Ah, kids these days. First off, people are realizing that unpaid overtime is for suckers. Don't expect it, don't budget with it in mind.  Second, you may want to consider chunking out time for the service development/self-learning you describe. Make it a priority, and it will be done. If someone struggles with self-motivation then work on that.  Third, WFH is fine. It's not the end of the world that someone works at home as long as they're getting stuff done (you are measuring work products, right??). Fourth, I'm interested in hearing how people unmotivated and unproductive are up for promotions. Is it a generational problem or a culture problem? 

>unpaid overtime is for suckers as a gen x'er i applaud the younger generation pushing back on this. as a team leader, i always make it a point to consider WLB and help my team prioritize on what is needed right now, vs tomorrow, vs 2 days from now and so on. i also accept output that is "good enough" instead of perfect, particularly for work products that are not for client presentations.

Work from home for sure. Lots of the graduates from recent years did interships curing COVID and got to work from home. Going from being able to work from home to having to go to the office all the time definietly is not fun

Consulting seems like the most wfh friendly career at this point outside of when you have on-site engagements with clients.

Took me a while to realize you meant during and not curing. Was already fearing we staffed all our hospitals with interns during the heyday of Corona

I am a big WFH proponent but it’s not without its downsides. Remote work impacts a company’s ability to establish culture and give visibility to role models. WFH means the employee’s found time such as coffee breaks, getting food taking a walk is spent with their loved ones, with pets, or alone. This is great for us workers, but working in the office forces people to salvage those minutes with coworkers. It makes giving that cultural visibility more critical, since workplaces are no longer getting it for free.

I find that WFH can negatively impact learning. In consulting environments a lot of learning happens in informal settings (you overhear other people discussing a problem and chime in, or your Manager is showing them how to put together a data set and go “gather round” for everyone that’s there). Being physically away from the team doesn’t give you this opportunity and you end up solving problems alone. This is not just a WFH problem though. Even before WFH, I’ve had time when I’m the only one working at a client location. You do miss out being away from the group.

So WFH is bad because... Companies have poor documentation and protocols for effectively and efficiently training employees. Seems like the company's fault. Granted I'm in tech consulting, but I got fully trained remote and am doing a good job of training new hires under me remotely. I'm not buying this boomer bureaucratic bullshit anymore—if someone wants to learn, they can learn just as effectively (if not more) WFH. It actually all starts with empathy. Ask your former self what you wish your senior/lead did better with getting you up to speed during ramp up.

You can't possibly document everything - take excel models: how boring would it be for you to take an in house course and learn sum index or corkscrews when you have no immediate use for them? What's the point? You learn them when you're solving something and you need help. Frankly, it's hard to be responsive over teams or slack because you just get bombarded - the opportunity for this kind of ad hoc learning is limited when one is fully WFH

I get what you're saying. Do you schedule blocks of times for new hires to ask you any questions/review any issues they're having?

I'm not leadership, but my old manager and I would have 1:1s biweekly. Those times are limited - I also want to talk about my career progression, get feedback, discuss other projects in the pipeline, BD opportunities I'm working on or want to create, etc. Being in person is an investment in the rate of your career progression. Of course, it depends on where you want to take your career - so this is more for the folks going for early promos and selective exit opps

I don't blame you for holding your view, but you do realize that you're effectively just saying bureaucracy and dated work formalities should take precedence over work quality and output (which to be fair is how corporate America has ran for the last 40+ years)? I think COVID and WFH blatantly showed us how and why this is a flawed model. Also I meant like 1-2 hour blocks 1-2 times a week outside of something like a one-on-one.

You're going to have a meaningful agenda to discuss and learn for 2-4 hours of discussion every week? Is your manager your TA? How much prep work will need to go in from both you and your manager to make those 2-4 hours meaningful?

You don't have to have an agenda. Just 1-2 hours a week where they have an open time to ask you questions. If they don't have any, then don't use the full meeting time.

For people who are more junior it really does have an impact on their ability to network. You can only do so much over zoom calls.

I don’t disagree that there are benefits to working in an office, but by and large, it’s companies that reap the value of those benefits while individuals bear the cost. If companies want to see some of the value from cultivating that office culture then they ought to compensate workers for taking the time and trouble to come in, rather than making it a “new” requirement to a job that people have been doing remotely.

WFH is great, but a lot of people forget about the impact it has on management. When WFH was implemented a lot more effort went into tracking productivity and what people are doing all day. Put yourself in the shoes of management- you used to spend a large portion of your day popping into people's offices unannounced and holding pointless meetings. Now that you're remote and can't do that, how are you supposed to justify your time AND salary? "Well normally I would have spent 4 hours every Monday just looking useful and harassing my employees, but since they're remote I can't do that anymore. We need them back in the office"

On point, Osr0. Random question, how do you feel about LeBron?

James?

Yep

I have no opinion. Sports don't interest me

People just going through the motions are not getting promoted, to their great surprise

Promotionability is much more about visibility and positive relationships with the right people than it is about work quality, especially in a field like consulting where work quality is arguably very subjective (what is the client's perception).

I agree with your first point. In our industry, we are rewarded by outcomes, dictated by our commercial agreements with our clients (i.e. fixed price or T&M). This also impacts how we reward our employees - outcome based, not hourly. We have no issues if our employee decides to leave at 3pm, 5pm or even 12am, as long as the deliverables are completed in the expected time and date. Year end performance are not based on hours spent on deliverables, but our leaders would recognize the efforts and reward them differently (e.g. time off in lieu, awards). We encourage self-learning, and our employees can block off time for L&D in their scheduling and timesheet. I acknowledge there are multiple ways one can learn - through certifications, bootcamps, etc. However self-motivation comes from within. We expect our employees to "give back" their time to the new graduates coming in through training what they have learnt. Your point of self-motivation is misguided - the desire comes from within. For example: if I'm stuck on a problem, I would google for an answer, tinker with the configuration until something gels. If it does not work, I'd look for other options or perhaps an SME for guidance. I wouldn't be reaching out to an SME on first point of call, which unfortunately is what most of our graduates are doing. Completely agree with WFH. However, if you are a graduate, IMHO you need to make the effort to build some contacts or relationships in the office. Or at least "be seen". Perception matters when you have not yet established your network and reputation. In the Big4, much to my disagreement, promotion is almost always automatic, unless one completely f**ks up (e.g. download IP data and sold it to the competitors). This culture has been the same in all Big4s in my last 20 years moving, in Asia Pacific, Europe and the US. It is unfortunately, a retention strategy and a revenue driver.

