Generation Z

[missmollie]

Do you notice a difference age groups of 25 or less having a different mindset than those older than 25 in the workplace?

[Sassy-RN]

Yes! Right now hospitals are hiring new grads right out of school for positions in the ED, ICU etc... (which is scary as S#!+ to me). Back in my day people had to work their way up to get in those positions....With EXPERIENCE

People that age and younger have not seen true hard times (economic hardship) where jobs were scarce.... and people had to bust their butts to prove themselves to deserve the positions they earned.

Many young nurses I’ve seen are amazing and truly hard workers! But there’s a big portion that are entitled, spoiled, and do not know what hard work really is.

[NurseBlaq]

My only complaint is the need to put everything on social media, the need to tell all their business and get offended when you don't do the same, and the lack of life experience which I think plays a big role in their attitudes.

I won't trash the young crowd because I've seen some in the older crowds adopt these behaviors. I just hate them from anyone. But then again, I'm a private person who believes in separating work from home and knowing not everything needs an audience or should be said aloud.

[Emergent, RN]

2 of my kids are under 25. They are hard working and frugal. They are on their phones less than me. They support themselves entirely. They have a lot more sense than I had at that age.

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

20 hours ago, ocean.baby said:

Those phones ?! Heaven help them if they miss a text or a message from one of their many apps, if not read and answered within 60 seconds the world might end. It is OK if the patient is trying to get up by themselves, if the patient is bleeding or vomiting, etc. What is not OK is to not immediately look at that message every time the phone gives them a notification.

And the 'I took the trash out last night' attitude. Or 'it doesn't matter if I can't chart yet, I am not going to do one more lick of work than you are just because you have to chart on all of the patients'.

Thank goodness for the few that give me hope, regardless of their generation.

We are not allowed to carry cellular devices while at work - It is a first time terminatable offense.

Hppy

[nursecolley, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN, EMT-P]

May I politely ask what is the point of this post? I'm sure it could be asked about the generation 25 years and above, and what is different with them? Several here have noted that some of the 'new behaviors' have been adopted by older members, and that is appreciated.

I know we have the need to vent, but is this the proper place to do so?

Respectfully,

nursecolley

[Alex Egan, LPN, EMT-B]

23 hours ago, Sassy-RN said:

Yes! Right now hospitals are hiring new grads right out of school for positions in the ED, ICU etc... (which is scary as S#!+ to me). Back in my day people had to work their way up to get in those positions....With EXPERIENCE

People that age and younger have not seen true hard times (economic hardship) where jobs were scarce.... and people had to bust their butts to prove themselves to deserve the positions they earned.

Many young nurses I’ve seen are amazing and truly hard workers! But there’s a big portion that are entitled, spoiled, and do not know what hard work really is.

Food for thought. These kids were growing up during the Great Recession. I was leaving school at that point and I certinally remember no jobs. The hospitals on hiring freezes and rapid hospital and agency mergers making a steady job very difficult to keep. A lot of these staffing shortages that make these new grad residency programs necessary are because of nurses graduating in the 2006-2009 range didn’t make it into the pipe like they should have. There is a shortage of med surge nurses looking to move they all never got hired or burnt out as the hospitals heaped more and more on the people who couldn’t leave because their retirement accounts were half of what they needed

I’m 31 now but I remember my parents losing their house in the mortgage crisis, and my father having to move job to job as a skilled tradesman just to be poor.

I think this next generation has been changed deeply by being a passenger in that car. They don’t trust employers and don’t aim to find satisfaction from work. They don’t see any “way out” as far as retirement or climbing the corporate ladder because they watched their parents crash and burn trying. They see the weather getting screwy because of climate change and know the student loan crisis is next on the horizon as the x generation can’t pay back their loans.

Nihilistic is right. They feel there is no way to win the game so why play. I think the reaction is to find satisfaction in what you do for what it gives you. Or seek satisfaction in the moment. The pervasive outlook I have seen is a cross between Nihilism mixed with absurdism Vs pure hedonism.

[TriciaJ, RN]

6 hours ago, Emergent said:

2 of my kids are under 25. They are hard working and frugal. They are on their phones less than me. They support themselves entirely. They have a lot more sense than I had at that age.

I think you can take some credit for this.

[TriciaJ, RN]

1 hour ago, nursecolley said:

May I politely ask what is the point of this post? I'm sure it could be asked about the generation 25 years and above, and what is different with them? Several here have noted that some of the 'new behaviors' have been adopted by older members, and that is appreciated.

I know we have the need to vent, but is this the proper place to do so?

Respectfully,

nursecolley

Yes, this is the proper place to vent.

[RNperdiem, RN]

It was a sobering thing when I found out that I was the same age as the parents of people I was working with.

A previous poster mentioned about life being more on display on social media, and I find this a big difference. My mom showed me an Instagram picture of a family friend's son. He was on a bridge in Paris kneeling and asking his girlfriend to marry him. The picture was fabulous. I remember telling my mom that when I was younger, people didn't tend to have pictures of proposals, revealing the gender of your baby was simply done by word of mouth, and when the baby was born, photos came later. With a much younger generation, baby's first picture is in the first minutes of life sometimes.

[ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP]

Gen Z is younger than 25. I am 27/28 and am a firm millennial. Gen Z starts at around 1998-ish and beyond. Most of them are still in college and high school and they are developing themselves.

[klone, MSN, RN]

I'm just going to take this moment to brag on my oldest son, who was born in 1998. Next year he will be journeyman electrician, and by the age of 25, he will be a master electrician, likely making as much as I do. He puts 20% of his income into savings, is planning on buying a house in a few years with 20% down, and maxes out his Roth IRA every year. He also dabbles in the stock market.

[saraleigh, ASN, RN]

On 3/27/2019 at 11:12 AM, ruby_jane said:

..but they have lived with 9/11

More like Gen X; this happened almost 20 years ago. I am confident that a person of Gen Z age group was not directly affected by an event from 2001.