Let me tell you that every teacher in America has factored in the time off and how the day technically ends at 3-3:30. Yes, we all take work home, but logistically it is a far more humane schedule than most businesses offer. Being home in the summers with school age children, a couple weeks in the winter and another week off in spring, plus getting home in time to actually interact with kids, make a real meal, wearing what you like rather than some boring and expensive business suit, not paying for parking and feeling like you make a difference all add a up to a satisfying work/life balance. Yes, it can be stressful and yes, many people in education are underpaid, but all in all, the pros definitely outweigh the cons. Quality of life IS important--good for Millennials to have figured this out...wish more people in my generation had.
6
To me, good work life balance is not about answering emails at all hours of the day, in exchange for having a flexible schedule. I much prefer to have a set schedule and have hours outside of it to be off limits to my employer. I have that now...I generally work 9-5 or so, and otherwise do not log in unless there is a rare issue going on. if I need to make a daytime appointment, I plan around meetings and leave as I need too. I can work from home as needed too. I would never give this up for client calls at 8pm.
3
The article jumped the shark when it talked of the pathologist who was willing to give up 100K a year to work in academia. The poor guy has only another couple hundred to live on. That is the problem with the politics of inequality, some of us don’t care what others make. Though I am sure Bernie and Liz’s idea of taxing the rich to pay the student loans their boomer parents were unwilling to sacrifice for must appeal to some.
1
@Richard
While I agree with the first point you've made, I take exception to your premise that young people have "student loans their boomer parents were unwilling to sacrifice for." Many boomer parents lost jobs and/or substantial amounts of money during the Great Recession and would love to help their kids pay back their student loans; however, if they take loans to pay back the loans their kids have, they know they will become a huge burden to their children when they become physically unable to work any longer. Unlike Mom and Dad, young adults have their whole lives to pay back their loans.
One more point- starting out in community college and transferring to a four-year school is a great way to save money, yet too many young people did not want to take that option. That's too bad because if they did, this conversation would be moot.
4
The nasty little truth that Ms. Coleman doesn't want to think about is that in order for her to be able to do what she wants when she wants, "to make her life more seamless, to fee like a human," requires someone else to adhere to a work schedule.
13
What day did this article actually run in The Times? It’s not in the Sunday paper today and I was hoping to get an actual copy. Thanks.
@Dale This article was due to appear on the first page of the Style section on Sept. 22. I hope this helps. Thanks for reading.
4
When I share with people that I’m self-employed, the usual response is “it must be so great to be your own boss, set your own hours, take time off when you want blah blah blah”. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am most definitely not my own boss - every single one of my clients is my boss, and when they want/need something, and as a one-man band I have to jump through whatever hoops are necessary to get it done and to them (I have learned, however, to not ask “when do you need this?”, but rather “how much time do I have to work on this?”). Get up at 2am to work on the computer and upload the finished work to them before I leave at 8am to do a job for another client? If that’s what needs to be done, then the answer is yes. Work weekends? Of course! And have that completed work to you Monday morning for a presentation? Gotta do what you gotta do to keep the client (your boss!). And no paid vacations either!
People might say that you don’t have to work that way - you can dictate the terms of when you’ll do a job and when you’ll deliver the final product to them (and also when you’ll get paid!). That’s great, but don’t expect to keep those clients for long - in my profession I’m a dime a dozen, and if I can’t do what they want and when they want it, they’ll easily be able to find someone who will, and maybe at a lower cost too.
If you’re looking to have that perfect work/life balance and be able to work when you want, don’t go into business for yourself.
8
Ms. Stone needs to talk to a few more boomers before launching a tired generalization from her lofty perch at Hunter. A lot of us boomers do not begrudge the younger workers their benefits, because we benefit from them, too; they accrue across the organization. They may take a few more telework days, and in my workplace the days can range from 1 to 4, but if they're doing the work and it's high quality, who cares?
7
A lot of these "urgent" around the clock stuff is because someone wants to get off their plate and on to yours without having to remember it or for God's sake note it down for later.
I also think being in the loop all the time makes people feel important (before they understand they are just another expendable cog on the wheel).
3
Let's be clear. Not every job can be done by those tele-commuting or setting one's own hours. This may work well in more creative fields, but you can't have a fire department where the employees surf during the day and come in at midnight. Most government jobs require a physical presence in a physical office.
I worked for over 30 years, including at one office where you would be considered disloyal for even wanting to use your own vacation hours. I dearly would have loved some of the flexibility younger workers now enjoy. But I think that the state of the economy has a lot to do with this. If there is a downturn, employers may well be observing how many people would love a job with fixed hours.
5
As a member of Generation X, when I've asked for ANY of the considerations the people cited in this article have asked for, I've been told "NO" in no uncertain terms. (I've also been told that I should be "grateful I'm here." Take that as you will.) And it isn't like we haven't been asking for a long time. That free onsite daycare you take advantage of every day? That was a hard-won concession for asking for flextime, work-at-home options, even trading in PTO for the opportunity to take our children to doctors' appointments.
Gen Z hasn't magically realized that a work-life balance should be a given. We taught them that, with blood, sweat, and tears as we received pink slips for doing so. And I don't begrudge my Gen z colleagues the chance to receive these things. I just think they should be available to ALL workers--and speaking for my demographic, THEY ARE NOT.
I have a teenager, and while I'm rooting for these young people to fix what is clearly a broken American system, I can't help but be bitter. Give me a little credit, please. If I hadn't asked (and fought for) before, you wouldn't get right now.
16
@Wendy Reynolds, M.S.Ed. Well said! Signed, a Fellow Gen X Mom Who Paid a Heavy Price for Even Asking for the Slightest Work Accomodation
7
I don’t think I could ever work in an office with set hours again. Writing well, editing documents, creating plans, sending emails & doing conference calls while baking, sitting on the beach, visiting a friend, or doing laundry is the best job development I have ever experienced. And, all this at a prominent not-for-profit while living in a tiny town 3 hours north of NYC. This never would have been possible a few years ago. I work harder now than I ever did before and it’s because of the flexibility I have. Thank you, younger colleagues! I’m in my 50s and loving the work-life balance this flexibility allows for.
5
Nearing retirement, I’ve been hiring and managing generations of workers (Boomers, X, Y (Millennials) and now Z) and I concur with the authors’ thesis here that millennials and Zs want more job flexibility. I have mixed feelings about it - “ job flexibility” is a euphemism for working, or being available to work, 24/7. But if that were true, employers would embrace complete flexibility as a ruse to supercharge worker exploitation. That’s not happening because, in fact, the movement is marked by a couple of distinctions that reveal something less noble than revolutionizing the work-life balance. First, in my experience, the workers most in demand of flexibility - excluding issues like parental leave or caring for a sick family member - tend not to be top performers. Sadly for proponents of flexibility, the top performers just work hard, and a lot. Same as it ever was. Second, this article leaves out an important feature of the movement: it’s proponents want to be promoted quickly and on the same schedule as traditional workers. In fact they want to be promoted yesterday. And earn more money. So ultimately, they’re asking a lot of employers and co-workers expected to pick up the load — flexible, unsupervised hours, faster promotions and more money. Now, there is nothing wrong with any of that. But there’s also nothing particularly noble or very special about it.
9
We have spent generations teaching our kids to accumulate as much for themselves as they can, while doing as little work as possible. A good job used to be part of a full life. Now you are expected to make your job, your life, for the sole purpose of accumulating the most fortune, for the absurd executive salaries helping divide us. The work ethic is more important than work itself and it is being lost if not openly ridiculed. Everyone seems to expect to get their own reality show or become the next Justin Bieber through Youtube. They seem to be losing the ability to differentiate between actors or real people in real life situations. I am so glad to no longer be responsible for managing workers, I got out before Smart phones. It is a new generation and the first generation to be raised on cyber fantasy and "reality" shows. Everyone wants that 15 minutes of fame Warhol promised but now they think it will come because of entitlement, not effort.
1
Is the writer aware they skip an entire generation? GenX makes up more than a third of the American workforce, yet there is no mention of them in this article....
12
I have been fortunate, and have been a full-time remote worker for the past 6+ years. I was also fortunate in that I was able to work remotely two days a week for 4 years before that. I show up when I where I need to, and I work out of my house the rest of the time. I spend more time with my wife and kids, and have a better quality of life. When I'm stressed during the business day, I take five and go hug my baby instead of looking at a picture while he is at a daycare. I get back into my groove, and am more productive. I guess it's all perspective, but, I would say don't knock it till you try it :-)
3
I, for one, have been waiting to welcome my new millennial overlords for decades now...
But it ain't gonna happen overnight - the mean old loser leaders (managers) will never die out.
5
Anyone who could call an entire generation "lazy and entitled" is being just that.
3
I think that "young people" as you call them are not making work better, they are making it worse by working at all hours of the day, all days of the week, and not setting boundaries or limits with co-workers or clients. Perhaps it's my age or my old-school tendencies, but I would much rather work an hour later each day and go home to be with my family and really be there with them, than go home at 4 to go to the vet, and be managing phone calls and emails for the rest of the evening. What this generation has done with their never-ending quest for work life balance has destroyed the life portion. Clients and co-workers now expect a return email at 9pm, and we are waking up at 6am checking emails before saying good morning to our spouses or taking the dog for a walk. I think the solution is quite the opposite of the current trend. Work should be confined to work - 8-4, 9-5, 10-6, etc., and that's it. I don't want to read your email when I am watching tv or reading a book at night or on the weekend, and neither should it be expected.
265
@Gail O’Connor, the whole point of asking for flexibility is to work the way you work best. You absolutely should be able to construct a work schedule where you can confine your work to your chosen hours, not read emails when you're off the clock, be present with your family. The way you phrase it, you're just expecting that EVERYONE conforms to your more traditional preferred work schedule. The "young people" (I'm a remote-working old millenial, so maybe that's me too) who you claim aren't setting boundaries are just setting different ones, and we're all too happy to support your boundaries as well - the more we all respect each others' (diverse) boundaries, the better our work lives will become.
114
@Gail O’Connor did you miss the entire point of the article?
29
@Gail O’Connor I agree. I don't want to work weekends and nights and essentially be on call once I leave the office. I have to be able to leave work at work and not take it home with me (some exceptions apply -- but not on a regular basis). The fact that employers expect people to give their lives up for a job is audacious. Relationships are what make life worth living; a job is necessary in order to pay the rent, bills and fund retirement accounts. Work to live - don't live to work.
23
This article is uniquely American-centric. These problems don't exist in Europe in the same way, yet the countries and companies there still manage to function and not go bankrupt. Why? Perhaps large portions of profit don't go to tax-evading billionaire CEOs, like it does in America.
This coroporate-country of ours is obsessed with productivity, money and growth at any cost. The rest of the world does not live like this. We don't have to, either.
306
Have you ever worked anywhere else? I ran a global operation for a London based firm and had employees in Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, North America and I can tell you there is no difference how they viewed work. Asians may have been more focused but they switch jobs way more often than Americans. Europeans may have been a little lazier because they knew if they were fired they get one or two years salary but generally worked the same hours as Americans and in fact held much longer meetings. And all of the best performers begged to be transferred to America. I think you’re basing this letter on more wishful thinking than experience. Try to get out more.
27
@She-persisted I think by "rest of the world" you meant parts of Europe, at best. Go see how work plays out in Japan or Tanzania or Brasil for example.
11
@Paul Every culture pursues economic reward, it's what makes the world go round . . . sometimes (most times??) in very ugly ways. I praise anyone who tries to make this situation better in any way possible. Flexibility and letting people remain human beings and not just disposable cogs in the wheel seems like a good start and I'm sure there are ways intelligent and forward-looking people can conceive to make this work.
