New Grads Aren’t the Problem. The Gap Is.
- Mar 31
- 2 min read
Every spring, a fresh wave of college graduates walks into their first real job. They’re nervous, excited, full of hope - and completely unaware of what they don’t know yet. And every spring, managers across the country start complaining about them.
This isn’t new. Every generation gets the same label when they show up: lazy, entitled, self-centered. I heard it when I entered the workforce. I spent years coaching managers through the “entitled millennial” panic. Now it’s Gen Z’s turn.
But here’s what I’ve noticed after years of watching this play out: every new generation is just inexperienced. They haven’t done this before. They’re feeling out unfamiliar territory, learning new rules nobody handed them a guide for. That Gen Z stare might just be deer in the headlights - overwhelmed with their new environment. And that attitude? It might just be insecurity.
There’s a big difference between “won’t” and “doesn’t know how.” One is a performance problem. The other is a training gap - and it’s on us as leaders to close it.
A few things that actually help:
Assume nothing. Spell it out.
New grads may have never written a formal email, sat through a structured meeting, or navigated workplace tools like Slack or Teams. They’re learning a new language, and they need a translator. If an employee shows up to a meeting with their mom on FaceTime - yes, that happened - that’s not defiance. That’s a gap nobody filled. Walk them through what professional looks like before the moment arrives, not during it.
Give feedback early, often, and specifically.
New grads want feedback - and that’s actually a good thing, even when it doesn’t feel like it. They’re not being needy; they’re trying to figure out if they’re doing it right. You don’t need a formal sit-down. A quick “that email landed well” or “let’s talk about how you framed that” does more than a quarterly review ever will. Think reinforcement and redirection - small course corrections will do wonders.
New grad onboarding is critical.
We completely underestimate what a real onboarding experience can do. Onboarding should cover everything from where the bathrooms are to what acronyms the company uses. If it takes someone a year to feel effective in their role, that’s not a generational problem - that’s a structure problem.
The Gen Z employees coming in right now grew up remote, finished school on a screen, and stepped into the workforce during one of the stranger moments in recent history. They haven’t had the opportunity to learn by watching and they are more used to interacting with their phones than with people. I’m not justifying, I’m just stating a fact. They don’t know what they don’t know - and neither did we.
The managers who meet them with empathy, clear expectations, and genuine support will see their investment pay off. If your team is struggling with this, we can help.
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