US firms hire etiquette coaches to rein in Gen Z employees

Straits Times

02-07-2025

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Some fresh graduates in the United States are driving their bosses up the wall with their habits at work.
Dressing inappropriately, treating the office like their bedroom, leaving food wrappers in communal eating spaces and ghosting their supervisors – some fresh graduates in the US are driving their bosses up the wall.
To remedy this, some companies in San Francisco have hired etiquette coaches to train their young employees in basic workplace manners.
Coaches based in the city said they have experienced up to a twofold increase in recent months, reported news outlet The San Francisco Standard on June 28 .
Etiquette coach Rosalinda Randall said she has received complaints of bad hygiene and habits such as a new hire leaving food wrappers on the communal lunch table.
'Their manager didn't know how to handle it, as they didn't want to sound like a parent,' she said.
Ninety-minute workshops with Ms Randall, where she teaches employees how to make eye contact and make requests politely, costs up to US$2,500 (S$3,180).
Ms Melissa Franks, founder of an operations consulting firm, said employers often ask for advice on managing younger hires, whom they feel have a tendency to question instructions.
She tells them to think of any pushback as youthful curiosity and provide more explanation and context about why procedures are in place, said Ms Franks to The San Francisco Standard.
Some organisations are taking matters into their own hands, developing training programmes on workplace etiquette or practicing transparency.
Software development company Salesforce, for example, has been conducting classes on presenting, emotional intelligence and Slack etiquette since 2024 .
In May, it rolled out an artificial-intelligence onboarding agency that addresses frequently-asked questions, event information and new-hire skill matches, aiming to build social connections.
Mr Jim Rettew, interim chief executive at a contemporary arts centre, holds townhalls where employees raise questions and has one-on-one chats with them.
On Gen Zs, Mr Rettew said: 'They want to be mentored, not managed.' These workers 'bring moral clarity, which is refreshing — but nuance is a muscle they're still building,' he said.
In the face of an unemployment rate that is above the US average of 4.2 per cent - unemployment for 20 to 24-year-olds is at 6.6 per cent, according to a report by software company iCIMS - Gen Zs are in a crunch.
An Intelligence survey from August 2024 found that 60 per cent of employers have fired Gen Z employees within months of hiring them.
Some fail to impress during job interviews, where they struggle with making eye contact and communicating effectively, or even bring mum or dad along.
According to a December 2024 survey done by American data research site Intelligence, one out of three hiring managers think that recent graduates lack work ethic and one in four said they are unprepared for the workforce.
More than half of the 1,000 managers surveyed said that they fired a recent graduate in 2024, and one in eight indicated that they will avoid hiring these fresh graduates in 2025.
On the upside, it seems that they are eager to learn.
'Presence and presentation is everything,' said Prof Thomas Padron, hospitality professor at a university in California. 'Once they realise that their bosses aren't mind readers, they put in the time.'