This audio is automatically generated. Please let us know if you have any comments.
“Generation Toolbelt” is a column dedicated to exploring Generation Z, their relationship with the workplace and their role in helping fill the construction job gap.
There’s a good chance that while you’re reading this, I’m on vacation.
I’m also a member of Generation Z, a group that values a job well done as much as a strong personal life, as well as a cohort that the construction industry is working hard to judge.
When it comes to vacation planning, the demanding nature of construction makes it difficult enough to coordinate over time. It’s another obstacle to have to justify it to a boss.
“I think tighter deadlines and fast project deadlines in general mean you really have to plan vacations well in advance,” said Nate Haight, 26, an assistant project manager for a larger national contractor.
In addition to planning the time away, Gen Z must shoulder the expenses of the trip. Gen Z workers, typically younger in their careers, may not have as much disposable income for extravagant travel and instead choose to take shorter vacation periods.
From the conversations I had with half a dozen Gen Zers in construction for this column, the hardest part about taking time off is the expectation that they’ll have to justify it to their peers, not just their bosses. Even if they use earned PTO, Zoomer construction professionals said they can face questioning when they take vacation.
Shorter holidays
Whether swinging hammers or working on the jobsite trailer, young construction workers say they can’t always handle the monetary costs of a long vacation like their senior counterparts.
“I’ve only been working for about a year,” said Jacqueline Yeung, 24, a project engineer at McCarthy. “I think, unfortunately, I’m not at the point where I can afford a really great vacation.”
This, combined with the rising costs to travel this summermeans it costs them more to pay for a bigger trip.
“I try to take one or maybe two longer vacations a year,” Haight said. “But for the most part, it’s a lot of Fridays. Long weekends.”
For crafters, shorter holidays are also more manageable. Yeung works in the Bay Area, which she says has a strong union presence. This allows trade workers to enjoy longer holiday weekends more often, as unions tend to extend the break on Mondays when there is no work on Fridays, or vice versa.
Working harder to stop working
At work, before logging off from my current vacation, I set up an outgoing email response, filed this story (and others), and created documentation for my team in case they have questions about my workflow while I’m away.
I was glad to do so. It will make my colleagues’ lives easier, and they have done the same for me when they take time off. Construction professionals also work hard to make sure their team isn’t left high and dry in their absence.
“In my opinion, if you take PTO or vacation, you take it. It’s your time. Phones off, done,” said Corbin Bradley, 28, and Rosendin’s project manager. “The only requirement for that, though, is setting your team up for success and redirecting emails and contacts and making sure someone is there to replace you.”
But doing that extra work can feel deflating when employees also find themselves under pressure to explain their need for vacation to begin with.
Justifying earned time off
Gen Zers told me that when they apply for PTO, even well in advance, they are met with questions. They may be questioned as to why they are taking time off.
For some, these aren’t collegiate curiosities, but rather inquiries that seem to probe whether someone deserves their time away.
“Whenever you take a vacation or go away for a week or something, people start making comments,” Haight said. “‘Nobody wants to work anymore’. They’re joking, but it’s not a joke either.”
Ultimately, the Zoomers I spoke with said that their companies have generous PTO offerings and that their direct supervisors often encourage them to take the time they need to disconnect. However, peer feedback can be discouraging to a group of workers who have a fame of laziness. It’s as if their personal work ethic doesn’t give them the benefit of the doubt.
What employers can do
Many of these sensibilities aren’t unique to Gen Z, but the difference is both the monetary expense of taking a vacation and the stigma of young employees not wanting to work.
PTO is a workplace benefit. Generous offers are part of what sources told me they like about their jobs. Making it easy for employees to use these benefits seems like a no-brainer.
In the first edition of this column, I wrote about how Gen Z doesn’t see your career as your identitybut rather a means to pursue who they are. This may explain the difference in holiday mentality.
“For many of the older people in construction, their job is their main job,” Haight said. “There are people who, they’re not necessarily proud of it, but they’ll talk about all these different events that were missed in their kids’ lives and they wish they could go back. A lot of them are happy when the younger ones take time for things.”
For what it’s worth, they are indeed using PTO for these events. When asked, the sources I spoke to said their immediate future plans included catching up with old friends, attending graduations or celebrating weddings. In other words, the kind of life events most important to make time for.