10
The sheer abuse, and it is abuse, that American workers are willing to put up with always amazes me. While CEOS get rich, the average American worker is back to work within a few days of giving birth, 15 days vacation?!!!! The ability to be fired on the spot. The expectation to give up your first marriage to the company. Unending loyalty to the firm even though they'll fire you the spot.
It's quite frankly embarrassing to me that fellow human beings do that to themselves to make someone else rich.
YOU are supplying YOUR skills to the company. YOU are making them money.
YOU deserve more. If a firm won't treat their employees well, the good ones should leave, even if it drives the firm into bankruptcy until American firms understand how to treat their employees.
358
@Vishal Vashisht
It is extremely frustrating to work with people who adhere to corporate loyalty standards rather than stand in solidarity with their coworkers--or with other workers in general. Americans are oddly obedient to authority, but then we have a punitive culture that thrives on doling out punishments, so I suppose it makes perverse sense that we defer to those who hold us in place.
45
Well first off, if you were to completely sacrifice your private life for a decade or more, working 80-100 hours a week, pretty sure you would want the big bucks, too.
Secondly, my ETO is permanently capped at 240 hours; I just can't find enough situations in which to use it, so it just keeps expiring any accumulation over the cap. I couldn't imagine taking 3 weeks off in a single year; what would I even do?
Third, not being able to fire someone when needed, what even is that? Why should a company be required to keep on a toxic, harmful, or unproductive employee? Employment is an agreement, one provides quality labor, one provides pay. When either party breaches that contract, the other shouldn't continue to be held to it, that's just asinine.
Just realized I skipped maternity, don't feel like going back, lol. It's what, 8 weeks leave on average? My wife ended hers at 3 weeks, couldn't handle being off any longer.
Don't get the marriage comment.
Your last paragraph is right on the money, though. Whenever one party becomes abusive, the other should terminate the relationship immediately, regardless of which is which.
4
I would add that corporations have taught everyone to not work hard, do your time, and dedicate yourself to the company. How did Corporations do this? By a lack of reciprocal loyalty, profit motivation at the expense of the employees, and a general disinterest in the value of long term employees. Corporations today demand loyalty and hard work but EARN none of these.
311
@Kevin O’Brien
Sounds like you worked for the wrong corporation. I spent 30 yrs at a Fortune 50 company that provided good benefits, assisted with further education, supported good health habits (on sites gyms or $$ support for external, matched donations to charities, have flexible work hours (within reason) and good vacation packages as well as great pay & bonuses.
I'll agree that there's not as much loyalty from corporations as there used to be, but some companies are still great to work for...
And as far was work flexibility, remote work is great but employees need to have discipline. "Working" from home still means that you need to be working. Companies that can, should identify 'core working hours', so that teams have the ability to communicate/collaborate during those established times and don't need to hunt for team members.
6
@Matt Moltisanti
You cannot base your argument off your personal experience, which is a fallacy of incomplete evidence. The fact is that CEO pay has gone up tremendously while wages for workers have been stagnant, meaning that employers overall are not investing in their employees. There are some pioneer companies who have, perhaps yours is one of them, however we cannot generalize one person's experience to the larger population.
27
I would also add that, as Millennials, we have come into adulthood under very different circumstances that make living the "good life" WAY more difficult than it used to be - unsustainable costs of housing, prohibitive tuition increases forcing us to drown in student loans, not being able to save for a down payment on a house, wage stagnation, degree inflation, etc. We have no control over this, and we have to work harder to earn the same living standards as our parents did (aka not share a house with 5 other strangers). Therefore, we do not hold the same perception of "corporate loyalty" as older generations do. Instead of investing 30% more energy than our parents to live similarly, we'd rather look for places where we can feel comfortable working to achieve the same balance. It's not greed/laziness, but a shift in priorities due to shifting circumstances.
374
@Joseph I agree. I also think many Millennials and Gen Z are expecting to never be able to retire so they want to enjoy life in the present. The future seems so uncertain, we can't put things off.
81
@Erica
Yes, and whether or not we will be able to retire as easily as our parents is also up in the air - most of us are projected to not own property, and Medicare and social security spending will be through the roof.
22
@Joseph
As someone your parents' age, "corporate loyalty" went by the wayside decades ago.
31
“... the first to understand the proper role of work in life?” For most people the role of work is to avoid living on the street and starving. I hadn’t realized life is such a bed of roses in the US: somebody better tell Bernie and Liz.
6
Hard working millenials? That made me laugh out loud.
I recently walked past a store in my city that had the following sign in the window - help wanted, we have wi-fi.
I walked into a hydroponics store and brought my selection to the counter to ring up. The millenial was watching a track meet and I had to wait until the run had finished before he would deal with me.
My apartment staff are always talking about how busy they are. But I frequently see them in the parking lot smoking cigarettes and staring at their phones. They started painting the building two years ago and the tape is still up in the stairwells because they never finished.
My neighbor talks about her millenial son. The family kept trying to coax him to get a job, make a plan, and do something. He finally got a job in a fast food place after the family threatened to send him back to their home country. He constantly talks about how hard he works and how tired he is. His mom does a great impression of her son working - slow motion, barely moving. Mom has a master's degree.
I don't drive anymore so I walk or bike everywhere and haul stuff back home. The youngins are stunned seeing me carry lumber home from the store at age 61. "Dude, its so far!!" I respond that its only 16 blocks each way on flat ground. Then I talk about the time I hiked 72 miles in the Cascades alone with a pack for vacation. "Wow, dude!"
:) I would never hire a millenial. I won't even date one:))
12
@tom harrison this sounds like a caricature of a millennial and not AT ALL what they are like. I also don't think you know how old millennials are. But then again, you're a boomer. Wouldn't expect any less than shoddy attempts at slandering young folks.
9
@T "Lol," as they like to text. (They're always texting.) Some millennial workers are terrific, of course, but many more live for themselves. And that's fine, except it leaves people like me to pick up the pieces on the job.
Behind everyone with a work-life balance is a village of servants.
It's fine to stop and smell the roses. But what happens when there are no roses -- either because you don't know how to plant them or can't afford them? -- thegamesmenplay.com
4
Let’s see whether these lazy and entitled slackers with their flexible hours and meditation breaks can build up their retirement funds—or do they expect to benefit from the new free-everything-for-everyone policies espoused by the current Democratic Presidential candidates?
If you are not indispensable at work, you are by definition dispensable, and will be among the first to be laid off when recessions occur.
Don’t look now, but the NYT and other media have been discussing the problems of fresh and recent college grads who can’t find jobs and must move back in with parents.
A lot of young people I know are thrilled to find any job at all, especially one with medical benefits—I haven’t heard one of them complain about lack of meditation rooms, free employee cafeterias and other such luxuries that only a tiny minority of businesses are able to offer.
How are young people going to save the rest of us if they can’t save themselves? The ones who work flexible hours and demand time off are not the ones who are going to be the next generations of CEOs—it just doesn’t work that way.
42
@Mon Ray you really must be joking. The stresses of modern life affect all of us, and the value of flexibility benefits all of us, too. The article seems to focus on young people, but all ages can appreciate being treated respectfully and given flexibility in the workplace. I've worked with quite a few VPs who appreciate it, including several who are now CIO at other companies.
40
@Mon Ray
The article mentions -- and I agree -- that the goal for many people is not to become a CEO, or to be classically successful. Free time is more valuable than a promotion for many people.
45
@Mon Ray - But I thought that unemployment was so low that everyone had options now. Are all those "jobs" out there minimum wage, no benefits, no future?
The most "successful" young people I know have flexible schedules, own their businesses, and are raising families too. Happiness and fulfillment are their rewards.
15
The ideas of flexible hours and ability to work from home are elusively nice. In fact work and personal life become fluid and lack separation. I'm not so sure it is good for mental health.
I'm a Millennial and a physician. I work up to 80 hours per week although average 60. I wake up early and still bike up to 150-200 miles per week without sacrificing social and family life. Sounds like millennials need to work on their efficiency and spend less time "socializing" on their phones.
13
@Anna I'm doing a bit of math on your schedule, if you don't object. Sixty hours a week is 12 hours a day, five days a week, so I'm guessing you work something like 7-7 M-F (and either some longer days or some weekends on the weeks that get closer to 80). Then let's consider your cycling schedule. I'm guessing you get in about 100 of these miles during the week and the other 50-100 on the weekend depending on your schedule. So that's 20 miles a weekday, which I'm guessing takes you an hour or so. That gets us to 13 hours. An average commute gets us to 14. Basic morning and nighttime hygiene routines etc get us to 15. If you sleep eight hours (which you're a doctor, so I hope you do!), that leaves one hour to ... scarf down a meal and maybe do something else with the remaining 30 minutes?
The medical field in particular has been plagued by this problem for a long time, but when you actually apply the laws of physics to this schedule, I can't see how you can possibly expect that everyone else should be striving for it, let alone that it should be expected of you.
144
@Anna you are talking about spending 2-3 hours a day x 5 days a week exercising plus working 16 hours a day x 5 days a week. If you sleep 4-5 hours a night, that gives you 1 hour a day during the work week for your "social and family life". Or you are working 16 hours a day and exercising 10-15 hours on the weekends. Either way, I don't think your balance is anything that needs to be emulated.
79
@gmg22 Burnout in medical field is caused by physicians giving up hobbies during most intense parts of the training. I've maintained my biking hobby through med school and residency and it makes me a more efficient person. I'm more efficient at work and get out on time always. I'm fortunate to live in the best cycling area in the country so combining a longer bike ride through the beautiful California hills with my commute to the hospital is easy.
I do not have kids which would definitely change the dynamic. I do have female role models (through work and family) who are super moms and accomplished at work.
8
I’m 38 and I spent between 24 and 36 working 50+ hrs/wk. I was constantly crabby/irritable and always worried about work. Was the phone going to ring at 10pm with some sort of “emergency?” How late was I going to be getting home from work today? I was one more fake emergency at work away from a complete nervous breakdown.
All of this work was getting me nowhere. After years and years of 5* performance reviews and off the charts production, I was never promoted and given only modest raises (less than $1000/yr over the 12 years).
I decided that something needed to change and found a more flexible job (lateral move) at the same company. In the two years since, I can’t explain how much different my life is. I am able to work from home at least once a week to avoid the commute and to allow time for me to take care of myself. I’m only putting in 40 hrs/wk and still producing great work and recently received a $25k raise for my efforts.
I tell this story not to brag, but to inspire those of you who feel stuck and hopeless at your jobs. It can get better, but only if you let go of the idea that hours worked translates into anything but hours taken away from your family and the other things you actually enjoy.
Be honest with yourself about what you want out of life and if your job is getting in the way of that, a change may be needed.
3
Maybe I'm limited in my imagination, but as an nonprofit executive in my 50s, I have a hard time seeing the kind of work I have done over the past 30 years being accomplished with colleagues determining their own hours and urgencies, in or out of the office. So much of my work has depended on teams, tight planning, hard-won trust, the intellectual benefits of having others around to explore ideas, and coordinated execution. I wish the authors had been clearer about the types of jobs they had in mind when describing this particular utopianism of work.
14
Rob, boy do I hear you. The article should have addressed the industries where such flexibility works. It would not work well at the non profit where I work. And yet, we are constantly bombarded by employees requesting this. And more.
We offer generous compensation, extensive benefits and vacation, raises every year (again we are a non profit) and apparently it’s not enough. Everyone wants more flexibility, more time off, more, more, more. Where’s the work ethic? Where’s the acknowledgement that we are a non profit whose work centers on helping poor children. That we have to raise every single penny to do the work we do? No one cares about anyone except themselves. Makes me wonder why they are in this line of work in the first place.
2
First of all, I clearly remember that into my generation's 30’s the veteran humans couldn’t stop complaining how these kids didn’t want to work hard, if much at all, were late, sloppy and focused on their weekends. So many of the comments, while I’ve no doubt are accurate observations, have a familiar ring.
