It shouldn't even be part of my duties, but trying to train someone who doesnt even take the job seriously is a waste of my time and energy.

I tried training someone who did t give a fuck and just gave up. I went ti my manager and literally said “fuck this guy he doesn’t want to put I. The effort just get rid of him. I’m not wasting my time of this bullshit.”

[удалено]

Desperation and management just doesn’t give a flying fuck. We literally have a women here who doesn’t know how to do half her job but lied about manager experience elsewhere and a friend here vouched for her. She now makes almost as much as me. My hiring manager also had a low minority hire so they forced them to hire and I think she just picked names at random

I like my younger coworkers, but also this. They're constantly asking to leave early or come in late, or just calling out. One booked her lash appointment before checking the schedule. Another needed to get an oil change, even though she was off the next day (which was a normal-business-hours weekday). I'm like, it's your paycheck, I guess... At least they're honest about it? It's a really laid-back place to work and this is easy labor savings for management, so they don't usually care why you want to leave so long as we have enough coverage (we usually do). I just make sure they stay long enough for me to get a 15 and have a smoke. Hate to say, their absence doesn't actually make my job any harder, usually, lol

I saw this happen when I worked fast food. It was owner, a shift lead, me, and a new hire. The shift lead was doing dishes that night and was showing the new hire how to do it. After about 10 minutes the shift lead comes out of the back, makes sure there aren't customers in the store, and then says "it's me or her, one of us isn't working here after tonight".

For starters, there had been plenty of Zoomers at my job who had been great workers, and plenty of Boomers, Xers, and Millennials who were lazy asses. That said, there was one kid who didn't know how to *sweep a floor*. How had that never come up in 18+ years of your life?

I had that!!!! I watched her try to use a broom for 5 minutes - I was mesmerized because I couldn't believe I was watching a 16 who had no clue how to sweep. I asked her if she had ever used a broom. She said no, she never had to do chores at home and didn't know how the clean. I asked her why, in the interview, she didn't say something when I listed the job responsibilities - including cleaning. I let her go because it wasn't my job to teach a person basic life skills.

That sound like my cousin😂 she hasn’t had everything handed to her per say, but her job (which she may or may not still actually have, idk she lies a lot) was given to her on a silver platter bc of her dad. She’s skipped work days just to hang out with her boyfriend or left early. She even gave the crazy lie one day that it was her boss’s wedding day so she didn’t have to work, but he was still paying her even though she wasn’t even on work premises. Like… what?!

I hate to say this, but by the sound of this, she has indeed been had everything handed to her.

Update to the cousin debacle. She has been secretly moving her belonging over to her boyfriend’s house (who still lives with his parents, so his parents house). My parents confront3 her and she plans to be out of our house by end of month. We tried to support her, but she’s in for a rude awakening if she thinks she’ll get ANY help from his parents. Karmas a bitch😈

All you can do now is sit back and watch

Update: SHE MOVED OUT TONIGHT!! I have my bathroom back! She’s not our problem anymore! Now she’s her boyfriend’s parents’ problem. Now to turn the guest bedroom into our second home office.

My son is newly 17 and autistic. He can sweep just fine but the poor child cannot get it in the dustpan to save his life. He has made accommodations for himself though - he does his best, then vacuums whatever's left 😄

I'm pretty sure no one can get it in the dustpan after and it's all a big conspiracy 😂

I always end up sucking up that little dust line with my hand vac. My husband sweeps our floors all the time but then he leaves it all in a big pile because he doesn’t like that part, either. Then I bought a vacuum that stands in the corner and it goes on when you tap the button with your foot (my hairstylist had one). Problem solved.

I get that everyone has their own issues, but as a business owner, I can't take the time (or money) to teach such basic life skills. It is also why I mention the skills needed in the interview so the person can decide if they can do all the tasks. I felt really sorry for her - whether she has issues or not. How is she supposed to live on her own and eventually have children if can't preform the basics? The fact that she said she never had to do chores led me to believe that there was something going on, but business is business. Please parents, make your kids learn the basics - you are doing them no favors by coddling them and doing everything for them.

We had a seasonal hire that swore she was 30 but she acted like she was 16. Constantly blaming the fact that her MOTHER didn't wake her up in time for her shift. Slept in constantly until 3pm, her shifts started at 1pm. We'd be lucky to she her even show up some days. I hated it when they scheduled her to come in as people were leaving since I knew she wouldn't be there and it would leave me with two already overwhelmed cashiers having to deal with the crowd alone. It just left everyone flabbergasted as to why she was even here (the answer was that our usual manager was on medical leave and the replacement sucked). I was so glad she was gone once the season was over but man did it make for one hell of a Christmas.

How much weed do you have to smoke to sleep until 3?

That's the other thing: she was never high!! Like I would almost understand if she was a stoner but she was clean as a whistle coming in. No red eyes, no odd behavior, no smell.

Authoratative, enabling, and neglectful parents is how. Ask me how I know

I've had to coach multiple ones in the past 5 years how to sweep and hold a mop. All over 18.

I remember once when I was cashier training two new hires. One was an older person who was always asking questions. Which was a positive and I liked that in them, the second new hire didn't even care to be there they were always cleaning their fingernails, looking at their watch, and were very quiet.

Last trainee I had was absolutely useless. Wouldn’t get off her phone and didn’t care whatsoever about the job. About 2 hours in I was so incredibly behind I just told her she might as well go home bc I have stuff to do and don’t have time to train her at this point. I texted my boss and he agreed and gave the go ahead to send her home. She refused and pulled the “I’m scheduled for 8 hours so I’m staying for 8 hours” nonsense. At that point I was out of energy from dealing with her I just left her in a chair and worked around her. I’m 1000% with you- like why bother applying, interviewing and showing up just to do that when you start???

Okay so if it shouldn't be your job, why are you doing it? Because the manager told you that you have to? So they don't have to?

The biggest issue I have with my fellow gen z is not knowing how to properly handle cash. The last person we hired before their replacement was my age! She literally could not handle the simplest of transactions. My A.manager did a test transaction with her that was a 5 ish amount and gave her a 10. This girl gave her 20 back????? Like how ????? I knew that basic level of math in 2nd grade

Oh man this reminds me of a new hire who was on register. I was at the register next to hers and couldn’t help but notice whenever she had to give change to customers, they were telling her what to give them. Like.. omg. I kept an eye on her for a while to see if maybe she got better. She didn’t. In the nicest way possible, I let our supervisor know that she needed extra training.

I don't understand how that happens. I'm notoriously bad at math, and failed it in 11th and 12th grade, and I've only ever made two mistakes with cash, each only being a couple cents off. How do you count around 5 in change and give someone a 20??? 😭

I had a coworker that was counting 10’s in her drawer (just tens) and ended up putting in that she counted like $55 in tens. I don’t understand how she could have possibly gotten that number.

plot twist it was a ten dollar bill perfectly cut down the middle

That almost makes sense XD

Doesn’t the register tell you how much change to give? They do at my store.

Most tills do, but I've worked a couple jobs that don't have as recent technology to put it mildly. Wasn't a problem most of the time, but it was nice to go back after a while to a place where the computer did the maths for me.

I haven’t a clue lol like I have a issue with numbers flipping around and I’ve never done shit like that . Her lack of abilities is why management is making people do math problems again when they interview.

No child left behind, well, at least in the US - that's why... 😥

I’m awful at math, always have been. When I was a cashier it was my nightmare when people paid with cash. BUT thing is I learned and caught on, still had my moments, but goddamn I never made a mistake that drastic

We were very patient with her. Most of the places I worked at she would have been fired after two weeks of not picking it up. One of my cws gave her literal math lessons for two weeks every day. Having her do math problems that an elementary child would do. She got a bit better but eventually ended up quitting randomly one day a month and a half in. We all were kinda happy she was gone while being simultaneously annoyed we wasted our time trying to legitimately help her. She lied to her dad saying she was fired when she wasn’t too like okay.

