A workplace trend is emerging amongst young Aussies and it’s leaving older workers infuriated. Whether you’re calling in sick, asking for a promotion, or straight-up quitting, it appears many of the country’s youngest workers would prefer to do it via text message.
Veteran builder Scott Challen saw this first-hand recently when an apprentice sent him a message that left him gobsmacked. The CEO of building and home-improvement company The QHI Group said the bloke was just one assessment away from completing his first year.
“We put this young kid on. He was fantastic. And then all of a sudden… He just pulled the pin overnight with no notice and decided he was moving interstate,” Challen recalled.
“That flippancy about his own career… he seemed committed, and then suddenly wasn’t committed.”
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The apprentice tradie told Challen in a text message that went along the lines of “Thanks for the opportunity. Sorry I let you down, see you later.”
The building boss told the bloke that there were “no hard feelings” as he hoped there might be a chance down the track that the tradie might return.
But he said it’s disappointing that young workers don’t communicate these issues head-on.
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“My generation was taught that life is defined by difficult conversations,” he told Yahoo Finance. “And personally, I thrive on the harder conversations because I know I’m going to get better at this type of conversation from that experience.
“But kids don’t really see that these days, and they don’t believe that that’s a skillset. They’re taught at school to go to a safe space and have some quiet time.
“That would be the difference between some of the older guys and younger guys.
“I couldn’t dream about quitting a job just by text message or just not turning up. Doesn’t make any sense to me.
“The idea of that is completely at odds with my own personal values. But it seems to be quite normal for these kids.”
It’s tough being an apprentice in Australia at the moment
While his communication style might differ from young workers, Challen understands that it’s rough becoming a tradie in Australia amid the cost-of-living crisis.
He explained that he recently wanted to get a 17-year-old on-site to give him an insight into what the building and construction industry is like.
But he quickly discovered that the minimum wage he was allowed to provide was $32.80 plus travel expenses. That was a cost that he simply couldn’t afford for a teenager with no prior experience.
Challen then found out that the starting salary for a first-year carpentry apprentice was $17.26.
“I don’t know any apprentice that’s going to stay in the job for $17.26… like this kid, he can’t survive on $17.26 an hour,” the builder told Yahoo Finance.
He explained that this low pay is one of the many issues plaguing the industry and causing many apprentices to drop out. Challen said he “gave up” employing apprentices about three years ago because he was sick of seeing them drop out after just a few months.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, apprenticeship completions fell 8.6 per cent from March 2023 to March this year.
There were 24,545 people who completed their apprenticeship last year and that’s fallen to 22,420 in 12 months.
In the same time period, the number of people who started an apprenticeship fell 11.8 per cent and the number of apprenticeships who were in training dropped 2.2 per cent.
Chucking a sickie: When should you send a text message to your boss and when should you call?
This will depend on your job, your situation, your relationship with your boss and range of other factors.
Back in the day, unless you had major vocal chord surgery or laryngitis, you would phone up your manager and explain that you’re sick and couldn’t come in.
Workplace culture and leadership expert Tammy Tansley told Yahoo Finance a “sick text” to your boss would have been considered “extremely inappropriate” and even “rude” in those days.
But young Aussie workers are breaking this tradition.
“You don’t need to worry about whether your manager picks up the phone or is available. And you can now schedule your texts to arrive at a more reasonable time even if they’re sent in the middle of the night,” she said.
“It also creates a written chain, which can be important.”
Tansley said a text message could also reduce the potential for “uncomfortable questions” and make the “interaction easier” for those who aren’t a fan of phone calls.
“For many workplaces, posting a message on Teams, Slack, can be an effective way of letting the whole team know that you’re out of action,” she added.
But that doesn’t mean the traditional phone call is dead and buried.
Superior People Recruitment founder Graham Wynn told Yahoo Finance that if you’re alerting to your manager that you’re sick and it’s before 9am then a text message is fine.
But you should pick up the phone and call after that time.
Even though Tansley doesn’t mind a sick text, she still believes in phoning it in.
“Call in the morning because it is more professional,” she said.
“They can hear when you’re sick and it just doesn’t come across that you’re lying. But in saying that, I’ve met some managers that don’t care that they get a text.”
If there are more pressing needs like quitting, then a face-to-face should definitely take place.
“I don’t believe these kids are being taught resilience anymore,” Challen told Yahoo Finance.
“Most kids are avoiding face-to-face because they’re non-confrontational. They don’t know how to deal with those types of tough conversations.”
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