A Message from Our CEO – July 2024
Sorry for being late. I was enjoying the last few moments of not being here”
-- unknown
When Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble went to work at the Quarry, they used a punch clock to officially start their day. Their boss, Joe Rockhead, did not want them to be late. Joe Rockhead must have been a Boomer. Boomers consider lateness a mortal sin. According to a new report by Meeting Canary, 25% of Gen Z miss deadlines. Horrifying! 10% for Generation X and 6% for Baby Boomers. What’s going on here?
Start with this simple truth: Boomers put work at the center of their lives and Gen Z puts balance, well-being, and friendships at the center of theirs. They entered the workforce during the pandemic when it was common courtesy to give extra time for the Boomer to unmute themselves and adjust their camera, so we didn’t see their nose hair and bad lighting. In the post-remote/hybrid world, lines got blurry about roles and expectations for the younger generation and they don’t tend to operate effectively without real clear, explicit rules.
So, if you want Gen Z and younger Millennials to hit deadline and be on time for meetings, I recommend the following:
Tell them that it is disrespectful to arrive late to a meeting, especially if everyone else is there…waiting for you.
Be clear why they need to be on time, such as, “this meeting is only one hour, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. and half the attendees have a 3 p.m. call set up. Additionally, there are seven things on the agenda that are time-sensitive.”
Sometimes, you might be conditioning people to come late. For example, if your meetings start on time but people usually spend time rambling about nothing for ten minutes, why on earth should people arrive on time?
Invest in some good old fashioned time management training and or software tools like asana, Clockify, TimeDoctor, Desktime, or Calendar.com. There are a zillion and Gen Z digs the technology.
Finally, Fred and Barney were moving rocks around—not terribly inspiring. We’ve come a long way since Bedrock, so we should be able to make work more inspiring and meaningful for our employees. Build it, and they will come… on time.
Watch. The. Clock.
Warren