The Toronto Star’s front page was all about Generation Y this past Saturday with the playfully titled “Generation Why Me?”

Basically, it’s about how everyone in their 20s is screwed.

First, we meet Angelika and Lucasz:

Angelika, 26, was full time on the door line at Chrysler, where her parents still work. Lucasz, 27, made moulds as a machine operator, a skill he learned from his father, who still works in the trade.

They were planning to have children. Then, in March 2008, Angelika was laid off. Lucasz lost his job a month later. That set off a chain of events that still has not ended.

Those circumstances suck, sure – though I question whether someone who worked for Chrysler has the right to be at all surprised that he or she lost her job — but are kind of typical for a recession. These are the kind of things we need to look out for.

In fact, if I were to make like every other blogger and write a big list of RECESSION-BUSTING TIPS they’d really be little more than:

1. Don’t buy things you can’t afford
2. Don’t buy a house unless you’ve done some research and can afford it
3. Especially don’t buy a house in a new development in a suburb, you moron — it will be worth nothing exactly five minutes after you move in
4. Do everything you can to make yourself irreplaceable at your workplace
5. Seriously, you want to have kids? Right now? You’re young! Why don’t you wait a few years?

It’s not complicated. If you’ve come into things with only student debt – without a house, kids, two cars, a boat, a buddy in Nigeria you’re helping secure a family fortune, etc. — you’re likely going to be able to ride this out.

After the section on Angelika and Lucasz, however, the article takes an interesting detour:

It crashed down for Huda Assaqqaf, 24, too.

Assaqqaf believed university would bring a stable career. Armed with a food and nutrition degree from Ryerson, she embarked on a job search in 2007 that has yielded nothing but frustration and contract jobs, none of them in her field.

She now works part-time for Access Apartments, co-ordinating personal support workers for people with physical disabilities. “For an office job, it’s not very bad.”

Now, without reading too much into this, am I crazy or does that actually sound like a pretty good job for a 24-year-old to have?

The article disagrees, saying that “this is not what was promised … Generation Y grew up being told that if they were willing to work and study hard they could have it all: well-paying, fulfilling jobs that provided all the comforts.”

This, I guess, is the entitlement thing we as a generation always get charged with. Critics say that we’re whiny and that we expect too much.

But that’s both a simplification and a generalization – it implies there’s some kind of personality defect that’s infected everybody in their 20s, making them ultra demanding and particular when it comes to their career.

For those who truly fit into the ‘entitlement’ mold and get all grumpy that they’re not working their dream job five minutes after graduation, I have little sympathy. First, you went to university, not a vocational school – you were meant to develop broad thinking skills, not on-the-job training. Second, would you really be so contented with such a linear life? Where’s your sense of possibility? Where’s your sense of adventure?

Reading between the lines of the article in The Star reveals something else, however – something that I think is more interesting and, indeed, more universal: the Generation Ys coming out of post-secondary right now are products of a machine that doesn’t quite work right.

It’s not that Generation Ys feel entitled to great jobs right out-of-the-gate, it’s that they are told – often and repeatedly and with great vigor – that they ARE entitled to great jobs. Because they’re getting this credential – this degree, this diploma, this golden ticket – they’re set for life. Our educational institutions like to believe they’re like factories: pumping out smart, professional kids, ready to jump right into employment.

Schools have been foisting this on students – and their parents – for years, and it’s only now that it’s catching up to reality.

And, honestly, that’s a good thing. Credentialism is a dangerous idea. Sure, lazy hiring managers love it, but inevitably it leads to empty suits with MBAs getting CEO positions at failing companies while drop-outs run successful businesses like Microsoft and Apple. It’s a sad and boring world where degrees and diplomas are valued more than skills and performance; let’s try not to live in it.

So what about the twenty-somethings in the article? Some of them are facing some crappy luck. Others, seemingly, are doing pretty well for their first job right out of university. Jobs that don’t directly relate to our field-of-interest, contract work, internships, volunteer positions, depressing stints at retail: these are all valuable things that can add to your skillset and bring you closer to your goal.

Don’t let anybody tell you that you’re doing badly because you’re not a homeowner with kids and a steady union job by the time you’re 30 – that’s not the world we live in, and no one should make you feel entitled to that.

Note: This post was featured on BrazenCareerist.com where it sparked an interesting discussion. Check it out here.

Photo by witheyes.

Update: This post was featured on Brazen Careerist, where it got a bunch of really interesting comments. Check it out.