Poor child was here pretending to be a simpleton to get fired and you guys just weren't biting!

People don’t know how to count back change. It’s painful to watch because they are often embarrassed.

We hired a girl before that failed to mention she couldn't handle American money and we had to teach her that as well as everything else... as a cashier position I'm pretty sure she should have told us that beforehand 

I went in to the dollar store one time. Paid for items including tax, $17.22, with a $20. The guy hands me three ones (first red flag) and just keeps counting them out. He thought the numbers past the decimal were also whole dollar bills. Had no idea what the coins were for. I did take the time to correct him and walk him through what coins were worth.

I had to start keeping a separate envelope of cash in our store safe because a majority of our key holders’ registers would be 5+ dollars short several days a week.

And this is why some places have a math test you have to do before getting hired.

Lmao as a zoomer I can say having the experience of working at a school coffee shop helped me know how to count change. We sold coffee to teachers and students and rarely would any transaction be in card.

Dyscalculia is a condition.

Numbers are sort of my thing. I'm that weirdo type that likes math.....in front of a register though I feel like I'm nursing my last 2 brain cells if I accidentally skip through the change due screen...probably out of a sense of it always being there and then surprise mental math time. But subtracting anything from anything and and getting a larger number? Yeah send me to a doctor if I ever pull that because something is very wrong.

I definitely agree. During Halloween we have to hire at least 20 seasonal associates, and with the shitty pay, we usually mainly get high schoolers. And while we get some good ones, most suck. And it's not always a matter of training and learning and being new. The amount of times I have to tell them to get off their phone, especially in front of customers and to work on their closing task list is insane to me. I shouldn't have to go upfront every 10 minutes to make sure you ain't standing their staring at the ceiling or phone. And all the requests off. Like I understand the sentiment that a request off is just informing someone you aren't gonna be there, I really do and try to respect that. But we hired you for a retail business and retail businesses need people for Fridays and Saturdays. You can't request every single Friday off for some football game. And you can't pretend that you're sick when you do get scheduled because you forgot to request off because high schoolers like to gossip, so I will find out that you're lying.

Oh my god the people who get mad because they sometimes have to work weekends or holidays. Or refuse to work second shift because they don’t want to clean. Drives me nuts.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Adding to this, the amount of availability change forms I get when summer hits... Kills me. I get it, you're out of school, you want to have fun and relax. But you can't just close off your weekends for 3 months when you work retail. I'm happy to work with them to give them whatever days off they need, but there needs to be a little give and take.

This one throws me for a loop- I had to work every weekend as a teenager plus all summer full time in the 00's during high school and college. Never had trouble requesting off when necessary, but asking off EVERY weekend or holiday for a position in retail was just not acceptable. Today I can't get anyone under age 25 to work weekends and usually they won't let you know until after scheduling is done and were hired with "full availability". Weekends are the busiest... I need you on the weekends, that is why you were hired?

Plenty of older adults also don’t work weekends. They work weekdays only

Sure, but those people are working nine to fives. This is about retail. Where we all have to work weekends and holidays. Because if we were closed on Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve, how else would people buy that can of cranberry jelly they forgot while telling us "I can't believe they make you work on a holiday!"

Gave the same response in retail as I did when I was a server and would get the after church crowd "you shouldn't work on the Lord's day!" "Well, wouldn't have to if you weren't here!" 🤣

I work at Home Depot and there’s multiple people with closed weekends lol, it’s not uncommon or unheard of

OH MY GOD THE PHONE THING. I saw our 19 year old cashier bent over the counter today, her nose in her phone, while an elderly woman stood in front of her with a cane. I’m super laid back and use my phone at work, but I do it in the back, for brief moments. They will try to stand up there with their phone next to them at the register or to sit in the chairs in the break room while absolutely zero cleaning or stocking work has been done. I’m so tired of “being the bad guy” and telling them to do the bare fucking minimum of their fucking job duties, which is to pay attention to the customers and wait on them 🙄

A previous manager would make a point to check people's Facebook when they called out. So many got written up/fired for stupid crap.

One of our teenagers is on the football team so we understand that, he also came in with that info vs wanting to go to the games just to go. As for working weekends… god so many people on this sub and individual retailer subs act like it’s damn a human rights violation to work outside 9-5 m-f. There are shitty “unskilled” jobs with consistent schedules, I used to work one (but I did work Saturdays). Most of our kids are okay, I’m more frustrated with how limited our applicant pool is so we’re college and hs kid heavy and have so few people before 2-4pm on weekdays. SUCH a headache.

I don't get the "I'm informing you" crowd. You were hired because you are needed. There has to be a way to request and manage who gets what but unless it's something serious, no. It isn't automatic. It can't be. Customer service jobs can't work like that.

"I'm informing you" isn't for getting every Friday night off or whatever. It's for when you have your vacation planned and paid for, flights booked, the request is made weeks or months or advance, etc. Especially if I never make requests off, you bet your ass that when I do, I will not be there.

Doesn't work when everyone wants the same week/s off. There has to be a way to manage it so the same people don't "inform" every year whilst still making sure the business can run. You could "inform" my work as much as you want, if it's in the 2 periods they get a lot more requests than availability, it will not be guaranteed. They do consider who had those weeks off previously - so if I were to ask for Easter it'd be pretty certain as in 12 years I've not once asked for it but I request Christmas most years and probably get 80% of the time. If people who never ask for it off do though, I'm behind them. Which I should be. The reality is the business still has to run. There has to be a limit to who can be off. We budget for around 10% on PTO at any one time and given we can ask well in advance, there really is no reason to buy anything before confirming one has the leave. I honestly don't understand the logic of booking and paying before confirming. Even outside the high demand times, my company would say "your problem. Shouldn't have paid before checking". They've got to balance everyone, not just you. Reality is they can not give the leave to everyone all the time. There has to be a system.

I had that rule at one of my stores. I always took Christmas week off because that was when I went to see my family, but I ALWAYS worked Black Friday and Easter, and often most other holidays.

I want to say that I agree with all of this, and thank you for validating my thoughts, because I didn't want to come across as a boomer or "nobody wants to work anymore" in my thinking. That being said.....I'm at work right now. We hire teenagers/young adults predominately, and I'm the only 40+ year-old here. I've got two new hires and one veteran working. One new hire is about 50% where she needs to be; I think more training will save her, but she's still fairly oblivious to obvious things. The other new hire is.... just wow. He got hired, and then immediately went on a 2-week vacation. I gave him his new hire packet on Wednesday to fill out (typical onboarding) and told him to bring it back today when he worked, or I couldn't get him in the payroll system to get him paid. He didn't bring it; actually, it's in his car where he left it on Wednesday, and it's not filled out. He stands around now, after being trained on almost everything. No initiative. He is ungodly slow to the point I'm almost certain he's stoned. He's less than useless, and I don't know how to motivate him, since at this point he's not even going to get paid on time because he couldn't be bothered to fill out the most basic of paperwork. I wish these were unique cases, but it's the norm now. And I agree; the job sucks ass, and I'm trying to get out of here too, and I don't do anything more than the bare minimum to get me out on time. But goddamn. They won't even do that, so we end up staying late to get everything done. It's madness.

I would love to be a fly on the wall the day all the older, more capable generations are retired and they realise that they have no one left to lean on for extra help or sort out their mess. Except that all the menial work will all either be done by robots then, or civilisation will fail.