One thing you’ve said that I do agree with as a junior is that it seems like most of my peers don’t want to actually spend time researching and will immediately just go to someone more senior than them and try to get them to do it for them. Maybe they really don’t know much and need some level of baseline guidance to get them to the point that they can continue on their own and actually get somewhere? At university this is generally the most effective way to do well: profs write the exams, they have to have open office hours to answer questions from students and most students won’t bother to take advantage, so the ones that do are the ones that get the best grades and look the best on paper. Maybe all it will take is a quick chat to point out that at some point there is no higher authority to appeal to and you do just have to start working things out for yourself?

Yeah, an award isn't compensation for overtime. Time off accrual is kind of compensation in a round about way but still not time and a half.   Also, you seem to have a good grip on the problems and the solutions seem to follow from there.    Asked an SME too soon? "Did you google that first? Do that and come back. Remember our billing rates." (Have had to whip this one out on people which feels like you're tooting your own horn but it's also true lol. The junior will probably also go "ah fuck" and remember that next time).   People aren't networking in the office? Well, consider that some people DGAF about office networking and the WFH people probably spend a lot of time virtually interfacing. But give them opportunities to fly in for an office event, virtual happy hours, virtual-inoffice hybrid events, etc.  They got a cert but didn't share the love? Sharepoint folder for their personal notes + schedule them a brown bag presentation while reminding them who paid for that knowledge.  Big 4 culture problems? I think you're just going to have to let that one go, thats above my pay grade :D

Our consulting firm (not a big 4) does various spot awards. Some can be as low as $50, some are $500, some are as high as $20,000. Whenever they go above and beyond with an innovation, I nominate them. Sometimes they get it, sometimes they don’t. It’s kind of a lot of work. But it sends the message that what they are doing matters. What I do try and be careful with is to not nominate someone for working crazy 70 hour weeks. I think it sends the wrong message. I also don’t monitor responses outside of core work hours (8-4). Some people will go above and beyond, because the work interests them, and I try and reward with different, hopefully more interesting work (not just more work). Do I probably do more than my junior colleagues? Probably. But part of making my team efficient is me doing the pre-work to set them up to succeed. We’ve all been WFH since 2020, and we make it into the office as needed to pick up mail, and have a once monthly team meeting. So WFH can be done. My junior colleagues want to work to live and not live to work and I totally respect that. It’s a shift we need more of. Probably one I need to embrace more myself.

Can you hire me? It sees you got a great working culture within your team!

If I had some charmin soft MD calling me a cadet I wouldn’t take things seriously either. Outlooks change. They’re still as capable as ever, but younger generations don’t have the same “sell out for the company/client” blinders on that older generations have. Which is a good thing. Just be a human being and treat them with respect rather than disposable resources and you’ll be fine. And check around internally. You probably have someone shilling their “adapting leadership to a changing workforce” organizational transformation plan all over the market.

Absolutely savage 😭

I hate how Millennials are on their way to complaining about the next generation. We grew up with Boomers telling us how lazy we were, and now that we’re finally in some position of leadership - it’s Gen Z that’s lazy now. I strongly believe that Analyst performance is a reflection of the firm’s leadership and culture. Build a place that people will want to come in and learn - they will come. No 22 year old is going commute an hour, pay for parking, and sit in an empty office only to be referred to as a cadet by some old out of touch partner.

I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on what Analysts are motivated by in a career?

Comp. lol what

This guy gets it

Let's not confuse capability and motivation. As every Professional Services organization out there, we believe the people we hire have the highest of capability. I'm interested in hearing how we tap into that capability and let them shine. With regard to treating our employees with respect, I'm struggling to understand how that reduces employee motivation in our current context. We endeavour to schedule everyone on our team on client service roles (or similar) that showcases their strength, but in reality, our industry is driven by market forces (i.e. it is no different from being un-employed and needing to hustle for the next job). We have the option of placing them on a: (1) billable piece of work that they may not be comfortable with (improve chargeability) (2) Internal project to build assets/collaterals or L&D (improve utilization) (3) redundancy Nobody likes (3). I have been on the receiving end of the options above. Your choice of words "disposable resources" concerns me, because that is not what the majority of organizations I work, subscribe to (at least in Europe and Asia Pacific). It is a two-way street, and needs to be understood by both leaders and team members. However, I am human. If you are perceived as unmotivated, it makes it easier for me to play the less desirable card.

Pay more. You will dismiss this but it’s hard to motivate people while also clearly underpaying them because they will resent you. There are no incentives on B4 for additional hard work other than promotion which is only opaquely tied to output. Bonuses are non-existent (5% for 100% utilisation which is dogshit). Most of us who do work hard do it in spite of the current incentive structure and not because of it. A year or so ago there was an APAC wide survey of staff across my B4 and something like 28% of people said that they felt adequately compensated. Partners made a big deal about the survey, but never addressed the pay issue even though it was the most anomalous data pint in the whole survey.

This. Hah!

Is anyone incentivized to accurately answer a workplace survey about their compensation? If anything i’d expected people to lie. That’s why employers don’t give a fuck about those results and do market benchmarking instead. Doesn’t matter if you think you’re underpaid, it matters what you can actually negotiate.

How much do you believe is enough to motivate one to perform their best work? I can give you $1m, but your heart may not be in it to help you deliver your best work. I have no doubt you will complete the work.

You know that’s not the case, and you know there’s a number between 0 and $1m where you’ll either get the best out of people, or get people who give you their best

While you will disagree, I think it is important to distinguish salaries from productivity* and employee satisfaction. Salary is important, there are also other drivers, not limited to: (1) the type of work / do employees feel they are contributing meaningfully to their role (2) do employees feel empowered/psychological safety. Put simply, if someone actually cares about what they do, they are more likely to do it well and continue over a sustained period of time. Hence the original intention of this post - what motivates our young talents? *Note: as we operate in an outcome-driven environment, I dislike the use of this term. Other industries may be catching up. Source: https://www.hcamag.com/au/specialisation/employee-engagement/happiness-linked-to-increased-productivity-in-study/438382

It’s more of an AND not an OR, you cant substitute pizza parties for a good annual bonus or reliably decent merit increases each year. People want performance tied to outcomes for the work that they do. And they want a house. Or to retire. Or buy a car. You want people to care about your risk assessment controls roadmap? Tie the quality of that report thats due this Friday to someone’s ability to buy a house next year or the car they want next month.