There’s a recession all over the world. Which is nice, because I like it when we all have something in common. I’ve written about the recession a few times. I’ll write about it some more. Much like the Jonas Brothers or skinny jeans, it won’t last forever, but it’s definitely not going away for a while. So we’ve got to learn to cope.

Like any recession, there’s a lot of hype these days. Newspapers, maybe because they’re shedding jobs faster than everyone else, are banging a ceaseless drum about this presumed fiscal apocalypse. And yes, it sucks, and yes, it will suck for at least another couple of years, but it’s important for members of Generation Y not to take all this doom-and-gloom rhetoric and make bad choices in the short-term that could seriously screw with their long-term career goals.

It’s critical that young people, in the face of the specter of soup lines and cardboard houses, not give in to hype-driven impulsiveness and make mistakes. Don’t panic.

No one’s in greater danger of this than those who are looking at graduating college or university this spring. When I graduated in 2006, I was looking forward to it — there was something exciting about stepping out into the world. Now, it’s a little bit like walking The Green Mile.

Take this article from the Kansas City Star: The perils of graduating college in 2009:

With so many experienced people out of work, how is a new grad supposed to compete? Many companies prefer to hire someone who is tested and knowledgeable in their industry rather than taking a flyer on a new kid. And those laid off folks are desperate too, often willing to take significantly lower salaries to land a gig.

Columnist Michael Stahl is right, of course, in that you’d have to either be a supergenius or an incredible moron to expect lucrative employment right out of college these days. But, again, I have to emphasize how important the ‘not panicking’ part of this is. I’m hearing about a lot of grads who are making really dumb decisions in light of the economy.

Here are three big career mistakes you should avoid right now, no matter how safe and secure – and even sensible – they might sound:

1. Don’t go to grad school

Look, I’ve got nothing against graduate school in theory. And, by all means, if you’re the kind of person who legitimately loves learning and being in academia — if you could see yourself spending your life tangled up in it — than grad school could absolutely be the right path for you.

But don’t do grad school because you have some misguided notion that it’s going to magically help your employment prospects. Penelope Trunk already covered this pretty well::

Applications to the military increase in a bad economy in a disturbingly similar way that applications to graduate school do. For the most part, both alternatives are bad. They limit your future in ways you can’t even imagine, and they are not likely to open the kind of doors you really want. Military is the terrible escape hatch for poor kids, and grad school is the terrible escape hatch for rich kids.

Even short grad school programs (One or two years) tend to offer little more than lipstick on a pig. If you don’t have the drive toward academia – and especially if you’re considering paying for grad school through student loans that will bury you into your forties — all you’re doing is avoiding reality.

2. Don’t become a teacher

One of my big anger-triggers these days is the seemingly widespread belief that teaching is a universally-palatable career choice that pretty much ANYONE with a BA can get into, be good at, and secure sustained employment. It’s not, it shouldn’t be, and trying to push the teaching profession down that road will undoubtedly screw with the education of young people for years to come.

Ignoring the fact that teaching is an incredible important occupation that should be the domain of our best and brightest, teaching isn’t even really all that stable these days. It made all sorts of sense when birth rates were high all over, but demographics are changing. Teachers are facing layoffs all over because there are a glut of teachers and not that many students.

I have a BA in History. I know that a lot of BAs get fed crap about how teaching (or grad/law school) is the only career option out there for them. But that’s not true. Just because your pathway isn’t lit up for you with guide lights doesn’t mean it’s not there.

3. Don’t base everything on statistics

There is, and there has always been, a lot of merit to looking at statistics before launching yourself toward a certain career. Researching your employment sector, looking at employment trends and average salaries — these are smart things to do.

But the danger here is in putting too much weight on the stats. The stats will say, for example, that you’re far better off going into structural engineering than, say, journalism. Many orders of magnitude better off. The difference between those two career paths is literally hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But if you have no desire to be a structural engineer — and your whole life you’ve wanted to be in journalism — none of that will matter. Life is always easier when you have a ton of money in the bank and you’re not living off Ramen noodles, but it’s not necessarily always better.

Giving up on your passions is absolutely the biggest mistake you can make in this economic climate. Not only because it’ll probably make you miserable, but also because that which you’re passionate about tends to be what you’re good at. It sounds a bit cliché and kind of like something the Care Bears would chant, but I believe it: your talent follows your passion.

Accentuating the Negative

I know, I know — I’ve only told you what NOT to do, and not given you any kind of advice on what TO do. But that’s kind of the point. The current job market demands patience. The only proactive advice I can really give at this point is to be vigilant. And to get a job — any job you can — that will provide you experience and the money you need to get by.