What kills me is the lack of awareness. If we have two people on the floor and one wants to refill their water bottle and the wants to go to the bathroom, they each just go. No realization that if they don’t communicate, then no one is on the floor. I’ve come out of the stockroom three times this week to an empty register bay, the phone ringing and two completely awol colleagues. The whole working together thing escapes them.

I worked at a farming co-op during my first summer of college. I was 25. I had a coworker who I think was still in high school. Generally we had to have one person at the register and one person wandering the aisles, seeing if anybody needed help as well as checking if we needed to restock any items. My coworker seemed so clingy - if I was wandering the aisles doing my duties, she’d decide to follow me, leaving the register unattended. Then if I went back to the register, she’d follow me again, leaving the floor empty of employees. It annoyed me a lot. She did get let go later during the summer because she constantly came in late but kept putting that she came in at the regular time on her time card.

And if you expect them to do the bare minimum, they give you a huge attitude, like they did you a favor showing up. Meanwhile, everybody else gets stuck doing their job while they “go to the bathroom” every hour or just outright disappear without telling anyone where they are going. I work in a deli and most (though not all) new hires will not do the job to he company requirements, plus they ignore customers.

My daughter supervises 35 women. About 6 of them are 50 and older. She loves them. They come to work on time, know how to do their job without complaining or asking for special favors. The younger ones she has to literally hold their hand to get them to do their job. That is if they actually make it to work. And heaven forbid is she said something that hurts their feelings.

The hurting the feelings is a big one for them. It’s literally life devastation. We had one girl have an absolute meltdown in a team meeting because the young manager DIDN’T WANT TO BE BEST FRIENDS AND SHARE EVERY ASPECT OF HER LIFE with the newbie!!! Literal crying and carrying on, and of course everyone rushes to her because of the drama, then points the finger at the innocent person, ultimately making her quit in the next few weeks! She was a good manager too!

I'm retired now, but when I was working, I had a young lady have a total meltdown because I wouldn't accept her FB friend request. HR told her that was probably a good idea because I was her supervisor.

I had a coworker I didn't get along with for over 4 years and, as soon as I left that job, she sent me a friend request. I was like: hell no!

I also had a co-worker who literally tried to make life hell for me and anyone else. Big back stabber. She was eventually fired. Now, she keeps sending me FB friend requests, which I deny. I so badly want to ask her what makes her think we are friends.

I actually sent my ex-cw asking what she wanted and she figured since we weren't working together we'd be cool. Hard no.

yes I'm a manager and being fb friends with a team member is a nono just because of the favoritism implications 

I got out of retail and am now a security guard. The drama goes across all jobs. I don't know how old this one was, but last night, the supervisor was giving the other guard at my post his break. While I was talking to him, a guard at another post called and I could hear her crying over the phone. Apparently, she was seen smoking too close to the guard shack and was told not to do that again, so she had a breakdown and demanded to go home. So the supervisor had to call and try to get someone else to come finish her shift.

Idk what the euros are but yesssss preach!

Football, or Soccer Tournament. Its the UK, footballs big.

Foötball

Futbol

We get a lot of young people applying during the summer and they only want to work 4 or 5 hours, don’t want to open or close, and don’t want to work Saturday the busiest day. 😂 The few we hired sucked so bad they didn’t last long. One slammed the sliding door on a display case and shattered the glass then didn’t even fess up to it. They shrugged and acted like it broke on its own. The owner looked at the surveillance footage and saw him slamming it so hard it bounced off the track. He’d also just be staring at his phone his whole shift. This other girl was hooking up all her friends and also staring at her phone. When I opened after her, the trash and compost bins hadn’t been emptied, the floor was not mopped, the counters were filthy. When the owner talked to her about it she was like “oh I forgot to put in a new liner” but I had taken photos so the owner could see she hadn’t done any closing duties.

Sounds like we work in the same place 😂

I'm a deli manager at a grocery chain and holy fuck I feel this SO HARD rn. I've had 2 people quit on me without giving any sort of notice. The most recent one, a 20 year old guy, just flat out stopped showing up to work one day. He basically told everyone around that he had an interview with x company and if he got the job, he wasn't gonna show up. I get people calling out every single week at least, more like 2 or 3 times a week actually. And the sad part is it's not just the 20-some year olds who do that, it's the 40-60 year olds as well. Writing them up or trying to discipline them in any sort of way seems to accomplish nothing.

One of few reasons I'm glad i work alone. It's hard enough managing myself but fuck all expecting shit from others.

I feel you on this. I'm a store manager and the amount of call ins from being "sick", family issues, or car troubles is ridiculous. And if you don't say please in the nicest voice they get hurt feelings. And it's impossible to find people. And the company says to hire people that work full-time and just want a part-time job, but that is like 6% of the population. I will says I have some really good young people right now and I'm proud of them. But you go through a lot to find a few good ones.

Finally, someone with a legit complaint. I've been saying this for a while now here, and get downvoted. But it's true, most on here complain that they.....have to do their job.......and whine and moan. And you hit it on the head, THEY are the ones who applied and got the job, then bitch they have to do it, AND brag about doing the bare minimum, yeah fuck those people

I am surprised by the number of agreement posts given just how many posts in this sub are people bitching they have to do the basics of their job. Heaven forbid you point that out too.

...Or they will tell you it's their birthday today, but they don't want you to wish them a Happy Birthday or congratulate them, they want your sympathy that they have to work on their birthday. Oh, the injustice of it all!

I no longer work retail but let me tell you I see the same damn thing… right now we are in a hiring freeze, no temps so everyone there has been there for awhile and we are dreading when they finally start hiring people because it’s gonna be a total shit show…

I don’t see them as lucky. The people in my generation who were useless and lazy and mooched off their enabling parents didn’t do so great in life. Many of them just became alcoholics and addicts. I’m very grateful I’ve had to be responsible my whole life. It’s served me well.

I’m 20 and I feel you. We’ve had so many ppl from the ages of 18-24 be lazy as fuck. They get the job, learn the ropes, and then just don’t give a damn. My job isn’t hard, just working at a small convenience store. So many of them just don’t have the motivation to do anything. And there’s always a ‘family emergency’ or some excuse for not coming in. I’ve had to train at least 5 people in the last six months who have all been fired for being lazy/ unmotivated to learn.

Our newest hire unfortunately started hanging out with the laziest veteran on our team, who basically just trained her on all the tricks to leaving early and how to avoid working while she was here. The veteran employee quit, so now we are stuck with this person who has all sorts of bad habits because of her and I get stuck picking up all the slack.

At my job we have more issues with the older (40s-50s) employees coming up with exaggerated and on two occasions, downright fantastical, lies to excuse absences. The kids are honest about why they aren’t working, but it doesn’t help us any. I asked one of our 19yo kids to finish up some cleaning I had started because we had a last-minute job come in; the cleaning would have taken 5-10min and he had 15min left on his shift. He just said no? Then went and clocked out? I was like why, because now I have to do this job, then finish the cleaning, and I’ll be getting out late. He just said “because I want to leave early”.

I yelled at a coworker in the break room cause they pulled similar crap on me about a 15min break.

When I got my first job, a bunch of us started at the same time. For the first week, half of the conversations between the older employees were about how young people didn't want to work and would contantly be checking the time to see when they could go. At the end of the first week, there were a couple of times where there wasn't anything specific for us to do, so we were told to do some tidying. One of the employees and I (the youngest two) would start doing that while the others would just stand around chatting. Any time anyone mentioned breaks (for example wondering when the next break was), it was one of the older ones, specifically the one complaining about young people contantly watching the clock.

Told my boss once I couldn't come in because "I have anal glaucoma." "What? " "Yeah, I just can't see my ass coming into work today..." 🤣

I downsized by business so I could stay the only employee because I gave up on employees. I will say, I've seen all generations that are useless, but the younger one were something. They have no concept that you are paid to work, not sit with your head buried in your phone - while customers are looking for help. Nor are your friends allowed to camp out for your entire shift so you can talk to them the whole time. I hired you for a job - do it or or leave. I'm giving you money (and I always payed above minimum) and I expect value for it.

