Young workers want feedback and lots of it. But if you deliver it in the wrong ways, it could backfire.

Your youngest colleagues may be the newest to the workplace, but they have clear expectations about how they would like to receive feedback: It should be timely, collaborative, empathetic and balanced. But if you wait weeks or months to address an issue, fix their mistakes without a conversation or focus only on what went wrong, they just might leave to find a workplace that connects with them better. Generation Z, or those born between 1997 and 2012, are shaking up workplace norms, including how critical feedback is delivered. Cultures clash when older generations, who may have gone without much explanation or care in their early careers, critique younger workers in ways that unintentionally alienate or discourage them, experts who study the multigenerational workforce say.

Gen Z employees reported the greatest decline in feeling cared about at work, having the chance to learn and grow, having progress discussions with their supervisors, and feeling that their opinions matter, according to a recent Gallup survey. And less engaged workers often leave.

“Rather than just saying, ‘Hey, you did this wrong,’ say, ‘I’d like to have a conversation on where your thought process was and where you went wrong,’” said Yatri Patel, 24-year-old software engineer at the Tennessee Valley Authority, the energy agency where she’s working her first full-time job. “Help me understand.”

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