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Your Employees — and Customers — Live in a Different World Now (Thinks Out Loud Episode 362)

Picture of hybrid team, some in the office, some on video conference, to illustrate how employees and customers live in a difference world now

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Have you heard about "quit quitting?" Do you think "kids these days" don’t want to work? Are you even a little bit frustrated by the way your employees approach their jobs? One more question: Do you think they’re to blame?

We live in a different world now. Your employees and customers live in a different world now, too. Thanks to years of economic uncertainty, digital transformation, and, I dunno, a global pandemic, your employees have decided some things are more important to them than the "same old, same old" when it comes to their employment experience. And, why shouldn’t they? We’ve been teaching customers for years to expect more, to get what they want, where they want, and when they want. Why would your employees act any differently?

The important questions are: A.) What are these changes? B.) What do they mean for your business? And C.) What can you do about it?

This episode of Thinks Out Loud takes a look at the fact that your employees — and customers — live in a different world now. And what you can do to make that world work for you, too.

Want to know more? Here are the show notes for you.

Your Employees — and Customers — Live in a Different World Now — Headlines and Show Notes

Show Notes and Links

Here are this week’s show notes for Thinks Out Loud with links and news related to this week’s episode. Be sure to check out all the links that matter for your business once you’ve given the episode a listen.

Free Downloads

We have some free downloads for you to help you navigate the current situation, which you can find right here:

Subscribe to Thinks Out Loud

Contact information for the podcast: podcast@timpeter.com

Past Insights from Tim Peter Thinks

You might also want to check out these slides I had the pleasure of presenting recently about the key trends shaping marketing in the next year. Here are the slides for your reference:

Technical Details for Thinks Out Loud

Recorded using a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Mic and a Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 (3rd Gen) USB Audio Interface into Logic Pro X for the Mac.

Running time: 19m 03s

You can subscribe to Thinks Out Loud in iTunes, the Google Play Store, via our dedicated podcast RSS feed (or sign up for our free newsletter). You can also download/listen to the podcast here on Thinks using the player at the top of this page.

Transcript: ### Free Downloads

We have some free downloads for you to help you navigate the current situation, which you can find right here:

Subscribe to Thinks Out Loud

Contact information for the podcast: podcast@timpeter.com

Past Insights from Tim Peter Thinks

You might also want to check out these slides I had the pleasure of presenting recently about the key trends shaping marketing in the next year. Here are the slides for your reference:

Technical Details for Thinks Out Loud

Recorded using a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Mic and a Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 (3rd Gen) USB Audio Interface into Logic Pro X for the Mac.

Running time: 21m 42s

You can subscribe to Thinks Out Loud in iTunes, the Google Play Store, via our dedicated podcast RSS feed (or sign up for our free newsletter). You can also download/listen to the podcast here on Thinks using the player at the top of this page.

Transcript: Your Employees — and Customers — Live in a Different World Now

Well, hello again, everyone, and welcome back to Thinks Out Loud, your source for all the digital expertise your business needs. My name is Tim Peter, this is episode 362 of the big show. Thank you so much for tuning in, I appreciate it so very, very much.

I think we’ve got a really, really cool show for you today.

"Employees Don’t Want to Work Today"

I just spoke with a group of Rutgers Business School students the other day, a group of dedicated, passionate, fired-up, entrepreneurial, brilliant young people. And I’ve been helping another company I work with, the plurality of whose employees are folks probably around 25 to 35-ish. Obviously it’s led by people who are older, and there’s people at all different age ranges, but again, the folks in that 25 to 35 age range who I’ve worked with, and who I see at lots of companies are, again, just dedicated and passionate and fired-up.

And it struck me how much we’re hearing people talk about how young people don’t want to work today. You’ve probably heard this. By the way, if you are in that age range and listening to the show, hang with me for a little bit. But I will fully acknowledge, I’m talking to people who might be a little bit ahead in their careers at the moment.

Are Your Employees Lazy?

I find this discussion odd because I don’t see it. Now, we do see changes among employees that we haven’t seen before, kind of, but I’ll come back to that. It’s just that the people I’m working with and the people that I see most of the time, I don’t see what folks are talking about.