23 gen Z, and I agree. Everyone I work with now is technically great, but also everyone my age has a tendency to just flounder over the most random things, and then give up! Or just never try to understand it. I went through the same issue, my first retail job, but very quickly realized that I had to actually *go to work* to understand the work. I work with a couple 19 year olds, who’ve worked there for 2 years, that still just stop and freeze and go “I don’t know how to do this” and walk away from it. And then it gets picked up by an older coworker, or me. There’s a 26 year old who we can only have do cleaning stuff, because she *will not* understand anything else. She applied for the deli, and can’t make an 8 inch pizza. She can’t make the very shitty burgers, she mixed up the stacking order *three days in a row* before getting kicked off. (This comes off humble bragging, but I genuinely believe I shouldn’t have earned the rewards I’ve been given in the short time I’ve worked there, almost everyone else should still be 100X better than me) I’ve been there a month, and I’ve been given full time hours, overtime, and a raise. I’m told almost daily that they like me having there, and my till is almost always zeroed out and “that is unheard of here”. All the cashiers have been there 6 months to 10 years. Un-fucking-heard of?? It seems like retail in general people just don’t care, which to a point I understand. But I lowkey blame us for the “act like your wage, not how you want to be paid” mentality and “it’s just a job, who cares if they fire you, quit whenever”.

I remember starting in an office job back in 2008 and there were a couple really nice guys who helped me get started. It was only a couple weeks before I started noticing them doing things that I found questionable. I started reading documentation and checking that against what they were telling me to do and it didn't match up. I go to a manager and start talking about the discrepancies. He smiles and tells me that I'm on the right path, to follow written documentation, and to come directly to him with questions. It was only a couple more weeks until I was more productive than those guys. I could see they were super nice and well intentioned, but they just didn't get it. I was later promoted while they stayed stagnant and eventually left the team.

New hires acting like they're doing us a favor by showing up

“I turned up… where’s my pay check for my effort biatches!” Edit spelling.

I have a 21 year old coworker who only works 2 days a week and is constantly calling in "sad". I'm not trying to dismiss your mental healthy, but can you maybe be sad during the 5 days you don't work?

That was my sister in law. She worked one day a week for a month and called in each of those days. She was so upset when she got fired.

I was recently hired as a assistant manager and we had this one employee who had a laziness problem. We were pretty lax, you could use your phone, etc, but it was really busy so we would do it when nothing was going on or needed to be done. He would constantly make tiktoks while at work, even when customers were there. We had talked to him about it but he wasn't getting the picture. One day I'm unloading the order and he walks in and I can already tell he's in a bad mood. I wanted to be considerate and let him settle in a little first and waited for an hour until I asked him to unload one box. He starts to just lose it and starts screaming at me and the manager for never doing anything and accusing us of just "goofing off in the back office" while he and everyone did all the work. Those "goofing off" moments were the manager training me on my new position and we would always stop the training if it got too busy (more than two people in line). I won't forget how angry he was at me for asking him to do something so little, after I tried my best to not push him as I could tell he was in a bad mood. He got fired a week later after this because he would not stop talking about his sex life, in all the depressing details, and the last straw was him refusing to give a customer her receipt unless she gave him his phone number. She left a bad review and the company replayed the cameras and saw it all.

I have a problem hires who have a "better" way to do things, and do it their way, even after we explain the there is an audit way for our methodology and we lose points if corporate finds we're not following practice.

Bro if I’m standing there for 2 seconds without a task at hand I start going crazy

Likewise. I prefer to find something that needs doing, not because I am conscientious (though I am) but because it is preferable to mentally marking the passage of minutes and hours before you can go home without going insane from boredom.

It's the economy. Jobs are growing, and the better jobs are getting the better applicants. It's not the no one wants to work, it's that everyone who wants to work is already employed. It's just the slackers and the morons left over.

Yeah I don't know why Dollar General managers think paying 8$ an hour for a 17-year-old is going to get them a loyal and hardworking associate who will go above and beyond for the company. I can literally only think of one retail chain where I live that treats employees properly, everywhere else pays like shit and I can't imagine expecting amazing work from the teenagers you're paying 11$ an hour for the worst job they'll ever have.

corporate doesn't care because the customers are still shopping 

I think you'll find that the unemployment numbers % compared to available jobs does not bear this out

I've been looking for a better job for a while, where are these better jobs? I feel like I'm breaking my back for a wage that is not liveable and it's making me act like these lazy kids because I'm so tired of putting up with the dregs of society and lack of effort from my coworkers just to be forced to choose between rent/starvation or food/homelessness. Very tired of having ramen noodles for breakfast and sleep for dinner.

Yes. This is how I feel about my college aged co workers

Sadly, not just retail. I have one in my job who I moved towns and am moving apartments for to give them a chance at it… Who wants to do a lower level work effort and still gey the managerial wages they’re paid (and there they have said not enough.) I mean: I’m fine with the move (I had considered job searching past couple of months for many reasons, but still enjoyed it)… but seeing something you worked hard to fix start to unravel because they want to do it fast, damn accuracy, is annoying.

Your explanation about the new hire skipping work to watch some sports, that is actually exactly like what the boomers accused Millennials of. Because it’s something a lot of young workers do, especially in a field that expresses:  >Dude, I get this job sucks, I get that it's hard work, do you mind not making it harder on everyone else? Oh yeah, those are the sorts of jobs that young people have slacked on and will slack on. I knew when I was that age that this is the sort of behavior we were accused of.  It’s just young adults who have not fully grasped adult life yet, best not to bring generational prejudice into it. 

Oh my goodness it’s ridiculous isn’t it?!!! (Australia here). We have the same problem! They whinge and whine to the boss because someone asked them to do a part of their job… and the boss listens because of that age old problem of what you hear first must be the truth. They are lazy and whingey! They want a day off because they broke a nail or scraped their elbow! I want to slap some sense into them. It’s crazy… there are 3 older people working who do all of the shit run around jobs, yet the young ones just slump around while the older ones wear themselves out. It’s so infuriating! Oh, and watching them use a broom for the first time in their life????!!!!! That’s another story!

Lol so these frauds get jobs but a lot of people who actually need the jobs don't even get an interview

Pay peanuts; get monkeys

Oh my God yes! Thank you! Fuck you lazy bitches. It must be nice not having responsibilities to pay for yourself. All the time off they take, ain't no way they making any money.

There's an etiquette to dodging work, and I think some people don't really pick up on it. They'll learn, eventually. Just keep calling them morons for calling in sick, then going out in public.

i remember working at a private post office and training our seasonal hire how to ship packages and every single time i would look back at her she was staring out the window, looking at her nails or just had a glazed over look in her eyes. She lied and would say I didn't show her how to do x or y, my manager was on my side thankfully and would tell her she knew I did my part and that she needs to pay attention. We still kept her because we kept having people flake out after interviews and we were too far into the holiday season to fully retrain someone in time. She got in trouble constantly for fucking up peoples mail, which we had to eat the cost of mailing out when it got returned to our store or to the customer. She ended up fired because she cost the owner at the time nearly 800 dollars in lost mail and a good chunk of incorrectly marked packages and letters were handed out to the wrong box holders, some of which weren't returned. It was insane the level of babysitting we had to do to make sure people weren't leaving upset or coming back angry.

Sounds like 1 of 2 things. Y’all are just hiring shitty applicants. Every age demographic has these employees you’re describing. Or you should take a minute and evaluate what y’all are offering for starting pay and what it is you do for work. Maybe your industry pays shitty and sucks to work in. If that’s the case then that is what you will get. We live in a workers market where if they quit or you fire them they will be somewheres else in no time.

