Older generation needs to let go of rigid definitions of ‘work’

1861379588_953fccbd24.jpgTamara J Erickson’s “Task Before Time” article (which I wrote about here) made the rounds this week, appearing in a bunch of papers all over the globe. Here it is in the Malaysia Star. (That they’re publishing this in Malaysia shows just how global these issues are.)

I love the way she’s able to distill the issue down to a simple truth: time is immaterial when it comes to getting work done. And it’s completely irrelevant when it comes to getting work done well.

My favourite bit:

Ys love to work asynchronously – anytime, anywhere. One said during our research, “What is it with you people and 8:30am?”

Employers are going to struggle with this, partly because it requires a lot more managerial talent to ensure work is getting done when it’s not getting done right in front of you. And that’s a worthy and just concern. It’s also, thankfully, a surmountable one. With enough training and re-culturing, employers in small, medium and large businesses can find a way to make it work.

Unfortunately, I think there are a number of older workers who dislike the idea for another reason altogether. They hear about the changes Gen Y is demanding and they immediately feel resentful. That’s not what it was like for them. They got to work at 8:30 a.m. (or earlier!) every day for YEARS and never once complained. In fact, they were GRATEFUL for it.

This is an attitude that’s going to be hard to change, no matter how many articles like Erickson’s appear in newspapers and online. I predict that, for these employers, it won’t be until the impact of not changing is felt economically that we’ll see real movement.

Photo by H4NUM4N. Licensed under Creative Commons

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This entry was posted on Saturday, February 16th, 2008 at 2:29 pm and is filed under At Work, Attitude, Global, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Older generation needs to let go of rigid definitions of ‘work’”

Changes Employers Can Make for a Y-friendly workplace - yworking.com March 10th, 2008 at 6:11 pm

[...] will continue to hammer on this issue until more people start [...]

Seven Things to Look Past When Managing Gen Y - yworking.com July 2nd, 2008 at 5:07 pm

[...] Related: Older Generation needs to let go of rigid definitions of ‘work’ [...]

Robert August 12th, 2008 at 11:15 pm

You are right, economics will make it happen. And when it happens, some people will find themselves out of a job. There are way too many people (mostly older) who are killing companies because of their attitudes. It’s time for them to go — either voluntarily or forcibly.

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