What Does This Have to Do With Digital?

Now, before I go too deep, you may say, "Well, what does this have to do with digital? What does this have to do with marketing?" And the answer is "A lot."

And the reason that I say it’s a lot is twofold:

  • One, the people we’re talking about here are natively digital. These are the folks who have grown up with digital in their lives their entire lives.
  • The second reason that this is important is that these are not just your employees, they’re also your customers.

Switch from "Millennials" to "Adults Around 40"

And if you want to compete in this world today, you need to be able to work with both your employees and your customers. You need to be able to work with people in this younger age group. Whether we call them "adults around 40," —which is the term that I prefer —or if you want to call them millennials; if we start talking about Gen Z; these are the people who are the largest single working category among folks. When we talk about adults under 40 (or millennials), they are the largest single working category, they’re one of the largest demographic cohorts in the world and in the US.

And so they’re really, really critical to your business.

At Least Three Things May Have Changed

So I want to talk about what we’re running into here, and what I think might be happening. At least three things could be true:

  1. Let’s just get the obvious one out of the way. Maybe they really are lazy. I don’t think so, but let’s put a pin in that, we’ll come back to that.
  2. It also could be that maybe their expectations have changed.
  3. One final possibility is that maybe those of us who are Gen X or Boomers— or even later in your career if you’re still working—maybe we’ve forgotten what we were like when we were early in our careers.
    .
    I remember when I entered the workforce in a serious way, we’re talking about 1990 or thereabouts—I’m part of Gen X—I heard lots of similar things that we’re hearing today about my generation.

People Said the Same Things About Gen X

For those who don’t recall or weren’t there, we were literally called "slackers." There was a movie called Slackers that talked all about the Gen X generation and how we weren’t committed, we weren’t hardworking, all these different things. What the research at the time showed though was that actually we worked really hard. One study from 1999 stated that Gen X employees were, and I’m quoting,

"Flexible, adaptable, technoliterate. Yeah, they said technoliterate, I know, it was the nineties. What are you going to do? Sorry. "Technoliterate, information savvy, independent, entrepreneurial, and in perfect sync with the new just-in-time workplace."

That same study went on to say,

"We have found a generation devoutly self-confident and thoroughly convinced that the only source of success and security in their adult lives will be themselves."

I don’t know, man, any of that sounds familiar to you?

Younger Adults Live in the World As It Is

What I think is happening though is that most adults around 40—or millennials if you prefer, and younger adults—Gen Z—are living in the world as it is, not the world as it was.

They’re being flexible. They’re being adaptable. They’re being technoliterate. They’re being information savvy and independent and entrepreneurial. And they are in perfect sync with the world as it is. They’re playing by a different set of rules because that’s how the world works.

Digital has changed people’s expectations in terms of, "I can get things when I want, I can get what I want when I need to." That’s different, and it may be different than what we might have experienced when we were 25, but that’s nobody’s fault. The world changed. People should live in the world as it is.

Your Employees and Customers Live In the World As It Is Too

And we’ve seen it among employees to some degree—an increasing degree—and we’re seeing it among customers completely. And both of those matter.

Employers have a few options. If you’re an employer, you really have three choices available to you given this:

  • One, you can adapt. You can acknowledge that we’re in a different world and work to accommodate those changes.
  • Two, you can import more labor. Immigration potentially is an option. But A.) that’s not always easy, and B.) the current political climate in the US and many other countries right now is against it.
  • Or three, you can automate, you can acknowledge that we live in a different world and use technology to meet the needs of your customers.

Of course, there’s some sort of hybrid available there too, but the basic idea is going to lend itself towards moving in one of those directions or the other.

Marketers have only one option. Now, as a marketer, or someone in the business of creating a customer, you really only have one option. You’ve got to adapt.

Yes, you might use technology to improve your products and services, as we see things with DALL·E and GPT-3, you can use AI to create new ideas and the like, and I think we will see more of that, and I’m very bullish on what AI may do for us.