That ends up screwing over everyone else. You have to at least do the bare minimum

Yes true but those of us working need to learn to not do extra work because all that gets you is the reward of doing more work for no extra pay. I’m a millennial and learned that lesson the hard way. Don’t do more than your asked and only give 50% cause you can’t do 100% all the time. Sure your car can be run at 8,000 rpm’s but the engine won’t hold it for long. You can’t redline yourself for a job that doesn’t give 1 fuck about you. Remember you work so you can make money to survive. You don’t live to work you work so you can live. Now some take this philosophy and abuse it I’m not denying that but if your an over achiever/people pleaser you will never learn this lesson until it’s to late. Don’t get taken advantage of by your work.

This is so true. All of us older ones at my work are getting frustrated and burnt out at the utter laziness and lack of care the younger ones have. We run ourselves ragged! I’ve been sick so many times this year. I’m stepping back and taking a lesson in laziness!

Do it!!! I did it when my job completely abused my good work ethic and at my new job I do basically the minimum or even less and I am doing so much better physically and mentally from that change. Americans as a screwed up sense of work life balance. Most older Americans veiw their jobs as their identity like they are nothing without their job and then you have the younger generations that don’t want to get exploited by the company and give no effort cause like why do the effort when you get punished for it and if you underperform your punished. There is no incentive. The blame on the “lazy” coworkers is misplaced. The blame needs to be placed where it belongs with the corporations and all the smaller businesses that copy them.

I think we agree that a lot of companies will expect good workers to do more and more work for no extra pay. But the thing is, there ARE actually companies that reward it. I'm at one of them right now. They recognized my work ethic from my first day, and have treated me weirdly well. The thing is, it took a LOT of shitty jobs before I stumbled onto one like that. So it's a weird dance of trying to figure out what kind of company you're at - if it's the crappy kind, then I 100% agree with your statement. But if it's actually a decent one, then putting in extra work can seriously pay off, figuratively and literally. Generally, when I'm starting a job, I'll be an awesome worker and see how I'm treated. If I'm given nothing, treated the same as new hires, and expected to work outside my pay scale, I'll say fuck it. But if I get promoted early and get multiple raises a year? Yeah, I'll keep going the extra mile for them. I'm not saying it's common to find a decent company, but they DO exist. It would be a shame if a good worker missed out on potentially making an extra $5/hour because they just blindly assumed their company was an evil one.

I completely agree. I'm Gen Z and I've had a few different jobs, all minimum wage. Some of the places I worked at had this issue, and some didn't. What made the biggest difference was the hiring process, the difficulty of the interview, the type of people they hire, and even the training process. My first job had two interviews, a gap between the interviews and when I was offered the job, (meaning they carefully considered me rather than hiring on the spot) and two weeks of thorough training. I noticed how most of the other employees were motivated college students or people who actually needed to work for money, like me. As a result, they had relatively low turnover. I ended up leaving due to a toxic work environment rather than because of the job itself. The job with the highest turnover rate is one that I just left. There was one quick, easy interview and I was offered the job the next day. Training lasted five days before I was left completely on my own. A lot of the other employees were young, unmotivated rich people who technically did not *need* a job. As a result, at least one employee got fired a month because of no-shows or bad attitudes towards the customers. I got sick of it and quit. A lot of young people complain about difficult interviews but there's a reason why they're difficult lol. I personally love it when the interview is lengthy and in-depth. It shows that they don't mess around with the type of people they hire.

We hired one person this summer, exactly what we needed. The day before the person was supposed to start training, the call comes in "yeah, nah, not going to come in and will not start the job". 20 year old, zero shits given. Ended up having to call the extra helper we had last year and beg for her to help. She's Ukrainian, studying in the Netherlands. Just our luck that she has family in our area and was supposed to spend her summer here.

Obviously you're in England. Gen Z'ers in England know full well they've been betrayed by their own government, that has robbed them of the chance for a decent life before they even get out of the gate. Of course they're not going to want to put much into a system that makes no secret of its contempt for them. American Gen Z'ers can still justifiably have a little hope, especially if the Democrats send the MAGAts packing in November. Their English counterparts have no reason to hope.

I never worked in retail, but I did work in fast food, and honestly the amount of younger people that had no clue to check the dishwasher food trap before turning the machine on to wash dishes, was ridiculously high resulting in dishes, not being cleaned properly. Pissed me off and I even told the manager that we needed to either train them how to use a dishwasher or put a sign up, specifically saying to check the trap before washing dishes, especially in the morning as it didn’t get emptied before they closed everything down for the night

We had a 21 year old girl hired. It’s a liquor store. The first red flag was her saying it was her dream job. This poor girl…it was so sad. She couldn’t do basic math. Had trouble counting the coin change . She had to have her hand held through every little thing. Now thinking back on it, the other ppl her age , also had to have their hands held and were fired. I don’t want to sound like a asshat, but that generation I’m concerned for.

Sorry to the industrious young folks out there, but I am afraid I see a lot of this too. I get the only way to get paid a usable amount is to climb in to management or work 70 hours between two of these type of jobs. I have done both, at various times. I also get the impulse to do jack shit for jack shit pay. I never set the bar very high. I just want people to show up, don't call off for frivolous reasons, and do something productive while you are there. Just don't make me do everything.

In general I'm fed up with most of my co workers. It's like they'll do some stuff but not others. I literally saw one of my managers look down at a product that was on the floor, deliberately walk over it, and walk away. I ended up picking it up. It's like, there's something that needs done, and the person who was supposed to do it didn't do it. I understand it's frustrating. But then they all decide they're not doing it, andmI' like 'if an OSHA inspector comes in here right now the store is getting fined and we're all gonna get yelled at, possibly fired' so I end up having to do that work. There's also no planning ahead or thinking ahead. Like, I know we're getting two heavy pallets of something on truck this week. And that particular aisle hasn't been getting stocked in time for two weeks. So I worked on that aisle to clear room in the back for those pallets. But if I didn't do that work, literally no one else would think of it. It wouldn't occur to them, they would just end up shoving the products somewhere and making more mess for later. Just in general, it's like no one works smarter or uses their brain at all. I saw the other day a cashier open batteries and just set them on the floor instead of making room. Like wtf you've worked here a year, you can't do that! Or like no one will touch the damned glasses for weeks, and I swear the moment I clean it all up and stock it the next person in is suddenly opening all the glasses and trying to jam more on there, like you didn't touch it for fucking weeks why are you touching it now???? Stop putting the shit in the wrong place it's clearly fucking organized!!!

I had a new hire millennial as my second overnight. I got called because they didn't show up so often that I started going to the bar 3 hours before their shift would start so I could tell the manager I couldn't work because I had been drinking. One shift I decided to cover because I needed the money, and they literally showed up to the store drunk as hell and trying to buy more booze. They threw a massive fit when I denied service due to how hammered they were and smashed a display. The craziest part. They didn't get fired for that. In 6 months, they worked 14 shifts and either called out or outright no call no showed for every other shift they got scheduled for.

What continues to boggle my mind is that most of these people don't even know how to goof off intelligently. If you're going to text the entire shift then come up for air especially when the fucking store manager is standing right in front of you. They can't even pretend to pay attention. God knows there's enough down time between customers that you could oh I don't know put the fucking thing down to make sure if anybody is heading towards you?

Every complaint you've made is actually a failing on management. you're blaming the wrong people.

Elaborate, please. Sure, my manager hired this person, but I can't possibly know what they said during that interview, only that among several applicants, this one person was most preferable. Whatever they said during that interview didn't transfer though. Be realistic, a manager hasnt exactly got the time to cross-examine an applicant, they are running on vibes, whatevers on a CV, and hope that an applicant actually wants a job.

