Is There a Hack for Awkwardness?

A Researcher Discusses Gen Z Workarounds

Hackwardness! Okay, that’s not a word. But maybe we need it to describe rising professionals, who are good at workarounds and not so good at the everyday funniness of being with other humans. This week’s M/S welcomes Emily Bosscher, a Peer Support Coordinator at Calvin University, to talk about her master’s research (Kennesaw State) about the social habits of Gen Zs in the workplace.

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Craig: Where in the world are you in the world of work?

Emily: I guess I'm mid-career. According to my retirement fund, I have just as many years to work as I’ve already worked. I'm on my third career. Well, fourth. I'm going to say fourth because I was a teacher, and then I went into higher education. Then I left to the industry world and was an instructional designer. Now I'm back in higher education.

Craig: That's important to hear, especially for people in their first ten years of work. I have the title of your Master’s thesis, and it should take 20 minutes for me to read aloud.

Emily: At least it has verbs.

Craig: Because you're an English instructor. Has there been anything about your own temperament, your own habits of thought, that made you interested in generational differences?

Emily: I found my vocation later in life. Getting my first job in higher education opened my eyes to this innate desire to see others succeed. I was not effective as a stand up in front of the classroom person. I was far too anxious about control with 30 people in a classroom. I don't think I was one of those teachers that goes with the flow. But when it came to sitting down individually with students and hearing their stories or helping them through academic support or crises or mental health, that's where I felt like I was on fire. That's where I was bringing my gifts.

I care so much about that transition of students, first of all into college, but then into that next stage. As students leave college and go into their first jobs, they're being dropkicked into a place that they're not always ready for.

Craig: Let me ask you a dicey question. You have a grounded your research and your career in a sharp distinction between and among generations. Gen Z, Millennials, and Xers and Boomers. What do you say to those who think those distinctions are malarkey?

Emily: Part of me says, OK, take away the labels. But can we acknowledge that they're different from you? Can we acknowledge that the way you were onboarded in the 80s, 90s, early 2000s, might not have had the best onboarding experience?” You’re saying, “Ohh, but I did fine. So why do we need to change it?”

Craig: Are there firm borders between generations? Or just firm-ish?

Emily: I don't we don't need to spend time talking about the demarcation of Gen Z and Millennial—or even Alpha, which is coming down the road. But who knows what they're going be, because now we have this pandemic generation.

Craig: I see. Let's not erase differences out of an attempt to say, “We're all humans here.” So, let’s say I’m an employer of Gen Z professionals. How often should I change my approach to onboarding?

Emily: Before COVID, 10 years at the maximum. Unfortunately, right now, it’s going to be every two or three years. Whoever was in junior high learning online during the pandemic, they're different from who was in high school learning online, and they're different from those who were in college getting internships online. And now early career professionals are trying to maneuver the working world. So, until we get past this a little bit farther, nimbleness has to be the keyword for most employers.

Craig: I think there’s a management book for you to write, one of those one-word titles: Nimble: Agile Management and the Young Professional. Something like that. Anyway, for managers who aren’t feeling so spry: what are some of the gifts that Gen Z folks bring to the workplace today?

Emily: We talk a lot about hacks for this younger generation. They do love finding shortcuts.

Craig: To which, we oldsters want to say, “C’mon, kids, these are the rules. Keep them.”

Emily: Exactly. Exactly. This is where if we don't have mentors in place, if we don't have proper onboarding for early-career professionals—I'm not talking about two days of orientation. I'm talking about true onboarding. If that's not in place, then no one’s responsible. And we get a lot of, “Oh, that person is so lazy.” I think, rather, “Hey, I love the fact that you're outside the box! Here's some places you could find a hack. But for this particular process, it needs to be done steps A through D for proper documentation.”

Craig: Why do you think the hack is so characteristic of Gen Z?

Emily: They've always had the ability to go to YouTube and TikTok—I think it started with video games, where you could find ways to get through levels.  And that idea of “Yeah, how do we do it easier?” has just become standard.

Craig: Why are Millennials and Gen-Xers uneasy about the hack?

Emily: There's some research that Gen Z is going to be leapfrogging Millennials in the workforce, in terms of leveling and pay. I think that makes people nervous.