You also can’t ignore that your customers see the world differently than they might have done 5 years ago or 10 years ago or 15 years ago.

We’re going to need to adapt, both as marketers and as employees. I’m simply not convinced that "kids today," and yes, please, there are definitely air quotes around that phrase, are wrong necessarily. I might have a different worldview because of the time and place where I started my career than people who are starting their careers today, or started their careers within the last decade. It may not even make my worldview right and their worldview wrong, or their worldview right and my worldview wrong. It’s that we see the world the way we see the world.

Stage, Not Age

By the way, this may not be limited only to younger people. There’s a great book that I’ve been reading lately called "Stage, Not Age," and, as it says in the book title, it looks at how individuals’ behaviors are shaped by where they are in their life stage more than the age they might happen to be at any particular point.

Whether it’s stage or age, there is a whole group of people who’ve lived through some of the worst economic consequences we’ve ever seen. They’ve seen companies lay people off at a moment’s notice, they’ve seen many senior leaders at those same companies get paid huge bonuses, often as they’re laying off lots of people.

Don’t misunderstand, I’ve been in that role, the role of having to lay people off. Those businesses might be doing the right thing for the rest of their employees by laying off certain people and shifting their focus. We live in a world where things are changing rapidly. Sometimes you have to make cuts to set yourself up for future success. And those businesses might be doing the right thing by retaining and rewarding those execs.

How Customers and Employees Have Reacted to These Changes

At the same time, we have to acknowledge that’s causing plenty of other people, especially younger folks—who research shows value experiences and meaning in their lives over material goods—it’s causing them to say, "Why am I working so hard if I can just be thrown away?" They’re taking a more transactional approach to the workplace. By the way, they’re taking a more transactional approach as customers too. They’re saying, "I’ll give you exactly so much effort and output, in exchange, you, the company, give me a salary and benefit, and either of us can decide to break off our relationship at any time. We should be as equal as possible in our negotiations."

Now, you may say, "That sucks." You might say, "That’s not the way the world works." But look around it is. We are seeing this incredible shift, and we have to love every second of it, we do have to acknowledge it’s a different world.

Labor is tough to come by, especially in digital, and probably will be for some time. It’s what we’re seeing with so-called quiet quitting. Employees are asking for a mutually beneficial relationship, they’re just redefining mutually beneficial, and the term is taking on their meaning, not yours.

The Data is On Their Side

The data, by the way, is mostly on their side, especially in such a tight labor market. There’s a new study from a company called Remote that helps companies source remote workers, source people all around the globe, that shows people who work remote or hybrid see that as a key benefit, and are more satisfied than people who have to work in an office every day. They’re getting to balance that work-life experience in a way that makes more sense to them.

Speaking of the stage not age thing, by the way, that’s true regardless of the age of the employees. Older workers feel the same way, so we need to be thinking about the fact that to appeal to specific employees, to appeal to younger workers, to continue to grow our companies, we need to recognize we live in a different world, whether we want to or not.

Do You Really Think We’re Going to Change Their Minds?

Now, I told you earlier in the episode that if you’re in these younger generations, and I said, "Hang on, I’ll come back to you," here’s where you want to rejoin the conversation in a big way, because if we shift away from employees to customers, you really think we’re going to change their minds? Again, they’ve got the control, they’ve got lots of choices.

If we think about it in stage not age terms, you could focus on particular life stages, and it’s entirely possible those life stages have a point of view more aligned with what was traditionally seen as the norm. It’s certainly possible that they still think about the life and things the way they were. I would encourage you to think about two things though:

  • One, over time, younger people will enter those stages. They likely are going to maintain much of their current worldview when they get to those stages.
  • And two, while this doesn’t always happen, we’ve seen, over the last 10, 15, 20, 25 years, that older generations adopt the behaviors of younger customers as they get more comfortable with digital, and as they get more comfortable with mobile, as they get more comfortable with social. I’m not sure I would expect that to be any different this time around.

What Can You Do to Live In This World Too?

If this is the world we live in now, the question you should be asking is what can we do about it? Regardless of what you’re talking about, employees or customers, and I think there’s three things you want to think about.

