Susan's Blog
(Occasional comments by Susan Seitel)
June 24th, 2009
Work-Life Values of Four Generations
A Guest blog by Virginia Byrd
As a professional career counselor, I meet with members of
three or four generations on a regular basis. Unlike twenty years ago, today’s
clients may be teens or they may be the grandparents of teens. Career counselors
hear first-hand versions of enthusiasm and disillusionment when they counsel
multiple generations, and clients at different ages and stages of their lives
struggle with their different needs and expectations at work. A variety of
work-life benefits can provide solutions for many career planning dilemmas.
The seeds of generational workplace conflict were being
sowed by the 1990s when Baby Boomers were losing their jobs, corporations were
downsizing, and Generation X saw that job security was a myth. Workers began
altering their visions of success as they realized they had to manage their own
careers. The career ladder notion had become obsolete.
Bruce Tulgan has written extensively on this topic. He
consulted with and trained hundreds of corporations, and he is the co-author
with Carolyn A. Martin of Managing the Generation Mix. Of the major
transformation in the workplace and the new realities discovered by Generation
X, Tulgan wrote:
“Their workplace revolution turned out to be very real,
but it was never about casual dress, desk-massages, astronomical pay, foosball
tables, and pizza. It was about employees taking care of themselves and their
families; it was about employees leveraging their talents, skills, time and
energy; it was about employees trying to get what they could in return from
their employers today, since there was no assurance that any job would still
exist tomorrow.”
The workplace transformation has been a huge cultural
change. It was caused by economics—by employers who were accustomed to viewing
everything through the lens of capital and labor costs. Although the term
“labor” represented flesh and blood people, all people were factored in as
costing money and they were not considered “real” in any populist sense that
gave them desires or feelings. The demise of the labor unions which protected
many employee rights left young Generation X groups to start fending for
themselves.
This change in cultural viewpoint fits well with what the
leaders in the work-life field have been saying. Work-life specialists
researched and declared for many years that the mindset based on forty hours of
face-time had to go. It no longer was fitting the lives of real people. The
genie was out of the bottle and employees were forced to become entrepreneurs,
either in or out of the corporation or organization.
The work-life movement started with the workers at the
bottom in all kinds of workplaces. The effect was that decision-makers at the
top had to scramble to make sense of what was happening, and they were not sure
how to deal with it. In addition, work-life benefits, while created with one age
cohort in mind, have had a spillover effect to everyone in the workforce.
Changes in employee attitude and commitment are coming
about slowly, but it is a very democratic process. Dictators in the workplace
are dinosaurs who are being replaced by leaders who respect the needs of their
employees and who will compromise and negotiate with reason, and sometimes
compassion, to get a job done effectively. New work-life policies have brought
increased satisfaction of employees, customers and clients, along with improved
workplace morale.
Human resource research continues to document the positive
results of work-life benefits suited to today’s workers, even when different
generations want different benefits. In some cases a new mission statement in
the workplace declares that “employees come first.” Those employers find that
customers are satisfied and productivity and profits rise.
Many of the work-life programs and policies are desired by
all generation groups, especially flexible hours and paid time off instead of
vacation/sick days. All benefits are attractive to some workers depending on
their life circumstances—for example, child care, elder care, or education and
adoption subsidies. Some employers have unique policies about pet care,
concierge services, and babies in the workplace, but these are not expected to
become the norm.
It pays organizations to offer opportunities for workers of
all generations to
balance work-life needs. If workers must collect a child from day care before 6
p.m. they can’t be expected to attend a staff meeting at that same time. Nor can
a worker who must be in a classroom for an important test also be attending a
workplace meeting at the same time.
Exemplary employers are aware of workers’ conflicting needs
and are increasingly developing policies and practices with work-life concerns
in mind. Managers who are stuck in the old Industrial Age mindset of 9-to-5
workdays are learning to accept other schedules and to incorporate
telecommuting.
According to the just-released 2008 Guide to Bold New
Ideas for Making Work “Work,” from the highly respected Families and Work
Institute, there are plenty of reputable companies embracing new work-life
programs, even in the current bleak economic climate. It’s simple, really.
Employers need workers. Today’s workers come from four different generations and
bring an endless variety of personal circumstances. Employers must deal with it.
"Necessity drives invention," observes Ellen Galinsky, President and Co-Founder
of the Families and Work Institute. "Even in the face of deepening economic
adversity, employers in communities across the United States are reinventing
work."
Companies profiled in the report are being made stronger
for co-creating new workplaces with their workers. Work-life benefits that are
seen as making work “work,” include:
§
Career ladders being replaced with flex-careers
§
Technology being used creatively to enable flexibility
§
Workers encouraged to tend their health and well-being
§
Workers having increased input in decision making
As career counselors we can show clients examples of the
variety of work-life benefits in the workplace today. We can coach clients to
discuss work-life benefits with others and to negotiate for what they want,
especially in job interviews. How great to be able to explain that today’s
workplaces are opening up to accommodate the full lives of workers, no matter
what their generation.