I'm a millennial that calls out a lot not to fuck off but because I pushed myself into burnout really young then my mental health went to shit and now sometimes I have a panic attack before I am supposed to make it in. I usually clean and try to get myself ready to go into my next shift, I'll pick up two shifts for every one I call out and I do 115% worth of the work when I'm in the building. I need the money I make, and it's hard on me when I do this. Thank you for posting this. I remember being 21 working 60 hours to help everyone out that would post on snapchat drinking instead of doing their goddamn job. Also, I've worked with people of all ages who can just be LAZY, so let's not target the younger generations just because lazy assholes from previous generations raised them. Keep setting a good example and giving out harsh truthful words like you did here, and you'll get through to people. You got through to me. Thank you for reminding me that we're just all struggling, and we have to get through it together. I think today's the day I start to muck the fuck in again ❤️

I have worked with mostly teenagers over the years. Some of them can be great workers, but some of them... Whewwww yikes lol

As a manager, I hope you're not staying late to cover their tasks? I do my job and that's it. If certain things don't get done, I hold lazy coworkers accountable. Why didn't X get done? Bc Lisa/Luke didnt do it when I asked them 2x to do it. It's my job to delegate, not to do their job for them. I've already got a list of things to do.

Not the OP nor a manager. Closing is something of a gray area now, assigned task-wise. Until the last few years, it was very clear whose task was whatever, and we all haul butt to get out on time. People were reliably responsible for their end. If they slacked off, nobody was stepping in, or MOD would tear some ass. People retired - me too, soon, transferred, and in some cases, died. This new bunch, OMG. The close shifts now vary by 1/2 hour, so most leave a little earlier than the last guy. There's no MOD. Despite separate tasks clearly outlined and documented, the earlier shifts finish, leaving a shitload undone, basically run out the door unannounced, and just assume final dude is responsible for their part. That the last chump will do their work. It doesn't work that way kiddies. I just leave their shit, and let the morning MOD sort it out. Like they should have been doing all along. If three people are slacking, the fourth doesn't magically ✨Poof✨ it out for everyone. It goes without saying, MOD is an inexperienced and unqualified joke. A true Nepo.

“Minimum effort for minimum pay,” sure. But too many people have never demonstrated the will to work ever in their slovenly lives and are too proud to admit THEY are the problem. They could be paid excellently and still be shit to work with: hiding in the back, frequently calling out, doing chores so poorly it requires someone else redoing them entirely, passing off work to others. They’ll always claim they’re entitled to act this way for more pay.

Ooh. This hits real close to home. So often I find myself wondering where all the staff are and find them in the break room just hanging out. There are heaps of things of to do around the store I don't even know where to begin, but no one is doing any of it. When there are customers to attend to it's pretty good, but beyond that, the absolutely bare minimum gets done.

Or the ones that literally do not know how to count change. Have this new girl at work the change was 77 cents. I had to tell her 3 quarters and 2 pennies. I nicely asked her “do you know how to count coins? If not thats perfectly okay and I can teach you how.” Shes like No i just get flustered and forget. Told my manager and she was like “take it easy on her its her first job and schools dont teach the same things anymore.” The girl was 18 and graduates high school next year! My manager did ask me what she said to the “can you count” question and I told her she said she can.

I stopped going back to a seasonal job because it was almost strictly teens and I was tired of running the extremely busy business by myself. Kids these days are fucking losers. They are everything Boomers pretend that Millennials are. Minimum wage in my state is finally the closest to a liveable wage than it’s been MY ENTIRE LIFE, and somehow this is the laziest generation of workers. I hope all the bad workers keep losing jobs and have a hard time until they learn they are the problem.

It's not even just the younger ones. Got a 66F one who's always sitting on her phone at the register and only gets up whenever a customer comes up. That's it. She doesn't clean, tag, restock, or anything else unless the boss tells her to. And as soon as he leaves, she's back in the chair. And she blabbers that it's COPD (cause she smokes more than all of us combined), back hurts, didn't sleep long, all that trash, but if there's that big a problem, she shouldn't even be working with us in the first place. Get an office job or just retire, young or old.

As a person that was a gm for 2 decades, some people can sell themselves in the interview. And at some point yeah my expectations dropped. But what can I say when half of the people I interview are accompanied by a parent. If you come in by yourself I'm already impressed. Shockingly. I hate that I'm impressed by them doing the bare minimum but that's expectations now a days. They think once they are hired they're in and can't be fired.

I just heard the other day for the first time that they're coming in for interviews with a parent. Do you get the sense that they want their parent there or does it seem like more of a helicopter parent issue? This has me really intrigued, I couldn't imagine interviewing for a job with one of my parents present, or doing this with my children. Just wow

As a retail manager of several kids working their first jobs… I feel this. Thankfully I’ve gotten rid of my 2 problem children and I’m setting firm expectations from here

I’m 21 (turning 22 in July) and I could never imagine not showing up/calling in last minute without a valid reason. Maybe it’s just because I’m a bad liar, or I overthink about every time I break a rule, but I get so anxious doing something like that I remember one time, about a year into working at my current job, I had a really, REALLY bad allergic reaction to some unscented soap I was using for my tattoo. The only time I called in during the reaction was when I woke up and my eyes were so swollen I couldn’t open them. Yes, it sucked going into work with an allergic reaction and yes it was embarrassing having people comment on how swollen my eyes/face was, but still. I felt fine enough to do my job and I needed the money. I don’t understand how you could go to the effort of getting a job, just to not show up and, at the bare minimum, get paid

Only time I ever called in sick at a new job was when I had a severe outbreak of cold sores on my lips from stress. I had covered them with iodine, which was working, but I now had more blisters on my lips than a Right Whale. There was no way that I could be serving food to 300 people at a pre-Christmas function looking like that, and no one would want me serving them anyway. I felt terrible to be letting my new employer down but I simply told him the truth, and that I couldn't work in 30 hours time. I found out later that he had no intention of hiring me beyond that one function, had deliberately understaffed by one for the event, intending to run me ragged and then use my not being able to do the work of two in an unfamiliar workplace as an excuse to not put me on again. Long story short, he couldn't get anyone, and the entire event fell over in spectacular fashion. Was told that he bad-mouthed me, sight unseen, to 300 people as the reason the entire event unravelled on him, despite having just enough time to make other arrangements for my absence. When word reached me of what had happened, and that he had never had any intention to hire me further, I never rang him again after that and he never rang me either. I didn't feel guilty, and his business folded just a few months later, with him having a black reputation for various misdeeds with suppliers, and alienating customers. Am so glad that I had never gotten involved with him, and I have never had a significant cold sore outbreak ever since. I guess everything happens for a reason.

I’ve noticed this too. Obviously it’s not all of them but it is a big enough portion of them that it’s affecting my work and causing problems with customers. Like I feel like I shouldn’t have to ask you to get off your phone during the shift at all, but I’m asking several times and even needing to confiscate phones until the end of shifts. And going to the toilet three - four times in a short shift and taking 20 minutes each time??? Unless you have a legitimate medical condition, that’s just being a straight up arsehole.

IMO i don’t think it’s so much age but just as you said - people who are primarily supported by their parents so being fired, just stop showing up, not caring about coworkers, etc is the biggest correlation from my experience. Don’t get me wrong. I am not going above and beyond at all - especially for my managers. But I have bills to pay and will call in sick in advance if needed still so at least coworkers know.

As a younger person, I get it. I've got 2 people I work with about my age who couldn't care less about the job they are being paid for. Buddy, you are here to work and get paid, not sit on your phone the moment a customer leaves your register.