But, millennials were “among the first to understand” the value of work/life balance, flex time and telecommuting? This makes me think of a new book on these exciting ideas. Actually it’s been out of few years already, “The Third Wave” by Alvin Toffler. That was about 1980.
I’m a subscriber and large and longstanding fan of The Times. I usually start the day’s reading segment here. So it’s from that respectful angle that I’ve often wished that staffers with longer experience had more lookovers of the younger ones’ output to add such context.
I remember another that stated that acting knowledgeable about a show or book you know only from the reviews was a phenomenon that began with social media. So this article is by no means alone.
I hope this is seen as helpful. Aside from the carping, though, it’s great to see the choice gaining popularity to take as much control as you can over the circumstances of your work life, and a thorough, well-written article on it.
7
People are finding ways around the traditional corporate office structure, but will people ever find ways around traditional office politics?
5
It might be better if social scientist were consulted by writers before they publish articles. How the newer generations are behaving is a direct response to what happened in previous generations.
The younger generations are insisting on work life balance because many of their working moms insisted and still insist on it even at their own career expense. A successful life for a mother or father is a life where their whole family is mentally physically emotionally financially and spiritually healthy.
Thats so hard to achieve and it cannot be achieved if people give the majority of their time and energy to their career/job. People in their 50s and 60s saw their Dads work too hard and yet we women had to join and begin to succeed in the corporate world first before we could change it. So we did, thanks to all the women before us who paved the way. Now some men and women in their 80s, 70s, 60s, 50s, 40s, and especially now 30s and 20s will carry on those efforts and insist on RETURNING to a way of life that is balanced and EVERYONE works somewbased on their age and abilities. People only thrive when they are living a healthy balanced life. Thriving can only be focused on after the basic needs of surviving are being met. Young people , thanks their parents especially their moms, now have been instilled with an expectation to thrive and live a well balanced healthy life.
Also they are working on global teams now and see other cultures living this way and ‘succeeding’.
4
This piece reads as triumphant, but how exactly is the young professional responding to Slack notifications at the campfire practicing better work-life balance? Having been born late in Generation X (1978), I grew up before the commercial internet and mobile phones became fixtures of daily life. I'm surprised by the amount of workplace intrusion people my age and younger allow in their personal time. All time is work time. All space is commercial space. The boomers and Gen X-ers still at the controls would have bristled had their off-hours been similarly compromised just 10 years ago. Younger worker, ALL WORKERS, deserve better; not mere work flexibility, but freedom at and from work.
3
@Wray Agreed. No boundaries to work or commercial space allows someone visiting a national park to expect internet to respond to those work emails and also sit underneath a sign which says this campground sponsored by Subway/WeWork/Amazon/BigBoxStore/Gig Economy Employer of "Contractors".
Not my wilderness, not my worklife, not my #preferredvendors.
1
The degree to which this analysis simply assumes that every job worth talking about is portable and sufficiently self contained work that you can do it alone on a laptop computer or cell phone is staggering - and false.
Anyway, I've long supported and benefitted from flexible work arrangements. Where they work, I wouldn't deny them to millennials in any respect. What I would like from them in return, but too rarely get, is a sense that they they are only half of the work transaction - that we employ them in order to get work done that is part of a larger organizational mission, not just because they need a paycheck, and that the whole business is an exchange of value for value.
Three times in a recent interview for a promotion, I asked in some form for an applicant to articulate what she wanted to contribute or change in our organization and mission by gaining greater responsibility and scope. Every answer was about her needs and career progression. I literally couldn't have inferred what the job actually was about from the totality of the answers. And this is unfortunately the rule, not the exception with millennials.
11
"Some older employees may think new hires should suffer the way they did"
took the words right out of my mouth.
but then that is just petty and mean right?
Even now in a traditional job the young hires spend too much time on their phones and too many smoke breaks. The older -hmmmm--hires resent that more than flex time I think.
3
As a supervisor with 8-10 millennials working for me, I find the challenge is not that they want flexible work hours or arrangements, but their often loose relationship with time in general. Deadlines are seen as "too stressful", 8:00 a.m. meetings interrupt a preference for sleeping late, and there is a very real tendency to overestimate how much they are actually working (ref the quote, "I probably work more). I wholeheartedly support striving for work/life balance. We are better human beings when we achieve it. But we also don't live or work in a vacuum. Often, working remotely or on a highly flexible schedule requires more effort, not less. I haven't seen many millennials (or others, for that matter) who are willing to rise to the challenge to do that effectively. Witness Yahoo's rolling back work-from-home policies in recent years. It takes a team to deliver great products or services to a customer. It's hard to do that when you're never sure if/when some of the team will be "on the job".
16
@Steve When speaking to a large crowd in a large room with high ceilings and only hard surfaces, a presenter refused the microphone yesterday, saying "Microphones give me anxiety". Not certain if they were a millennial, but the values were about the presenter, not successfully conveying the needed content to the intended recipients.
2
@Steve
Yes, I am a bit dumbfounded when millennial co-workers announce they can't come in today because they were out too late last night, as if we will all sympathize with this totally unforeseen situation. Um - stay in on work nights and go to bed earlier? Part of me admires the chutzpah. But I guess to this generation it really isn't chutzpah, it's just how they expect it to work.
2
Yes, it is actually more effort to remobilize after you took your dog to the vet at 3pm.
Evolution takes many twists and turns, affecting many things dynamic including the workplace. “Change is certain, progress is not.” We will see how a less structured, less face-to-face workplace fares. A worthy social experiment,
2
As Gen X I thought this statement was a bit much:
“As boomers age, they too are looking for more workplace flexibility, but they seem to begrudge giving the same to younger workers when they didn’t have it themselves at their ages and life stage,” said Pamela Stone.
Actually, it's that someone has to do the work. And if you're not around and connected, you're not doing it. And I don't want to do your work.
16
The only downfall I can see occurring with flexible hours, is that this could reduce the overlap of training and shared experience with other people in the office. Especially with internships and entry level jobs relying on teaching the younger generation skills required to possibly move up the corporate ladder.
I don't think that this will become popular with entry level positions but maybe later down the road in mid level experience.
2
@John You've made a great point. A lot of the maturing and growing into a job is "caught", not taught. We learn expectations and norms from interactions with others. When one is isolated from their peers at work, one misses those critical interactions that lead to greater development.
1
@Steve I would agree with you and John. I began working remotely a few years ago, but only after a number of years working in the central office. It was invaluable to be spending my day with colleagues, getting to know them and learn from them directly. And while I appreciate the flexibility with my current job, it isn't a perfect arrangement. For example, I miss the simplicity of being able to walk down the hall and have a quick conversation in person, rather than a disjointed email conversation or cell phone call with bad reception. But, I'm certainly willing to put up with those aspects, as it affords us the ability for me to spend more time with our kids. I do appreciate though having had the chance to work a more "traditional" work schedule. There are benefits to both.
@John Many offices with flexible hours do expect attendance during core hours, exactly to allow for collaboration, presence at regular meetings etc.
Folks, this is the new reality and frankly I think it is great.
Gee, why do you think so many Americans are depressed, overeat, and our kids have so many problems? The answer may be we valued the wrong things. Working long hours, sacrificing time with family to impress your boss and get that raise and promotion. That is so 20th Century! This is the 21st Century! We have technology to make our lives better so why not use it to design a life instead of sacrifice it to the alter of making someone else rich - on their schedule - for rewards that are meaningless? Only to be downsized. I think in the next 20-30 years with these changes you will find a happier workforce, healthier people - including children .- more entrepreneurs than ever and the whining over the loss of manufacturing and coal jobs will be a 'what were we thinking' moment.
5
I get it but it's not for me. I like knowing my day is done when it's done, in my case at 3:30. If i need to do something personal during my normal work day I have a supervisor who is understanding and flexible. Or I can charge personal time. Last thing i want is to talk to anyone about anything work related in the evening. I love my hours 7-3:30. I get overtime opportunities fairly often with little pressure to accept. As I get older I like the predictability of my schedule. I believe in a lot of cases the "flexibility" as perceived by the author turns into being expected to be available at any time of the day and that's not for me. Each to their own.
4
"And as more millennials become bosses and more job seekers demand a saner way to work, companies will have no choice. "
Ha. This is very naïve. As millennials become bosses I think you are going to find that they are somewhat annoyed when (younger) people who report to THEM are casual about their hours. When they are the boss they will start to see the point of expecting people to show up and put in a full day.
8
"Even those that are offering more flexibility might be doing it because unemployment is so low and they’re competing for workers, which could change if there is an economic downturn."
This. It's all economics. Flexibility and work-life balance are a great thing when companies need to compete for workers; when it's the other way around, not so much. Some of these folks may eventually have a not-so-soft landing.
And I am not so impressed by all of the "flexibility" anyway. Offering a relaxed environment, and letting you know subtly or otherwise that they don't really care that much when or if you show up, is one cheap way for employers to not pay very well. Personally I do not mind being basically expected to show up for work, if you are paying me decently. I don't want to accept "flex time" and "work from home days" in place of a good salary.
4
nothing has made me more loyal or willing to work (way) longer hours than the incredible flexibility I've been granted. getting to work from home and hike every day (!) resulted in a lot of productivity without the same bitterness I used to feel about previously putting in overtime.
I can't imagine again wasting my life again in a cubicle farm without sunlight. and if I am ever forced to come in consistently, I'll just go back to regular (shorter) hours.
BTW all the discussion about being taking pay cuts should have included that their hourly wage didn't go down that much if they're working 1/2 as much...
2
I have a very satisfying career in engineering: as a young engineer, I worked on lame assignments and long hours, job flexibility was not existant. When I moved to a midlevel position, the work was so interesting, the hours were long and I needed all the flexibility in the world to be with my boys, who were toddlers at that time. As I moved up the chain to an exec level position, the work is even more interesting, the work hours are flexible. Now the boys are off to college and those flexible hours are a welcome reprieve to this working mom. I have time to swim, time to meet friends and time to ponder. Young ones, be patient, some careers will give you the coveted holy grail you want and some careers will not. Alas, you have to live it and find out for yourself.
7
As a woman on the tail end of "baby boomers", I started my working career in the early 80s during a recession. Women had just started to enter the professions that were formerly male-dominated, and still had to work harder than the men but were paid less. I suffered from career discrimination because I was a woman who *potentially* could get pregnant (which never happened). As others have stated, in that environment we were not in a position to demand anything; we were lucky to have the jobs at all. So I'm not ready to hand out awards to millennials for achieving what is really a natural evolution of working environments that is built on the achievements of prior generations of workers. Good for them, but this could not have happened 20-30 years ago and I refuse to take blame for that. Each generation has its victories and its failings, and we all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.
It also seems to me that some of the workplace changes are geared towards the needs of the young at the expense of the needs of the old. For example, extended parental leave is the fashionable new benefit, but sabbaticals for long time employees are a much harder sell to management. Maybe this same group of millennials will demand sabbaticals in 20 years. Great. I'll be long retired by then.
5
I am 59.
I have built my life around the very same ideas :
Work should be enjoyable.
Work should give you the feeling that you are useful to others.
Work should not give you the feeling that you are the slave of others.
Work is an essential part of life.
Work should not be the only component of life.
Work should be like money should be : a good servant, not a bad master.
I fondly hope the younger set's attitude to work will become the norm.
11
Lets be honest, no employee who gets to work these flexible hours is going to admit to their boss (or a news reporter) that they're not as productive away from the workplace.
Also 'getting the job done' is not a good metric for productivity since that task you finished might have taken half the time if you were in a focused work environment. You might have completed two tasks in the same length of time if you weren't at home (or the back of a van as the article suggests).
4
@Scott McElroy
What field are you in? I work in IT. My last position allowed work from home two days a week. I currently have flexible hours, but no work from home.
