Work Advice: Can't keep younger workers? Try offering what they value.

Reader: I’ve been practicing law for about 35 years, and my peers and I are having a hard time recruiting and retaining younger attorneys. I’ve been told that, on the whole, younger employees believe that:

• Staying at the same company for more than a few years is too long, because you can get a bigger increase by switching employers;

• Responding to clients or partners after 5 p.m. or on weekends is optional;

• Working at home is just as good as working in person;

• Employers should not expect them to invest their time in learning their job.

If these things are accurate, is it realistic for Gen X managers to expect millennials and Gen Z-ers to adopt a more responsive and committed attitude?

Karla: Managers can expect whatever they like, but seeing as your firm is struggling to hire and retain new talent, it doesn’t seem to have worked so far.

So let’s break open this straw-man piñata of reductive generational statements and sift for clues about what else might work.

First, consider the context in which these workers are building their careers. To this Gen X-er, the world seems faster-paced, more chaotic and less forgiving than when I entered the workforce. The rules we learned for getting ahead and being an “ideal worker” may not align with current lived reality and priorities. This isn’t to say the statements you’ve heard are inaccurate, just that they reflect values that have evolved with the times.

Statement: “Staying at the same company for more than a few years is too long.”

Value: Career mobility.

It’s true that the best pay bumps usually accompany a new job or title; law-school grads carrying massive debt may be job-hopping to maximize earnings. But others may have nonfinancial reasons for not putting down roots at any one employer.

The concept of loyalty is a hard sell for someone who has seen their parents and grandparents build single-employer careers over decades, only to be dumped in a layoff or nudged into early retirement.

Thanks to rapid technological and social changes, more people expect to have multiple employers and careers in their lifetime. Pursuing different opportunities is a way to ensure their skills and knowledge keep up with the times. Settling down means falling behind.

Finally, the driven, motivated workers in high demand are unlikely to linger in jobs that offer insufficient opportunity, variety and reward.

Yes, they should do the work they have been hired to do, but employers that can entice them with experiences and opportunities beyond their job description stand a better chance of keeping them on board longer.

Statement: “Responding to clients or partners after 5 p.m. or on weekends is optional; working from home is as good as in person.”

Value: Balance.

The legal profession is famous for demanding grueling billable hours - and causing major burnout in its overworked practitioners. High compensation, including salary and perks, has traditionally been the trade-off - but there is still a limit to how much of their lives people are willing to give over to their jobs, especially those who shifted to remote work during the pandemic. A 2023 Washington Post-Ipsos poll found that 55 percent of remote workers would take a pay cut to stay remote; Business Insider reported that some remote workers would accept pay cuts of up to 20 percent.

As I have said before, it’s not that people refuse to show up; they just want their presence to serve a purpose. If you expect employees to be more responsive and available on demand, it helps to have a rationale for why that extra effort matters.

Also, the stricter the rules on hours and location, the more likely employees will need flexibility elsewhere. If you want them to be more available on their evenings and weekends, it’s only fair to grant flexibility around their business hours. Entrusting employees with some control over their time is a more effective way to get them to suit up and put in the extra hours when necessary.

Statement: “Employers should not expect [young employees] to invest their time in learning their job.”

Value: Professional development support.

While some workers in every generation are content to rest on their laurels, most welcome the challenge of acquiring skills and knowledge. But if they’re overwhelmed by projects and client demands, training will always fall to the bottom of the to-do list. Expecting them to pursue it entirely of their own accord sends the message that development is for their benefit alone, not a priority for the employer.

It’s worth asking what kind of time, space and opportunity your firm is offering for learning. Can employees set aside a block of uninterrupted time to undergo mandatory training, or are they expected to pause for client calls?

Informally, are junior employees getting the chance to learn at a mentor’s elbow? Are they receiving continuous, constructive feedback? (More “Good first draft; I’d like you to build on it and give me more X” and less “This is bad; do it over.”)

I realize it is hard to build these practices into a high-stakes, deadline-driven client service environment; you’re hiring attorneys with the expectation that they can hit the ground running and learn as they go. But the best way to ensure they make learning a priority is to show them you value it.

If nothing else, I recommend two principles to follow when you find yourself losing faith in younger generations:

• Question your assumptions. If the first answer to “Why?” that pops up is “Because I had to,” dig harder.

• Forget what you’ve been told about the group. Focus on what you observe in the individuals. To quote Ted Lasso: Be curious, not judgmental.