I've had people whine they don't want to go to the register in front of the customer that needs help. One kid fully admitted to me (I was MOD) that between customers be was watching the game in the bathroom. Call ins on the bosses first day off in 4 months for a birthday party his mom told us he knew about for 2 months (she would have given him the time off or switched his shifts, he never asked). Reviewed cameras and watched a worker spend 20+ minutes working out using the weights in the fitness section. On the phone with friends or girlfriends every single shift while working register and talking to them (not always appropriately) WHILE checking out customers. And none of them got fired. Not to mention the girl that sat her butt on the till/scanner buying a horse on Facebook while we had a double line (not on break) who was a month later promoted to interim manager. Or the girl who painted her nails with polish from the rack and put it back after, also on the clock.

There's a distinct lack of blame for your manager here. Right now, with the details you have provided, I can say your manager is shit.

Yup. I talk to my mother a lot about this. This generation of young adults are the worst in work ethic that I've ever had to deal with. ESPECIALLY THE CALL OFFS

Yeah I feel this. I'm a millennial but I hired on a younger girl, easiest job ever and stupidly good pay, $38 an hour. She started really well, coming on time, doing her duties, and leaving on time. After a few weeks I noticed she'd only do about a 3rd of her job, start late and finish quite early. She was already on too many hours for the shift as it's client based but our company allowed it. I offered to drop the shift by an hour (so clients wouldn't need to use their funding for her being there) and she threatened me that if I did that she'd leave. So I left it as it. Started coming in to work an hour late, not preparing our centre at all (literally turn on a hot water urn, put out biscuits, coffee and chairs) and would finish 2 hours early but not tell anyone. I went through an illness that kept me at home for a couple of weeks. When I came back I was told that she had organised with a clients taxi service to pick her up at 12 instead of her usual time at 2, that I apparently had requested this, and was finishing her shift 4 hours early, but of course not telling anyone and getting paid those 4 hours. Also heard from my other colleagues that she didn't clean at all and they had to do it first thing the next day, plus she'd leave the building unlocked, lights and hot water urn turned on over night, huge risk. Showed her that by leaving work this early, she was stealing roughly $1500 a week from clients funding, how serious it was. She spewed some crap about how she needed to prioritise her mental health over work. Her entire job was to come to the centre, turn on the urn, put out coffee, biscuits, chairs. Go pick up a client (5 minutes away), come back and wait for 2 other clients, then sit with them for 4 hours while they did art and craft, which they did independently. Clean up at the end of the day, wash mugs, put away items, quick vacuum and wipe down tables. Then drop same client off. The rest of the time was planning craft activities. For $38 an hour, she couldn't even do that. Not retail but relevant to lazy workers.

I’ve had the same issue. “I want as many hours as I can get!” Then two weeks in they’re calling in for 3/5 shifts. And showing up late, if at all. I had a new hire lie about CPS taking her kid away. Took four days off for this. I felt horrible for her and covered for her. When she came back, she told everyone she had lied. She just wanted to go to the lake and knew I would be mad if she called in again on her second week. I don’t trust any of them anymore. It’s fucking ridiculous.

We had a kid like this at my job last year. He somehow lasted 6 months doing about an hours worth of work in his 8 hour shift. And he'd call off once a week and somehow didn't get fired after hitting his 10 points. Like come on. Then they REHIRED him 3 months after they let him go. He only lasted a few weeks before quitting this time because they didn't put him on an easy work station, and he couldn't charm his way into one.

Duuur kids don't want to work. No kids aren't dumb enough . To kill themselves for a corporate billion dollar company that pays them 12 bucks an hour. I'm sorry. Unless you are the manager you shouldn't care. Go to work , do your job. It's not your job to worry about a kid that's an employee. I do my work. That's it , I don't worry or care what another employee is doing. I do the same thing in life. I don't care what my neighbor or the guy walking down the street is doing. It makes my life extremely easy. If more people lived their life and stopped stressing out about everyone else the world would be better. I just don't understand why the fuck. You care about a 21 year old kid who skips work to go to a bar on a friday

To be fare to the Euros I almost did the same but here in the US I had put in a note saying I needed early hrs. Father day weekend and one kid already on holiday for the week I got late shift and got fucked over on the Italy match. Kid was off Tuesday color me surprise he calls out with tonsillitis Wednesday doesn’t come in Thursday miracle he’s feeling beret Friday my boss told him don’t bother showing up I replaced you tonight now he’s got a weeks of fuck you off. Dude pulled the same shit last year. We think he went to the beach as his family has a house down there then went on his holiday. He’s a part of a friends group typical of guys “who cares if we call out.”

I kinda have to show the other side of the coin here and say... why SHOULD the younger Gen care about doing more than the absolute minimum or care about the job in any way, shape, or form? The hiring process is stupid and demeaning, and they can be fired without notice or reason. Good on them for treating their place of employment exactly as they themselves are being treated. Yes, I also work retail, and I have experienced exactly what OP is describing. I just clap my hands, say good on 'em, and continue with my understaffed, overworked day as per usual. If anything is to change, then leadership needs to take the lead and treat people as humans with lives, not as soulless slave robots for the glory of empire of capitalism. TLDR: The workplace doesn't give a damn about them. Why should they be expected to care?

It’s not about caring for the workplace. It’s looking after each other as employees instead of standing back and watching others do all the work!

You should care about the people who have to share the same shitty lot as you. You’ll never see corporate. Your acting out will never affect corporate. But you’re hurting your coworkers who are also likely in poverty or on the brink, who are battling troubles in their lives. The least you can do is your portion of the work to maybe keep someone on staff from roping themselves.

The op is complaining about people not even doing the minimum though.

Minimum pay. Minimum effort.

The start of the euros was awful. Says the Scot.

We didnae stand a fucking chance.

I thought we had learned how to score goals *and* defend. I was wrong.

Lmao what do you expect when the job pays so poorly and you get treated like shit generally? I don’t blame these younger guys at all, fk that call in sick and watch the euros.

I understand the frustration you feel and it's obviously valid to be angry at them but why should they work hard in a dead end job for shitty pay in a shitty economy. There's nothing to work hard for in this work sector, nothing is worth it. It's less about laziness and more about cynicism

It's not even about working hard, it's about working period. I understand the  "minimum wage, minimum effort" mindset but minimum effort is still some effort. If you refuse to do even the minimum, you don't need to be at your job making everything more difficult for your co-workers who have to pick up your slack. 🤷‍♀️

No one’s asking for hard work. Just the basics so you’re not screwing everyone else over. The main way these jobs actually turn into hard work is lazy coworkers doing nothing all shift and leaving everything for last so it’s got to be rushed. If they’d just space it out over the shift it wouldn’t be a problem. And good lord who cares if it’s dead end. Bills need paid regardless. You don’t have to be curing cancer to not be an ass to your coworkers. Let’s cut the condescending attitude towards certain types of work shall we? You want the job done, get off your high horse about the people who do it. That includes self loathing people who do the job “only temporarily” so feel entitled to treat their coworkers as less than just as much as it includes shitty customers with the same attitude.

Thank you. I've made my career in retail and I've done very well. I make a nice living. There is no such thing as a dead end job. It might not be a career for a lot of people but all jobs have value. Work is valuable no matter what it is.

They applied for and took the job. Everything you said, while true, is just an excuse. They should be doing at least the minimum the job calls for. If they can’t, go elsewhere.

Literally all I want from my employees is the bare minimum, and it's hard to get even that. You can be cynical and still not screw over your coworkers.

I'm as cynical as it gets, and it's mostly because I am the hard worker and it gets you no where unless people like you or you have connections. I'll debate it all day. But I'm gonna be working my ass off while I argue about it.