I get more done when I'm allowed to wfh. No distractions, no unwanted chatty kathys to deal with, and actually, when I'm working from home, at times, worked a little longer. There was something I wanted to finish, and knowing that when done, it was just a few steps to my back yard to get the lawn mowed.
2
or you could be working twice as fast away from office gossip and distractions... point?
1
@Scott McElroy You could make the same argument about productivity when anyone in a cubicle has access to the internet, whether through their phone or work computer.
1
What do you mean "the first to understand the proper role of work in life?" My grandfathers were both devoted company men from the great depression through the 60s and both supervised dozens, even hundreds of people. They were almost always at home in time for dinner and had time for their friends and families. So-called work-life imbalance is relatively recent phenomenon.
13
@wsanders
But, did your grandmothers also have careers? Who spent more time with their children?
2
Am I missing something, or aren't the people who want more freedom to work from home or wherever else they want to, and to accept less salary if the job meets all of their demands, the very same who are always complaining about the size of their college debt?
8
@Gerry Not the same people. Those of us with more flexible schedules usually make more and have the ability to demand flexibility.
4
Something else to be said for flexible work arrangements - they're a boon to productivity for introverts. Susan Cain writes extensively about the modern office setting and the negative impact it has on introverts in "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking"; in short, being surrounded by people all day in the open concept office is draining for some and distracting for most. So as long as you have the self-control to not binge watch Netflix all day, a lot of the work that has traditionally been done in office buildings can be done more efficiently at home. The extroverts and those too old to want to change are welcome to continue to sit in rush hour traffic and spend 8-10 hours in uncomfortable business attire; let the rest of us work from wherever we feel most comfortable most of the time (while also sparing the planet those greenhouse emissions, by the way), meeting face-to-face only when necessary.
19
@Elder Millennial
Don't assume we're in uncomfortable business attire; casual dress is one type of flexibility I definitely DO appreciate.
1
@Elder Millennial
well said! Nothing like sitting in a cube environment and listening to all the mindless chattering of others.
2
Considering the disaster they are being handed by older generations, I wouldn't count on 'young people' to save older people from anything at all. Honestly, love you guys but you've destroyed the country and nearly the planet, and you refuse to take any sort of accountability for any of it. The last thing you need to worry about is not having to dress up for work (if you still have it).
5
@RS
It's not the older generations who created the disaster.
It's capitalism.
And that is a big difference.
11
Right. Rampant capitalism, which is most strongly supported by the boomers and generation x. It’s not a difficult connection.
Dear NYT's: over the years you have kept mentioning Portland, Or in articles ranging from food to beer to bikes to fall foliage to whatever. You should know that this makes us uneasy as in the creepy guy who keeps looking our way while we're waiting for a friend at the neighborhood tavern. It's just creepy. Creepy. Please stop. Stop doing articles on Portland unless it's the one on your coast ( Maine ). Please don't look our way. Ever time you do, a thousand people want to start a "new life" and move here where the rent is already through the roof. We don't need this. We don't want this. We don't like this. So stop. Thank you.
8
I love this article; it reads like validation for my lateral or even "backwards" career moves to a job that I really like, with flexibility I love.
As an older millennial (early 30s) fortunate enough to have found a rewarding career that offers a flexible work arrangement, my experience had been in offices where some coworkers would ho-hum if I were to leave the office before 5 PM or take a >1 hour lunch to exercise. These same folks spend hours of each day walking around the office, stopping at each colleague's cubicle to decry how busy they are(!), and send completely unnecessary emails late at night, obviously just to impress colleagues with an email time stamped "11:52 pm".
They're usually the lowest performers, but good at office politics, making it dangerous to not play by their rules.
That may be a common workplace environment in many fields, but it's not ubiquitous... there are other options.
So, fellow millennials, if you contribute more than your colleagues, but are paid less; if you stay at your desk for an extra hour each day because you've finished your work but fear the snarky comments of nosy cubicle neighbors; if you find you're being evaluated on the appearance of being busy instead of the actual work you do - please let this article inspire you to GET OUT, find that flexible work arrangement with a manager that values your talents and what you deliver, and save your soul from being crushed like a modern-day Peter Gibbons from Office Space.
13
Having started my career as a young Gen X'r under the Baby Boomer Former Hippy turned Workaholic Rapacious Capitalist and Tax Dodger regime, I recall being in a suit and tie all day and clocking in at my finance job like it was the Industrial Revolution.
Way back in the mid-1990's, on Wall Street - pre-internet, email and VPNs, we had to transfer files via floppy disk from computer to computer via what was referred to as the "sneaker net" though none of us would have dared worn sneakers.
So much time was wasted waiting around to send something out to a client via Fedex and have them review it and call us back. Getting any sort of data was a major research project, but it created jobs and a lot of work. I recall the our word processing department and graphics department (yes we had those), employed a lot of people including many single moms from lower income neighborhoods.
My generation was the first to push for casual Fridays and the Internet allowed us to work from home (on Weekends) and send things out faster, freeing up time.
With the iPhone and email, I still have to come into the office, no tie ever and casually dressed most days. There are no boundaries between work and home, but I don't mind that at all. I get to work from wherever and can go out and do things during the day and I can sleep regularly at night because tech has made me hyper efficient. I work less with work-life balance and more with work-life flow, and that suits me fine.
12
@Dutch Thank you!
Gen-Xers are almost always conveniently left out of the positive side of the equation.
6
@Dutch
Once again : it's not a question of generation, it's a question of yielding, or not, to capitalism.
Do not yield to capitalism, now, and in the future.
1
My extremely bright and personable millennial age nephew never talks about “work-life balance.” He’s enthusiastically working hard and establishing himself in his new profession. Sometimes he even works a night here and there as a waiter to help out his old employer. Why? Because his boomer parents moved far away to a place they could afford to live, so he’s completely on his own, and knows it. It’s the best thing that ever happened to him.
4
One problem is that there are various jobs where people must be on site.
I think this type of flexibility for some types of jobs but not others will create a lot of inequities. Those inequities may lead to more societal unhappiness and unrest.
Also, as was mentioned in the article, when the economy goes south, these types of employees will likely be the first to be cut.
The concept is good though for the companies that do not need on site workers.
3
"One firm has an employee who works mostly from places like Hawaii and Costa Rica. At another, someone worked remotely while living out of a van for three months, skiing in the mornings and working in the afternoons. One person goes to the office at midnight so he can surf in the morning, and another takes Fridays off to backpack."
Uh where is this job and who do I have to murder to get it? As a millennial working in tech in the Bay Area at a major tech company, I can confidently say I work a minimum 60 hour week, in an office, with very minimal flexibility in working remotely or getting anything resembling PTO for more then 6 days a year. I can also pretty confidently say that my experience seems to be the norm, not the exception. Not to malign the author/ article, but when I see articles with similar topics, I cant help but wonder who these articles are about, because this is pretty far removed from my experience or the experience of other "millennials" I know and work with.
The main thing I can relate to is the "always connected" aspect of the modern workforce, where at any given moment, I am on call to answer internal and client questions, regardless of time of day, if I am on PTO, etc.
Genuinely asking here, does anyone else relate to the disconnect between articles like this and reality?
13
@L, you should look around. Tech in the Bay Area is at like 0% unemployment. If you are skilled you will have your choice of jobs.
But, and the big but..you might actually do a cost/benefit analysis of leaving the Bay Area, taking a pay cut, but move to an area with a lower cost of living. Chances are your "quality of life" will go up even if your net pay goes down.
Bay Area sucks. It is not what it was 20 years ago.
6
I think a lot of the comments here are vastly overstating the amount of productive work that gets done by a team in a traditional office setting. I've worked both ways. I've had entire days in the office where I was just so sick of being there that I did barely anything. Other days, lots of time could be wasted chatting with co-workers, going out for coffee, or just procrastinating -- because you felt like as long as you were "at work" you were working (even if you weren't).
I have less of those empty hours in my new position, because I know that when I finish my work there's no expectation I sit around for no reason. And, frankly, being treated like an adult capable of handling work responsibly without being put on a "schedule" is motivating.
15
I, have been in the grocery business (Meat Market Mgr) for Forty five years. There is no young people wanting to learn this trade, but if they can find someone to let them work at home more power to them.I can't cut meat from my home.
4
@Larry, to code all you need is a laptop and internet. Doesn't matter where you are.
Service industries aren't really what this article is targeted at.
1
@inverse137 nevertheless, we all need them and if an entire generation won't go into meatcutting, plumbing, landscaping, eldercare; laid off programmers/developers/middlemanagers will have to change occupations. Some jobs can't be outsourced and AI is not the answer to everything.
2
What a great question. Young people are going to save us from an office life?
Be careful about what we wish for. I think they will indeed solve all problems. Starting by not showing up in body or spirit. Just credit their bank account daily with appropriate increments, never give them real (or negative) feedback, rapidly put them in charge of absolutely everything - and pretty soon - all problems will be solved. Cheers.
8
Yes, yes, yes. I'm a lawyer who was on partner track and left to regain some sanity. I now work for a company that lets people telecommute, dictate their own work schedules, and so long as you get your work done -- it's no questions asked. No face time. No billable hours. Granted, most lawyers' schedules are dictated by client demands, so this couldn't work for every business, but it is really working for me . I've never been so motivated.
And just imagine the pollution and traffic reductions if everyone worked this way! What are we waiting for...
8
I LOVE this article Claire and Sanam! I was becoming more and more miserable in a traditional environment working for a real estate company. I decided to take a chance and submit a proposal and resume to a tech vendor I had worked with, asking for a remote job. The flexibility is phenomenal, and I think it built a better culture for the company. Instead of everyone gathering around the coffee pot to complain about work - we're excited to see each other for 'Beer Friday' and send fun messages via Slack about our days.
1
GenZ and Millennials are not alone.
As a boomer who retired 8 weeks ago I strongly support this outlook toward work wherever it can be implemented.
If we survive our current conditions (capitalism, climate, nationalism, etc.) to live another 100 years we'll look back upon this age, and how people were expected to 'contribute', to wonder how we ever allowed ourselves to live like this.
8
@Elizabeth capitalism is not a condition to survive. Without it, there would be significantly more poverty and death in the world.
4
@Joe
Elizabeth is talking about the unchecked, rapacious, vicious, polluting, exploiting, criminal kind of capitalism.
Not the friendly, uplifting, helpful capitalism to which you refer.
I work in EMS. Most of us actually prefer a longer shift -in our case, 48 hours instead of 12 or 24- because it gives us a longer stretch of time off. I'm leaving work this morning and am off for 4 days as a standard.
Plus your time is more valuable since you get a little built-in overtime which helps attract better crews to the agency instead of the 'rabble'.
2
"But increasingly, younger workers are pushing back. More of them expect and demand flexibility — paid leave for a new baby, say, and generous vacation time, along with daily things, like the ability to work remotely, come in late or leave early, or make time for exercise or meditation." -- Sorry, but as a blanket statement, that is ridiculous. The three jobs that employ the most people in the US are cashier, fast-food worker, and retail associate, and those jobs have no benefits and no flexibility. It's only a very small share of the labor force are in any position to demand anything.
31
I'm a boomer, a military veteran and someone who's worked in various fields from office environment, to construction to working from home.
Regardless of what we all want...
Government jobs require someone to be there from 8-5 to serve the public and that may never change.
Retail jobs require nights and weekends and that will never change.
I don't think it is unfair to ask how to give people the breathing room they need to enjoy life or meet the needs of their families.
I agree with work life balance and in fact, feel that no one (particularly myself) should have to spend 40 or more hours of each week making someone else rich, while we struggle to pay rent and never have time or money for time off.
This is what I believe the majority of the American public does.
