A Top Ten Firm is Frustrated Their Gen Z Staff Don’t Know How to Use Phones to Speak to Other Humans

It’s hard to write an article like this without coming off as some kind of boomer complaining about how kids these days are so [insert pejorative here] so allow me to preface this by saying I don’t intend anything I say here to be a value judgment. If we want to be completely fair about it, we millennials were the ones who pioneered the art of never answering the phone, far be it from one of us to say Zoomers are dumb for not wanting to talk on them.

Anyway, this post isn’t about how I feel about the younger generation shunning voice-on-voice interactions via telephone. It’s about this article in The Telegraph:

Forvis Mazars, the accountancy giant, is launching a “comprehensive learning and development programme” this year aimed at boosting its employees’ “relationship skills”. It will include training on having “challenging” conversations over the phone.

The new training is being set up in response to concerns that Gen Z workers lack the soft skills necessary for work in the City. [Ed. note: “the City” being London]

James Gilbey, the chief executive of the accounting firm’s UK business, said the social skills course would include everything from “immersive” simulations of client meetings to lessons on “picking up the phone”.

This isn’t new. A couple years ago, the big firms started noticing that their young hires really struggle with basic communication. Any boomers who feel compelled to chastise kids these days for this need to remember that these kids’ formative socialization years were kneecapped by lockdowns, as the big firms have acknowledged. “Deloitte and PwC are giving extra coaching to their youngest UK staff after noticing recruits whose education was disrupted by lockdowns have weaker teamwork and communication skills than previous cohorts,” wrote FT in 2023. “Junior employees who spent part of their school or university years isolated from their peers have found it harder to adapt to the work environment, partners at the consulting firms told the Financial Times.”

No kidding. A recruiter Telegraph spoke to took a different approach and pinned it on Gen Z growing up digital:

James O’Dowd, the founder of recruitment firm Patrick Morgan, said remote work and an increased reliance on “digital communication” had left “many Gen Z hires unprepared for the basics of working life”.

Gen Z workers often lack “core interpersonal skills” such as the “ability to hold a conversation, read a room, build rapport or simply pick up the phone and solve a problem without hiding behind email”, he said.

Oh we’re hiding behind email now? A written form of communication in which the parties can gather and refine their thoughts before sharing them with recipients? OK.

Part of Forvis Mazars’ inspiration for teaching their younguns how to communicate is because soon enough, technology will be doing the bulk of the work younguns used to do in their early years at professional services firms:

Forvis Mazars said its new training programme was designed to prepare the firm for a market environment in which computers carry out many of the basic tasks currently done by junior staff, meaning interpersonal tasks will become far more important.

Not mentioned here: offshore staff. The offshore staff carry out many of the basic tasks. Regardless, the point stands. See also: Deloitte Survey: Machines Are Taking Over; Employees to Become Even More Awkward and Uncollaborative

It’s quite a predicament the profession is in. AI is supposed to free professionals up to do all this high level, personable work but the people who are supposed to be doing this work in a few years are struggling with the basics. Something tells me this won’t be greatly improved by a couple in-house training sessions.