The Generation of Z

Welcome back to Demoted. Episode 2. I'm Corporate Natalie. And I'm the enigma known as Corp. And if you don't know who we are, why the hell are you here? There's absolutely no reason for you to be here. Before we get into...

We're glad you are. We're so glad you're here. Thank you. Before we get into the episode, Ross, what do you hate? So it's like dessert season. Of course. And I'm a dessert guy. I got a sweet tooth. The answer is dry cake. well dry pound cake in particular but dry cake because as soon as the moisture is gone You've defrauded me. Of course. You've given me a bunch of empty carbs that I get no enjoyment for. So this is a piece of bread. This is a piece of bread. Yeah. This is a piece of bread.

Yeah. Okay. It might as well be matzah at that point. And do you have any kind of story or narrative or anecdote around? It's crazy you would ask. Dry pound cake? Because you do and I do. And it starts with a man named Rohan, but he played the character Raj in sales. And we were doing method acting during SalesRdub, so we just called each other by our character names when living at home in the frat house that we called our home for a month and a half in LA. It was nice.

Just a small little shanty, a little Airbnb. Culver City. Me and four boys. City of dreams. It was a frat house. It was horrible. You had the whole bottom floor yourself. I did have the whole bottom floor, but I still felt uncomfortable at all times. We put you down there in case if the murderers came in, they were never going to...

scale to the second floor. We knew we could hear you scream. We go out the window. We're good. I'm dead. Blood's everywhere. Fine. Good. So be it. Great. Sacrifice. Everyone talks about sacrifice. One night we come home from filming Back to Dry Pound Cake and We are exhausted. We have 12-hour film days. We're so hungry. We're ravished. Rohan goes, I can DoorDash us some food.

Great. That can't be too hard to do. That sounds amazing. I would love that, Rohan. Thank you for taking charge for once. Awesome. There's five hungry adults here. Feed us. So what does he do? DoorDash is here. Ding dong. Go to the door. Oh boy, food's here. I can't wait to eat. What are we eating? Oh!

7-Eleven. 7-Eleven. Motherfucker, DoorDash, 7-Eleven. Which I didn't even realize you could do. Down the street. It was down the street, actually, from our Culver City shanty. We could have walked. Could have walked. No, we didn't want taco trucks. We didn't want like Filipino food. Nice. LA cuisine something.

No. Why dip into that when 7-Eleven's right there? True. So we open it up, we're like, this couldn't get any worse. Seeing the 7-Eleven bags, didn't even know they have bags. Maybe got us some hot dogs, some of those cardboard pizzas. Little taquitos that are inedible. Fucking lunchable. Would have eaten anything. Oh. There's a pound cake. A couple bags. A couple pound cakes. Of sliced, just individual slices, individually packaged.

Dry pound cake. Dry pound cake. Well, you're looking at it. So the thing is, you were looking at it and like, oh, the plastic is like kind of sticking to it. You're like, oh, okay. A little condensation. This thing's breathing in there. Right. This thing's, yeah, this thing is alive quite possibly. Okay. And we open it up and you take a bite out of it. You're like expecting just some. Really bad for your really tasty, moist pound cake. And alas. It was dry.

It was dry. So that was dinner for us. That was dinner. Yeah. And that was the last time that Rohan doordashed. Yes. Also. Yeah. He was very apologetic for what it's worth. He offered to make us sandwiches. which all we had was

Mayonnaise. Yeah, bread and mayonnaise. So it would have been a mayo sandwich, which was also going to be a tough eat for us, I think, too. We said, we're good on the sandwiches. Thank you, though. We think I can door-dash some more food. Yeah. So I went to bed hungry, and we hate dry pound cake. Yeah, I hate dry pound. I love that. Very specific. What do you hate? Very specific. I hate good skiers. Oh. Recently came back from a little ski trip with some advanced.

skiers. Let me tell you that. They're double french frying all the way down the hill. They are so double french fry and they're like let's do a party run where I guess all of you and your ski friends go up to the tip top of a double blue. Double blue. That was what they chose as the party run. They do double blue now? My pizza was failing me. I couldn't even pizza down this thing. It was 90 degrees down. So you just go on your ass, you just sit on your butt and just...

You might as well put me in a straight jacket and hung me upside down. I mean, I couldn't do a goddamn thing. I'm on my butt, rolling down. I can't ski like this, guys. That's not fun. I may have bought $2,000 of gear and rented these sick-ass skis, but don't be fooled. Yeah. I can't ski. That's not even the point. That's not the point. It's kind of like golf. It's all about looking. It's not how you look. It's not how you ski. No.

So I hate good skiers and I hate them because I hate them. Truly. Honest jealousy. I'm a good skier, but I hate skiing. Okay. I just think it's a waste of time and a waste of money. Why am I putting on cement blocks on each foot and walking around? Why am I suffering? Why am I suffering? I'm paying so much money to suffer. Right. And then what? I blow out my ACL and then I'm a sad boy for a year.

then you have a fugly brace for a year. Right. And I can't work it out. It's miserable. Okay. Disgusting. Great. Good scares. Demoted.

Welcome back to Demoted. Welcome to Demoted. Let's do it. Let's get into it. What are we talking about today? I think we are talking about the generation of Z. Gen Z. Gen Z in the workplace. We love them. We hate them. Why we hate them. Are they lazy? Yep.

pieces of shit. Also, if this gets waterboarded, this mic, by my snot because I'm that sick, I apologize. It's good to be sitting mere three feet from you. You know, it's not COVID, so I'm allowed to breathe anywhere I want. That's true. Legally speaking.