I believe 4 days on and 3 days off for work at office or home as a standard across the country if not the globe, would resolve a great of the work life balance and it would not unduly burden the small business owner. I understand it would require a great adjustment but I think it's doable.
27
@Diana Chika Diana, there are additional major benefits of the four day week. First, you cut every worker's commute time by 20 percent (four days instead of five), reducing traffic and the constant need to expand freeway/road capacity at taxpayer expense.
If you stagger working schedules, you can extend hours. I worked at a government agency (yes) where there was a four/ten schedule. Some people came in at 6 am, some as late as 9 am - and it meant the office was open 6 am to 7 pm. Some took Monday off, some took Friday off. Come on, if a government agency can do it, ANY workplace can do it.
1
Oh yes, I remember the days of flexible hours when I was employed. At first, telecommuting was great because it did allow for me to be at home. Only problem was it that I also became available at all times for all of the different "crisis" that arose. I had to drop what I was doing to get an answer because now you could get to me by phone, email or text. That meant interrupted times when visiting family, vacations just turned into a beautiful spot for me to do work because what was required was not just a simple yes or no answer, but running a report to get statistics (I was in research in the TV sector), interpreting the results and then getting an answer back to whoever needed the information. My family would get upset with me. Days at the office were long but I found that my days at telecommuting were even longer. So instead of reducing stress it only added to it. I applaud anyone who tries to find a true work life balance in any kind of a job. I do believe that as technology improved boomers did try to find solutions to work life balance with the tools available but some became abused by people. Each generation has people who work hard and other people who just find ways to take care of themselves. And yes I’m a boomer.
12
I support work-life balance and any initiatives that support good work, ensure employees' well-being, and just make sense. However, I keep reading about people equating checking emails while camping or walking the dog with working. Really?
8
@Dawn As opposed to sitting at a desk to check emails? I'm not sure what physically putting your body in an uncomfortable chair does for you, but my brain arguably works better on the outside.
3
@Huh
I think Dawn's point is that work isn't just checking emails? Of course you can check email while walking the dog. But presumably your job involves MORE than just checking email, including many tasks and responsibilities that CAN'T be capably done while walking the dog. Anyway you can't write a lengthy reply email while walking the dog, can you?
And why are office chairs presumed to be uncomfortable? Mine's not.
1
Millennials, in a few short years, saw the lie that their boomer parents and grandparents accepted without question for their entire lives. Its all a sucker deal. It always was. Why would they look forward to putting money in an Enron pension for the next 30 years? Why would they sell themselves at deep discount to some multinational that pumps, dumps, borrows and buys back, all with 'QE' money loaned at zero interest? Millennials have largely rejected all the smoke, mirrors and exploitation of global corporatism. They've seen the funny accounting, stock buybacks, layoffs and overnight loans and recognized how fragile these seemingly monolithical companies are. They've recognized their leverage and wielded it from a position of principle. We were headed towards a world of corporate slavery. We were 5 minutes away from a TPP that was going to put corporate copyrights ahead of the civil rights of some 20 nations. Had Millennials not come along in the 11th hour with their inflated self esteem and devotion to me-time, where would we be? Seriously. Adam Smith said 'It is for the greed of the butcher that we get to eat meat" Likewise it is for the on-my-time, self indulgence of the Millennial that Chinese-style suicide nets won't yet be the new normal here (fed and fueled by former hippies throwing their coworkers under the bus for a new jibberish job title and 3% raise). Separate the intent from the outcome and you'll see that Millennials might just save the future.
4
This is for real. Talented and needed Boomers, still working are asserting their right to have a life while working. It’s called having a healthy sense of “self.”
Asserting the right to protect one’s “self” can’t exist simultaneously with giving away adult needs to raise children who need to be raised, not just monitored by exhausted emotionally drained couples who divorce in desperation of solutions.
Spiritual nourishment, if that’s walking a dog in nature or meditation is not a luxury, it’s a human need. Death comes. Being ready means having lived a life. Not as the underdog, or victim of racism, or abuse, or as someone leaving home because of global climate change, but as a member of a human community that is not ignorant of what works to keep the human race thriving.
5
@Ray
Remarkable writing, thank you.
Spiritual nourishment can be solitary/nature pursuits, but it also comes in the form of community organizing for social justice. People who are utterly demoralized, and I use that word advisedly, by work and by caregiving responsibilities, have little capacity to contribute to the beautiful trouble that's needed to create the democratic future we all want to live in. My sentence is long; there's no 1:1 relationship between nonviolent direct action and social change. It takes time.
(Yes, yes: voting. Voting every two to four years is just a threshold. Direct action is ... direct!)
I work hard to not be crushed by my daily grind, my capricious boss, my home responsibilities -- because I require the joy of sharing activist skills. Despite the endless evening and weekend meetings.
I have to. These skills aren't common sense until they're taught and practiced. Boomer activist must take responsibility for teaching millennials what we know about nonviolent direct action. It's not taught in school, goodness knows.
Boomers and millennials. A beautiful partnership for the human future we need.
If technology is supposed to be the saving grace to free us from "the office", why are tech companies busy building complexes so their people can be around virtually 24/7? Sorry. I don't see it. This dynamic is going nowhere.
3
I'm very glad this article mentioned that the vast majority of the population -- in all age groups -- doesn't have the luxury of demanding flexible work hours/locations. Let's not forget that these generational labels (Boomers, Millennials, etc.) refer to middle class white folks, not to the vast numbers of people who usually have no choice about their work environments and terms.
For my part, I would like to have the flexibility to work at home, but my boss -- who's my age, 50's -- has very old-fashioned views about things. On the other hand, the only flexibility I want/need in hours is to be able to adjust them if I have a personal obligation in the middle of the day. Otherwise, I want a pretty regular schedule -- when I'm done for the day, I need a clear delineation between work and personal time. I don't want to have to check emails or receive calls. To me, that's work-life balance -- time to myself.
Now, if only I could get said boss to stop adding things to my plate so I'm not working 10-12 hour days on a regular basis ...
6
@BB I'm with you for the most part. However, I am 54 and I do not consider myself old-fashioned in my thinking where work and flexibility is concerned. Also if someone is receiving calls and emails at home, they should be getting paid for that... back in the day we called it "being on call" and we got paid for it.
7
@Lynn. My boss and I are the same age -- I don't say she's old fashioned because of her age, but because of her beliefs and rigidity. Also, I'm salaried, so I don't get any extra pay for working extra hours.
2
@BB Then don't work the extra hours. I had one job about a third of the way through my current career that really violated the number of hours I was working, and I was salaried. I had to leave, and every job I applied for since then, I expressly place limits on what constitutes a work week, and what constitutes "short term emergencies" that require overtime. I have never had a problem finding a job when I clearly indicated that up front.
3
I simply cannot agree with some of the disparaging comments I am seeing see here about Millennials and have to conclude that much of it is rooted in blame-shifting. My Boomer Generation (I am 65) started off promisingly with ideals and the desire to fundamentally change the consumerist society bequeathed us by the "Greatest Generation" but we sold out, first to the Reagan Revolution and then to the neoliberalism of Bill Clinton that accommodated rather than opposed corporatism. We topped all that off by electing Trump. Is it any wonder Millennials have no use for us?
Millennials are hardly feeling "entitled" -- they are just correctly seeing that the "Pepsi/Me Generation" has burned through all their resources and opportunities, leaving them to have to hustle more and work longer in the new gig economy of the "late-stage capitalism" environment we have left for them. They see that they can't even line up at the starting gate without first incurring crippling student loan debt that they may never be able to pay off. Boomers complain because some may have to retire later than originally planned? Millennials have no decent jobs to retire from, and they know that Social Security won't be there for them. Telling them to "try to change the system instead of complaining" is pretty cynical and hypocritical coming from Boomers who failed at the former but who excel at the latter.
31
As a millennial, I can totally relate to this article. I am so grateful that I work for a company that is flexible and understanding of work/life balance. Yes, I may not get paid as much as I deserve, but overall I am happy, healthy, and I feel a sense of purpose. I work hard and I work smart.
4
Another fad that will eventually pass.
3
@David H Having a life outside of work is no fad! If I'm going to have to work for the rest of my days, I'm sure as heck making time to enjoy life, not save up a chunk of non-working time just before I die :p
5
@David H I am in my early sixties, still working, and intend to until I am seventy. I have strict rules about how many hours I work each week (forty) and what constitutes an 'emergency' that requires me to work extra hours.
I have maintained that stance since I had one horrible summer of overtime when I in my early forties, and I have made my 'limits' clear in every job application since then.
It isn't a fad, it is reality.
5
Actually, it wasn't until borrowed money became the norm, for governments, individuals, businesses, and bankruptcies, about 50 years ago, that the human animal had any choices, except working to survive, and put food on the table, whether shooting small game, and digging up roots, in Africa, or later when mankind starting planting wheat, and vegetables, and domesticating animals like cows, and sheep. I am 71, and females without birth control, had two choices, during my mother's age, still living at 98, have a lot of children, or have a husband use a condom, as the pill, and other methods for the female hadn't been invented yet. We are still very primitive, and think just because we have airplane travel, cars, digital media, central heat, and air conditioning, we are somehow advanced. However, one volcano erupting, one asteroid hitting, and one nuclear blast, could send all of us back to a more primitive time, where we would all be out carrying water, etc. just to survive.
9
@MaryKayKlassen Frankly, I'd much rather spend my day carrying water and farming than sitting in an empty office for no reason other than it's expected somewhere, by someone, that I be "working". The 40-hour-a-week, inflexible demand just fundamentally misunderstands what motivates humans to be productive.
5
They're working to live. Not living to work. And they're dead right. I've followed that model for 30 years. I highly recommend it.
9
Bravo for working for change. I cheer my younger family members for pushing back against corporations who have made obscene gains while workers havef lost ground
I cheer my son each time he is taking off for travel or fam time. He’s a manager of an award winning team who gets the job done on their terms
2
The comments on here are truly astounding. In a time when we are drilled from birth to be consumers, have children, 1,000 FB friends, houses, mortgages, bills for every product we own, insurance for everything that could possibly be insured, a car for each adult in the household because both parents have to work to get by, holidays turned consumer-fests, celebrations of every life milestone, have our kids in as many activities as will fit on their college applications, doctors for all the problems the sytems have given us, and all the RX drugs and therapy they can feed us... Please tell me how with all of this, flexibility in the workplace is NOT a necessity? Saying boomers don't want the younger generation to have it simply because they didn't is the reason America is failing. Old school, ancient mentalities and bogus conservative views that have lead us nowhere but in circles. All the boomers I know are utterly miserable and blindly support systems and politics that dont support them back because they cling to these dated American ideals that died on 9/11. The only reason this isn't a norm in the workplace where it reasonably can be is because people dont like change, and dont want to admit their generation is ending and was a sour note in history.
10
I'm curious how it is that small businesses can continue to afford to retain employees with all these extra benefits. All of these have significant costs associated and while people are your biggest line item (and worth retaining in lieu of the cost of hiring and on boarding someone new) how do you justify the shift in budget? In big corporate america it might be easy to say, cut the salary of the execs and give it to the little guys, but for most small businesses that was never the case to begin with it. What do employees value more when it comes down to it, salary or cushy benefits?
1
@Christina Christina, call me a non-believer but I don't believe companies tell the truth about their budgets. They fudge stuff to make it look like they're making money. The only honest company is the farmer.
@li haha yea, while I believe that the model of capitalism is more beneficial than the alternatives it is hard for a small fish to compete in a big fish pond these days. I do think that employees value what small businesses bring to the table but it's somewhat counter intuitive to achieving maximum work/life balance. At a small company, you wear a lot of hats and when you're most successful it's because you care so much and that doesn't always mean punching the clock at 5pm. I also think that a lot of people tend to blame the company for "forcing them to work harder" when I tend to think most people are just really driven to do a harder, better, faster job for their own professional development. Seems easier to blame the world than realize sometimes you dig your own hole.