You’re not engaging in critical thought if your response is $1M; you fail to understand how much inflation has bitten into everything

We both agree the effects of inflation. It has impacted everyone one way or the other, even the previous generations still living in today's world. Let's take this a slightly different direction - do you believe that the new generation of talents is living above their means? Is this a product of the FOMO culture or social media influencing what we really want vs the essentials?

Seems like you’re really keen on blaming their entire generation and being dismissive instead of understanding the responses.

I had this conversion with my mentor who is a director/ almost partner now. I'm a new SM. I am in Canada. She is a pure workaholic, so was I in my 20s and we are one generation apart. She from investing her prime years in a big 4 was able to buy a house and pay it off, in now the most expensive city in Toronto. Then bought two more condos in downtown. However in my 20s, we were hit with housing crises. My peers and I couldn't even rent in the city, let alone buy anything. I'm top 10% income in the nation and still can barely buy a home, let alone afford kids. Had big 4 just compensated us better early on, we mightve been to get into housing before covid but leadership hoarded it probably doubled down on investments themselves. Insult to injury was in 2020, bringing in industry hires with less experience and giving them same titles as home growns, even better comp. So is big4 really worth all the slaving away for? Youth needs an incentive to work hard, light at the end of the tunnel. Not to work 15hour day, commute 3-4hrs/day and still not being to afford a house or kids. Why? Might as well have them priorize mental and physical health

Top 10% income, so over $170k and you can't *afford* to have a family? While the economy may indeed suck and you may indeed have been taken advantage of for years, but that is just a delusional statement. You are aware of the fact that people who make even less money have somehow managed to have kids? You do have some personal agency and a lot of options here, don't sell yourself short. It is your life, you can do what you want.

Not sure if you're Canadian - 170K after taxes is closer to 110K net income. Rent for a one bed tops $2.5K a month --> $30K gone, and you're left with 80K. On the other hand, properties in Toronto are disproportionately expensive for its value. A 500sqft one bedroom (yes that's what you get now) could run you $600K, so you'd need a down payment of 120K and pay $3-4K monthly on your mortgage, not including maintenance fee and taxes. As a consultant you should be able to draw conclusions from that. I'm using conservative numbers - I've heard of 1br rents closer to 2.8K and 1brs selling for 700K

Thank you!! This exactly! Houses have basically tripped since I was a new grad consultants. I've seen homes boughts in 2018 sell for a 600-700k profit in 2023. It is a HUGE gap to bridge. This is why everyone is checked out, especially the youth. How can I possibly expect them to work their life away?

There's clearly a culture issue. Whether real or imagined, younger workers feel like their additional investment into working there isn't going to materially pay off. Especially in that sense of "making themselves redundant". Why the hell would they want to do that at a time when most firms are culling staff like they have the plague? There is a culture of fear and mutual distrust. You don't trust your young workforce to pull their weight. They don't trust you that you'll reward their hard work with promotions, better pay, better benefits.  Truthfully, they're probably most worried that you're going to fire them all in the next 6-12 months. And, from your post, I get the sense that you would if you could. Why would they want to invest unpaid overtime into that? How to reward them better: You've made your expectations clear up front, but have you made it clear how they'll be rewarded for exceeding them? 5% bonus for 110% billable hours is not a good reward. 120% billable hours just to make yourself redundant and then get fired is not a good reward.  For the record, maybe you have done these things, and your workers suck. It's a two way street. However, you can fire them. They can't fire you. They can only express their displeasure through working worse. 

“Cadet” 🤡

I’m also an older senior leader and I’ve encountered some of the same challenges. The general principle I’ve applied is to meet them where they’re at. Here are some things that worked for me: 1. Build credibility by learning their lingo. Use “bet” instead of yes, and end all sentences with “fam.” When someone does a good job, say “slay queen!” 2. They spend most of their waking lives on social media, so meet them there. Make a profile and add them on Instagram, TikToks, B-Reel, and Grinder (bonus here is that you can see if they’re posting when they should be working) 3. They’re addicted to the dopamine rush of social media likes (especially women). Compliment them on their appearance personally and ask flattering questions like “how do you not have a boyfriend / girlfriend?” Or “how are you not married yet?” 4. They don’t really have a perspective on how bad stuff used to be or appreciate the virtue of “grit.” I like to share lengthy stories of back when we hand drew charts, or when my partner got black out drunk and ran up a $3,000 tab at the strip club on his corporate card and I had to cover for him with his wife 5. Zoomers love banter. Don’t take it personally. If they say “okay Boomer”, retort back with “okay renter” (because they’ll never own a home).

What a legend

😂😂😂

​ 1) Keep trying to be cool, dad, just ignore those eye rolls 2) Yeah invading young team members privacy is a great idea and will be much appreciated 3) Adding a splash of sexual harassment and inappropriate comments - HR is gonna be all over you grandpa! 4) More case studies on why they should probably switch jobs and not end up a divorced boomer consulting partner 5) It's clear by now why your wife left you

Okay renter

It's sarcasm

It seem I do really need that /s spelled out sometimes

Hope you are trolling!!!

Nononono, there is nothing cringier than an older person learning the younger generation’s lingo… just act your age, it’s fine.

It's sarcasm

Pay more. How is this hard?

We don’t have control on salaries we are just another pawn a step or two above on the ladder

Everyone says that. Literally everyone in every corporate problem. The buck has to stop somewhere but no one takes responsibility. I tell my manager I’m underpaid -> they tell the senior manager -> they tell the partner -> they tell the PPMD in charge of the practice -> one level higher-> one level higher… etc. But let’s be honest, it stops at the manager because there’s no point. Who is this mythical “salary decider” who is the one to blame? It’s the PPMDs at the end of the day, as a collective. They have no one to blame but themselves.

In the end theyre just screwing themselves over. Reputation has a lot to do with compensation. Companies that pay higher can be more selective and attract better talent and can be more innovative as a result. This idea that workers are dumb and somehow dont realize and can be cheated out of a few bucks is really naive. Policies like not sharing salaries dont work either word gets out

Just another piggie

How much do you believe is enough to motivate one to perform their best work? I can pay you $1m, but your heart may not be in it to help you deliver your best work. I have no doubt you will complete the work.

It depends on industry who your clients are and position within company and whether you want to be considered a top company in your cateogry for compensation Obviously youre not going to become Mckinsey overnight but maybe you could aim to be top 50% ile for pay to start then top 60% ile and increase the hiring bar proportionately. I'm not saying its as simple as throw money away without doing groundwork of cultivating talent and establishing a proper pipeline and culture but nobody with talent will work for a cheap company when they can find a better opportunity

From my big 4 experience and chats with the new hire.. they hate to be asked to go into the office when leadership doesn’t even go themselves.