About
Virginia Byrd
Virginia Byrd, M.Ed., Career Consultant and work-life specialist,
raised four children as a single working parent. With a background in teaching
and 17 years in career development, she uses her skills to help employees
balance careers with life goals. With a private practice in Encinitas, she
counsels clients who are working men and women at various business and
professional levels. Some are parents, some are singles – but all want a better
quality of personal life and career.
She also has designed and implemented programs for many employers, including
the San Diego County Office of Education, San Dieguito Union High School
District and the City of Escondido. Learn more at
www.careerbalance.net
Comments
welcome!
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June 3, 2009
Young, eager and not
as unmanageable as you think
How to stop stumbling on the
negatives and start harnessing the positives of your twenty-something employees
(A guest blog by Alexandra Smith)
They’re spoiled. They’re needy. They expect near-immediate
promotion and balk at the notion of ‘paying one’s dues’.
These are just a handful of the complaints hurled at the
newest entrants to the working world, the under-30 crowd also known as
Millennials or Generation Y. You may have personally found yourself scratching
your head – or gritting your teeth – at the behaviors your younger colleagues
bring to the workplace, particularly if they report to you: in a 2007
CareerBuilder survey of management and HR professionals, over half claimed that
Millennials have a harder time taking direction or responding to authority than
other generations of workers.
Unfortunately, it seems many of us have become so mired in
keeping young employees in check, we’ve overlooked the positive attributes they
bring to the conference table. And perhaps, more significantly, we’ve failed to
realize that many of their perceived faults – the overconfidence, the incessant
Facebook-ing, the perpetual need for feedback – can just as easily be spun into
strengths and opportunities.
Consider these three examples:
They come to work with huge egos –
and expectations.
Or … they’re empowered and confident, with energy to
spare. Blame it on parents who told them they could do and be anything -
plus the fact that age has yet to jade them: Millennials are all about ‘yes we
can’. There’s a downside to that empowerment, as any manager who’s heard a young
employee gripe about ‘expecting more from my job’ can attest to. But the upshot
– and opportunity – is that once you get these guys engaged, they’ll bust down
doors to achieve their goal. There’s a reason President Obama not only called
specifically upon young adults to barnstorm prior to the election, but enjoyed
nearly two-thirds of their votes on election day.
What you can do: Rather than temper what may seem
like unrealistic expectations, try re-directing them. Sure, no amount of gung-ho
qualifies an entry-level employee for a C-level task. But giving juniors a
chance to shine at, if not actually lead, higher-level projects shows you trust
and appreciate them, fostering productivity, job satisfaction and positive
attitudes.
They can’t seem to work
independently. And they’re always Twittering!
Or … they see teamwork as more than a corporate buzzword.
From ‘we are the world’ in kindergarten to the Socratic method in high school to
Facebook-mobilized campaigns today, Millennials learned long ago that many heads
are better than one. Moreover, they’re superb at building and organizing groups,
since collaboration, particularly of the online sort, comes as naturally as
tying their shoelaces. Which means your youngest employees will likely be the
least in need of ‘trust falls’ or other traditional corporate team-building
initiatives. Cooperation’s built into their bones.
What you can do: Facilitate frequent brainstorming,
idea-bouncing and ideation sessions. Listen. Learn. And implement, if suitable.
Because if there’s one thing Millennials appreciate more than coming together as
a team, it’s knowing that their teamwork led to something tangible.
They need constant hand-holding.
Or … they DO trust people over thirty. This is a
cohort that actually enjoys spending time with their parents – in fact, 80% of
teens (teens!) say they get along “extremely well” with their parents, according
to demographic researchers Neil Howe and William Strauss, and that number rises
as they enter young adulthood. Meanwhile, Millennial employees consistently
report wanting feedback from more experienced colleagues and like the idea of
having a mentor. But here’s the catch: they resent being treated like ignorant
gofers with nothing to offer. The best junior/senior relationships are mutually
respectful.
What you can do: Encourage symbiotic alliances that
allow both mentor and mentee to contribute their skills. After all, Millennials
have plenty to teach their older counterparts, particularly when it comes to
technology. And more importantly, they’ll respond much more positively to an
environment that doesn’t feel top-down.
You might still be flummoxed by their proclivity for
flip-flops in the office or vice-like grip to their cell phones, but with a
little perspective, it’s not hard to recognize that your youngest employees
aren’t the monsters they’ve been made out to be. After all, every generation
strikes its forebears as bewildering or difficult to relate to. Rather than
butting heads with them, strive to harness the positive – and even the seemingly
not-so-positive – attributes they bring to the workplace.
Want to add your
comment?
Alexandra Smith is a millennial herself, with degrees in journalism and
strategic communication. Her expertise in the matter of millennials is no
accident; for the past three years she's been tracking their behavior for
Iconoculture, and figuring out
the implications of that behavior for marketers. You can reach her at
alexandra621@gmail.com.
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