@Christina There are entire bodies of academic research devoted to the issue of turnover and retention. In addition, there are respected human resource organizations which research the costs of losing employees, improving wages, and offering wellness benefits. https://blog.bonus.ly/10-surprising-employee-retention-statistics-you-need-to-know
Options are good to have, and it's nice there are more of them than ever for some workers/employees.
I didn't find that I was sufficiently productive when working from home, and am pleased there was an office life that allowed a high-school graduate to retire at forty-five years of age. That would not have happened had I made working away from the office a priority.
3
@BayArea101 Options are good. Choose a company wisely. if you like office like, then get a job with an office. If you like warehouse life (working alone), then go there.
I'm disappointed that the article gave no space at all to the benefits in some work environments that arises from group interaction and face-to-face encounters. These are not simply "old-fashioned" concepts but real-world phenomena, supported by research. Like so many things, flexibility can be good, but expecting workers to be at work is often a legitimate job requirement--even for knowledge workers.
10
@Robert@Robert I spent all my working life in the office. Babyboomer age. I met some of my best friends in the office some that I still keep in touch with 50 years later. That wouldn't happen had I had to work from home.
7
The problem with this is that it doesn't apply to all industries. Ones that require physical presence and coordination don't have this choice.
And just because the elite have this shouldn't be an excuse to not put in regulations that preserve employee safety with regard to limiting employee work hours.
14
I don't have time to listening to whining from boomers about lazy millennials. As far as I'm concerned, they have it figured out and have, as a result, created better work options for me. Technology makes it easy to argue for. I'm 56 and do most of my work at home, though I started out in the same job almost totally office based. Everyone gradually started taking advantage of the tolerance for the work at home ethic. Why not? We have laptops, cell and text, and FaceTime, as well as Zoom. We can have conversations about projects, edit reports together and cleanup dog vomit or load the dishwasher at the same time. All of us save money and time not fighting the grueling morning and evening rush hour traffic in metro Phoenix as well. Who isn't happier at when that isn't in the back of your heard?
Flexibility was especially important to me during the final months of my mother's life. Had we not been able to take my work with metro the East coast, working on my laptop while she was sleeping, or after my shift with her at the hospital, my sisters and I all would had to make the difficult choice between time with family and work.
15
@Karen Amen from this 59-year-old fellow caregiver to an aging parent. I've had many a client conference call from a hospital room and none the wiser unless I can't hit the mute button fast enough when an alarm blares. A January 2019 Harvard Business School study shows one in three workers with caregiving responsibilities is forced to quit their job. Many are financially ruined. I thank God I'm not of them but I would be without work flexibility. NYT, how about covering THIS phenomenon?
I've hired a few. some are hard workers and productive. most are slackers with no loyalty or ability to spend the time and effort to advance. Many of them seem to expect to be handed the perks that come with hard work and time on target. I'm a small business owner. No one just handed it to me and I'm not going to hand it off to someone who wants to "work" from home two days a week and not put in the time and effort to advance. simple as that. The attitude this article seems to worship is a recipe for small business failure.
11
To all the upset boomers in the comments,
Thanks for ruining the economy. Now stop calling us lazy while we try to build our lives as best we can.
18
Cue Boomer Rage..
13
@pat
Ah, Reddit-style millennial snark and blaming
They are lazy and entitled.
5
In my experience - their work life balance comes at my expense. The endless three day weekends for a friend's wedding or pre-wedding party, the "self care" days and leaving early because work life balance - means I pick up their slack. Management typically seems to be fine with this because - well - millennials get to have a work life balance - Gen Y and X - we're expected to be grown ups - and pick up their slack. I am more than sick of it!!!
13
@Dana Millennials are Gen Y.
2
@Dana It seems to me if the same people are always getting the same days off, that's poor organization and planning on the company's part. (I'm a Gen X) Everyone should get the same time off or flex days on a rotational basis. If there's a wedding or something that pops up and you are scheduled to work, it is up to you to find someone who will make a trade. Something like, if you work for me this week, I'll work for you next. If you cannot find anyone to trade with you, and you skip work, there is always the option of firing that person.
The whole "young people are going to save us" is bizarre.
Reminds me of this quote:
"Ask they young. They know everything."
14
80% of office jobs are fake. It's just income redistribution and wasted time. The more important someone imagines their job to be, generally the less it actually matters.
13
I’m a sixty-something, working as a consultant, after accepting an early retirement package from my previous employer. For myself, I give my whole hearted approval to my younger cohorts in insisting on a humane work/life balance. The endless striving, the endless hours and the cult of being ‘so busy’ are destroying the pleasure of idleness and personal joy. Being lazy, unproductive and self-indulgent are equally important to one’s own well being. I commend all slackers! You have the vision and tenacity to say, enough is enough!
22
I don't see millennials as lazy or entitled, but I do think--if the endless articles like this one actually reflect reality--that they have a singularly unattractive quality: a shared belief that they, and they alone, invented every good idea.
33
@Pete in that respect they're exactly like the boomers.
10
I find it hard to take this article as more than a expiation of people who feel entitled and have not ambition. Than goodness that we have emigrants that have the New England values that made this country what it was before Trumpt. They aspire and know that their daddy's contacts cannot get them into the easy chair at 30.
5
@jim in virginia I'm actually more ambitious now with a remote working position than I was with a traditional commuter job. Why? My mind is freed up to think more creatively, I'm not burned out by the NYC subways every day by the time I get to work, I'm not stressed out about getting home and seeing my kids, etc. Work arrangements have little to do with ambition, and in the right setting can really increase productivity.
2
I could write a book (or several) on how toxic and abusive the work culture is here in Silicon Valley. So I will simply say:
Bravo to the younger generations for refusing to be brainwashed and taken advantage of like so many of us were.
12
"But increasingly, younger workers are pushing back." How, as a practical matter, does that work?
So you go in for an interview and you say you're not going to work for company X unless they change HR policies? Or you're working for a company and you "demand" change?
Writers need to be careful of stock transitional phrases that have zero meaning in the context of the story.
#EditorsNeeded
14
@Jim Lynn I'm assuming it means that in this tight labor market, firms with good benefits, high salaries and flexibility are still getting an influx of applicants while firms with less flexibility and fewer benefits are struggling to fill roles with talented people.
2
Loved this article!!!
Yes this is exactly true. I’m a Millennial and every person I’ve spoke to my age agrees about this stance of remote working, flexible hours, not being tied to the office.
I mean let’s think about this for the dang companies if that makes them feel better. They don’t have to pay for office space, or can downsize! They are paying for people to sit in a chair because that apparently equates to productivity (sarcasm). Businesses would have less people asking for subsidies for commuting expenses, and let’s be real how many of us are happy about being on crammed trains, highways to get to work at the same stupid time??? Rush hour would decrease!!!
I’m a hard worker, raised by a single mother and understand my goals in life. I also understand the bigger picture of work not being your life. I want to enjoy the world we live in and my relationships with friends and family. I’d like to enjoy the house or apartment my paycheck goes to, have time for a family, cook healthy meals and the opportunity to exercise. How is this possible for someone with 10-13 hour days??? If you are triggered or bothered by this thought why??? You deserve better. We all deserve better.
Obviously as people have said, this is difficult in certain industries...But for workers who just need a computer to get their work done, let us have our flexibility and stop holding us to this crazy mad-man era style of working that no one wants.
22
Good grief! "Proper role" work? Work serves a number of roles. For some it's just sustenance! Or duty. For others, it's power and prestige... too many to cite. There's no one role. Silly. And there's no one kind of millenial, either.
7
They are lazy, but they are also right. Life should not be all about work; it should be about family, community, that which enriches you as a person.
4
It's a peculiarity of the American work ethic that people do not feel they can take their paid vacation days without judgement.
26
Work is not (and has never been) all it's cracked up to be.
7
I want to know that when I leave work it won't follow me. And I want my job to be somewhat separate from my life. Many boomers have tried and tried to get flexibility in work hours but any adjustment took years of wrangling and often never came or came unfairly - boomers are as much a victim of the 50's as could possibly exist and if you want rigidity, go watch Mad Men.
4
Slackers will write articles in the NYT about how wonderful their lives are, while meanwhile hard working and disciplined people from China and India will steadily take over the world. Eventually the slackers can do menial jobs for them.
7
Since WWII every generation (or some aggressive members of it) has complained that the next one was lazy and feckless.
9
None of Gen X wanted to work those 80 hour weeks to "pay our dues." Guess we're just a bunch of suckers. Or... the boomers who still run all of the things now see their own kids at work and are super flexible.
4
@CRex some of us boomers can't find jobs. Employers prefer young people or they want 25 year olds with 30 years experience.
6
Why do these examples always have to come from Portland?
14
The thought about it is interesting, but that is as far as it goes. I come from a family of doctors, and teachers, those who spent many more hours than 40 a week, more like 40 more without pay, a total of 80. In fact, my grandfather, and my grandmother's two brothers who were surgeons as well, worked, and cared for many people without being paid, as their heart, soul, were in it, many people were poor, and couldn't pay, and there was no government Medicare, Medicaid, ACA, or private health insurance. As long as these Gen Z-ers, and millennials don't expect Social Security to be around for them, or health insurance, they can put in as few hours as they want, mediate or walk the dog, as you can't have children, on part time income, unless you expect the government to pay for it, and someone, somewhere, and a lot of people have to work full time to make sure that you can work less.
3
@MaryKayKlassen Did you read the article? Sure there was some talk about working less hours. But mostly it was about working the hours that they want, even willing to work hours other people wouldn't want to work so that way they would have the time when they needed it to do what they wanted. (Also, was there anywhere in the article that said anyone was taking government assistance?)
Now there are always going to be people that are really passionate about there jobs and are willing to go above and beyond. But this is not the type of work they are talking about. They are talking about office jobs. Jobs that you normally would have to sit at a desk for hours on end.
Also (I'm a millennial) we are not expecting Social Security to be around for us. I've been told for over a decade that there will not be any social security left by the time I retire. I worked during the recession 70+ hrs a week for years and couldn't even always afford to put food on my table. And I am all for them doing what makes then have a happier life, work is not everything.
8
Interesting. I just retired, and spent the last fifteen years working at home three days a week. Since my work was online, no need to be in an office more. This is more common than people think.
7
This kind of stuff works for maybe 5% or 10% of the workforce. The rest of us will have to work the number of hours set by the employer. Competition forces the employer to do so. If an employer starts being too generous his competitors will underprice him.
The only lasting solution is government rules regarding work hours so all competitors must obey the same rules. We are currently fighting to get gig "contractors" classified as employees. There's no reason in the world why this should even be an issue - they are employees but technology is causing this situation.
10
My wife can telework and has unlimited PTO. Consequence? She works 60-70 hours/week. If she had to always go to the office, I suspect she'd stick to her 40 hours a week (like I do).
She also often works a little when she takes PTO. I doubt she would do that if she had the standard 2-3 weeks of vacation time that many employees have.
IOW, I think her employer benefits from giving her those options.
26
Somehow work has moved from the thing you do to have a life outside of work to this is your life 24 x 7. Employers expect total dedication and in return we are treated like units of labor that can be cut at any time. I recently interviewed with a tech firm that was making a push to really recruit women into their ranks and had a website full of "work/life balance" photos of women with kids. Everything was great until they told me that I would "only" have to fly out to a client site on Monday morning and I would get back Thursday evening. Then I could work from home on Fridays! Wow- I can't imagine why they don't have more working moms in their rank. The question is, not why aren't women choosing to work for them, but why is anybody working for them. The modern workplace is terrible for families and further, for communities, that miss out on people invested in their local communities. If Millennials sit this one out, more power to them. We should all just refuse to do this anymore. They can't fire all of us.