Standing near you with my mouth wide open. Wide open. Yeah. I'm spraying. I'm so, so liquid right now. I wish we had a little plexiglass divider. Six feet apart. God, gosh. Well, we should probably at least preface with our... well, who we are and where our thoughts come from on the generation. let's do it so so ross you are a millennial a proud millennial so freaking proud yeah that's why we're not showing the back of your head yeah you're mid-30s you're proud of it

You play in your intramural baseball league. I still got it, but I don't. You almost don't, though. And that's okay. You're a millennial.

Tell me how you would define a millennial. To me, a millennial... is someone who remembers 9-11. Okay. To be honest. Okay, kind of a morbid description, but I have heard that before. But also, like, remembers pre-internet days. Like, I remember getting the... I mean, like, whoa, this is crazy. I can, like, talk to people. What does getting the internet mean? So we had AOL, America Online, if you will, and it had the classic dial-up.

And then by the way, that was not a sound bite. I just did that with my mouth. Anyway, I do remember playing an online game called Silent Death. That's why I'm so cool. It's basically you build spaceships and then you fight other people online. And the whole game was like... Build hourly. And I was like, oh yeah, what are the bill collectors going to do? Show up to my house and be like, that'll be $100. They can't get me. I'm in the house. I'm safe. I'm safe.

And that's where I learned how the internet works. My parents got a $500 bill for something called, listed on the bill, a silent D. They're like, what, Ross, what is silent D? And I was like, oh. fuck yep so that's also how i learned how credit cards work too totally learn the hard way that was a tough l i think You know, did you ever play with a stick and a sheet and call it a fork?

Yeah. Do you have imagination? I have a tremendous amount of imagination. And I think that is also another centerpiece of the... The millennial human. We play this game called Dirt Wars in the backyard. So I grew up in Atlanta. Let's just throw that out there. I didn't know this about you. Which is a full-ass city, by the way. Love it. It's not some backwards-ass town.

This was a backwards-ass activity. So we went back and we had a forest in our backyard and we dug trenches as any Civil War veterans would do. Of course. And we literally just launched dirt at each other. Love that. So my friend Nate, he was like 6'4". I was like 4'10". Yeah. And so he got to have the shovel.

So Nate was a huge advantage because he would just shove the shovel in the ground with a huge piece and then launch it like a catapult. Just bury you alive. Bury you alive. Yeah. There was a time where I hit a rock in a dirt ball. I pump fake my brother. He ducked right when he came back up, right in the forehead, little rock. He went down in a squeal.

He came back, took the shovel, and tried to kill me with it. But, you know, that's like stuff. But that's just good. That's kids being kids. That's millennial kids. Yeah, if you weren't almost murdered by your own sibling, were you a millennial? No. I remember, and I'll get into the fact that I'm a cusp of millennial, but I remember when my parents got a new fridge in that box.

Oh, my God. My brother and I had so much fun playing with a cardboard box. Oh, yeah. That was a fort. That was a house. That was a hotel. Yep. I mean, like, literally, it became... What do kids do with cardboard these days? Nothing. Recycle it? Recycle it.

They do nothing fun. No. No imagination. I would define myself as a cusp millennial. You were born on what date? What year were you born? April 3rd, 1997. Which I think... technical definition. I think you... Yeah. Am I? Generation Z comprises people born between 1996 and 2010. That would put you one year into Gen Z. Okay, so... I don't know who wrote this stat here. Talon, our producer. There is a source, but I can't click it because this is paper. Because we're millennials. Okay.

It's not working. Here's the thing. Here's what I define as cuss millennial and the difference between me and other Gen Z. Right. Why you can talk shit to Gen Z. Why I'm allowed to talk a little bit of shit. Yeah. Did you start work BC? before COVID or AC after COVID. And I started work BC and I got a little bit of that taste, that sweet, sweet taste of sweating on my way to the office, grinding in an office setting, traveling across the country as a consultant.

And to me, that differentiates me. from the Gen Z who did college a little bit online, starting in a hybrid space. You'll never know what it was like. Right. You'll never know. You'll never know. these kids. And so I have a little chip on my shoulder because of that. Because you actually went to an office. I went to an office. You were forced to because that's how life was. Because that's what you had to do. Can you imagine being forced into an office?

Our entire lives. The audacity. Yeah. Our poor dads. Yeah. I mean, I mean, that's how it was. That's just what you did. You grow up, you go into business, you go into the office. Stay at the job for 60 years, you retire. Get that pension? Yeah. Retire. Done. I didn't like that anymore, unfortunately. I've had like four jobs and I'm 26. God, shit's all fucked up. I saw this thing on...

God, I can't believe I'm bringing it up. I think it was Barstool. They did a little bit. So like a really good historical, super prestigious, like, I don't know, publication, if you will. Anyway, they had a clip of this comedian. Her name is Eliza. Schlesinger.

That's what her name was. And she wanted this massive rant about explaining to Gen Z who millennials are. There is a bit of a rivalry of millennial and Gen Z. I don't think it's as pronounced as us against the boomers. That's a pretty gnarly one. And we can get into that too. But she basically said... She's like, we're not your parents, us being millennials. We're your older siblings who taught you how to smoke weed out of an apple.

and that's facts that's yeah that's facts that makes sense we got trauma too we're all fucked up because we saw what it was like before yeah and now we're living in it now and so we got a little perspective and it's and it's you know It's one of those things that I do take pride in. I do take pride in. But let's be clear.