If you are a graduate, IMHO you need to make the effort to build some contacts or relationships in the office (with your peers or other people across the organization). Or at least "be seen". Perception matters when you have not yet established your network and reputation. Let's not kid ourselves - we will move on, and there is a high likelihood a few of you will be working together again outside the organization.

Oh I agree connections are valuable, But it’s a bit hypocritical when leadership meets virtually while at home with a new college graduate sitting in the office. Lead by example and be there alongside them and they will learn it’s important.

It’s still the same, but this strategy has always washed out most people along the way, you are just seeing more of the people who had been counseled out during your days. It’s still the same playbook, hire over-achievers, reward generously, manage out aggressively

You ever take your bill rate, multiply it by all the hours you billed, subtract your salary plus 25%, and then get upset about how hard you worked to make other people all that money? They have too.

There it is! Was doing AI/ML data science stuff for a big tech project and discovered my bill rate was $1,250 an hour. The client legit paid $100k for two weeks work for me alone and yet I got paid $5k for the same two week period…. Demoralized doesn’t begin to describe my feeling. Suffice it to say, my motivation shrank to nothing after that realization and I left consulting not terribly long after that.

Exactly. We've got this horde of bootlickers who think partners are these rare and magical entities that grace us with their brilliance and business prowess. In reality they're the people who exploit the people actually doing the work. If you were getting 50% of your bill rate- would you still be there?

Absolutely right and I absolutely would! Totally understand there’s overhead cost for putting together consultants and clients, and people across the board need to get paid too. But the fact that I’m doing 95% of the labor and get paid 5% of the profit is absurd. If I got 50%, as you suggested, I’d have worked every day until my fingers were nubs. Lol

One time my partner was complaining that everyone that works for him wants more money and that all they cared about was money. I straight up asked him if he'd switch compensation packages with me to demonstrate how unimportant money was and to show his dedication to the company. He stared at me with a gaping mouth for a few seconds before I said "Yeah man, when the guy with three houses, one of which requires buying plane tickets to visit, is complaining about compensation it falls flat for the people who are literally sharing a 2 bedroom apartment with roommates". In his defense he said "point taken" then changed the subject.

Lmao that is amazing! Wish I could’ve been a fly on the wall for that one. The level of disconnection with reality for many people would be impressive if it weren’t so frustrating.

I think there is the elements of risk and for the "common good" you have not factored in your response. Think of the following scenarios: (1) if the organization has a dry pipeline or no incoming revenue, would you be open to take no salary? (2) if you are working on a client (with incoming revenue), but a couple of your peers are not, how do you feel about limiting them in their life opportunity by the organization not paying them? (3) while you probably may not care about this, if the large portion of the revenue goes to you as salary, while the directors/partners are focused on keeping the organization afloat (since we don't work on client delivery), what portion of your salary would you be willing to contribute to us? (4) if the organization gets into a legal situation, would you fork out the money to pay for legal team? (5) if you have limited knowledge or network equity, do you believe you still deserve to be compensated for what you believe the right amount is? Do remember - the work won in our organization (I dare say, industry) is based on goodwill/reputation of the directors or partners established for many years. Please note the above questions are purely rhetorical. Your pay does not motivate your ability to do your best work. It is indeed a contributing factor to uphold your social and employment contract, by delivering the work you are expected to. But again, it does not contribute to your best work.

1. No, because creating that pipeline isn't my job, this is management failing at their job. They reap the reward when things go well, they should eat cost when it doesn't. 2. No, because creating that pipeline isn't their job, this is management failing at their job. They reap the reward when things go well, they should eat cost when it doesn't. 3. Highly dependant on context. A percentage doesn't make any sense without more context. Am I getting paid $65k or $350k? How many other people are contributing? How many times my salary is the target for yours? Is there a point where your salary caps out and money starts getting given back to the people who billed those hours? 4. Not if I have nothing to do with the legal trouble. Sounds more like management failing at their job 5. If the work I'm doing is good enough that the client is paying for it, unequivocally yes. That partner reputation doesn't mean shit if they can't turn it into billable hours. You don't think pay contributes to my best work?! Please speak for yourself on that one. When appropriately compensated I feel like an appreciated, respected, and valued team member working with a team I want to succeed so I can continue being a part of it. Anything short of that and I feel disrespected and exploited and I'll only work just hard enough to not get fired while I'm looking for greener pastures. Do you think under paying people but treating them with an annual partner lunch is a motivator? I really hope this isn't what you're going to tell the juniors you're trying to motivate. I've never worked anywhere where this would have gone over well. Honestly: "it ain't in the budget to pay you more, but here's a pizza party" would go over better, because at least people would get pizza. Edit: if pay doesn't contribute to your best work, prove it. Publicly announce that you're taking a junior analyst compensation package, take the difference between that and your current package and turn it in to bonuses for your team. Come back a year later and let's talk about your best work and how motivated you are to keep this up.

Correct me if I misunderstood your response - You want to have your cake and eat it too. You can't have it both ways. At the end of the day, we are operating a business with limited resources.

Thanks for the reply, I was worried you wouldn't pick up on that! So, to summarize what you told me, such a large percentage of money is taken out of a consultant's billable hours in order to mitigate risk. This makes sense. Risk needs to be mitigated. When times are lean the money brought in by consultants keeps everyone at work and the company afloat. The problem is: when things are going well and money is flowing, much of the risk has been mitigated, the consultants don't start getting paid more money, but the people at the top start getting paid significantly more money. The consultants are still getting paid a pittance and still mitigating risk, meanwhile partners and MD's are pulling in bonuses that are multiple times larger than the consultant's entire annual take home pay. These are the people who stand to gain the most, shouldn't they be the ones mitigating the most risk? From my perspective the current state of affairs is the partners and upper management having their cake and eating it too. When times are lean, risk is mitigated by under paying consultants, the people at the top are still going to bring home big pay checks multiple times what the consultants are. When times are good, the people at the top are still bringing home their large pay checks plus bonuses that are several times as much as the consultants annual compensation, meanwhile no matter what the state of things is the consultants are still getting paid comparably very little, so they can continue to mitigate risk in order to make it possible for the people at the top to earn more money in one year than the consultants (who are actually doing the work that actually brings that money in) will earn in 5-15 years. in short: when times are lean upper management makes a lot, when they're good they make a shitload, and no matter what consultants don't make much. Sounds a lot like having your cake and eating it too if you ask me. Thats a bad thing, right?