26
A very high percentage of Millennials and Gen Z simply views material gain as separate from the definition of happiness. For a myriad of reasons, there seems to have emerged a recognition that the work to live, accumulation of things mentality that's dominated the American mindset for generations creates less benefit than it's worth. Praise be. And if you don't realize this as a manager, and learn to run your business around it, you won't retain employees. Let them work from home. Don't expect weekend work. Encourage a balance. Encourage hobbies and vacations. Involve them in higher level decisions.
And it's so, so worth it, because this demographic is smarter and more capable than any I've ever, ever seen.
33
We don't work hard for the money. It is a measure but only and end in itself to support our the free time we have to find something to keep us from being bored.
Work provides the self satisfaction of accomplishing something and doing something other than finding time to be entertained, so that boredom doesn't consume us.
1
@jim in virginia I agree that *work* provides satisfaction, but work is not limited to what we do at jobs. Some of the things that get labeled as hobbies should be understood as people's "real" work, funded by the paying job.
I don't need a job to keep me from feeling bored. Jobs are often boring.
3
@Adam W
Hit the nail on the head! Millennials are less "white picket fence" and more experiential. As long as they can pay their bills and take care of their commitments, WHO CARES???
3
Employers are definitely mostly behind the ball on this. A concept I really like is called ROWE - Results Only Work Environment -- that's been around for years but only practiced by a few places (Gap, 3M, Obama White House, etc.). Basically, these are places that measure employees by the quantity/ quality of the actual work produced rather than not really good proxies like hours spent in the office.
Although not formally ROWE, my prior job was something like this. I visited patients at home, in nursing homes, and in assisted living facilities. By its very nature, I was out of the office (clinic) daily and no one was really looking over my shoulder. So basically, I had a lot of leeway over how I organized my time and travel. I still worked plenty hard - more than 50 hrs/ week -- but that flexibility really helped (e.g. I didn't have to rush my exercising in the morning, could go vote, etc. as long as I was available by phone) and my patient satisfaction/ outcome measures were among the best in my area. I also came up with a few ideas to make my workflow more efficient and one idea was adopted regionwide by my company.
5
This is a fight I've been fighting since the 1980s, when I and my friends were the young workers questioning seat time and face time versus flexibility and balance. Just as my generation didn't invent the weekend, Millennials and Gen Z didn't invent work/life balance. They are fortunate to be the Boomer-proportioned generational wave that creates critical mass. I am excited to see what my Millennial kids and their cohort create for their descendants - and maybe for we, their parents, who unlike their grandparents, may never get to retire voluntarily.
15
After I had my first child, in 1999, I negotiated a flexible work arrangement with my employer at the time, a medium sized advertising agency. It was the kind of place that had the mentality of, "if you don't come in on Saturday, don't bother to come in on Sunday." I managed a few account teams so my role was pretty demanding.
I made a pitch to our head of HR and other senior executives with a few options for flexible work time. We landed on required 30 hours/week, with 3 days required in office, and then work as necessary from home. I was paid by the hour, so if I worked more than 30 hours - which I did most of the time - I was compensated for it. I kept full-time daycare so if I needed to go in for an extra day I could, but used that as a last resort. I took benefits off the table, so my PTO wasn't paid and I did not take other benefits. I was really surprised they went for it, and other women followed suit.
The flex-time arrangement worked because I was willing to do what was required to get the job done so nothing ever fell through the cracks. But at the same time, I was able to be home with my daughter at least one day a week and sometimes two depending on client meetings, etc.
My flex-time arrangement was different than what the article describes, but flexibility was not unheard of before the millennials came of working age. It was all in how you positioned it and ensuring that you still got the job done.
6
I'm a boomer who is a bit torn on this, being one whose generation was hard-wired to show up for work everyday. Yet I escaped a confining job of three-plus decades for one with great latitude and I'm not going back, so I do see the benefit. That aside, as others have noted, not all jobs are confined to white-collar office work, which seems to be the only type of professions this article addresses. There are many small businesses don't have the luxury of such flexibility. If we face a future with no plumbers, electricians, mechanics, technicians, cooks, waiters, delivery drivers, airline pilots, etc., because they don't offer loose restrictions, we're doomed. Work is doing stuff, and some stuff can only get done by a person who shows up. Let's not forget that.
22
@Been there, done that. The article said repeatedly that some jobs (obviously) just can't accommodate this. This is not deep insight you are sharing.
As an aside, many plumbers do set their own hours. If I call my plumber up for an emergency, and he has something going on, he will just refer me to someone who doesn't.
2
@Been there, done that. Your comment doesn’t even make sense. The article says very clearly that certain professions do not accommodate flex time hours. Also, many tradesmen choose to work when they want. My husband is an electrician and won’t take a job if it interferes with another commitment.
3
@StuAtl- amen! I can’t wait for the day when people happily say, “the plumber can’t get here until 6pm because she’s surfing? No problem- I’ll just keep mopping until low tide....”. LOL- are these the same people who get indignant when they wait more than a minute for their lattes?? Check-in taking too long at the hotel because people don’t feel like coming to work until later?? Flight is late because the pilot wants to walk her dog?? This whole notion of the world adjusting to the individual’s whims is about privileged white collar workers and not applicable to most of the working world. The rest of us just keep showing up on time because -gosh!- that’s what we’re being paid for!
5
My organization has had telework for the past 20 years. But to be clear, they don't support telework because its good for employee work life balance, but because its more economical when leasing office space. There isn't enough office space for all of us, so we telework.
6
OTOH, the culture of "be on call, and work round the clock to fix problems and meet deadlines" seems to become more and more pervasive over time, especially in tech-heavy work.
When they say "as long as you get the work done", watch out -- because they can assign enough that your vacations are just rescheduled work hours, etc.
It's still mostly about work-life balance. Once we got pagers at IBM in the 90's, that began to go away. Overall, I think it's just getting worse, re the warnings in books like "White Collar Sweatshop: The Deterioration of Work...".
It doesn't help me much to get to walk my dog if I'm working days, nights, weekend, EVERY holiday weekend, my vacations are just shifted net overtime (unpaid), etc. etc.
This is why I left IBM in disgust, retiring early, in 2007. (Being poorer, but happier. Being a consistent saver and investor has its advantage, re financial choices.) Based on what I read and hear from friends in tech there and elsewhere, overall it's not getting better.
26
@Roger Geyer
I agree. For certain roles this phenomena encourages a ton more interference in life, not a balance at all.
However, we also have to recognize that most jobs are not all that important to getting things done. Of the issues I have run into is vendors and other customers just taking longer to get things done. Communication is now done on the employees time, which means whenever they feel like getting the work done. Most work is just pushing paper around an organization, or dialing into the monday meeting at 10am and younger people know it and I think are just saying "you know what, this is dumb. I can call in from home, or have the customer wait until next week."
They may be right. It is the new 80/20 rule. 20 pct do 80 pct of the work. Now 80 pct are looking to get the paycheck but with the flexibility. The other 20 pct...lets be honest...we are gonna do the work anyway. I even sat through a workplace seminar that pointed out the dangers of having workers who like to work too hard because it drags down the morale of other employees.
Oh brave new world...
4
This is well-written and nails it for me. Though as the article says, this is typically more common for white-collar/highly educated workers and I know it's not possible for the majority of jobs in this country.
Just because I'm not in the office doesn't mean I'm not working. Since I and many others of my age are tied to our phones, I respond to emails at 10pm or 7am.
I have two young children and my priority is them. I leave early to pick them up and then get back online after dinner.
8
I was a healthcare HR leader for many years. I learned quickly that the most desired objective for employees in addition to good pay and benefits was to minimize the number of days required to be at work. Offering 12-hour shifts became a competitive advantage and then a necessity when all hospitals offered them. The goal for many was to work 12-hr shifts on 6 consecutive days and then have 8 days off in a row without using paid time. We worried about whether it was good for patient care/safety and the health of employees. Office staff wanted to work 4 ten hour shifts, but not everyone working such schedules can have Monday or Friday off. I kept expecting one of the 40 hr people to propose getting it all done in 3 days. The theme is: my life is elsewhere and I come here to pay for it. The beauty of our system is that everyone decides for him/herself what success is. If lucky, each finds the right balance between financial security and doing what they want to do with their time and effort.
7
@Greenville SC Reader
For clinicians maybe. For those of us in Healthcare IT, it's still always on call and be in the office almost every day.
Of course this will work well in retail. And in maintaining utilities. And in fixing roads. And in producing real goods instead of those increasingly vaguely defined "services".
Seriously did these pollsters venture outside the walls of Dunder Mifflin? Did they consider that running society is a bit more than yakking on the phone? Do they understand that someone has the chop the cotton and hoe the corn? Drive the trucks? Operate the heavy machinery that builds the fine office buildings millennials don't want to work in?
Maybe we should all be marketing professionals, brand champions and consultant physicians. There are plenty of people living in the shadows to do the real work, and the food supply should hold up. Really, it will.
25
@Daedalus Not sure why you don’t think it will work in other fields. Bus drivers in DC work 12 hour shifts. So do many hotel workers and nurses. I know retail workers who would love 12 hour shifts and since some stores are open 12 hours or more per day that would work.
7
@Daedalus This seems like a deflection. If I'm a lunch-shift waitress, obviously, I need to be present in the restaurant during the lunch hour. A business analyst who needs to submit a report next Thursday does not specifically need to be sitting at a particular desk on the previous Monday at 2:36pm.
4
@Daedalus: On the one hand, there's some truth to that now. But increasingly, routine jobs will be automated, and robots don't care when they work.
Technology is really changing things. I rarely darken the doors of retail stores any more, aside from grocery shopping. I couldn't care less when the folks take care of the computer infrastructure at Walmart.com, Chewy.com, Amazon.com, etc, as long as the sites work well for me.
Car repair is getting to be more and more about tech, especially re diagnostics.
You're living in the past if you imagine that this issue only applies to a relative handful of people.
4
This reminds me of the argument that single parents can raise children just as well as two-parents in the home, on equivalent income. It's just not true, in general. Any business that has an intense and loyal corporate culture where the business is #1 will outperform a similar business with a looser and less loyal corporate culture where the business is #1.5. Can you imagine Danny Meyer building his restaurant business with telecommuting chefs?
7
I’m 26, but I have the feeling that remote workers are replaceable workers. Production of goods and delivery of services are the only essential jobs; most else (compliance officers, analysts etc.) subject to layoffs as during the Great Recession.
8
Seriously? This is new? I felt this way in the 1970s, and any time I mentioned it, I was looked at as if I had two heads. I hope the culture of endless work changes, but I doubt it. Most of my 60-something friends are working more than ever, and not because we want to!
16
When I got out of college in '78 I didn't want a 9 to 5 desk job. I found a job as a claims adjuster, driving around meeting with people who had accidents and working out their settlements. Went to the office 1-2 times a week. On Fridays all the adjusters would get together to do our paperwork and drink beer. We were basically teleworkers.
As I got older and advanced in to management, I headed back into the office. Years later I was a VP. We were bought out and the buyers shut down my region. They let everyone else go, but kept me. I was 'warehoused', as they put it. I worked from home 2003-06, and traveled about 1x per month to my 6 offices all across the country. It was outstanding.
Moved to a new company in 2006, and I got the door open for teleworking. Today I'm the COO and everyone, including me and our CEO, teleworks at least a day a week. We have everything from full time teleworkers to every-other-day teleworkers. People gladly shared desks with a 'buddy'. We get enough face time to have a strong shared culture but enough time at home for plumbers and doctors and the like.
For my next work/life trick, I'm walking out the door when I turn 62 in Nov. We only get so many days, and I've spent enough of them in the office. Besides my hobbies and volunteering, I plan to work for my company about 20 hours per week, but 50 -80% remote.
