Gen Z workers are not tech-savvy in the workplace – and it’s a growing problem

WorkLife ^ | 12.14.2022 | Oliver Pickup

[Republican Wildcat]

You have to know and learn the basic underlying skills that the tech was designed to enhance first for it to be effective...and that is what many people are lacking these days.

[Dave Wright]

There seems to be a common denominator to the technologies that are mysterious to the Gen Z crowd. The QWERTY keyboard. Being able to touch type efficiently is a gateway to being able to interact with typical office applications and IT functions. Using only thumbs as with cell phones does not develop the dexterity that touch typing does. This almost a prerequisite for laptop level applications.

[Skywise]

Did it really only take 2 generations for people to lose their understanding of tech and treat it as magic?

I guess that makes a certain amount of sense - Most of the people my grandparents age seemed to understand auto mechanics and care really well - less so my parents and by the time my generation came around, nobody really understands personal car repair (like brake replacement, simple component replacement or even something ‘standard’ like changing a tire!)

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Well, as somebody who enjoys remote work, I must say it: these people definitely need to be in the office.

[wouldilie]

I started doing IP in 72. There was no completed protocol at that time. It was a work in progress. Ethernet didn’t exist. We made it all work on bar napkins and felt tipped pens.
I don’t think the current generation could make that all happen now.
No young person that I know with an it degree has a clue about how networks work.
They know apps and that’s about it.

[dila813]

They grew up being spoon fed everything, not surprised

[5inch38gunner]

You’re right. My engineering class was the first to learn program as a required course. In 1963. Prior to attending university we also built our own stereos radios and ham gear with HealthKit products. We knew electronics learning to use plug in ape.

[The Antiyuppie]

“They grew up playing video games. When I was a kid funds were so scarce I barely got a C64 and a tape deck. Had to program my own games.”

I would expect gen Xers, particularly men, to be very good at computing. I was older and got my first computer and terminal in the 70’s, which I had to build and solder myself and even then the parts were barely within my reach.

I find many, but not all, of my boomer age cohorts to be amazingly inept with technology.

[BradyLS]

Aw, c’mon, man! Surely they know their way around Fortnight, Call of Duty, Super Mario Cart, or somesuch, too?

[Clutch Martin]

Button pushers, all the heavy lifting was done earlier. A Shame really.

[PCPOET7]

this is so true about people in positions of authority that don’t have experience in the area they are in charge of. This is why historically the military would pair up a second lieutenant with a Seargent with years of experience.

[eclecticEel]

I feel in the early 2000’s you had to be a lot more tech-savy to know how your computer worked and how to get it to do what you wanted it to do. With the way current OS’s are set up, they try to do everything for the end user and not tell him what’s going on. There may be nerds back in Redmond or Cuptertino (or to be more honest, in Bangalore) who know what’s up; but that does little to help the guy pressing keys in the office.

[WMarshal]

Agile projects often blow up in managent’s faces. Agile is fine for a stand-alone app but not for ERP projects. I have been on conference calls where exectutives cry on the phone.

[thecodont]

I feel in the early 2000’s you had to be a lot more tech-savy to know how your computer worked and how to get it to do what you wanted it to do. With the way current OS’s are set up, they try to do everything for the end user and not tell him what’s going on. There may be nerds back in Redmond or Cuptertino (or to be more honest, in Bangalore) who know what’s up; but that does little to help the guy pressing keys in the office.

Like having to "bless" your System folder on your Mac?

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

That is part of what we used to do.

Programming your own games gave you at least the basics (no pun intended) of how computer programs worked. Twenty years ago we did not program our own games but we made mods. Bunches of them. And little tweaks to start menus and custom sounds when certain programs were activated.

Now they just buy them and if it is not available they will not even attempt to make it.

Honestly the myth that kids are so "tech savvy" is just that, a myth. Some kids do indeed know how to use technology but most just dully watch videos.

[IndispensableDestiny]

You have to know and learn the basic underlying skills that the tech was designed to enhance first for it to be effective...and that is what many people are lacking these days.

Ah, like preparing spreadsheets on analysis pads before Lotus 1-2-3 was widely used?

[dagunk]

This was an interesting article, but I think the author misses the boat here. "Mentoring" seems to me to be a large part of the problem with the New Kids. My perspective: The New Kids (Kids) need someone to help them along for a year or three - Mentors. The Old Farts that have been there a while. I spent 39 years at my retirement job. I remember when I started learning who to question when I came across a new problem I couldn't quite figure out. Mentors. Nothing formal, Just chase them down if I had questions for a paper or blackboard discussion. They all eventually retired or moved on but I was well-prepped by then. Somewhere between 15 and 20 years on the job it occurs to me one day "The kids are asking ME questions - How the Hell did that happen??" I'm the Mentor. Nothing formal again, although supervision was trying to make a "Formal" program. The Kids would call or chase me down, we would meet and have a paper or blackboard session and maybe chase some signals/data through their system. I enjoyed the interactions and the Kids weren't afraid to call me. The point of all this is Mentoring is a face-to-face operation. Zoom or whatever doesn't cut it - Face-to Face is required. You're passing on you hard-won knowledge to the Kids. Oh Yeah - I Am An Old Fart. My retirement plaque says so .

[Gene Eric]

Youth Soccer

[Political Junkie Too]

I remember using some form of these.

-PJ

[Tacrolimus1mg]

I’ve noticed this myself. Anywhere I go where staff needs to use a computer to do anything outside of somewhere that specializes in tech, like Micro Center, Gen Z is useless. They’re also scared to do and learn new things, which I suppose was the point.