The best thing you can do for yourself right now is NOT screw up. You don’t have kids, a mortgage, imminent retirement plans or other major liabilities. You’ve got patience that others won’t have. And time will reward Generation Y for that.

Photo by Jim Linwood. Licensed under Creative Commons

Business has been especially bad for Donald Wetherby, 57, a Montgomery, Vt., truck driver who makes about $400 each holiday season playing the big guy from the North Pole for weekend parties. So far, he only has two bookings this year, compared with eight this time last year.

“Even if it is Christmas,” Wetherby said, “Times are hard anyway, so people don’t got a lot of money.”

The Christmas party cutbacks are happening in a lot of places. The Rocky Mountain News says one in every five companies are cutting back on Christmas parties. They have to save money every where they can, they say.

This is stupid.

First of all, your company would have to be in pretty weird economic shape for the Christmas party to really make a dent in your year-end financial figures. I know these sorts of things can get pretty pricey at larger organization, but larger organizations also tend to have larger revenues. I’d be shocked — so much so that I might keel over and die — if I ever heard about an organization that spent more than a fraction of a percent on their annual bash. Fiscally speaking, it’s unlikely to make a huge difference either way.

These kinds of cuts are BS because they’re never really about the bottom line. They’re about making middle-management feel good about themselves. They’re about bean-counters who can’t ever understand why a business would “throw money away” on something as trivial as a party for its workers anyway.

They’re about people who don’t understand the connection between actually doing nice things for your employees and the increased productivity that follows.

Weird editorial in the Financial Times UK today from Michael Skapinker, which is a neat name. He titles it A dose of austerity for a pampered generation, and is sort of all over the map.

Look, he starts here:

This recession has already hurt people such as over-mortgaged home owners and bank staff. But employers and headhunters predict a real shock for one group: those in their 20s and early 30s who have never experienced an economic downturn before.

Then hits us with this old chestnut:

For the baby boomers’ children, mass unemployment will be something new. The shock will be all the greater because the best educated of them have had it their own way ever since they entered the workplace.

Doom! Gloom! We’re so screwed. If only Generation Y hadn’t been so pampered and demanding. If only we were more like the boomers.

But wait — maybe we’re actually okay? Skapinker continues:

In one sense, today’s younger generation are better prepared for economic hard times than their parents or grandparents: they were not expecting jobs for life.

Nor did they ever think they would have defined benefit pensions, calculated as a proportion of salary at retirement. (One young worker was astonished when I explained the idea to her.)

However pampered Generation Y may have been, switching jobs and reconsidering careers are second nature to them.

It’s always nice when an author refutes his own headline. It just sort of wraps everything up nicely, doesn’t it?

I’ve written about this already. It’s still way too early to really speculate on how the economic downturn will affect Gen Y’s employment prospects. My personal feeling is that if it does hurt them, it’ll be a very short-term period of pain, and then it will end. But regardless: I think claims that Gen Y needs to adjust their attitudes in light of the recession are completely insane.

Here’s why: Generation Y hasn’t demanded greater work/life balance and so-called perks (Skapinker makes reference to Gen Y getting time off work to “train for the triathlon”) solely because they can. We’re not holding jobs ransom, hoping to get a sweet flex-time schedule out of the deal. We ask for these things because we feel that they’re important. They’re not frivolous or expendable and, most importantly at all, they don’t actually affect the quality or amount of work we get done.

Seriously, if your employee can do great work, get things done on time, and also takes two extra hours every morning to train for the triathlon, what does it matter?

Am I missing some logic here? Have I just not taken my dose of austerity yet? Should I really take austerity on an empty stomach?

Photo by Pulpolux !!!. Licensed under Creative Commons.

You know, regardless of your political stripe or even if Obama fails as president, there’s a greater conclusion we can draw from the campaign that put this man in the white house. It was a intergenerational effort, with young people at its heart. Much of it happened online, driven by web technologies that facilitate communication.

Is it a perfect analogy? No. But it is something to point to when people claim that Generation Y doesn’t fit in with other generations at work. The message to be delivered today is simply this: We do matter. We can get things done. We can be part of and leaders in tremendous success.

And you can’t ignore us.

There’s a lot of uncertainty, but no one is really saying anything all that optimistic. We’re facing a pretty terrible economic reality.

So let’s get to what really matters. Let’s get all stereotypically Gen Y about it and ask what’s really on our collective minds: how does this affect me?

