The snow and a winter flu bug has got me down this week, so I haven’t devoted as much time to work as I normally would. Fitting, then, that the Times has an article titled It’s Task Before Time For Generation Y.

Jobs have long been structured primarily around units of time — a 40-hour workweek, an eight-hour day. The time you spend — or are supposed to spend — determines whether you are working full-or part-time, with implications for compensation and other benefits.

Face time can serve as a proxy for commitment and ambition. But that comes as a bit of a surprise to many of today’s newest employees. Generation Y workers (born since 1980) prefer jobs defined by task, not time.

They want to be compensated for what they produce.

I have a feeling this will be a point I continue to hammer on. I tend to put these posts under the banner of “Flex Time”, but that’s not entirely accurate. For Generation X & Boomers, “Flex Time” was a concept that allowed them to spread their 40 hours out over the week to best suit their schedule. “Flex Time” for Gen Y is smashing the clock altogether, with the understanding that what’s important is that the work is getting done.

If this seems alien to you, try to think about the number of Fridays you’ve spent sitting at your desk, your work for the week completed, waiting for the clock to reach an arbitrary “home time.” Why on earth do we do this?

Tags: flex time, rowe