Trinity College London<\/a>, surveyed more than 1,500 people aged between 16 and 29 across the UK. It found that 38% of young people dread having to make small talk in the workplace. Almost 60% said they would struggle to work with older colleagues while 30% feared picking up the phone.<\/p>\nHere, experts share their tips on how to overcome gen Z\u2019s biggest anxieties.<\/p>\n
Telephobia<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a massive skill to learning to make calls,\u201d says Liz Baxter, a careers adviser at Nottingham College who runs coaching sessions on phone confidence. She says demand for the college\u2019s \u201ctelephobia\u201d course is high.<\/p>\n
While previous generations grew up having no option but to pick up the phone, Baxter says texting, online booking platforms and AI customer service have made making a phone call one of the biggest generational divides.<\/p>\n
Baxter explains confidence comes with practice. She suggests calling friends and family first \u201cto practise the ebb and flow of a two-way conversation in real time\u201d.<\/p>\n
Baxter stresses the importance of sitting up straight, speaking slowly and smiling as \u201cthe caller will hear it in your voice\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sophie Rains, a customer support and experience manager who manages a call centre, says that before dialling you should jot down \u201cwhat the purpose of your call is and any relevant information. That way if you get nervous or confused you can refer back to your notes.\u201d<\/p>\n
If someone is rude or angry, Rains says: \u201cI usually let them vent and eventually they run out of steam and are often a bit calmer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rains says to remember not to take anything personally. \u201cYou don\u2019t know what is going on in the caller\u2019s life, or you might have caught them at a bad time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colleagues and office chit-chat<\/p>\n
Rather than fearing encounters with new people, Marie O\u2019Riordan, an executive coach, suggests viewing it as an adventure, with many people making lifelong friends through work.<\/p>\n
The former editor-in-chief of Marie Claire and Elle UK, who now specialises in helping women transition into leadership roles, says small talk can often lead to other opportunities.<\/p>\n
She suggests starting with workplace topics such as how long someone has been with the company, rather than subjects such as someone\u2019s home life, which could be considered too personal.<\/p>\n
\u201cGen Z often underestimate how flattering it is to be asked questions,\u201d O\u2019Riordan says. \u201cIt shows a generosity and you can learn so much from other people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Early birds<\/p>\n
If you need to set an early alarm, Dr Radha Modgil, the author of Know Your Own Power: Inspiration, Motivation and Practical Tools for Life, suggests treating yourself as if you were a child going back to school after the summer holidays. In the weeks leading up to a new job, start by bringing your bedtime and getting-up time forward.<\/p>\n
For an efficient morning routine, take your start time and work backwards. \u201cLook at travel timetables. Get your work clothes ready the night before. Lay out your breakfast,\u201d Modgil says. \u201cThese are things that all sound very simple but they help prepare you and can reduce anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the report, 28% of gen Z favoured flexible working hours and no emails after 6pm, while 32% wanted mental health days as standard. A desire to work from home was expressed by 68% of the respondents. Modgil says a lot of trepidation stems from gen Z feeling like the workplace will be detrimental to their wellbeing.<\/p>\n
Modgil suggests treating each month like a marathon and coming up with a plan. \u201cIt helps to pace yourself so that you can be present and have the mental and emotional energy to work effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you are a millennial, part of gen X or a boomer, you probably do not give a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":{"0":"post-333601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}