Aside from a relatively quick blip during the dot-com burst and some turmoil when we were in grade school, Gen Y has had consistently rosy economic times. Unemployment was low, credit was easy to get, and mortgage brokers would literally give you your own house if you had non-velcro shoes on.

That game of candy land is ending, and some people think we’re screwed. The credit crunch has yet to really impact the job market, but it very well could. And some journalists are already speculating about how that will hurt us Yers:

But my question is: what are they going to do if they can’t shop? Our society has been based around consumerism for the past 15 years and these kids have racks of CDs and plasma TVs and comparatively unparalleled riches.

I guess that’s a bit of a theory. We don’t have as much money (or credit). We can’t buy as many iPods and other confusing gizmos. We… lose our minds and riot in the streets?

Others are more positive. From the same article:

Anyone born after 1983 is not really used to considering anything other than wealth, but students are much more determined to build up a broad skill base; they’ll work hard to get it and demand we provide the teaching,’ he said. ‘They will be successful no matter what; they are independent self-learners who are better equipped than any previous generation.’

The article I linked to, from The Guardian, makes a big show about interviewing young people who respond with dull comments, designed to make the whole generation look like a bunch of apathetic goof-offs. But I’m used to that. The point made is still, essentially, a true one — for most of Generation Y, this economic downturn isn’t going to be much more than a footnote in our lives.

Let’s face facts: even if the job market contracts, even if people put off retirement and work until they literally keel over on their desks one day, the worldwide demographics still put us in a workforce shortage. It may be more of a challenge to find a position that isn’t terrible and soul-sucking, but the odds of companies closing their doors to new hires altogether seem unlikely in both the short- and long-term.

More facts: If Gen Y has debt, it’s of the student loan and credit card variety. Neither are any fun to have, but unless you’ve done something monumentally stupid like pay off credit cards with other credit cards or bought yourself a jetski for every day of the week, that’s not the kind of debt that’s going to sink you. Set up a payment plan and pay it off. We’ll buy fewer iPods. We can do that.

What really strikes me as amusing about this whole mess is that it, in a lot of ways, rewards the shiftless slackers in their 20s who haven’t really got their life started yet. Are you 24, an English/History/Drama major, who rents an apartment, has no investments or retirement savings plan? Do you blow most of your money on booze and trips to Europe? Have your parents been constantly nagging you over the past few years to stop “throwing your money away”, to buy a house/condo, to start putting more of your money into investments? Have you been ignoring them, in favour of a bottle of vodka and a three-week backpacking jaunt through Croatia?

If so, congratulations. You’re in an excellent position to survive the current worldwide financial crisis.

I’ll be watching the job market closely, to see how this affects things on the ground floor. Keep checking back for my thoughts. We’ll get through this together.

Photo by Felice de Sena Micheli

In the meantime, check out this little article from ZDnet: Businesses Struggle to Serve Gen Y.

It’s a standard article on Generation Y and businesses’ total inability to rationalize how things are changing and what they need to do to meet those changes:

Although 75 percent of respondents said the Gen Yers will impact their organization as consumers in the next three years, 54 percent have yet to establish business or marketing strategies for this generation, despite wide recognition that such steps are needed.

That’s not surprising data, though I do love uncovering stats like this, especially in the face of those who still have trouble admitting anything is changing with Generation Y coming into maturity. The flip side of that, of course, is the crushingly depressing reality that, despite struggling with generational differences, no one has any idea what they are going to do about it.

Even of the 46% that say they have have developed a strategy for Gen Y, I’m not sure many of them are getting it. Take Nokia, who seem to think they have it figured out. From the same article:

Nokia, for example, has added “Gen Y-friendly” features to its products, McCallum said. “Gen Yers want more features like music, imaging, games and Wi-Fi [capability] in their mobile devices, because they may not be able to afford multiple gadgets,” he said. “Acknowledging this, Nokia offers a wide range of convergent devices to suit the different needs and preferences of various Gen Y consumers.”

If that’s all Nokia has, they’ve got nothing. Marketing to my generation is about more than just ‘adding features’. It’s about way more than Wi-Fi capabilities. We do like those things. Hell, we even NEED those things. But they’re not what’s going to push a brand to success with a Gen Y audience.

I’m not arguing that Gen Y is somehow above long lists of features and standard marketing tactics. What sets us apart is that we’re the first generation that is in a position to think about products in a more contextual sense. Instead of simply asking “What does this do?”, we tend to ask “How does this fit into my life and my world?”