Gen Z was dealt a tough hand. Yes, yes. And so let's get into a little Gen Z in the workplace. I'm asked to speak a lot at HR conferences. Ask about Gen Z. They don't ask me to speak at HR conferences. No, you're not HR friendly. I don't think I'm allowed at those conferences. I don't think you're allowed. But like, what does Gen Z want? How do we attract Gen Z talent? We can't understand them. And I think the main thing is, is Gen Z lazy? Big question. Big question. Lazy, entitled.

Brats. Brats. Selfish. And I think Ross would have some opinions on this. But I think much like a fraternity, it's like we view Gen Z, I'll say we, I'll play Gen Z, but like we view Gen Z as we went through it so you have to. We went through hazing. the corporate hazing the corporate life so now you have to and we hate that they got almost the out yeah from that yeah i think that's fair uh you know i

I do think there is something to be said for going through it. Not to say like... I'll start by saying I can't imagine growing up with social media. I feel very fortunate that I didn't really have any sort of social media platforms until... Kind of in college. Yeah. Kids getting cyberbulleted at eight years old on Snapchat. Like, what the fuck? Of course I'm going to grow up all fucked up. Totally. And so...

That being said, I don't think they're necessarily entitled. I think they just want better. They want better. And that's fair to ask. And that's fair to want. But it also doesn't preclude them from needing to go through some... Some jobs suck. In fact, no job is perfect and there's a lot of shitty parts about

dope-seeming jobs. We do a bunch of shitty shit. That sucks. Totally. Everyone's like, oh man, it must be so cool to like be... You just film and... Yeah, you're creating money and just like, yeah, except I hate myself every day and I've got all these emails and I've got all this like... We're a two-person company.

So we do all the bullshit. We do the front office, the back office. And I think we have it pretty great. Let's say it as it is. Totally. There's shit in every job. We have it great. I wouldn't trade it for anything but.

There's something to be said for part of going through the struggle. I don't think everybody has to go through a struggle to be something. But I still maintain if everybody was in sales for six months, their perspective on life would change drastically. Getting absolutely torn apart on cold calls. Making cold calls in the first place. I do think some of that stuff...

Some uncomfortable stuff is growth. That's what I think. Yeah. And there's a bit to be said for like grit. Yes. Which I think you as like a young baseball lad might. I did win that grit award. You won the grit award of course in the last episode. But like the coach that sort of. makes you the player you are and I go back and forth on this because my college coach was, for lack of a better term, a fucking asshole.

And I will say for what it's worth, I got pushed physically to a point that I, and mentally to a point that I never would have reached otherwise. Like short of going into ROTC training or like military training. Yeah. Holding out buckets of water to the side and getting sprayed by a power hose. Does that make you a better baseball player? No. That's literally torture. That's literally torture. Now, at the time, I was miserable. Looking back on it, I was also miserable.

And I'm not saying everyone should get waterboarded by their coach or pressure hosed, whatever you want to call it. But I can look back on that and say like, I'll never be pushed to that point again. Probably for the rest of my life. And I like knowing that I've seen what my upper limit can be. Yeah. That's terrifying. It was terrifying. Truly terrifying. And so stupid and useless. And I broke my back playing baseball. Oh my gosh.

My friend Victoria Garrick does a lot of speaking on mental health of college athletes, which I think we'll talk about college in a future episode.

horrible. And for women, the body image stuff, there's so much that goes into it. And I think now, back to tie it back to gen z it's like you really can't get away with that at all And maybe it's for the better, truly. I don't think anyone should be. Yeah, I mean, there's a line, right, of like suffering, but at the same time.

You know, if you're asked to go back to the office and commute for 15, 20 minutes, like that's not so bad. You should look at that as like, okay, that's totally fine. Yeah, that's pretty reasonable. Like imagine you're starting a company. Do you want the people who you're working with to be around you or not? And again, I'm not sitting here and saying five days a week back in the workplace.

But a hybrid sort of situation, if I'm running a company, that's probably what I would do. And I sound like a crazy, scary boomer. What do you think as a cusper? I have an employee and we are together like probably two days a week usually. Work from home but work from your home. Work from my home. It's quite a comfortable office life. There are no snacks. I do think... There is something to be said for in-person time that virtual just hasn't quite mastered. Right, so does your employee like...

When does she get outdoor time? When does she get out of the cage? She sleeps in my bed and then I unlock the cage usually at 6am. For feeding. For feeding time. But she loves it. That's not funny. Someday she gets food, someday she doesn't. It depends how she's behaving.

No, but I think in person time it is good. Let's share some anecdotes we've heard and maybe experienced about Gen Z in the workplace. And this doesn't apply to all Gen Z. Right. Please don't be sensitive. Right. Here are some things that I hear in my DMs about Gen Z in the worst place. So when asked to come in for an 8 a.m. meeting, my Gen Z new hire said, ugh, sorry, I can't make it. I have a workout class. Should this be allowed?

My visceral reaction was, are you fucking kidding me? No, fully, like, angered, typing this out. I was like, please. Like my hand's shaking and it's not from the ca- You just started this job. I don't give a flying shit about your workout class. Also, an 8 a.m. workout class is too late. Work out at 6, maybe 7. Or after work if you're not a morning person. Completely. I mean, okay, so like...

The argument here, right, is, okay, working out is good for my mental health, and mental health is important. Of course. I fully believe it. Mental health is a huge thing. We've talked about this. I go to Kyle. I got therapy today. Ross has a hard out at one. I do have a hard out at one. I got to be there. I'll pay for an hour, but I only get 50 minutes. That's how it goes. That's how it goes. But yes, I think like, and we'll go into our tips here in a moment.