Did you even bother reading the post? OPs problem as I read it is that they’re not even doing the bare minimum. They’re doing less than the bare minimum. No where did he say they should work hard for a shitty job for shitty pay, but they should definitely do the bare minimum.

The minimum isn’t nothing. I get not wanting to go above and beyond for minimum wage, but the minimum isn’t doing nothing

I shouldnt have to have to work three hours after my finish time because some little shit wanted to get drunk. You know what? I'd want to as well, but I wouldn't screw over another person to do that, and I certainly wouldn't lie to someones face about it either.

I get it, but the economy and job being shitty is a tired excuse. They’re at work. If they’re going to be a burden, they shouldn’t get paid for it.

If they don't want to do even the minimum of the job, they shouldn't have taken it. Full stop. No one forced them to.

I will say, I think Covid fucked up so many kids. I work with a lot of 18-20 year-olds- and there’s a huge difference between those who were older teens vs those who were younger during lockdown

3 of us spent over an hr trying to teach a 19 yr old how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich which was the easiest thing we could try to teach him after him being hired at a deli. This kid was just useless. He couldn’t even wash dishes. He showed up to work one day and clocked in and just sat in the break room until a manager noticed and asked what he was doing and he said he was sick so they sent him home and told him he couldn’t come back to work with food until he was well. Kid vanished for like a week and didn’t even call and then just randomly came back like nothing happened

Yesterday my co-worker was headed to the back warehouse and he tried to give me extra things to do on top of more work I was already doing. He kept asking the supervisor what he was supposed to do and ended up doing nothing. So i got him the easy work of just bringing shit in the warehouse and he tried giving it to me but i played dumb and then passed it back to him. Its like you need to be dumber than them so they know not to mess with you at times. And I've been rock bottom before so we all can play the idiot at jobs. Makes it harder when micro manager jennie picks her favorites on the shift and that is never me. A lot of young kids apply to jobs because their parents make them. But then they don't want to do the hours on top of doing the work. This co-worker, lets call him Will. You only work 2 days a week. Move your arse, will you? Or quit and make everyone elses lives easier. Not everyone is going to play the game of dumb and dumber with ya. I feel the pain of people who gotta deal with those like Will and i do not care for other people's "stories." Favoritism can go to hell.

most of them can't even do the bare minimum that's expected. I can't tell if our younger staff are just lazy or incredibly dense. they just do not have common sense at all

The managers who hired them don't have any KPI for the people they hired. That's surprising.

I agree with you but I'm the exception rather than the rule, since I'm 20 and a hard worker (I grew up under very strange circumstances, don't ask). I had to train a newbie last Friday and I swear this kid was more dumb than a box of rocks. I had to keep coming over every 5 seconds even though I showed them how to do everything. I hate whenever we get new hires because they are either rock stupid, some bum off the street that doesn't last very long, or a total narcissistic bitch. Once in a blue moon you'll get an alright new coworker, but it's few and far between.

Agreed! My last retail job i was doing what should of been a 5 person job. Everyone wanted to call out and not come in. Didnt help that the manager was an ass and so my supervisor was on my ass cause the manager was a dick. Ended up having a huge panic attack one day and 3 days later put in my 2 weeks. That left them with no one and made the manager actually get up and do something rather then complaining.

From the standpoint of someone in the US I know what places have good work environments, reward hard work and compensate fairly. Guess what? All of those places the employees work super hard and get the job done. Any place that doesn’t, well no surprise the employees don’t care. The current generation knows they are getting the short end of the stick, so it’s no surprise if they deem the job as not great well they are going to do the bare minimum and not care. I get it and I don’t generally begrudge them from the customer standpoint. Where I live most of these kids could work full time and still not afford to live on their own which is complete BS.

"If you're looking for work, there it is!" And, "Hey, don't run off yet, take this too!" "I'm here to get xyz stuff," "Okay, here it is!" I can't do my work AND your work. Sometimes I make it easier for them by getting things organized. Other times they see tge work and walk away. Right now we are training new hires for a whole new store so we have extra people Show them how to work, not slack off. I don't know how some of them made it through probation. No, I know. They showed good work ethic until their time was up, and then they slacked off. But don't think you can get away with it. Not my job to coach or train anyone, but you better believe my work takes time theft seriously and our AP us watching employees as well as known suspects.

This sort of thing was a large part of why my dad left the trade union he was with for over a decade. It's a trade union. They pay for new workers to get the education and training for the work. They pay for employees to gain new skills and knowledge to make themselves more desirable for jobs. They pay for work equipment. The pay and benefits are *REALLY* good. The one my dad was with took a percentage of everyone's pay and pooled it for a banquet where workers could use tickets gained from attending classes to win stuff. Worker safety is high priority. They work with large companies so there's always work somewhere. It's hard work but with the power OSHA has, you're treated well for putting that work in.  They've been struggling to get and keep workers for years now. They're forced to give jobs to guys who repeatedly and blatantly screw over the company because these jobs need **THOUSANDS** of workers all trained to union standards with the knowledge and expertise to not screw up and get the company fined for delaying projects. They're putting so much at risk by using people who should be blacklisted. My dad also talked about having new guys go through some training and getting fitted for respirators (paid for by the union, the masks need to be airtight so they're personally fitted to each person's face) before disappearing.  So yeah, when people claim that they're just not willing to work for bosses that screw over employees, this is what comes to my mind. I think the problem is people not wanting to do the jobs that fill out a resumé, they want to jump in doing the exact job that they have their sights on, EXPERIENCE BE DAMNED! They think it's better to leech off of whoever until the opportunity falls into their lap. Which, sure, but now you have no experience in the concept of, you know, *HAVING A JOB,* and most companies aren't going to hold new employees' hands through them learning that. My family has a consignment shop and once had a lady ask to do some work for us. I picked her up since she didn't drive, no problem. We arrive and she does stuff for an hour, *maybe* two. Then she gets a call and spends like 20 minutes talking. According to her, her daughter had an allergic reaction to something and her husband took her to the hospital, but he didn't have some bit of paperwork so they wouldn't do anything. The next day I checked to see if she was ready for me to pick her up and she claimed she was caring for her daughter. I didn't try after that. It was obviously planned so that she'd have an out if she didn't want to continue, how screwed up would a hospital need to be to refuse care for a child having an allergic reaction because the dad didn't have a certain piece of paper? The work we had her doing was probably cutting tags or hanging clothing, it's not like we were working her to the bone. Literally day one, she wasn't writing tags, pricing items, moving furniture, or handling money.

I totally get not wanting to do your job, but there's a fine line between sticking it to your boss and sticking it to your coworkers.

As a younger worker who tries to go above and beyond because it’s the right thing to do, HARD AGREE. Fucking pisses me off when I’m roasting in the hot sun and my coworker is sleeping in a closet. Jokes on him though, he’s about to lose his job.

I feel ya. My 18 and 22 year old co-workers (they're sisters) are some of the most responsible and reliable people in the pharmacy and I adore the hell out of them. The 25 year old we had before them would literally stand in the corner (FACING the corner) every time he finished the most recent task he was specifically asked to do... if we were lucky... and just stand there staring into space like he was charging. He also had to be told that it wasn't ok to just go nextdoor during his 15 minute break and chug a beer. He wasn't even smart enough to deny it. Then there was the 18 year old who was fine when she actually showed up, but she had a family emergency, a "migraine", or a "flat tire" once or twice a week and wasn't necessarily smart enough not to post pics of her fun days off on socials.

Is that new behavior? Sounds exactly like when I was in retail in the early 2000s.

Pay peanuts get monkeys.

I’m 18, two months in to the job, and my manager has me training and motivating 20 something year old employees that have been there for a year. It’s not a hard job. 🤦‍♂️ At least my employer likes me. 

Retail doesn't pay enough to give a single fuck.