My Pronoun is; Pay Me!

Gen Z cracks me up with their TikTok videos which is how they communicate their needs, so you better pay attention to them. 

In one of those videos, HR introduces herself "My pronouns are she/her" to which he replies "My pronoun is Pay Me." :-)))

I have written about Gen Z more than I would like to but they are so misunderstood I feel the need to speak for them. Gen Z has gone the opposite direction of Gen X and the Boomers and says "These are my boundaries". Do I agree with everything they do? No, but that's how it works with everything in life. We go from one extreme - sacrificing our lives for the job - to another extreme of being unreasonably dismissive of what has been the common practice or belief. This is a corrective action in actions so the following generation can settle somewhere in the middle. 

Gen Z is in the middle of this correction so just give them a break! We need this, the world needs this. We all need to be paid for extra hours of work. We all need to be paid instead of a celebratory party when the company makes record-breaking profits. Screw the party, pizza, doughnuts, the thank you speech and all the free stuff companies are putting on instead of paying their workers. That free stuff and the $30 cinema voucher will not pay my bills nor will set me up for retirement.

I agree with Gen Z 100%. My pronoun is also Pay Me! 

Pay for my skills, knowledge, time, experience, creativity, ideas, expertise, connections and everything that you as a company don't have. This is what employment is about whether you are a full-time employee, a contractor, a freelancer or a consultant. You pay what you need to make the company successful or better. We don't need to read into it more and come up with the psychological manipulation of humans through narratives like "When employees are engaged they are..." basically giving their time, ideas, creativity, skills, experience, knowledge and expertise for free. 

I would go as far as getting companies to think about paying their employees extra when they come up with ideas outside of their job description. We all love to usher people into hackathons and different brainstorming sessions where people really do come up with some interesting and lucrative stuff that often makes millions for companies but get nothing for it. Why not? As I recall, I have never read in any JD saying - "Produce ideas that move the organisation forward", so why are we expecting it? 

Cool article here about Gen Z and money. 

Here is the thing, we can agree or disagree with what Gen Z wants but as I wrote about it earlier, ignoring the needs of the workforce is a game that employers will lose. We need to start designing workplace policies and practices with employees' needs in mind and most of the time it doesn't even have to cost extra. The workforce is changing and we are forcing our old-school practices on the new generation creating incompatibility and then blaming them for not wanting to take part. 

When people tell you they don't like their experiences with you, believe them!