To monopolize your calendar for things that I would consider to be personal time. That's going to be a no for me, dog. You're not really allowed to do that when you're first starting your career. I'm sorry. No. Like, you're... We talked about sacrifice before this podcast started. Yeah. We were talking more about sacrificing, like the practice of sacrificing people to the gods, but... That was different, yeah. That was totally different. That was totally different. But this sacrifice is...

Look, you're going to have to give up some things. Yeah. And especially when you're getting started. Here's an experience that I witnessed. I was speaking at a little college called Harvard. I think it's pronounced Havard. I don't know if you've heard of it. I don't really read down lists, but I think it's the one at the bottom. I always stop at the top. Okay, okay. Yeah, sure, sure, sure. So I'm speaking for the undergraduate women in business group, and they are hosting high schoolers.

They're Gen Z. The audience is mostly high schoolers and some undergrad women. Yes, they will be Gen Z. So I printed out a thing for us that actually defines all. Okay. So they will be, so if they're high school, they are gen.

Gen Z is anyone like... 15, 16, 17... 11 to 26. Yeah, okay, great. So myself included, I'm 26. Perfect. So... That was my whole point of telling you that. I am speaking. I'm speaking before the CEO of Charlotte Tilbury, who gave a mind-blowing... just talk and you just gotta follow that up i just no i thank god i was before okay but i'm speaking and in the front left row there are five girls who are asleep sleeping on each other talking on their phones resting. You've been invited to Harvard.

for this talk. You have been selected. There's an application process. Natalie is speaking. Are you shitting me? And I am speaking. No, not even what I'm saying. You could totally tune me out. You could sit there and be thinking about anything you want. Have some imagination again. But... Sleeping, I thought that was just the most, like, you are not going to go anywhere in life with that attitude. It's so disrespectful. Disrespectful. I think every generation would.

Right? That's tough. Did you call them out? No, because it felt so professional. So what do you two young lasses, the sleeping ones, what do you guys think about this? And then if I say something, it's like... I had a long flight and I'm tired. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Great. Dog, we all tired. So that I would consider lazy. Sorry. Yeah. Well, I think that's, I don't think anybody's going to argue whether or not that was.

lazy or just inappropriate or just offensive. Here's another one. When asked to take notes for a meeting, I noticed Nicole wasn't typing a single note on her laptop. After I asked her where are the notes, she said, sorry, note taking something I'm really working on getting better at. Huh? What? Just write shit down. I mean, my notes are awful for what it's worth. My note here was just like...

They expect to be allowed to make so many mistakes. Yeah. And expect you to be like, oh, okay. Oh, you're learning how to take notes. Got it. Got it. It's growth mindset. Growth mindset. But don't you think it's like... Even if you're typing nothing, pretend. Yeah, I... Something. Put something on the paper. It's just like a little effort. Half the battle in school is turn something in. Right? You know? Just turn something in and teachers are like, alright. Well, fuck.

They tried. Just try. Literally. That was business school. Just turn something in. It took me way too long to figure that out. You don't have to share your ranking. Yeah. It's just internalized. You just know where it is. Live with it for the rest of my life. Yeah. Stanford, for anyone listening, Stanford Business School or Ross Attenda does not.

uh reveal great disclosure they call it great non-disclosure yeah so so you can go and literally just fuck around for two years yeah you could ask me what i got in school and i i'd be like legally i just can't legally i can't tell you i'm So if you want to be a Stanford douchebag like Ross, legally I can't tell you. Legally I can't tell you. Yeah. It wasn't great, though. It wasn't bad. Honestly, it was better than you would have thought, but it also wasn't good.

I had fun. You go for the network. You go for the network! One more thing is, just on anecdotes, constantly being asked to get paid more, but not changing behaviors or doing more or taking on more work or having a justification as to why.

Yeah, and I think that last piece is super important, is the justification. Yeah. It's like, come with a plan. I got a DM. My Gen Z new hire started her new job three months ago and asked for a raise on our one-on-one. When I asked, why do you think you deserve a raise? She had nothing to respond besides needing to better her current lifestyle.

What? Yeah, that's going to be a no from me, dog. Did I ask about your current lifestyle? Oh, shit. See, what I didn't realize was your current lifestyle. God, you want to join Equinox? Yeah. Oh. How much would you say you want? Can I write a check right now with that help? Yeah. How's a million dollar sound? What? I don't know. You have to, and you learn this in business, but you have to have a problem statement.

And then a why and a solution. I love being a problem identifier. Yeah. I can identify the shit out of a problem. I can identify so many problems. You have to solve it. Well, I'd rather just whine. Okay, so that was a little rant from some followers.

Is Gen Z lazy? I'm not sure. Anything to add on the potential negativo side? No, I mean, I just... I hear and I see and I understand, like, why that perception is there. And I think... Let's be honest, there's those people in Millennials and Boomers and Gen X and so on and so forth. My little anecdote was you know, filming videos in a, in an office for the longest time was a side hustle for seven years was a side hustle. So it was like, I'd go in mornings.

Or, excuse me, nights and weekends, early mornings on a weekend to go film. And people will be like, hey, man, how can I be one of your videos? It'd be so cool. I'm like, sweet. Yeah, I need people. I need bodies. So how's 7 a.m. on Saturday sound? Oh, shoot. Yeah, so my friend's birthday is, like, Friday night, so we're, like, raging. We're renting out, bar none. Yeah, RIP. And, yeah, I can't get there until, like, 1030. Is that cool?