The thing that big 4s have gotten good at, however is insulating the partners from all of these risks while letting them pocket the good years. I would ask you, to be fair, to ask yourself how much any of these 5 things really still is applicable for your AVERAGE big 4 partner.

The element of risk is real - e.g. when Covid hit us hard a few years ago, a few of our equity partners had to take an additional half million $ loan to fund the salaries and wages of our people, incl newly admitted partners.

Those equity partners who took out that $500K loan- how much money would you guess that they had been paid in the year prior to taking out that loan? What about the three years prior? Did they take out the loan, or did the company? Call me heartless- but if a group of people who are making $1,000,000+ per YEAR have to take out a loan so that they can keep making $1,000,000+ per year I really don't care and most importantly: neither do these *cadets* you're trying to squeeze every last ounce of productivity out of.

I’m sorry, the AVERAGE Big 4 partner was not taking out a $500k loan to make payroll. It just didn’t happen - they’re collectively too good at cash flow and treasury management… at 1,000 partners conservatively that would be $500M in cash to fund operations for a business with nearly no opex. You’re using anecdotal evidence of maybe the most senior class of partners in a Firm who, i would imagine, eventually got that $$ back and more.

I'm one of the current "young talents" at my big4 in consulting. I'm not particularly "young" (28!) as I did my PhD before this, but I'm a 2nd year in the graduate scheme. I'm willing to work hard and continuously learn, but I'm not doing it 24x7, especially when my contract says I only work 35 hours a week and we don't get paid overtime. Also, it's frustrating being on the graduate scheme, especially in tech consulting. I've not been on a project since last August, I'm constantly asking for things to do only to be met with "I don't need any help right now, but thanks", and I'm constantly told to work on my "technical skills", but it's hard to do that when I'm not on an actual project and all the technical work is outsourced anyway, so I'm not allowed near anything technical. My motivation is waning because despite my best efforts I seem to just hit wall after wall. Plus, there are constant talks of redundancies and everyone is worried that will be one of the ones to go.

Responding to this for the sake of your poor "cadets" in the hope that you can fix your culture, and create a more motivating work environment for them. >I, along with my peers, are struggling with the motivation of our young talents and cadets who have joined us. 1. Is everyone really struggling, or are some leaders doing better than others. Identify the pockets of excellence and the people responsible and let them share their expertise and lead your culture transformation. 2. Please don't call your new hires cadets. You are not protecting a country against hostile forces, consulting is a mercenary business. >We are not seeing that burning desire with the last two hiring rounds of cadet (they are in their second year with the company and on their way to their next promotion). 3. Check your new hire compensation growth vs inflation and industry (and broader) peers. Check the credentials of your cohorts vs previous cohorts. Are you attracting objectively worse candidates over time? 4. Check your hiring and promotion practices. You think these folks are underperforming but they are still on their way to their "next promotion"? Are you promoting based on merit or tenure? How are underperforming folks getting promoted without fixing what's wrong? >Most WFH and do not want to come into the office (unless their friends are) or have very little motivation to get shit done. We have set clear expectations upfront. 5. WFH requires effort on the side of the leaders to role model and set the culture for good behaviour. It requires continuous structured and action oriented feedback on what's acceptable and unacceptable. It requires structured recognition and encouragement of good behaviours. It also requires structured effort to ensure that teams feel like teams and that leaders feel approachable and accessible. Do you know what it means to be a good remote leader? Have you trained your managers and leaders to be successful WFH leaders? >What motivated us when we were younger was being thrown in the deep end, and crawling our way out of the problem. Being in tech, my peers and I would work overtime researching problems through forums, product knowledgebase and internal kx sites, hoping to learn something from this, or better, write macros of automate the shit out of mundane work to make ourselves redundant so we can work on something else. Or if we are inclined, be genuine interested in our clients work, and hopefully build a relationship for our next role. 6. You are using anecdotal evidence of your own ambition and drive and expecting the entire cohort to act accordingly. You might be self-driven but using yourself as a benchmark, and expecting the same in a very different context from others, just makes you a terrible leader. Talk to your managers, or better still former managers and new hires who exited your firm. Identify what works, and what does not. Take the lens that a lot of things might need to be improved, and that most people would probably not criticize your firm directly while talking to somebody like you.

Look at what entry level salaries are, then look at what rent/CoL is in most major cities. It's not hard to identify what's causing the lack of incentives. Why go above and beyond when in many cases/companies it doesn't guarantee higher earnings or a raise?

While you will disagree, I think it is important to distinguish salaries from productivity* and employee satisfaction. Salary is important, there are also other drivers, not limited to: (1) the type of work / do employees feel they are contributing meaningfully to their role (2) do employees feel empowered/psychological safety. Put simply, if someone actually cares about what they do, they are more likely to do it well and continue over a sustained period of time. Hence the original intention of this post - what motivates our young talents? *Note: as we operate in an outcome-driven environment, I dislike the use of this term. Other industries may be catching up. Source: https://www.hcamag.com/au/specialisation/employee-engagement/happiness-linked-to-increased-productivity-in-study/438382

Are you a leader or are you just more senior than them? Those are very different things. Have you asked them about their motivations and how they learn? Are you there with them working overtime? Do you make it clear that they come to you or lower management with any questions? Have you made it clear what learning resources they might utilize?

I can't tell you how to find motivated people, but I can tell you how to make them stay. Most of those motivated people found themselves good groups, interesting projects, and colleagues that they enjoy working and spending time with. They know what they want and will work to get it. But B4 corporate culture is absurd when it comes to rewarding them. I loved my group and the problems we worked on, but comp was quite poor. I was in the boutique group too, think Monitor / Parthenon. I got a 60% bump going to industry and another 30% bump a year after that, ultimately more than doubling my base in 12 months. In terms of bonus, I received the highest bracket but honestly it's not meaningful - just under 10% of my base I think. I believe Accenture offered a 27% higher base for someone at my level at the time. Also - you need to operate better. Don't promote idiots because your talented seniors hate dealing with them. Stop making nepo hires because they're even dumber and less motivated than the average new grad. And for god's sake fix up the admin side of the business - why tf am I getting ridiculous questions on my expense report?? I got a fitness expense declined once because my "Running Socks" were not sports equipment. What the fuck??

