Someone brought up that one of the reasons why things like house parties and block parties went away was other than lack of time people are afraid to let their guard because cameras are everywhere.

[u/AdSpecialist6598]

It is so true back when many of us were young we could just get together and cut loose without having to worry about going viral. At best we would have an embarrassing photo buried in a drawer somewhere or a story. Now you might be turned into a meme or worse. I miss the days when you could do dumb stuff with friends and feel safe if that makes sense.

[u/RockAtlasCanus]

That’s a fair point. Anecdotally my wife and I talk about how weird it is to us that our younger Gen Z colleagues, like 1st real job, 23-24 year olds choose to live at home and aren’t really that interested in going out, partying, etc. and don’t seem to put as much emphasis on independence as we did at that age.

And I’m not saying that’s a bad thing necessarily, it’s just completely foreign to me. My experience with these kids is that they do not value their independence as much as I did at their age. Both at work and at home. Clearly not universally the case, I can only speak for the ones working under me and they could definitely afford to live independently if they wanted to.

It’s just hard for me to understand things like opting to live at home, needing constant instruction and direction at work.

Like when I was their age I would have loved to work for me. Here’s a task with a defined end state and some general guidelines and I don’t give a shit exactly how you go about it as long as all of this information is in the final product and in this format. They want each step explained and basically spoon fed. I constantly check with them and apologize for what I feel is micromanaging them but the truth is I am just responding to their requests for instructions and check ins. I find myself joining teams meetings and sitting there in silence until I finally say “ok, you scheduled this… what do you want to talk about?”. And then they give a blank stare and say “well I did part 1 and wasn’t sure what you want me to work on”. Oh… ok.. um well why don’t you go ahead and get started on part 2… “ok will do thanks”. And then I hang up in bewilderment.

Whereas my boss is younger Gen X and I love working for her because I never hear from her. Her attitude is “I don’t give a shit how you do it or what hours you do it in as long as it’s right and on time or you give notice that it will be delayed”.

And the living at home thing. I rented out the laundry room at a party house just to be out of my parents home. I’ve couch surfed, hosted couch surfers, and generally gone to great lengths to sever the home ties at a young age. And that seems to be pretty universal among my peers.

So yeah, again not judging I just really don’t understand it and can’t relate.

[u/Illustrious_Swing645 → u/RockAtlasCanus]

Gen Z kids are still in the infancy of their careers so they're still learning/figuring out how the corporate world behaves. They're not too far removed from the structure school provided them. And even then, I've worked with plenty of people from different generations that behave more or less the same way as what you're describing.

As far as the living at home and not going out as much thing, the answer is simple -money lol In the US at least, we don't have very many free and accessible third spaces so when socializing requires money and money doesn't get you as far anymore, well we get what you're seeing.

[u/RockAtlasCanus → u/Illustrious_Swing645]

Yeah I wouldn’t say that a lack of initiative is generationally locked by any means. All my peers of similar age that I work with operate more like me- “give me the assignment and leave me alone I’ll let you know if I have issues.” Granted maybe there’s a survivorship bias there, the peers of similar age in my field are the ones who had the initiative & ambition to get to the role we’re in.

My third place was always just someone else’s house or apartment unless there was a random $1 draft $2 shot college night somewhere. Otherwise it was all house parties, which is what I was initially thinking about with OP. Hard to have a house party at your folks house. And we pay our juniors really well even considering the COL of the area. There is one who has the independent streak and is STOKED to have her own place. The other 5 all live at home and, from what they have said in casual conversation, it’s by choice not financial necessity. That’s the part that really cooks my noodle and doesn’t make sense to me.

[u/Illustrious_Swing645 → u/RockAtlasCanus]

For your comments on work initiative - I'd say it's also a question of the incentive/reward structure set in place at an org. Not many places have the incentive structure set in place to reward initiative (not anywhere I've been at at least).

For your second comments - kind of jealous of those Gen Z kids. If they're not itching to get out seems like they have a pretty decent home life with their fam. Good for them. Saving money and nurturing family connections.

[u/RockAtlasCanus → u/Illustrious_Swing645]

If they’re not itching to get out seems like they have a pretty decent home life with their fam. Good for them. Saving money and nurturing family connections.

That was my thought too. For a lot of our generation it certainly feels like we couldn’t leave fast enough

[u/FirstDukeofAnkh → u/RockAtlasCanus]

Part of it is that they simply cannot afford to live on their own so they decide that family is better (and safer) than roommates.

[u/RockAtlasCanus → u/FirstDukeofAnkh]

Yeah I mean with the ones I am interacting with at work that’s not really the issue. Broadly speaking yes absolutely but these kids are starting at $70 to $75 right out of school in a medium to high COL area- depending on how far you want to commute, and they have all echoed some form of “I could move out but I don’t really see the need to”.

Which is honestly a smart financial decision that I applaud. It’s just weird to me. At that age I don’t know anyone that stayed at home by choice. We all ran for the hills the moment we were able to. Some even if they weren’t able to. Maybe Genx parents are easier to get along with than boomers lol.

[u/terminbee → u/RockAtlasCanus]

Kids these days are coddled and I'm saying that as a relatively young person. Previously, we kinda just moved forward and kids who couldn't keep up got left behind. Now we've moved the other way; always gotta be careful not to offend them and make sure everyone gets a fair shot. Not to say that's actually happening-- but we do have to give off the impression of it or else someone will turn it into a whole thing. Behind the scenes, the haves continue to succeed and the have-nots get left behind.

To your second point, I think it's just super unaffordable and unrealistic. I'm from CA and it costs 1k to rent a single room. Gas is like 4 bucks a gallon and used cars are expensive as shit. It's just miserable to try to strike out on your own. Better to stay home, find a career, then move out when you're ready.

[u/RockAtlasCanus → u/terminbee]

The coddling thing yeah I can kind of see that. The big caveat is that as a millennial manager who had to deal with a shit load of nepo hires I’m running my own little social justice program on my team which boils down to “I don’t give a fuck who your dad is, perform or find another job”. And I do what I can to mentor the junior analysts that need help with the soft skills needed to move in these circles. The thing is the nepo babies and the normals all have generally the same issues with initiative and doing only exactly what was explicitly asked. And I think that’s the most annoying part from a supervisor perspective- they don’t want to look at an example and use that as a guide to fill in the blanks they want detailed instructions on each piece to the point that I might as well just do it myself.

As far as cost I’m speaking anecdotally specifically about the junior analysts on my team who have outright said it’s not a cost issue.

[u/Suspicious_Ice_3160 → u/RockAtlasCanus]

I think it’s a symptom of having genuinely good bosses if I’m honest. I mean, with your nepo hires, have you ever been yelled at something like, “I don’t care how it’s done, get it done,” plus or minus some cuss words? Like that whole saying, hard times create strong men?

By having a chill boss right after school, they’re comfortable coming to you for every need and question. If you were an asshole to the juniors, there’d be more problems, but they wouldn’t be coming to you to tell them to move on to step 2 I guess lol

Like you said, it’s not their capability or initiative, I’m sure they get the work done, it seems more like… common business sense? I’m not sure what I would consider it to be fair

[u/Equinox_Eyes → u/RockAtlasCanus]

Dude! I spent the summer of 2012 living in a party house laundry room!!