No, we'll be done. Fucking no, that's not cool. We'll be done. Fucking no, that's not cool. And even if we're not done. Even if we're not done, like. I don't know, that's just one of those things, if you want something bad enough, you'll just do whatever you need to do to get it. You'll make whatever sacrifices you need to make. And that being said...

Where the disconnect comes to me is just that, like I mentioned earlier, Gen Z is trying to push for something better. They're just trying to call the bullshit, like the things... We're always, we're kind of, and I'll say, I'll speak for myself because you are Gen Z. These anecdotes are about me, actually. I did all these things. You did these things. But you've changed. You've reformed. I've changed. The way things have always been done. just doesn't, that's just not it.

It ain't it. And it can't be it. We're in a whole new world. You're BC. you know, or I guess AC now, after COVID. Are we after? After COVID and after Christ. And among, and among it. And among it. I have it right now. Yeah, great. And I will too. So that is, that was sharing is caring.

And that's generational. Exactly. I think, yeah, some positives because we're not just... I think they are able to adapt to any sort of work setting. They did college online, which I cannot imagine how tough and honestly sad that reality must have been, too.

take your tests online not have that camaraderie of going into class maybe even have to go home during college and stay with your parents like very sad reality like right in the middle of it too you know you're like making your friends things are starting to get easy for you and then boom all of a sudden covid hits like

This is my little anecdote. Imagine this times 100. In business school, we left for spring break and never came back. Yeah. You didn't even get to say goodbye. So sad. And so like to do that in undergrad. That's a good one, whatever, fucking business school, fine. But undergrad, I don't know, high school? Such formative years. Truly. Yeah.

So they are able to adapt to any setting. If you say we're remote, they're great. If you say we're hybrid, sure. They're ready to do that because they did that in one of the most formative years of their life. Interesting stat. So Gen Z currently makes up 30% of the world's population and is expected to account for nearly 30% of the workforce by 2025. So that's a large piece of the workforce.

Yeah. Yeah. Especially if you want to keep underpaying them. You know? You got to meet them where they're at. Meet them where they're at. That's what I always said. And only 45% of Gen Z's describe their mental health as excellent or very good, which is actually a little higher than I would have thought. But that means, you know.

less, like, over half are not good. Not good. Straight up not having a good time right now. Not happy at all. Yeah. Any stats around social media? I think one thing I would say just generally is Gen Z is very, they grew up in this digital world. I think you can hire a Gen Z and they can help transform your marketing department, get you on TikTok, understand TikTok trends. I don't have it on here. It was either 96 or 98. I don't know why I didn't put it on there.

Yeah, just very fluent in the social media space. So that's another positive. Well, a less positive one, but this kind of goes on. The vein of hiring and retaining Gen Z. 40% of Gen Z say they plan on leaving their job in the next two years. 40%. Wow. That's Deloitte, by the way. No one's staying. No one is staying. No one's staying because no one's meeting where they're at.

Right? Like 3 in 10 don't feel like they'll be financially secure at any point. 77% are more likely to click on a job opening that mentions the word flexibility. Wow. so like that so just mention it mention flexibility even if it's not true yeah yeah super flexible you just gotta be here five days a week you're just in office five to six days saturday sunday yeah maybe saturdays if you need to only if you need only if you need to yeah so i

Oh, here's one more on that. 70% of Gen Z say they'll look for another job if their employer requires them to be in office full.

70% that is I am super against office full-time. I really think we're in it. I would say I am too. I think we're in a space where Friday is You should be able to work from home or one day from home. And I come from consulting where we actually work from home most Fridays because you'd be traveling for four days. Right. You're still on the move. You're still going somewhere. I think you just need that little bit of flexibility.

Up to four days is great. I'll stand with Gen Z on that one. No, I will too. And it's just because the world has become... work and life are melding so hard nowadays so much work is being done from home so much of life has always been and is still being done at home it's it's kind of like if i'm an employer i just want my people to get their job done

If they want to go above and beyond, that's up to them. But within the realm of their job requirements and responsibilities, if they get it done, I don't care when they get it done as long as it's on time and up to whatever standard that needs to be. That's it. So why force them to be somewhere they don't need to be if they don't need to be there? Yeah, and the principle of just sitting in the office the day after Christmas.

Because that's how we've always done it. I will say those are really fun days to be in the office because nobody's around. I never took time off during the holidays because Nobody was working anyway, so it was basically time off anyway. Yeah, why not? So you had to go in on the 26th? Well, in sales, the year closes on the 31st. You are grinding to get there at the end. So you kind of got to be, it's like all the sales teams in there.

You know, everybody's working, kind of half-day working out during the middle of the night. Oops. Crazy. But we're all in the office, like, just hoping and praying that shit works out. Yeah. Pretty fun times. That does sound fun, but also if you want to go to maybe Hawaii with your family. Also. I would be down to do that. If you want to do that, go do that. It's a little bit harder in sales just because of the calendar year and Q4 usually aligns with the end of the year. That makes sense.

If you didn't tune into episode one, a segment that is tried and true for Corp and I is promoted or demoted, as you see what the podcast is called. It's a segment where we list, for this episode, it'll be Gen Z lingo. Just a random grouping of things. I can't wait to learn. And we will promote it or demote it. Yep. Right? Do we like it? Do we hate it?