We demand more from our products, whether they be mp3 players or t-shirts. Some questions Gen Y might ask about a product they’re buying: how does this work with other products I own? Do too few of my friends have this product? Do too MANY of my friends have this product? Where is this product made? How is this product made? Does it look good? Does it look good next to the other products I own? Can I feel good about buying this? Do I understand this product and everything it does? Is this product artistic? Is the company that produces this product lying to me?

These questions are the difference between brands that I think are working with a younger generation and those that aren’t. It’s why a Nokia cell phone has less appeal than an iPhone. Why a T-shirt from Wal-Mart has less appeal than something from threadless. Why Microsoft keeps losing to google. Why people want to drive the Toyota Prius despite being entirely unable to tell you how a hybrid engine works.

We’re very image-driven as a generation. We’ve been criticized for it a lot, but I’m not sure it’s particularly a bad thing. It’s neither good nor bad — it just is. And it’s new, so it’s taking companies a long time to figure it out.

The thing is that, as we get older and get jobs and start to generate income, we’re very much looking for companies who create products that will fit into our lives.

P.S: Just to hammer home how international this generational shift really is, check out these stats from the aforementioned article:

According to Genesys, the research was designed to help enterprises identify key challenges and enable them to improve the overall customer experience.
Of the 164 executives who took part in the survey, 29 percent were from North America, 31 percent from Europe, 30 percent from the Asia-Pacific region, and 10 percent from the rest of the world. Participants represented 19 industry segments, and one-third of respondents’ organizations had annual revenue greater than US$1 billion.

The study found that two of the top five places to work were tech companies: Google and Apple. According to DECODE partner Eric Meerkamper, “The brands that were chosen are considered to be authentic and innovate; part of some new and important values emerging in the workplace. All of these organizations are places that resonate as being stable and secure. This is an important variable considering the substantial debt load many students will carry upon graduation given rising tuition costs.”

You could essentially distill this down to “people want to work somewhere cool.” And a lot of what’s cool is admittedly perception more than it is reality. Is that fair? Not particularly. But I’d argue that’s almost unavoidable. Think about this question, and answer honestly — would you rather work at Exxon Mobil or Google? Deloitte or Apple? Ernst & Young or Nintendo?

People tend to gravitate towards the younger, hipper companies, even if there’s really not a huge difference in individual experience at the entry-level. And what makes these companies seem “young” and “hip” are actually small things, which don’t have to impact your bottom line. In fact, employers can make their businesses instantly more Y-friendly through just a few small changes to their corporate culture.

Here’s five to get you started:

1. Cultivate an environment of questions — with answers

Current corporate culture often encourages passive learning. New people are expected to attend meetings, stay quiet, take notes, and learn slowly through osmosis. This doesn’t work in the twenty-first century. Without the expectation of a 25 year job with a gold watch at the end, young workers don’t really feel like we have time to just sit quietly and absorb information.

So we tend to ask questions. Often it gets us in trouble. There’s a comment thread on BrazenCareerist wherein Quarter Lifer Amanda notes she’s been fired for asking too many questions.

This is crazy. In the information age, questions are the foundation of learning. Think of google — each search query is a question, and answers are delivered immediately. This is the kind of information environment your new hires grew up with.

Obviously you can’t spend 8-hours a day answering questions, but don’t discourage people from asking. Set up infrastructure — like a twitter account — where employees can ask senior employees questions. That way, everyone will be able to follow along with the answers.

And, no matter what you do, don’t avoid the tough or “insulting” questions. Confront everything head on. If you can’t answer something, then maybe ask your new employee to come up with alternative solutions — you’ll have instantly made them feel valued.

2. Get away from the boring work environment

You don’t need to rip out all your cubicles or put down new carpet, but small things can quickly take an office from “soul-sucking” to “fun”. If your type of business allows, consider setting up a shared music system, where everyone can contribute mp3s or CDs. Instead of those cloying “Motivational” posters, throw up a bulletin board and let people post funny signs or photos (within reason, of course). Don’t use Group Policy to lock everyone to some bland desktop wallpaper — encourage people to individualize their computers.

And, when the situation calls for it, don’t be afraid to use a little bit of profanity around the office. It boosts morale. Really.

3. Embrace — and try — new technology

Too many businesses are still using sales software that’s straight out of the 1980s. Nothing kills morale faster than knowing that you have to deal with cludgy old technology. Especially when the employee knows that they could accomplish the same task in half-the-time if given better software.