The other thing I see a lot of is people complaining, “These new workers, these new employees, leave at 5. And they're just lazy. I stay till 6!” And I've turned that around: if you gave them a contract for 9-5, and they're saying, “OK, I'm gonna be done at 5 and I'm gonna maintain some work life balance”—and you're mad at them for that? There is a culture issue within the company!

Craig: What advice would you give to Gen Zers for their first ten years of work?

Emily: One thing that comes up is this huge cloud over this generation: fearing awkwardness.

Craig: How do you see this showing up for early career professionals?

Emily: I've worked with young adults who go out to their car to eat lunch in the middle of the workday. And when I've asked them about it, the answer is, “Well, I don't really know where to go. It feels weird to sit alone. So, I'm just gonna go sit in my car for a while.”

Craig: How should managers respond to this?

Emily: So, to me, invitation is really important in workplaces. To counter that fear of awkwardness, we have to be very intentional about inviting into spaces. They need to be invited, because, if they've had online internships, they've never experienced it. They haven't seen the rhythms.  Is it OK to go for a walk in the middle of the day? Is it OK to, take your hour lunch and run an errand—and eat your lunch at your desk later? At that level of awkwardness, they're not gonna ask. Are they isolated? Are they hesitant? You know, if there's donuts on a Thursday morning, go to their office, bring them out. “It's OK to sit and chat for 15 minutes.”

Craig: What would you say to the Gen Zs themselves?

Emily: What I see is a lack of ability to self-advocate, the ability to say, I Will Survive Awkwardness. They are risk-averse.  In terms of finances, they are savers. They are much more likely to say, “I need to step away from college, because paying for it right now and not really knowing what I want to do isn't financially sound.” So yeah, it's that risk-averse fear of awkwardness that's holding them back from the opportunities.

Craig: Can you put that into a poster slogan, please?

Emily: Find How It's Survivable. You can go to your boss and say, “Hey, I know we went over this, but can you clarify again?” I mean, no one is going to understand instructions on a database system the first time, right?

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Gen Zs are risk-averse. That fear of awkwardness holds them back from opportunities.

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Craig: Does this inflect differently by race and gender--this allergy to awkwardness?  Or does it feel the same across the generation? What's your research suggest?

Emily: I don't have a ton on this. I did a little research with first generation students of color and students with disabilities. What I have found is often those students do have the ability to push past some of that awkwardness because of all the things they've often been forced to do on their own. If you're a first-generation student, if you're a low-income student, you're often—not always—filling out your own FAFSA forms. You are taking the initiative on documentation and paperwork that your parents don't have any experience with. Many students who have made that step to go into college as the first person in their family are a little bit more equipped to step into those spaces and say, “I'm going to ask questions. And if I want money to pay for college, and I want this degree, I need to find the answers.”

Craig: What do you think the hack has to do with awkwardness? Are they related?

Emily: Jean Twenge, who has the book, iGen—she did the earliest research about the correlation between cell phones and social media and the mental health crisis in this generation and how that has affected them. That research tells me that we've taught this generation, maybe not intentionally, to hide into things and to find comfort in distance.

Craig: One last question. Any guesses about the generational challenges we’re about to deal with in the next decade?

Emily: I'm waiting to see research. I think it all depends on how damaging COVID was. I think we've splintered this next generation into a lot of pieces. We're just going to be having to pivot quickly in the professional space. I hope that those in kindergarten during the pandemic, by the time they get to work, we've helped them recover. But the next 5 to 10 years is gonna be interesting, I think.

Craig: Thanks very much for joining this week's Mode/Switch.

Emily: Thanks for this opportunity. I really appreciate it. Talk later.

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Who I’m Learning From

Interested in GenZ Hackwardness? The image on the top left is from the Atlantic article, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation,” by Jean Twenge. I’ve also included a screenshot from a conversation she held with Carey Nieuwhof on “Rising Anxiety, Depression, Isolation and Smartphones in Gen Z.” Her book is featured on the bottom left, and, on the right, that’s a shot from Jack Dorsey’s website, where you can read more about “The State of Gen Z® Annual Research Study Series.”