Why do millennials and Gen Z’s hate making phone calls?

When you are using a device in that way, you’re in control of who you’re communicating to, when you are how you are. As soon as you answer a phone, you sort of lose that control and it can be quite exposing because what if someone asks me something I don’t know the answer to? Or it can also feel a bit emotionally intrusive for them and they think I’m I don’t wanna engage in that right now. Whereas they’re in control when it’s messaging and that kind of thing. Hmm, Gen. Z is so used to anything being more convenient or efficient. I’ll find a faster way. And sometimes it’s, well, it’s faster to e-mail or text, but then there can also be a confidence gap when it comes to Gen. Z’s talking on the phone or not having that barrier of the screen where they can find the answer before answering and that kind of thing. So it can be a confidence gap side of things to to build. For our Gen. Z, it’s it’s easy to assume that because they use their devices a lot, they don’t really want the face to face. But that’s not true in, in the research that I do with Gen. Z, they constantly talk about they want a relational culture in the workplace. They place a really high priority on the social side of things, on having approachable leaders on people having time to get to know one another at work. And I think that we’ve substituted the depth of relationship for that breadth of connection in our online space. And it’s not satisfying the deeper needs our Gen. ZS have. Interesting. Yeah. How did COVID play into this? Because of course, that was a time when a lot of people were forced to work from home and it was a a lot of the communication was done via screen or text. That’s right. And for Gen. ZS that happened at a really impressionable time of their lives and their careers. And so many were forced into remote working at the very start of their careers when they didn’t have the pre established relationships that the older generations did to. So they were actually longing to get into face to face work environments where they could build those relationships, have those mentors have those moments in the office where you’re learning from people who are around you. So it did happen at an important time for our Gen. Z and as a result they really do want the the face to face as well as of course flexibility. But the relational supportive workplace culture is a high priority for our young people. The fact that Gen. Z would prefer text based communications and not pick up the phone is that holding their careers back. It can be a source of intergenerational conflict in the workplace because older generations, often their managers or bosses can be a bit perplexed, frustrated by did you call the client and they said, oh, I just sent them an e-mail, but did you call them? Because that might be the the normal way for their older generation. And it does build a different type of rapport when we talk to someone or meet them face to face than just what texts and and emails can do. So I think that it can create a bit of tension, but also yeah the the rapport that we can build if we do find that confidence to connect with someone beyond just a text, I can really strengthen our relationships with clients, Co workers and the like. So what’s the solution here and do all generations need to really come to the table on this? Yeah, I think it’s looking at using the right tools and communication methods for the right context. So sometimes it is more efficient to just use a digital based text or whatever, but there are times we’re actually building that relationship can be really valuable or what you can clarify over a phone or a face to face meeting can be so much more than the back and forth and the tone that can be missed and everything in in other forms of communication. So I think the opportunity is to teach our Gen. ZS offline into personal communication skills and don’t just assume that while they might be confident in some context that they have that same confidence offline, we need to actually explicitly teach them those skills.