This doesn’t have to cost you. A ton of software these days is open-source and free. If someone has a suggestion involving new technology, give them a chance to pitch it to you and, if it makes sense, give it a week-long trial run. What’s the worst that can happen?

4. Be Open

This doesn’t mean you need to hand out your budgets to all employees, but it’s no secret that closed door meetings are divisive. Inclusiveness is a vital part of retaining your Gen Y employees.

So be open. Invite people involved in other projects to sit in on meetings. They’ll feel more plugged in, and you may end up getting some interesting perspective. If something big has happened to the business — whether good or bad — consider letting the whole staff know about it. If you start crafting an ‘inner circle’ of only your senior staff members, those left out can easily become disgruntled.

If you’re worried about the time this might take, leverage technology. CEOs from all sectors are blogging regularly, to great effect. It lets people know what’s going on at the top-level, and also has the bonus side-effect of making people who can easily seem distant more relatable.

5. Don’t try too hard

The last thing I want is for people to take this list and instantly become the boss that wanders around trying to be everybody’s friend. Don’t be that guy. The kinds of changes outlined in this list shouldn’t be forced. Nor should you implement them then act like you’ve given all your employees a great favour.

This works in tandem with the point above — in addition to being open, you need to be honest. Ultimately, when it comes to managing people, if you’re not happy and motivated in YOUR position, none of the people under you will ever give a damn.

This kind of change needs to be made in the spirit of making your business more efficient and your team more effective. Go forward in that light, and your intergenerational team should hum along just fine. Start making changes because you just want those damned young employees to play nice and stop jerking you around, and you’re not likely to get anywhere at all.

Be open. Be honest. Be real. Be cool. It can be that simple.

Photo by Steve Deger. Licensed under Creative Commons

I thought these stats were interesting:

Last year, researchers from Penn State analyzed 46 studies of telecommuting conducted over two decades and covering almost 13,000 employees. Their sweeping inquiry concluded that working from home has “favorable effects on perceived autonomy, work-family conflict, job satisfaction, performance, turnover intent, and stress.”

The article also notes that managers are taking notice, or at least they’re SAYING that they are:

Earlier this year, an IDC report from Asia found that 81 percent of managers believe telecommuting improves productivity, up from 61 percent in 2005.

Interesting stuff. Read the whole thing. Maybe we ARE looking at a turning of the tides on this issue.

Needless to say, I think this is really really cool.

I also think it has some pretty interesting implications for the future of work. If — hopefully when — these types of cars become commonplace, they’ll contribute significantly to where people choose to work in relation to where they live. In effect, technology like this will give workers an “ideal range” for their commute. In a climate where many are already choosing to work closer to where they live (or vice versa), these cars will push people even further into defining a live/work “zone”.

And it will all be due to an on-board computer, a battery, and good fiscal sense.

Tethered to home — but not in a bad way

From GM’s press release officially announcing the Chevrolet Volt:

At a cost of about 80 cents per day (10 cents per kWh) for a full charge that will deliver up to 40 miles of electric driving, GM estimates that the Volt will be less expensive to recharge than purchasing a cup of your favorite coffee. Charging the Volt about once daily will consume less electric energy annually than the average home’s refrigerator and freezer units.

The Volt can go 40 miles (about 64 kilometres) using its electric motor. The electricity needed for those 40 miles comes at a negligible cost, especially if you charge at night where rates are lower. 40 miles — about three times the length of Manhattan. After hearing that, every working person needs to ask themselves whether they currently work more than 20 miles away from home.

A lot of people do. We live in an era where monster commutes are not uncommon. While I’m not a daily commuter, my drive in to the office is roughly 30 miles. And I know I’m not alone. But an electric car would undoubtedly force me to rethink that drive.

I concede that there already is an economic impetus to work closer to home, especially as gas prices rise — it’s just nowhere near as significant as it would be with electric vehicles like the Volt. When you’re just going by your gas gauge, with the variable price of fuel and the calculation you need to do to determine your car’s cost-per-mile, it’s easy to get into the trap of pushing yourself just a few more miles.

Electric vehicles start making commuting choices for us. Living within a certain range of your home — 20 miles with these first-generation plug-in hybrids, but surely that number will increase some — you can eliminate the gas pump from your life.

That, dear readers, is incentive. That’s a game-changer for many people. We’re looking at a future where it’s feasible that someone may turn down a job because it’s not within their car’s electric range. Some may scoff at the thought, but I think that’s a big step forward.

Photos of the Chevrolet Volt taken from gm.com. All copyrights are theirs.