Greetings! Today is the federal observance of Juneteenth, commemorating the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in the US were freed. President Biden officially declared Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021, and it’s the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established in 1983.
In today’s edition:
How do you do, fellow kids?
Google’s settlement
—Kristen Parisi, Sam Blum
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30 Rock/NBCUniversal via Giphy
It seems like everyone’s thirsty to vibe with Gen Z right now. And who could blame them? The generation born starting in 1997 is the most diverse in US history, touts $360 billion in potential disposable income, and is expected to make up approximately 30% of the workforce in the US by 2030, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Employers, in particular, want to know how Gen Z feels about remote work, social causes, burnout, and everything in between. To that end, there have been a slew of surveys and studies attempting to help employers understand Gen Z (and millennial) workers, including recent reports from Deloitte, Indeed, and Asana. Though the findings didn’t agree on everything, they generally aligned on a portrait of Gen Z that featured a longing for in-person collaboration, higher levels of stress and anxiety, and a yearning for purpose at work.
Office versus home. Surveys show that, by and large, Gen Z workers crave flexibility and the option of working from home. The Deloitte Global 2022 Gen Z and Millennial survey recently found that 75% of Gen Zers prefer a hybrid or work-from-home model, as do their millennial counterparts (76%). But while they want to work from home at least sometimes, over 90% of Gen Z employees surveyed who have never worked in an office full-time have FOMO about traditional workplace experiences, according to research from Indeed.
Sahar Yousef, a cognitive neuroscientist and lecturer at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, told HR Brew that Gen Z’s desire to work in an office is understandable, given the social opportunities an office can offer. “The workplace historically has been a watering hole for finding friends, finding a mate, finding community, a sense of belonging, and having connection,” Yousef said. “Our jobs are a huge aspect of our holistic lives.”
Burning out. Whether they’re at home or in the office, it seems the newest generation to enter the workforce is already burned out. A survey from workflow management platform Asana found that 84% of Gen Z reported experiencing burnout in the last year, compared to 63% of all workers who said they’ve felt burned out. Deloitte’s research also found that 46% of Gen Z workers were “stressed or anxious all or most of the time” and that stress is frequently tied directly to a poor work-life balance.
Yousef said some of the burnout Gen Z is experiencing is likely from poor “digital hygiene,” meaning they don’t know how to log off—including from work. She says that employers can have a major role to play in helping Gen Z workers have a healthy relationship with work and technology. Keep reading here.—KP
Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @Kris10Parisi on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Kristen for her number on Signal.
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Employee engagement hasn’t exactly been booming over the last few decades—for the first time ever, it’s actually decreasing. But rather than double down on pizza parties or anniversary plaques, the folks at Motivosity looked deeper…and it turns out that the secret is gratitude.
In fact, 75% of employees think their mental well-being would improve if they felt more appreciated for their hard work *day to day*.
Check out Motivosity’s white paper for actionable tips on the top 3 must-haves for employees to feel engaged at work:
- recognition and appreciation for the work they do
- feeling a sense of community within the workplace
- having a good relationship with their manager
Ready to right some wrongs at your company? Download Turn the Great Resignation Into the Great Recognition: The Future of Employee Engagement here.
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Sundry Photography/Getty Images
Google has agreed to settle a $118 million class-action lawsuit for alleged discrimination against 15,500 women across 236 job titles starting in September 2013. As part of the settlement, the company is required to have outside experts examine its hiring practices and review the company’s “pay-equity studies,” according to a press release from Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP and Altshuler Berzon LLP.
The complaint was originally filed in 2017 by three former Google employees who, court documents show, alleged the search giant had violated California’s Equal Pay Act by paying women less than their male counterparts for performing similar jobs. The settlement said the company had “assigned women to lower levels than it assigned men, and that Google had failed to pay all wages due to employees upon their separation of employment.” The fourth plaintiff joined the suit later, the New York Times reported. The terms of the settlement are now pending approval by a judge.
“As a woman who’s spent her entire career in the tech industry, I’m optimistic that the actions Google has agreed to take as part of this settlement will ensure more equity for women,” Holly Pease, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement released by her lawyers.
As part of the settlement, Google didn’t admit to any wrongdoing, according to the Wall Street Journal, and in an emailed statement to HR Brew, spokeswoman Shannon Newberry said: “While we strongly believe in the equity of our policies and practices, after nearly five years of litigation, both sides agreed that resolution of the matter, without any admission or findings, was in the best interest of everyone, and we’re very pleased to reach this agreement.”
Google often emphasizes its “inclusive” workplace culture but has faced scrutiny for what some have alleged is a failure to live up to those ideals. Last year, three ex-Googlers sued the company, alleging its work with US Customs and Border Protection during the Trump era violated the company’s “don’t be evil” motto, amounting to a breach of contract. The company fired the three workers, along with another not involved in the suit, in 2019 for “clear and repeated violations” of data security policies, NPR reported.
A bigger discriminatory landscape. Google isn’t the only major tech firm dealing with claims of unequal pay. Keep reading here.—SB
Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @SammBlum on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Sam for his number on Signal.
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Gain an employee engagement edge. Cultivating a workplace that employees actually wanna be part of is a bigger competitive advantage than all the tech and name recognition combined. Ready to elevate your employee engagement? Develop actionable plans, identify the right programs, and keep your peeps happy with these strategies from Workday.
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Today’s top HR reads.
Stat: 31% of parents in the US are thinking about taking on a second job because of rising childcare costs, according to a survey from online care marketplace Care.com (Care.com)
Quote: “I don’t think that employers see it so much as their responsibility, as much as they see it as their enlightened self-interest, because they desperately need workers.”—Tom Weber, head of the Massachusetts Business Coalition for Early Childhood Education, on what he sees as “a shift” in the business community regarding childcare for employees (WBUR)
Read: Working interviews can be risky, as they have the potential to harm the candidate-employer relationship and could put confidential information at risk. (the Washington Post)
Need a nudge? Ready to move from goal setting to goal getting? Give every employee a personal, virtual coach to help them build the habits and behaviors that matter most to your company. Let Humu help you get there.*
*This is sponsored advertising content.
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Crafted to get you in the moment, Right Here Right Now candles are the perfect gift. Whether you’re cheering on a coworker after their promotion or celebrating their small wins, the right time is always now. Get in the business of gifting and shop the collection!
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Walmart announced that it will raise pay for pharmacy technicians in an effort to better compete for workers in a tight labor market.
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The stock market has erased approximately $1.4 trillion from 401k participant accounts since the start of the year.
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The US Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in favor of Viking River Cruises, deciding that California employees may not sue employers via the state when they have already entered into arbitration agreements.
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Several SpaceX workers who had written an open letter questioning CEO Elon Musk’s recent behavior have been fired.
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Catch up on the top HR Brew stories from the recent past:
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