Trends come together for me. Today I was on a call about IBM’s work flexibility programs, Dow Jones has an article on Gen X vs. Gen Y workers (along with boomers) and the WSJ has an article about expanding the 24 hour workplace. All topics are about workplace conditions and dynamics. They do conflict with each other. You try to balance work/life, yet the ability to reach anyone instantly has conflicted with personal life.

I did an interview on blogging with Forrester recently which turned into an analyst report on the cultural changes and the people coming into the workplace. They are very different than the standard worker we have been used to. This is tough on boomers who have had to deal with the greatest change in (computer) technology of any generation, and this has lead to differences in worker attitudes. What became apparent is that the expectations and the ability of the new workers is far different than the existing workforce. They know more, are more transient and communicate in a different way than we are used to. To be competitive for these resources, your company has to be more nimble and embrace these social technologies and cultures.  Still, you have to accommodate the existing workforce and bring them into the fold (social computing) and deal with the fast pace of the new worker.

It used to be that you did your 8 hours, went home and did another 8, five days a week. Technology and the ability to communicate 24 hours a day, instantaneously has changed that. The problem with that is that you can be reached - and - with the expectation of an answer, immediately. The new generation has embraced this and are constantly at each other with the texting and other messaging technologies. This can be at odds with your work/life balance.  So while we are the most productive country, we aren’t enjoying it as much apparently.  It is at odds with generations also according to Dow Jones:

“Older people approach younger workers and younger workers approach the more mature workers sometimes with a bit of skepticism,” said Ron Glover, vice president of global work force diversity at IBM. “There are real differences in terms of language styles, in terms of the expectations we see across these generations. If you just ignore them, those may become the source of disconnects in the workplace.”  

What makes it tough as the WSJ reported was that globalization has given us the ability to work continuously and simultaneously. Mathematically you can’t expand the 24 hour day, but you can cram more into it by having teams around the world combine on a project. They quoted Henry Ford with setting up a 3 shift day - still 24 hours, but the workers built cars for 8 hours and went home. You never go home now, you just go to the place where they reach you for an answer. This ups productivity but once again, there is an intrusion into your work/life balance that has to be managed.

While this seems like complaining, I am stating the obvious here, it isn’t going to change. More than likely it is going to accelerate. One must find a comfort zone while adhering to the company’s need to be competitive and streamline.

Once again, I’m avoiding the crackberry syndrome and am quite reachable…25 hours a day.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 3:17 pm and is filed under general, technology. 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.