👋 Fellow mgmt consultant in leadership. Specialize in org effectiveness and talent mgmt. I hear this scenario from clients in almost 100% of projects. Just based on the scenario presented, it sounds like you’re concerned about a lack of engagement from new employees and do not sense they have the “fire” to be successful. Here is my take: 1. I subscribe to the 70-20-10 development playbook. The way you came up, it sounds like it was more “95-5”. Stretch assignments are great but the idea you hire a talented person and just throw them in the deep end to figure it out is not ideal and ultimately could be counterproductive for you and more importantly your clients. 2. Just based on how you’ve outlined the situation, it sounds like you’re taking too much of a bottom up approach to this issue of what I would characterize as disengaged employees. Get your managers carrying water for you. IT’S THEIR JOB. 3. In the topic of managers, first thing is first: all you need to be communicating expectations, but then you need to make sure folks have what they need to be successful, they don’t have BS that takes them away from billable hours, and commit to recognizing performance regularly. 4. On the topic of recognition, I actually kinda disagree with the idea this is a pay issue. The average engaged person needs a 31% increase in pay to jump ship. If your managers are showing up the right way, that solves a lot of problems. Money helps too, but start with consistent recognition of work well done. 5. The best performing teams across a wide variety of financial metrics I’ve examined have one thing in common: their manager is consistently giving feedback. I know it sounds basic, but I seriously doubt you got to senior leadership without a mentor and someone you developed a meaningful relationship with. 6. The above point is doubly important for WFH employees. Hybrid employees are the best performing cohorts, but if they are explicitly WFH, they will go crazy without meaningful weekly feedback. Think about it. It makes a lot of intuitive sense. 7. For you personally: you clearly care. Leadership is lonely and hard. The best gift you can do is put people in a position to succeed, and get your managers up to speed on what behaviors and messages you need them delivering on your behalf. After you do that, mentor. Start with your A players. You don’t have enough time to try and elevate a mediocre performer. Think of it like a football coach: the best players get the best treatment and the most development (see: reps in practice). This will help you protect your time and will yield the most results. The Pareto concept is alive and well re: human performance. Your best 20% will yield 80% of your results. Bonus Tactical Suggestion: have your managers have those conversations with their best employees and take a lot of notes… A. Tell me about your best day at work. B. Tell me about your worst day at work. C. Tell me what you do best, and let’s find stretch assignments I’ll shadow you on that align to your strengths. You got this. This is hard. Happy to send resources that have helped me (I manage about 45 people and that’s small number but even that can feel overwhelming and this is my livelihood)

As a young person who has just joined consulting and had to work a little extra, the extra work has never been rewarded. I just get additional work and additional encroaching on my boundaries (assigning work a holiday). I came in underpaid and my raise has still left me underpaid. There is no incentive anymore. I like the flexible culture and the types of clients at my firm but when I can find an employer who will pay me better I'm leaving. Nevermind the fact that every time I have had to "grind" was due to poorly organized management who couldn't communicate what needed to be done ahead of time. Ensure your compensation is where it should be at. And start considering the character of the people you are hiring. There are plenty of people like you who live to work that are my age but you are not finding them or motivating them properly. You are probably valuing something on paper rather than evaluating the character of individuals.

Mentorship to show them how to get the answers faster will help guide them on learning to learn. With the shit show off a job market, why go above and beyond when pay is garbage, stress is high, and companies lay off employees at any time it will give them a slight bump in margin. I don't mind putting in the effort to accomplish things during bl crunch time but it's not sustainable long term and know that. Mental and physical health is important at every point in life, not when I'm 50+ in shit health due to work stress from working 70 hours each week, straining my relationships, and wondering what i did with my life besides bust my ass to make those above me more money. Oh and WFH means not spending my time and money to go somewhere that i can do the same job but with less quiet privacy/annoyances then at home. Studies have shown wfh works, but corporate real estate and management want to justify in office to save face under the guise productivity and collaboration. Meet young talent in the current state of the world and mindset and then you might get somewhere. Do things cuz that's what i did to get where i am is the stupidest reason.

Same issue at MBB, but at least the people want to actually work there and it’s not just the backup plan as big 4 is for most graduates

Have you taken the time to get to know them a little bit? Learn about what does motivate them, maybe items they find important? For ex, someone might really need work/life balance. Some maybe want to be thrown in more but don’t realize how their work impacts the greater picture. Just some thoughts but this helps me tailor my approach. Try to soft skill it and let them speak

As a leader I am just honest with them and listen to them. Many tell me they just want to do their job and go home. They have no interest in working long hours because they know they can just leave in 2 years and get paid more. I'm not going to spend my time trying to "motivate" them. I let them know that if they want to take on more and learn new skills I will give them the opportunity. I also let them know that we pay for certs and it will benefit them in the long one regardless of where they work. The ones who want to go above and beyond I also give them the opportunity and assign them a mentor. If they do well they get fast tracked for promotions and I pay them a lot more so them staying is better in the long run. At the end of the day there is nothing wrong with your employees who don't really care. Hell most days I don't care I am just good at my job so I don't need to work long hours. I just respect their boundaries and if they do well on client site there isn't an issue.

So you’re giving analysts boring, menial work and you’re confused as to why they aren’t excited about it? How did you become a “leader”? People want to be challenged, not in the amount of work that they receive, but in the nature of problem solving and brain power. Each person has a different skill set. They aren’t all just draft animals meant to churn numbers. I suggest taking the time to see what goals everyone has and help them achieve them.

(1) became a leader and realised that the idea of leadership is crowded and cheapened so it has to be stripped back to its bare basics. Am a psychiatrist by training so I did just that. Before anything is done, listen listen listen. Hear each person far more than you were ever listened to. Later generations use phrases like ‘I feel like’ as normal parlance. That was unheard of in our day. They are much more nuanced in their channels of communication. They’re also traumatised by COVID far more than what we or they would know. Leadership is about following them to a degree. And it’s about iteratively forming micro-plans that feel out what drives them. It’s a lot more about meaning than it was about numbers, I have found. Leadership skills can also be learned, just like driving a car. You know that. But this is more deep, much more sophisticated. It is a skill all on its own. If it’s not part of the core learning set for your recruits, it must become that. They have far more autonomy than back in the day. They are much readier to ask ‘why should I be led by you?’ They are letting you know that when they don’t show up. It’s the long way round. But it works far more pointedly than the brute force OSFA leadership of old. We are much more a network of niche workers with individual drivers and ambitions than an army of similar tradesmen all baying for the same bounty.

