Working with Employees Wearing AirPods [Bread-Baking Typewriter]

An employee wearing earphones in the office saying, "I need to listen to music while working to increase my concentration." An employee who responds to simple work instructions with, "This? Me? Why?" Most bosses are often taken aback. When someone confides that they are stressed because of such subordinate employees, there is a convenient way to instantly make the other person understand without complicated explanations: "They are MZ."

The MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z) are digital natives who have grown up surrounded by digital technology and environments since birth. As they enter the labor market, companies face a crisis in organizational and personnel management. Now, the worst thing in personnel management is not resignation. If they immediately submit their resignation when their heart leaves, it is rather a welcome event. The worst case is when they have not resigned but have mentally checked out from the company, doing only the minimum work while preparing to change jobs. This is the so-called ‘quiet quitting.’

Silicon Valley’s MZs is a book that explores how companies facing organizational management crises can coexist with the MZ generation. The answer is already on the book cover. The subtitle of the book is “First, be fair.” The core value that MZ responds to is “fairness.” When this collapses, they decide on quiet quitting.

The goal of a fair workplace is "to eliminate artificial constraints that prevent people from realizing 100% of their potential." An organization where there is no prejudice, no discrimination, and no harassment, and where people can focus solely on work is a fair organization where team members want to stay even in the era of the great resignation.

The author presents nine steps for operational procedures for a fair workplace, from recruitment to checks on the CEO. Among them, one particularly important procedure is ‘compensation.’ "Each employee doubts whether their salary is fair and does not want to waste time and mental energy. Careful performance and evaluation management is necessary for appropriate compensation." The author says, "Rely on a performance evaluation system, not just the manager’s sole decision." Managers evaluate employees, but employees also evaluate managers.

Measuring psychological safety is also an important task. There must be confidence that one can speak freely, that the organization listens to one’s voice, and that there will be no retaliation. Instead of getting angry at the question "Why?", one should be able to explain why. There should be no exceptions in checks and balances and control management. The existence of an audit team that can hold the CEO accountable against their power is essential.

The author introduces a case that occurred at a company in Silicon Valley. Here, no one could force employees to do tasks they disliked. A company executive proposed a method. The working team came up with a different idea. The executive failed to persuade the team. The executive suggested selecting just a few engineers out of hundreds to experiment with his idea. The team opposed this as well. "In a typical company, everything would have had to be done my way!" the executive shouted. The team explained practically why the executive’s idea was ineffective. The executive canceled the directive. Eventually, the team achieved tremendous success in the market with their own method. Such a scene can only be seen when there is a high level of mutual trust. Ultimately, the author’s core message can be summarized in two points: "Respect the very existence of your colleagues. And do not dominate or force them. In other words, collaborate with your colleagues."

Silicon Valley’s MZs / Kim Scott / Translated by Seok Hyemi / Cheonglim Publishing / 512 pages / 22,000 KRW

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.