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> One in 5 of the 18-to-29-year-olds polled in the report, which surveyed 10,000 office workers in 10 markets including the U.S. and U.K., said they felt judged

> One in 5 of the 18-to-29-year-olds polled in the report, which surveyed 10,000 office workers in 10 markets including the U.S. and U.K., said they felt judged when experiencing technical issues, compared to only one in 25 for those aged 40 years and over. Further, 25% of the former age group would actively avoid participating in a meeting if they thought their tech tools might cause disruption, whereas it was just 6% for the latter cohort. Industry newcomers are embarrassed about everything, though, in my experience. They're stressed they're not working hard enough, or that they're not smart enough, or that they caused a serious issue in production. When I've managed or mentored newcomers to tech it takes constant reassurance to make them feel like they belong. Or at least a number of people require this sort of reassurance. I think it would be more interesting if these folks they interviewed felt like this only about tech-savvy and not about other aspects about the job they might feel judged.

gexla 4y ago
This was similar to my take. Is the issue that they aren't as tech savvy? Or is the issue that they are more likely to feel ashamed? Maybe older workers feel more comfortable in their roles? I have come across a mountain of references talking about "digital natives" in the past, but I don't recall any of them talking about the fact that "tech" and "digital" is usually about the UI first. Nobody is going to feel comfortable on a UI they haven't experienced. The more non-standard a UI feels, the more there will be an uncomfortable learning curve. And of course, no comfort with the UI will help you with background fundamentals, such as troubleshooting your internet connection.
- fleddr 4y ago
  "Nobody is going to feel comfortable on a UI they haven't experienced." Well, the difference is that earlier newcomers in the work force did experience that UI. Because home computing back then was highly similar to what is found in the workplace. In that sense it's a new and unique problem to Gen Z.
  - danaris 4y ago
    Except it's not new, because before the early 2000s, it was still pretty common for people to not have a home computer at all, but still have to use one regularly at work.
    - Brian_K_White 4y ago
      No, in that case it's still the case that every computer you did encounter, however many or few that was, had similar mental models and UI's. Very broadly similar but still more similar to each other than anything from before y2k vs ios or even chromeos. A mere lack of owning a pc yourself didn't teach you some other mental model. If you didn't own a pc, you still encountered them in possibly several places, school, work, library, friends. And by work I mean even as a kid with a kids job, may still have involved a pc at work, so still in the learning time before later entering the work force for "real". And whatever that total level of exposure was, even if it wasn't much and even if it wasn't all the same platform, it was still all of a similar level of complexity and involved similar mental models to understand what is happening and how to interpret the interface. None of them were an Android or IOS phone where it's not even clear when one app is native vs a pwa, or that even most native apps are still not really native, but merely local.
sadmin 4y ago
I very much think this is the correct take, a few comments in this thread seem to come from users who are a bit too deeply embedded in the tech world, and can't see this perspective.

gexla 4y ago

This was similar to my take. Is the issue that they aren't as tech savvy? Or is the issue that they are more likely to feel ashamed? Maybe older workers feel more comfortable in their roles? I have come across a mountain of references talking about "digital natives" in the past, but I don't recall any of them talking about the fact that "tech" and "digital" is usually about the UI first. Nobody is going to feel comfortable on a UI they haven't experienced. The more non-standard a UI feels, the more there will be an uncomfortable learning curve. And of course, no comfort with the UI will help you with background fundamentals, such as troubleshooting your internet connection.

fleddr 4y ago
"Nobody is going to feel comfortable on a UI they haven't experienced." Well, the difference is that earlier newcomers in the work force did experience that UI. Because home computing back then was highly similar to what is found in the workplace. In that sense it's a new and unique problem to Gen Z.
- danaris 4y ago
  Except it's not new, because before the early 2000s, it was still pretty common for people to not have a home computer at all, but still have to use one regularly at work.
  - Brian_K_White 4y ago
    No, in that case it's still the case that every computer you did encounter, however many or few that was, had similar mental models and UI's. Very broadly similar but still more similar to each other than anything from before y2k vs ios or even chromeos. A mere lack of owning a pc yourself didn't teach you some other mental model. If you didn't own a pc, you still encountered them in possibly several places, school, work, library, friends. And by work I mean even as a kid with a kids job, may still have involved a pc at work, so still in the learning time before later entering the work force for "real". And whatever that total level of exposure was, even if it wasn't much and even if it wasn't all the same platform, it was still all of a similar level of complexity and involved similar mental models to understand what is happening and how to interpret the interface. None of them were an Android or IOS phone where it's not even clear when one app is native vs a pwa, or that even most native apps are still not really native, but merely local.

sadmin 4y ago

I very much think this is the correct take, a few comments in this thread seem to come from users who are a bit too deeply embedded in the tech world, and can't see this perspective.