior leaders in professional services have had very difference experiences to junior staff.
Think about the differences in experiences over just the last 15 years, let alone longer than that:
- Different technologies;
- Different ways to access to information – largely driven by social media and devices;
- Different perceptions about how to communicate, interact socially and resolve interpersonal conflict;
- Different perceptions about what even is high performance;
- Greater developments in the neuroscience of high performance…
- And I’m sure you can think of many more cultural and societal changing driving differences in beliefs.
As just one example, Gen Z are often way more in tune with wanting to avoid burnout and mental ill-health. And they are willing to set their boundaries to do that.
Boomers were often taught to just get on with and work harder and work harder without looking for reasons to be offended.
Our beliefs inform our behaviours, so it’s no wonder that we can be baffled by the behavior of other people with different experiences.
It’s about finding common ground.
I certainly know more than a few Boomers and Gen Xers who have been severely burnt out before they took their health seriously. They could learn a thing or two from the Gen Zs.
I also see quite a few Gen Zs with declining mental health because they are so addicted to their devices and the algorithms designed to make them feel bad. They could learn a thing or two from people who didn’t grow up with an iPad in their face to keep them quiet at a restaurant or on a plane from the age of 6 months old.
The neuroscience of this disconnect and how it gets bigger…
We have a double reinforcement system in the brain to prove our current belief systems true. Our brain is wired to want safety and survival, not to do amazing things.
So when someone challenges what we believe to be true, it activates the brain circuitry that processes negative moods and emotions (i.e. the “negative affect system”).
That doesn’t feel great. It’s called cognitive dissonance. And our brain will go into overdrive trying to make sense of our current belief systems to overcome this.
But here’s the super scary part – when we go into overdrive to prove ourselves right and others wrong, not only do we get rid of that negative feeling, but we also activate our brain’s reward system, which feels positive and gives us a hit of dopamine for sticking to our guns.
So we are wired to want to dig our heels in, rather than understanding someone else’s point of view and being open to their ideas.
So how do we solve this (or any) disconnect?
Well you are already half way there, you now understand the neuroscience of beliefs and how this disconnect happens. This goes a long way to understanding where others are coming from rather than just getting frustrated.
So firstly it makes sense to listen to understand instead of listening just to prove someone else’s beliefs wrong.
We can all learn something from each other when we want to.
It’s always a good idea to get expectations out on the table early on, before there is a problem.
So for example, be very clear in hiring processes and employment contracts about the expectations, especially if longer work hours are likely to be expected than what TikTok is telling your prospective hire.
This also goes for people working across multiple timezones and will most likely need to do calls outside of the normal work hours of their home country. And be clear if they may need to travel to other offices.
Don’t sugar coat it – spell it out. The right person will be attracted to this and the wrong person won’t waste your valuable time applying for the job in the first place. Either way – that’s a good result!
Getting your culture on a page is also a great way to remove ambiguity and make sure people are on the same page.
For example, if you expect people to ask for extra work when they have an extra hour to fill in the day – then best ask for that because TikTok is saying something completely different about this.
Why should this be a priority to solve?
The world is getting more and more polarised in beliefs and this is a massive drain on energy, productivity and profitability in organisations of all sizes.
The more we remove ambiguity where possible, the better.
The more we can find common ground where possible the better.
We are seeing massive performance uplift and decrease in burnout, when people are closing the expectations gap.
Overall technology and social media, oh and that pandemic situation we had a while back, are just a few things that have contributed to the significant changes to workplace landscape and expectations.
Leadership needs to change. We now need to make sure we know how to drive high performance without burnout. What worked in 2005 is no longer a thing – let that go.
In good news, we can close the expectations gap between different levels in the workplace if we want to. And that is exactly what we help organisations to do.
Of course, if you’d like to find out more about how to improve performance with less effort why not either book a Performance Call or sign up for our next 20/20 session or one of our open workshops here.