I'm ready to throw Gen Z into a fire

[labbish]

Obviously I'm generalizing with the title but I have set up 6 phone interviews for a weekly sitter and ALL of them ghosted me. This is not the first time. I cannot comprehend how you don't keep an appointment for possible employment or at least cancel. A person is taking time out of their day to accommodate you and you can't let them know you won't be making it?! I'm not a corporation. I'm a human being and I'm really tired of people with zero common courtesy. Sigh* rant over. And yes this has been through trying care.com and Facebook mom groups.

Edit: Where I'm located $15 per hour is average. I'm offering $15-20. My last sitter I paid $16 and they've ranged from $12 to $18 depending on experience and qualifications. AND the pay is posted in the ad so if you want more, then don't apply!

 

[katrina2017]

@labbish I do hiring for an office and this isn’t really a generational thing. It’s a market thing.

 

[much2know]

@labbish We went on a trip recently and needed a babysitter for a night. All the people who responded to my initial care.com $15-20 listing (average for the area) were college students with 1-star ratings for not showing up to their jobs (on par with your rant).

After I raised the rate to $25, I got responses from experienced nannies, preschool and daycare teachers with 5-stars. We went with an amazing preschool teacher. She was over 50 and not tech savvy, but still great at communicating and reliable.

I don’t know if it’s a gen z thing or just teens being flaky. I quickly got promoted at a minimum wage job when I was a teen for simply being reliable since all my teen coworkers were super flaky.

 

[deji4christ]

@labbish I don’t think this is unique to gen z. I’ve been in contact with potential nannies ranging from 19 to 65 and I’ve had the same problem.

 

[rayne81]

@deji4christ Yeah, this is definitely not a problem with a specific generation. OP, why?

 

[labbish]

@rayne81 As I said, it was a generalization. But it's because all the people applying are in that age range and all my friends who are mom's having similar troubles and of a different generation don't understand the trend

 

[kmooney]

@labbish I’m having bigger issues with all of my applicants being anti-vaxxers. Not even just the COVID shot, but all of them. No thank you, I think the fuck not.

 

[emstyle18]

@labbish Why is everyone so hung up on the pay? Depending on the area, $15-$20 is actually pretty good, especially for only one day a week. It’s not like you’re asking 6am-6pm Monday-Friday. I’m not at all surprised given the age group you’re speaking of. My school will hire a lot of young people who constantly call out, show up late, or quit within a week of starting. I work in a daycare and I’m lucky to even be paid $16/hour where I watch 24 kids with a co-teacher. I’d love to get paid $20 an hour for one child.

Like you said, the pay, hours and location are listed on the ad. If that doesn’t align with them, then don’t apply.

 

[megaa]

@emstyle18 Agreed. I live in a major city, flyover state. $15 - 20 is the going rate for babysitting here (not nannying). It’s also well above minimum wage, not that minimum wage is liveable or anything. I don’t begrudge anyone trying to get the most pay possible for a job but I don’t get how OP’s pay is so off unless she’s in a major coastal city or something

 

[emstyle18]

@megaa Most daycares in my area have a starting pay of $12/hour so I’m actually on the high end of the pay rate! I would understand upping the pay if she was a live-in nanny, or was asked to prepare meals and clean the house. Point is, a bunch of kids are ghosting interviews and are just, okay with it!

 

[melissabridwell]

@emstyle18 Yeah I’m genuinely confused about why everyone is freaking out about this pay for a SITTER. She’s not asking for a live-in nanny..

 

[tinbike]

@emstyle18

Like you said, the pay, hours and location are listed on the ad. If that doesn’t align with them, then don’t apply.

The flip side of this is that if you advertise a position as $15/hr a certain group of applicants is going to apply and if you advertise it as $25 then a different sort of applicants are going to be attracted. The labor market is very tight right now. People who are reliable, excellent workers who communicate well are applying and getting positions that pay more. They know their worth and aren’t applying to the positions that pay $15.

 

[emstyle18]

@tinbike Yeah sure, but on the flip side of this, you have to know what industry you’re walking into. I’m a preschool teacher with a master’s degree and I get paid $16/hour. I’m definitely worth more than $16/hour but knowing what the pay range is for my position in my area, I’m grateful I’m even getting paid this much. It’s not just my school, but it’s all schools. I know I’m a valued employee as they’ve shown me in other ways but I wouldn’t walk into a position such as mine and expect $25/hour. Of course being a nanny is slightly different but if the range in OP’s area is $15-$20 an hour, then none of the applicants should be surprised. I’m also an artist and would love a position in a gallery, but even the high end galleries in our busy, touristy downtown area have a starting rate of $10/hour. I know this and I’m not shocked. Covid hasn’t made things easier either and everyone is struggling so it seems wild to me to have that kind of attitude.