Pretty simple. We'll try to justify why we feel a certain way about a word. You may not agree, and that's fine. You're wrong. Basically, we'll say how we feel about it, and you better feel the exact same way. Yeah. Okay? Like, comment, subscribe. Bye. I love slay. I'm shocked you like slay. I know. It's because, again, I'm a nerd. Dungeons and Dragons. I think about slaying dragons.

Oh, of course. And so I think just being used outside of that context to me is always funny. Always funny because you've been using it. You've been rocking it since Dr. Death or whatever. In quite literally a different realm. But yes. You wouldn't understand. You'll never get it. Not where we be coming from. So, I love Slay. I think At the right time, out of nowhere, it always catches me off guard.

Okay. For a man, that's great. I walked out of the house today and I was like, Annie, am I slaying or what? I just feel like I'm slaying right now. And I hear the word and I'm just like, I'm cheesing. I'm slay.queen. Slay.queen.jpg. Perfect. Okay. All right. How about it's giving?

This one I struggle to understand a little bit more. It took me so many tries. It's so hard to grasp. And it feels so out of context every time you say it because grammatically it doesn't make sense. Right. It's giving, we're recording a podcast.

Or we're recording a podcast, right? That would be how you would say that. Right, right. We are recording because that's quite literally what we're doing. Yeah, that's what we're doing. Or dare I say giving? People will say it's giving and they stop. And I'm like, Oh, that's even harder. When it's just giving. When it's just giving. Yeah, thanks. What is it giving? What is giving what? Who's getting the give? To whom? Right. Tough. Throws me off. On God.

I love. Promoted. Promoted. Promoted so hard. Such a dude thing. Such a dude. Oh, God. Oh, God. I like heard these. God, I heard these little kids, I went to a high school football game, sports and stuff, and I heard these kids arguing and genuinely the kid was like, Guys, I'm serious. Like, oh, God. No, oh, God. No, oh, God. I'm dead ass. I'm dead ass. Oh, God. Oh, God. And I heard that. I was.

dying because i always i say i'm god as a joke yeah it has to be all of these have to be a joke right have to be there's no other way and they're definitely not in most contexts no and this little kid he was like this 10-year-old little white kid with some changes being like, oh, God. His face turning red. He's so angry. He was so mad. His hormones just firing. Good kid. Here's the one that I think you love. Touch grass. Oh, my God.

I heard this one recently. Please use it in a sentence for the viewers. Someone might say, I have a level 60 character in Warcraft. And then someone might say to me, that's a true statement. Someone might say, hey, why don't you go touch grass, nerd? Okay. And I'll be like... How many video game references from this point on in the podcast will we be receiving from you? I'm just curious. So we could do like kind of a mid-pod check-in. Maybe a hundred. Okay, a hundred more.

It's a reference to nerds. Go outside. Go play Dirt Wars in the backyard. Go launch Shovelful. At each other's faces. Like a goddamn millennial. Yeah, do it. Go touch grass. I love it. Go touch the fucking grass. I love it. I forget to touch grass sometimes.

This is one I use for you all the time. How about queen? Love queen. I call you king. Queen hits. Queen, king. Promoted. Promoted. Oh my god, we haven't promoted or demoted these. They're all promote. Oh, these are all promote. Yeah. How about that's unhinged? I don't like it. I don't like it. It's unhinged.

It feels like a reach. It feels like it's trying too hard to just find a word that feels... It's giving. It's trying too hard, you know? Yeah. No, no. It is giving that it's trying too hard. I'm going to demote. I'm going to demote. That's unhinged. What about Delulu? Okay. See, I wanted to ask you about Delulu because...

There's no way in fucking hell I would ever use that. Not a goddamn chance would I ever say Delulu. Wouldn't be caught dead saying Delulu. What is she, Delulu? What, so she's Delulu? Sorry guys, I'm just a little Delulu today. Like, I can't even say it. Sorry, I'm out of my goddamn mind. I'm Delulu. I'm so Delulu from this COVID. Yeah, I think it's never going to be used.

By me. And it will be used in my Gen Z feedback series because it's so, it seems so foreign. It is so outrageous. But yeah, I'm going to have to demote it. That's a hard demote for me. What about Riz? Do you understand Riz? Yeah. Okay. And it might be my number two. Number two to touch grass or on God. Yeah. Okay. Number two to on God. I love Riz. Because when I finally learned, I was like, okay, Riz, short for charisma. charisma slash like

sort of game. They got game. Like with the ladies. Like, oh, he's a Riz master. Right. I love that. The Rizler. Yeah, exactly. Yes. Fucking Riz cracker over here. So we love Riz. I am just promoting that to the top.

and it's funny because the videos you'll see on tiktok of like this man's riz is insane it's like some nerdy high school dude and you're like what it's like did you see that eye contact his riz is unreal yeah exactly exactly i love that my mom was asking me what it meant and i finally i was like i actually knew what it meant yeah god that felt cool god that felt good i felt really good

Huge promote. Make Riz CEO as far as I'm concerned. Love it. Love it. Okay, so a lot of those were actually promoted. I was promoted or demoted. Today was a good day. We were in a good mood today. We weren't that negative. No. You know, we only hate a couple things as we do every episode. Good for us. That's okay. Why don't we shift to something valuable? A takeaway.

a takeaway a few takeaways a few what's our advice that we would give to gen z and we'll give a little disclaimer here we're not We're veteran lazy pieces of shit. Like, we love being lazy. Work smarter, not harder. Work smarter, not harder. We're not grinding. We will cut corners if we can. If we can, we will always cut corners. Right. Like, absolutely. So...