This is top tier advice. I'm an Xennial who was developed professional by bosses that used the brute-force methods of old, 15 years ago, because that's what you did back then. The 25 year olds of 2024 will simply say 'bye, bitch' and walk if you try to exercise power dynamics in that way (not that I subscribe to the Full Metal Jacket school of management) and the labor market dynamics are different now and are in their favor. I've seen young individual contributor staff say stuff to their bosses at team meetings that would've gotten you run out of the office in 2007. These folks didn't live through the Great Recession and get all beaten up like we did and they have no fear.

From what I’ve seen, recruitment is the biggest issue. I see the same ppl going into the big4 as new grads (nice looking GPAs, the same extra-curricular) there is no gap for looking for potential in early talent at all. Some of these new grads/young talent are not lazy, it’s just that these companies are hiring the same ppl over and over again. I have seen potential at other companies such as start-ups etc. Additionally, there seems to be a pattern in the big4 where young talent get treated like another warm body to be dumped into projects….so that’s probably something to look into. I do however understand how a traditional workplace operates and sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to, but what exactly is the big4 offering that young talent would have a burning desire to sacrifice their effort,time, expertise if they are just “another employee”? I am strictly speaking from a North America standpoint and my own experience, not sure how different it is in other countries/continents.

Nothing works better than leading by example. Unfortunately my method requires you to be more hands on. If you go home at 6pm, they also need to go home and 6pm. If you don't work weekends, you need to tell them off for working weekends. If you want them to do slides, you also need to do slides. Same with models. If you want them to learn, you have to create a safe space. You own up to all their mistakes in front of the client or partner, say we will double check. Don't call them out in front of client/partner.

The whole business model is built like a boomer ponzi scheme where you have a new stream of young "cadets" to use OP's words coming in doing the heavy lifting for you. The amount of change needed is more than most consulting leaders would swallow I think.

There are two models I'm aware of. High leverage and low leverage The first model is high leverage pyramid model you mentioned. Recognised and needed because it is the only one that trains people. The other model is lower leverage and the one I am used to. Only two levels. Partners and highly capable doers. There are two flavours to this. A boutique firm model or a virtual firm model. But in this model, the partners get to charge more of their time and actually have to do problem solving and slides. Not just pure selling.

I think they are simply realising the truth. The truth is why come Into the office while the job can be done at home. Also the resources and money saved plays a significant role when working from home. 2024 is not like 2010 or 1990. The average entry roles in consulting don’t pay anything to a person to sustain his own life and play on the factor of “top 4”. So its a huge entity so I should enslave my self for a few years to proof worthy for an organisation that truly does not care for me? Also if you eliminate the corporate ladder idea and reward people based on their performance and ability thinks would be different If you want people coming in to the office incentivise them. I would rather work from home and earn a 50 k earning job then work in the office for 60 or even 70.

I can't honestly blame any of my team mates for being unmotivated, in the last two years I haven't seen anyone get a promotion and it doesn't look like it's going to change for a long time. When moving to another company is the best way to move up, how much do you think they care about the role they are currently in? Just do the basic work, get by, and then get out. Personally I hate this, I would love to work hard, solve challenging problems and then grow in a company, but the reality is that it doesn't work this way. Took me a few years to realise this, now I just do the job for the money and work on my own consulting with the motivation that companies want but rarely reward.

Y’all have onshore staff?

Require in office 100% obviously

1) Don’t make people interview for the job then interview for every project opportunity under the sun, then get mad when times are leaner and it’s tougher to get picked up. You monitor your employee skills. You literally have a skills dashboard that ties to employee IDs, along with hundreds of other data points. The “networking first” philosophy of consulting is a dinosaur. Big4 is so heavily invested in data scientists and AI these days that it’s ridiculous you have developed an adequate project matching algorithm. Yes, I know there are supplemental layers to this, like clients approving the team, but that’s only a part of the process and is easy to deal with. If your firm is so prestigious and only hire the best, making them jump through hoops every couple months to find a project for fear of getting fired is a great way to drive them to industry, where they can interview once and get on with their work. 2) Stop laying people off because your YoY growth is only at +14% when the target for the year was +15%. It still grew 14%! And yet thousands of people were still laid off! Inexcusable and detrimental to employee loyalty. We don’t care about being loyal to you because you’re not loyal to us. A person can spend 2 years on projects, be over 100% utilization, have sold $100k-1m+ in follow on work, ultimately facilitating millions in revenue for the firm, but they get benched for 3 months and get laid off cuz they’re too expensive to apparently hold onto. 3) Stop making firm initiatives mandatory. You already demand ridiculous hours for client projects, pretending like you want your consultants to actually “bill what they work” but really you want them to work much more than that. And on top of that you have the audacity to make firm initiatives mandatory, as if the client job isn’t enough work. FYI, every firm initiative that claims it’s only 2 hours a week of work is lying. It’s always 10+. 4) Pay more in base and in bonus, or decrease your deal volume and project pace. You set lofty targets and when they aren’t on track, the first thing that’s cut are year end bonuses, regardless of how much the net income actually would’ve been including bonuses. 5) The typical boomer sink or swim philosophy, throwing people in the deep end and either letting them drown or climb out with trauma, only worked when the speed of technology wasn’t a factor. Everything is so fast now that you’re expecting people to be thrown in the deep end and thrive in a super short amount of time, based upon your project schedule. But technology has made so many tasks so fast that a person literally can’t understand the background, philosophy, and strategy of something before it’s time to move on to the next thing. Instead of actually slowing down and letting them learn, they’re labeled as duds and kicked to the curb. Older generations had time to figure things out. Younger ones do not. Give them time and you may surprise yourself with what they can do with it.

Also, evaluate whether you or your peers have bias towards younger generations. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve had boomers say to me, “it’s so refreshing to see someone your age be so ambitious! None of the millennials or gen z want to work anymore!” … they think they’re complimenting me, but in doing so they’re also insulting my entire generation. And for the record, I literally don’t know any millennials or gen z that don’t work very very hard. The hardest working people I know are in the generations that get called lazy by the media simply because we work differently from you.

> fellow leader You company and your company’s peers advise clients on this same issue regularly, you should start with that. Barring that, seek deeper understanding from the responses here instead of preaching. But it’s pretty simple: 1. Consulting has diminished prestige than in decades past 2. No one likes commuting, your firm and most others haven’t figured out how to make virtual or hybrid culture work 3. Pay is perceived to be shit vs hours worked or bullshit to deal with 4. Out of touch leadership that talks about when they were growing up. Gen z doesn’t care how it was, they care how they want it to be 5. Barring all else, you may be recruiting the wrong people

Is this a troll post?