Accept that the world has changed. One is, we have to accept that the world has changed. We live in a new normal, whether we want to or not. As the saying goes, "the first step is admitting you have a problem." We can agree or disagree on whether it’s a problem, that’s not really my point. My point is that you have to come to terms with the fact that this is where we are, our customers and our employees are, and I’m going to quote, remember, "Flexible, adaptable, technoliterate, information savvy, independent, entrepreneurial, and in perfect sync with the new just-in-time workplace. They live in the world as it is, and we need to accept that fact, regardless of how we may feel about that fact.

Adapt to the world as it is. We also need to adapt. If this is the world that we live in, we have to live in that world. Listen to your customers and your employees to find out what matters to them. Find ways to be flexible, whether it’s job sharing or remote work or flexible schedules, or other ideas along those lines that work for your employees, and demonstrate your values as a company.

Appeal to our employees’ and our customers’ values. And this is the last thing that we need to do, and it really ties directly into that, we need to appeal to our customers and to our employees values.

Missionaries and Mercenaries

There’s a great quote, John Doerr, the venture capitalist, once came up with, where he talks about appealing to mercenaries or missionaries when you build your company. The idea being mercenaries are those people who show up because you give them a paycheck, they show up because they’re paid to do so and then they leave.

Whereas missionaries are people who are committed to what you’re trying to accomplish. They want to get paid; it doesn’t negate everything we’ve been talking about today. It also means that they’re committed, they care. We know that people are looking for deeper meaning, they’re looking for companies that share their values.

But employees and customers can’t share your values if you are not clear on what those are. And it will be great, both for employees and for customers—for attracting and retaining them— if they understand what actually matters to you and what you’re about.

Conclusion: Your Employees — and Customers — Live in a Different World Now

So think about how you can accept that the world has changed. Think about how you can adapt to the world as it is, think about how you can appeal to your employees’ and your customers’ sense of values so that you’re attracting missionaries, not mercenaries.

If you can do all those things, you’re going to find your world has changed, but almost certainly for the better.

Show Credits

Now, looking at the clock on the wall, we are out of time for this week. I want to remind you that you can find the show notes for today’s episode, as well as an archive of all past episodes, by going to timpeter.com/podcast.

Again, that’s timpeter.com/podcast. Just look for episode 362.

Subscribe to Thinks Out Loud

Don’t forget that you can click on the Subscribe link in any of the episodes you find on timpeter.com to have Thinks Out Loud delivered to your favorite podcaster every single week. You can also find Thinks Out Loud wherever fun podcasts are found. Just look for us on Google Podcasts, Apple, Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, Overcast. You name it, we should be there. While you’re there, I would also very much appreciate it if you could provide a positive rating and review for the show.

Leave a Review for Thinks Out Loud

If you like what you heard today, if you like the show, if you want to hear more, it would mean so, so much to me and be so helpful to other listeners if you told them all about it. It helps them find the show, it helps them understand what we’re all about here, what our vision and values are. It helps get the word out and helps grow our community. It also would mean very, very much to me, so I appreciate that in advance.

Thinks Out Loud on Social Media

You can also find Thinks Out Loud on social media, just look for us on LinkedIn by going to linkedin.com/timpeterassociates, look for me on Twitter using the Twitter handle @tcpeter, and of course you can email me by sending an email to podcast@timpeter.com. Again, that’s podcast@timpeter.com.

Show Outro

With all that said, I want to say just one more time how much I appreciate you listening. It means so much to me. I know I say this week after week after week, but we live in a really weird world right now, lots of change going on, lots of uncertainty, lots of people struggling. It means so much to me that you take a minute or two out of your day, out of your week, out of your life, to spend that here with us at Thinks Out Loud, so thank you very, very much for doing so.

And with that said, I hope you have a terrific rest of the week. I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and I do look forward to speaking with you here on Thinks Out Loud next time. Until then, please be well, be safe, and as always, take care, everybody.

Tim Peter is the founder and president of Tim Peter & Associates. You can learn more about our company's strategy and digital marketing consulting services here or about Tim here.

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