We've been doing the lazy thing for a while. I'm sorry, Gen Z, this became your brand, but we'll give you some pieces of advice as... Just hide it better. Just hide it better. Hide it, right? What are you doing? Exactly. Okay. Here's one thing. So track your achievements and your accomplishments, micro and macro.

So that when you go to that conversation to ask for more money, when you go into that performance review, you can say, I've actually done these things and I led that client call and I did this deliverable with very few revisions or whatever it may be. And so you have this little arsenal of... things that genuinely, pen to paper, you are good at and you have done well. Yes, 100% agree. It took me...

three or four years into my career before I started doing this because I kind of assumed, I was like, oh, all the deals I've closed. There's a story behind every deal. You can't assume anything. No one is looking at you. Right. And no one knows. Right. No one, everyone, you know.

guys, our egos are huge. No one's thinking about us more than us. So, you know, I didn't start tracking my deals until four years into my career. And then I realized, wait a second, all my data gets lost when I change companies or whatever. Now I've got this whole like...

I can go back in time and look like, oh yeah, shit, that was a crazy one. There's my story behind it. The one that you put on your resume that I had to review last week. Yes. Q, what was it? 3-2016. Q-3-2016. He's still talking about it. Big quarter for you, boy. Sorry about it. Sorry about it. Okay, mine is, I'll call it defensive scheduling, but I think it's just kind of a schedule everything in your life as much as you can.

I love scheduling. For someone like me who's very chaotic and all over the place. Now, I do have help with this. She's sitting really close to me. But whether it's like, whether it's your free time, schedule your free time. You know, if you're someone who's like, oh, I don't know what I want to do for like four hours, block off four hours and just stay busy. Yeah. You know, schedule your workouts. Do you think it needs to be like...

Is it busy? Do you want to know what you're doing in that time? Do you know if that's productive time or that's lazy time? It's both. It's everything. Schedule your lazy time. But it's blocked. It's like, I know my Sunday from this time to this time. I'm not going to do shit.

shit. I don't know what I'm going to do during that not doing shit time. But it's not going to be shit. It's not going to be shit. It may be painting warhammers like something super productive. Exactly. And what's a warhammer for the audience? A warhammer. Okay, ignorance. Warhammer is a game played with action figures that you glue together, and then you paint, and then you play Massive.

It's like a role-playing game, but on a board. Okay, so this is another millennial nerd thing. I think we have to caveat that you're not just the everyday millennial, you're actually the millennial nerd. People used to bully me. And now he has a platform to combat that. Look at me now! You like me now, Alex? You're gonna bully me now? What are you going to say about that, Alex?

Okay. Here's mine. If you finish a task quickly, you don't have to announce it immediately. As fun as that is. As fun as it is to shout it to the hills and as great as you are, maybe sit on it for a bit. Think through it. I used to want to... get things done so quickly and like quickness was my number one metric for success. And it would actually take my boss longer to review my work.

One, because there'd be so many errors because I'm blowing through with my dyslexic brain just thinking that it's right. Fucking shit up. And then you actually get more work when you get things done immediately. You're constantly open and available for more work and that's not smart.

Yes. Right? Correct. Do the task in a normal amount of time. You don't have to be Lightning McQueen. Yeah. I mean, maybe at an internship, if you're really bored and you actually just need something to do, you can push down that route. But yeah, I agree. You do not need to be...

the master guzzling like a fire hose all your tasks like you said you're just going to get more work you're not going to get paid more nope though I suppose the counter argument to that is if you could do that for a period of time and then like say I want

You can document it. Well, it's just more like the rapid, almost manic, like, I'm done. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, that's more the tip. Like, of course, get your work done and do things and continue to ask how you can help and stuff. But don't buzz through tasks unnecessarily. We don't need to know how successful.

you're so quick like no one cares about your quickness yeah because there's your co-worker is going to be slower and they're doing just fine yep yep exactly all right mine is show up from time to time and or be memorable This goes back to, I mean, this is just fundamentally true. The more FaceTime you get around, superiors in your office, bosses, managers, like direct whatever. The more time you can be around them, the more likely you are to get promoted. I'm sorry. That's just what it is.

squeaky wheel gets the oil. Yeah, and like when people are writing, especially in this new remote environment, when managers are like, who should we promote? They're not necessarily staring at a roster of everybody there and be like, they like go with what comes to mind. Like, oh, that person's number one on Learboard. He was in the office. Oh yeah, this person. I've met them a few times. They have good EQ. They're like a...

They just come to the top of their mind. I love this tip. It's so true. And just be around when you can. I'm not saying go in five days a week. But choose your opportunities. If people aren't going in, then you should go in. Why? Because you can go grab lunch with your boss's boss.

Yes. And not always, but selectively showing up. And if you have the option of like, oh, we're going to do a team event on Wednesday, you know, it'd be nice for you to come in, but of course not mandatory. A lot of companies are doing this. Go in. Just go. It's not that hard. Right. And like, you know, it's part of your job and all it will do.

It's quite literally an investment in your professional success. Yeah. It can only do help unless you get too drunk, which we'll talk about later. We will talk more about that later. Last thing is just understanding the difference between burnout and a few late nights in the office. I think we overused Gen Z and Millennial and everyone in between were overusing the word burnout right now. It kind of came out of COVID when we were really burnt out. There was no separation between work and home.