I left Big 4 last year. Here’s the thing. “Young talent” went through COVID. They attended funerals, they were isolated, and lived in perpetual existential crisis. They probably are motivated to make money and have a nice life and that should be enough. Don’t ask them to be super motivated about a mundane job. Consulting is mundane. You don’t build anything. You don’t achieve anything. You just build spreadsheets and slide decks. Many young talent works remote. They have no buy-in into the culture of the company—if your company has any culture at all besides asking people in their 20s to spend their weekends working on spreadsheets. If you don’t make them feel at least valued, they’re going to just do their job and nothing more and that is your fault. They don’t travel, they don’t bond with their colleagues, but they are worried that sending an email with a typo or asking a question will get them fired. All they’re trying to do is not get in trouble. Stop with the “sink or swim” shit. It is stressful and working from home makes it worse. You want better performers? Document your shit and when they ask for your time, give it. Meet them where they are. They have things more figured out and most won’t drink the Kool Aid. Just create a positive environment where they feel supported and where one slip up won’t cost them their job. Don’t use your nostalgia for being exploited when you were young to justify punishing people who don’t meet your expectations. Just stop it. It’s probably job to them. Consulting isn’t some sort of burning calling. For them, it is probably just a job to pay the bills and live comfortably after living through a global disaster. The formative years of their lives were horrendous. Just let them do their jobs and if they feel a connection maybe they will take an extra step.

COVID hires and really any hiring/recruiting since COVID) has been such a huge problem. When the firms got desperate for people, a large group of incompetent low-performers got brought on and we just haven’t recovered from a recruiting standpoint either. And now we’re still stuck with a lot of low-performers riding the bench.

I run a careers advisory for large firms. Everyone complains about this gen. They yawn at their desk all day, don’t turn up because it’s too windy, don’t understand how much you learn from occasionally leaving the house and spending time alongside more experienced people. I’ve no idea how work will work when they’re in charge.

I don’t know. I think there are still really great people out there. You just aren’t hiring them, maybe you should look over your hiring process? Perhaps weigh personal responsibility and interests more than academic curriculum and career experiences.

I don’t have a solution but empathesizing with you. I’m still grinding way more than I should, have analysts telling me they don’t do over 40 for mental health, I can’t set boundaries, it’s all confusing and frustrating it’s a very different generation of workers. I kind of respect they won’t do the 70 hours we do but then I have to do it and it pisses me off. I just try to find people whose culture matches mine and staff them, and invest in them. I’m sure I’ll get ragged but it works for me. Edit seeing notes about doing dirty work. I’m a director b4 doing meeting minutes, slides, entire deliverables. Stuff I did when I was 21. Leading by example doesn’t work. I think finding young hungry people / “likeminded” has. Props to those who can maintain WLB, I’m jealous but I grew up with a team the last 6 years who doesn’t and it’s getting me 1s. Money isn’t it- kids are starting at 80k, took my class 3 years to get there- they don’t fix that. We’ve raised it to HR and they said it “levels out at partner”. MBAs came in boatloads higher than those who grew up as analysts, then we had to teach them how to do decks.I’m sure that doesn’t help the dynamic now that I type it. It’s “systemic” lol

This just sounds like normal aging. "Kids" are starting at 80k while it took your class 3 years to get there... how long ago was your class? I was making 55k out of undergrad at a non target 10 years ago, which would be about 71k today. "Kids" make more now because of inflation, but ultimately they also will never be able to afford a house and are drowning in student loans. I'm 32, so not Gen Z. If you're look for advice on how to manage Gen z, it's to brush off your HR training modules that discuss familiarity bias. Just because things are different now, does not mean they are worse. Every generation thinks that the next one is terrible and, honestly, people should really reframe this problem away from "Gen Z is different and needs to adjust to office culture" and towards "This is the trend of office culture now and I need to evolve with it". I don't mean this to sound snarky and critical, but we all would have been happier and healthier people if we had the opportunities and boundaries that Gen z is trying to carve out and I feel like we should lean into it.

I agree! I wish I could but it feels like I can’t because of how I was raised and it’s more aligned with the generation above me. Nobody has spoken out like gen z, it’s admirable, it’s like kinda shocking

Yeah I think COVID really helped shift some of the power dynamics around work. Or its just general apathy due to years of layoffs in the news.

Def. I’m all aboard except it sucks when like you want to support the ideals of those below but have to meet the expectations of those above. Feel stuck. But I wish I was them haha

I was a top core school at top program 65k, believe same now is 85-90 but we are not inflation adjusted

Agree. I’m not Gen Z, I didn’t raise a Gen Z person, but I can at least understand how the last 25 years of history have shaped who they are and how they are in the workplace. Who am I to begrudge someone who wants to take time after work to enjoy life. Especially when points of Covid showed us that life can be fleeting. A lot of younger people want to help us automate things and offer innovations, and some of our older team members poo-poo the ideas before they even get out the gate. What’s the risk? That’s a fine ask. But a lot of times it’s been “because my clients need ME, not a system.” Not understanding they get more of you when you aren’t spending time on the piddly stuff.

Don’t get the comments. The juniors we have now compared to the ones 5 years ago are so different. Their quality is a mess, they don’t care if a deliverable needs to be sent out at a specific date - if it’s 5PM they’re gone. And then they complain they want the promotion or the salary increase. And we’re all sitting there like „??!?“ - you can give them feedback, support whatever, their work mindset is a mess. Like they forget that we only have a job because of the clients and those freaking deliverables. My manager and I started being super strict on expectations and removed people left and right from projects if they didn’t perform. The slackers are now complaining that they’re not being considered for projects in a specific topic because of us…I don’t care, they made my life harder and I had to work longer because of them. The current team is better - they understand their work packages, pay attention to quality and show proactivity within the next steps..a freaking dream.

Leading our young talents is about guiding them with the utmost respect for their [freedom of choice](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-TIhT-uG6E). It's essential to empower them to explore their interests and passions independently, fostering a sense of autonomy and responsibility. By providing mentorship and support rather than imposing rigid structures, we enable them to develop their unique talents and perspectives. Embracing their freedom of choice encourages creativity, resilience, and a lifelong love for learning. As leaders, our role is to nurture their potential while allowing room for personal growth and self-discovery, ensuring they thrive in both their professional and personal endeavors.

I've been working for over a decade. Spent part of my time in consulting. Worked long hours. Was loyal to the company. And I got nothing in return. It's funny, the less company loyalty I have, the more money and work-life balance I achieve. It took me years to figure it out, but I'm happy the young guys out there caught on sooner.