ETA: I had a co-worker who showed up to work an hour late everyday because she said, “I don’t get paid enough to show up on time.” Well you definitely aren’t proving you’re worth more money by showing up late everyday. She was 22. And sadly, a lot of the younger employees had this attitude.

 

[tinbike]

@emstyle18 You can’t really judge a labor market by what you currently make. You need to look at who is successfully hiring. The excellent preschool teachers getting paid $16/hr here leave to get paid $25+ as nannys. The school will need to pay much closer to $25/hr to replace them. They cannot afford to wait out filling the position either. The choices are to be less selective, pay more, or delay hiring.

ETA: I had a co-worker who showed up to work an hour late everyday because she said, “I don’t get paid enough to show up on time.” Well you definitely aren’t proving you’re worth more money by showing up late everyday. She was 22. And sadly, a lot of the younger employees had this attitude.

That’s not how the labor market works in practice. If she can get more money getting hired somewhere else then it doesn’t matter what she “proves” to you. She can just leave or get fired. That sucks for employers but is also the reality of a tight labor market.

 

[emstyle18]

@tinbike The point of my comment wasn’t necessarily a debate about the labor market but the entitlement of the younger generation. They take the whole “I know my worth” and stretch it so far thin it hurts my brain. If you’re 22 and fresh out of college, and your past work experience has been a barista at the campus coffee shop with an internship or two thrown in there, then no, you’re not worth $25/hour. You have to pay your dues like most people. You work your way up in order to get paid more, whether that be staying where you are or finding a better paying job later on. I took that $10/hour at a gallery, worked hard, got the experience I needed and eventually left for bigger and better opportunities. My guess from OP’s post is that if she’s complaining about Gen Z, then I wouldn’t be surprised if these candidates are fresh out of college, hence my point. You go to the interview, prove to them that you’re worthy of their time and can do the job, and hopefully can come to a compromise as far as pay. Those excellent preschool teachers who are leaving to go to a $25/hour job got their experience and have moved onto bigger and better opportunities, rightfully so.

I’m a millennial and I certainly remember a time when everyone complained about us too, probably because we were also assholes.

 

[tinbike]

@emstyle18 Those are two sides of the same thing which is the point I was trying to make. The generation currently entering the labor force can afford to have these attitudes because it’s currently very difficult and expensive for employers to replace them. Your statement about a college grad not being worth $25/hr might seem true to you but if employers are offering them $25/hr it’s not because people feel entitled. It’s because they have to in order to fill positions.

 

[jasoncrouch]

@emstyle18 You deserve more money for what you do

 

[tini91]

@labbish If OP lives in a low cost of living area, I think $15-20 is not unreasonable. We live in a medium to high cost of living area and going rate around here is $20-25, and that’s based off of friends I know that nanny. But even if it were the issue, if her rate is advertised up front then that’s not the reason why people are applying and then ghosting.

 

[avronne]

@labbish I think this is more of an industry thing than a generational thing. With things like sitting (pet,house, kid) people can afford to be picky about what ones they take. Do they not want that age group, that area, those conditions who knows but they have options and know it. Sitting is something that’s pretty much always needed. I know in “normal” jobs you can send out 20 applications hear back from like 5 and maybe one will hire you. But I’m also gen Z so maybe I’m biased

 

[katrina2017]

@labbish I don’t think it’s just gen z. Unfortunately ghosting is a strategy a lot of people use with texting being the predominant form of communication. It’s like people think it doesn’t count or something. Another factor, in my area at least, is that people ghost because there is a shortage of them and a lot of you (employers)

I recently hired a nanny and let me tell you, these people are all millennials and gen x for the most part (I ended up hiring a boomer but that’s neither here nor there. I’ve been ghosted by grandmothers before) and I have been ghosted god knows how many times, even after an interview. Sometimes I am ghosted before our agreed interview.

Ideally, people would act correctly no matter what and give you the courtesy of a heads up. But unfortunately people gonna people. They are in high demand. Probably swamped by employers. They respond to incentives. They start to think their shit doesn’t smell. That’s how it is with a lot of folks.