And I think we're overusing it a bit. And we need to understand that there can be a few late nights in the office. And it's busy season. You're in audit, whatever it may be. It's the end of quarter for sales. And that's okay to have those late nights and those tough weeks. And that's not burnout. That's not 365 days of I'm miserable. Like I can't do this anymore. That's just a tough week.

And they're good for you. Know the difference. They're good for you. Yeah, I mean, I don't think I could have said it better. Thanks. Wow, I'm so eloquent. Let's introduce this new segment. That Ross named beat off a dead horse. Well, the office. The off is in brackets. Beat a dead horse. Beat a dead horse. Beat it off however you want. Hard to do, but you can do it.

Give it a try. A little magic. It's where we go back and forth on bits or scenarios. Sort of like we do in our videos, almost. And bringing it to life. Some sort of skit form. In a sort of skit form. And so this week, we'll be playing, much like my Gen Z series, the Millennial Bosses, giving feedback to a Gen Z new hire who maybe got a little too drunk at the company happy hour. Why'd you do that?

Right. Why'd you do that? So we wrote a couple of ways we would deliver this feedback. We wrote a couple. Ross, would you like to start? Sure. So when you stumbled over to our CEO after the all hands meeting and proceeded to give him some unsolicited advice on how he should run the company. Maybe wait until after your first week.

So true. They know best. They know best. When you asked Sandra, our VP, if she wanted to hit your pineapple flavored vape at the bar, perhaps sharing isn't caring with this particular device. If it's me, you can share. Yeah, of course, with Ross, please. Just huff it down. Just huff a little bit of that down. You want to get promoted?

We can't stop talking about vaping. So we chose a karaoke bar because we thought it would be like a fun team bonding event. When you serenaded Brian from IT with Bedrock, I think a lot of us were thinking like maybe this song isn't the best choice for this sort of event. I can make your bed rock. There's some suggestions there. Yeah, probably not appropriate.

Let's quickly touch on your wardrobe because I do think you change outfits between the office and arriving at the bar. I love graphic tees, words on them, clothes. Totally cool. But when you wore that crop top that revealed a bit of the bottom of your breast, I think a lot of us thought like something was missing, right? There was just a little too much full frontal, dare I say. Some people were fine. She was expressing herself. Is underboob a term? I'm going to say it is now. Underboob.

under part of your breast. I think under move is something that a millennial boss would say. Yeah. Right? Right. I don't think Gen Z would say under move. That's just Part of my stomach. Yeah. Alexis. You're showing under boob. Alexis. Please. Please. All right. Help me understand why you replied all to the company mandated compliance training with the word nah.

I love that. I would do that. Wish I could do that. Nah. No, I just don't think I'm going to do that. No. Okay. Oh. Oh. That's an option. He's out. Good. He said no, so. He's out. Actually, he said nah. He said nah. So myself and a few other employees suggested you maybe stop drinking and cut it at 15. And you kind of filled with rage and began screaming, you're not my mom, bitch. Which was traumatic for a few of us. You're not my mom. Yeah.

I feel like you wrote these for me. These are for you, actually. This is me giving feedback to you. Unless I missed something during your onboarding, I don't believe you mentioned being related to any other employees, so if you could please just stop referring to your manager as daddy. I was expecting you to say brah, but when you said daddy, I shivered. I shivered, I quivered.

When Heather, our head of HR, said, that's a wrap for me, I think I'm going to head out. And then you said, don't worry, bitch, I have Adderall. And toss her your prescription pill bottle. I don't think she was thinking, like, oh, that's so sweet of you. You know? Know your audience. Heather from HR does not want. Once again... Don't hang out with Heather from HR. Hang out with...

Corp from sales. Corp from sales. And that will be a nice little thank you. Exactly. And that would be welcomed with open arms. Well, that's the end of that. I don't have another one. I would have written one, but I didn't want to. I texted you last night. Hey, are you going to write those? You're like, yeah, I will.

No, I was writing them on another document, and then I saw one at the bottom that I had this morning. I was like, that one's terrible. I'm just going to cut that. I'm going to cut that for time. Spare the people. It was some joke about someone's eye barely being open when they were here. We act like we're friends here, but when we text about this podcast outside of it, it's so heated. There's a little aggression. Hey, have you reviewed that episode yet? Mm-hmm. Okay.

because I didn't see it. Just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, for sure, I've got it open right now. Okay, cool, because I didn't see that you ordered the flags for our mic. I needed to see the microphones. Okay, cool, because I'll just adjust the timeline. We'll maybe have mic flags by episode 17. Yes. Okay, cool. Season 2 reveal. Awesome. Awesome. They're not need to have. Anyway, we're totally

We're having a good time. Anyway, this is just for fun for us. Just kidding. It's our whole lives. Yeah, it's our entire personality now. So if you have a confession or something you want to share with us, email demotedpodcast at gmail.com. Yeah, we can't afford the business address yet. But when we do, that will change. That will change. You should also follow us on Demoted Podcast. Instagram, TikTok.

Dare I say YouTube? Maybe we'll try something. Yeah, YouTube for sure. If you haven't smashed that subscribe button, what the hell are you doing?

Subscribe, please. Just across that like button, that subscribe button. Leave a review if you want to or don't. Honestly, it takes a lot of time. If you don't have something nice to say, definitely don't say it at all. Yeah, don't say it at all. But if you want to leave a review, we'd welcome it with open arms. And if you've got creative or sort of constructive criticism, you can email it to us.

We would definitely email that to us and don't put that publicly on a review. We love criticism in a constructive manner privately. Yes, thank you. We need this. And of course, tune in next week on Demoted. Demoted.