Even stodgy insurance companies can figure out work/life balance, it just takes time. This trend is here to stay.
41
Balance is a noble goal and I do not begrudge this generations attempt to find balance. They are fortunate to live at a time where they can do things differently. We will see if the experiment is sustainable or expandable. Global competition may have other ideas but why not give the experiment a shot.
4
I think that the idea of telecommuting is a great one as long as the "employee" does get their work done. The idea that "core hours" should be utilized is also smart; that is one way to have team members connect with each other in real time or meetings that need to take place with real time interaction.
I have seen the past and the present and hope that we continue to have large corporations continue to put the needs of their workers ahead of shareholder value. When the company is flowing due to its workforce, the profits will continue to grow which ultimately benefit shareholders.
5
Bravo for these changes and the young people pushing them. Forty years ago, I deliberately chose employment that would give me a decent living and flexibility (as defined then) over a higher-powered career track. I've never regretted it while watching my peers spend all their time at work or traveling for work. I have only the caveat the author mentioned: this is the choice of privelege. Maybe 20% of the population, perhaps? I wonder about the working class, and I wonder about the service people who support those with these privileged flexible workplaces. Do the caterers, restaurant workers, cleaners and daycare workers get to share in this new employment trend? Will the young professional workers with flexible work arrangements be as comfortable bestowing flexibility as they are receiving it?
21
While raising my sons alone, I chose high tech consulting over permanent employment for a number of reasons: I made more money, became more skilled, avoided work politics and competition, and often worked at home (even before cellphones and internet) and made my own hours. I never missed my kids' ballgames or concerts, and took them out of school to go travelling abroad for weeks or months at a time. I had time to really live. Others would often be indignant (i.e., envious) at the instability (i.e., freedom) of my life, but my grown sons are not surprisingly now living their lives the same way. I'm glad to see it has become common practice. Employment stability and loyalty are illusions. Money, freedom and happiness are real.
19
College trains people to work in irregular ways. You are in lecture so many hours a day. That means you need to shift the actual work, readings and assignments, around the lecture. If you're given the option for online courses, you're left to structure the entire work schedule yourself. Your only limitations are library and lab access. Meet your deadlines and show up for tests. None of this resembles the 8-5 tradition taught in high school.
Why would you expect young adults to learn what you're not teaching? Technology is an enabler but by no means king. I had a boss once that insisted I take lunch at 12:00 every day for no reason at all. Probably because most employees were expected to take "working" lunches. You better believe I quit. If I wanted a job with a punch clock, I would apply for one.
That said, flexible schedules do cause operational problems. Young people love to use technology but that doesn't mean they know what makes it tick. Young people hacking technological guardrails that old people only understand in the abstract creates huge problems.
There's a reason the company gives you a network drive. There's a reason they only want you to store documents to the company network drive. There's a reason you don't have permissions to access certain shared network drives. All of these systems were created through painful experience.
Don't ask me to help you recover your business presentation on a private cellphone you dropped in the toilet. You were warned.
4
IME (as an employee, and as a manager of employees both local and remotely), the flip side of this is accountability by employees for getting timely, quality work done. Some people are better at that than others, so not all can thrive in a remote work environment.
I’m a boomer but agree more with the mindset of getting work done flexibly (re schedule) as long as it is on time (or early) and high quality. I teleworked 2to 5 days a month for several years and remained productive.
1
Good point, but it’s important to remember that some people aren’t productive in the office.
Flexibility is one of the core benefits my employer is known for. My team is global (multiple continents; numerous time zones), so it's not even possible to know if people are in an office most days anyway. We collaborate beautifully using audio, video, email, instant message, and SMS. I have never once bothered my team about where they are (in the office or not) or what time they came to work. We focus on results, and we have dedicated employees who go the extra mile of their own volition. And despite what this article seems to imply, this is happening at a large multinational company that has been around >100 years.
8
For a large portion of my career the option of working remotely did not exist. The options are obviously far greater today and I for one agree that the thought of the traditional 9 to 5 job and having to show up to an office every day is antiquated. And with flexibility you can still work hard and put in as many or more hours for your company. Remote work helps the employee and (what is often not discussed) helps the employer, who for example does not need the real estate footprint it once needed, lowering expensive overhead costs.
2
As a person in their late 20s I can attest. I recently joined a large international firm in my industry that once had a reputation for being a "sweatshop", but since interviewing and joining I've seen real steps taken to address these issues, including a new top-down policy essentially banning non urgent email/IM communications from 8pm/8am. These things take time and need to be embraced at all levels. But it seems that some companies are finally realizing that our generation is not lazy but wants to be treated with respect. If you treat us like humans and let us live our lives, we will respect the commitment we made to the company and get the work done. It's a pretty simple equation!
4
Social scientist studies, selected examples...BAH! The vast majority of people have limited or low skills, are supporting their families hand-to-mouth, and would probably work harder for more money if the opportunity arose.
3
I'm glad I'm not in the demographic you describe and we are encouraging our children to go into fields that enable the lifestyle the article describes. Thankfully we have that choice. Your observation has truth to it and it sounds very bitter however.
3
I often say, only half-jokingly, that I was the first Millennial.
My first job after law school was with the firm I'd clerked with the previous summer. My "summer associate" position had focused on corporate and securities law, which is what I wanted to do. When I arrived after graduation, all the new associates were informed we would be doing insurance defense for 2-3 years because firm had split. This was pre-internet, so none of us knew. After a few weeks of boredom (and a salacious invitation from a jr. partner), I quit that "dream job."
Fast forward, 18 months. I'd completed an LL.M. in Tax Law, hoping to make myself more valuable as a business lawyer and taken a job with a boutique, regional tax and business firm. At my 3-month review I was told my work product was great, great attitude, etc. Although my 60+ hour per week of billable output was solid I should "really consider coming in on Sundays, too, for at least a few hours." I thought about that a lot over the next 2 months and I did spend a few Sunday afternoons/evenings generating more revenue for the firm.
I was 26 at that point. I decided life was too short to spend it generating 2,500 billable hours per year, not counting service work. My "peer group" didn't understand me.
I have mad respect for Millennials and Gen-Y who know that life is more than WORK. Hope they remake the world--soon!
9
@TM we love your energy TM!!! kindred.
@Elle Sea Thank you! :)
Thanks to putting life and health before work, I'm in great shape, physically, able to run 7-8 miles a day, hike, bike, do fun stuff, grow and cook real food, even while I still work a lot of hours (on my terms).
We're all in this together- seriously!!! this isn't an "us" -"them" generation battle so let's not create enemies where we are surrounded by allies. We (workers) ALL want this. We all know our lives are more -and are worth more- than our jobs. Let's create this together
10
This article doesn't consider operations from a small-business owner's perspective. We employ a dozen people and always accommodate the need to stay home with a sick child, take the dog to a vet, help your Mom, etc. we get it! We even struggled through a new mother's 18-month maternity leave. But make no mistake, no matter how well-intentioned, not all required work gets done and productivity often suffers. Others have to pick up the slack. Sounds like it would be no big deal but employees keep track of who is "working from home" and how often. The perceived imbalance often breeds resentment and as a business owner, I rarely have my complete team in place.
4
Small businesses can prosper in this paradigm. The trick is building staff who are productive while working remotely. Those who resent that need to get with the program or move on. Some types of work cannot be done remotely but many can.
4
I asked my sister in law (a partner at a major national law firm) about millennials and their work ethic..."Was it true I asked? She just glanced at the ground and said their work ethic was horrendous and they now had to hire only experienced workers.
The NY Times is covering up for bad parenting that created these creatures...we are on a downhill slide in the U.S.
10
Sounds like she needs to do a better job screening candidates. The issue is her not hiring the right candidates then blaming a generation as a whole for her shortfalls.
8
@jeffk Yeah, sure right. It is always someone else fault. We are in big trouble.
1
As an aging boomer, I say, go kids, go! I'm fully behind your push to change the workplace for the better, making it more human, more diverse, and not the exclusive province of driven A types who force the rest of us to live up to their unhealthy workaholism.
23
George Carlin:
In today's America, no child ever loses. There are no losers anymore. Everyone's a winner. No matter what the game or sport or competition, everybody wins. Everybody wins, everybody gets a trophy, no one is a loser. No child these days ever gets to hear those all-important, character building words: "You lost, Bobby!"
And then those kids go out into the workplace...
3
@MM I've never understood this particular gripe, especially from "a
good guy" like Carlin. Is this even true? Why the need to let a kid know they're
a loser?
1
Speak for yourself. That's not the way we raised our kids.
Funny, they have been doing this in Europe for years . . .
9
Extra credit to the writers for tacitly acknowledging that "millennials" are in fact now in their mid-30s raising children.
7
Dear lord, please stop glorifying these younger generations. Just stop it.
2
Sonia, we should glorify any generation demanding a healthier work/life balance. We have allowed the US to become a place where 50-60 hour workweeks are frighteningly normative; this is incredibly unhealthy in every way, and God bless anyone seeking to correct it.
26
We welcome our young saviors!
RME. Really, how condescending!
It's not that older people haven't asked for more flexibility, been too concerned with job titles and achievement, been unwilling to give up $ for time, it's that we've been denied the options. You need the job (kids' college, caring for parents, just trying to keep afloat) and this is the deal. You can vote with your feet, as I have done in the past, but there's not much give.
All it takes is one horrible director or manager to refuse full comp time and work from home days.
So good luck with this, people in their 20s and 30s. It may work with some companies, but it's far from universal, even for you. See how things change when you have more responsibilities.
10
Puh-leeze!!!
If I hear, "my generation was the first ..." and "my generation had no control ...." and "my generations inherited these circumstances ..." one more time, I think my head will explode.
World War 1. The Spanish Flu of 1918. The Dust Bowl. The Depression. The rise of Fascism. World War 2. The Holocaust. Living under threat of nuclear war. The Cold War. Those were real challenges. Genuine existential threats to humanity.
Deliver me from Millennials who imagine they face unique challenges hitherto insurmountable in human history.
Mommy and/or Daddy:
not being home when you got there
having to bust a gut to pay for your braces and/or sports equipment
sacrificing vacation time to help put you through school ...
Those were not existential problems.
Those were "learn from" ... and "be grateful" ... and "do better" problems.
As pointed out in other responses, being able to shape your own work schedule for both hours and location ... is a truly great problem to have!!! Most people do not even have that option because THAT IS NOT THE WAY THE WORLD WORKS.
Hundreds of millions of Chinese and Indians are working very hard to make you and your precious work-life balance a small foreign relic in their museums of industry.
Grow up. Do your job.
It's what's legitimately expected from a functional adult. Be an adult. Try that out.
I don't think you're lazy.
I do think you don't know hard work.
If you did, you wouldn't gripe about the work you do know.
11
@Tim Alexander
I respect that the world used to be a lot worse in many ways. However, I think that's a terrible reason to stop trying to make it better.
If I can make my life better by balancing my work with my life in a way that benefits me, I'm going to do that. I don't see why that upsets you.
And yes, I don't know hard work. I spent my early 20s in a competitive college so I would have a comfortable life. That's literally the point.
10
@Riley
"Balancing my work life in a way that benefits me" & spending years in a "competitive college" for the purpose of avoiding hard work is NOT trying to make the world better.
I'm glad you respect the world used to be a lot worse in many ways.
How did it get better? Not at the rate of 40 hours per week, with time off for surfing.
Aside from the obvious, like sacrificially winning the wars, the world got better because persons lived with an almost missionary, radical imbalance in their personal lives.
People gave themselves to making the world better for more people than ONLY themselves.
Making the world better for OTHERS
- for those people who made "better" happen -
THAT was literally the point.
And that doesn't happen at a paltry 40 hours a week.
If current trends continue your comfortable life will be overwhelmed by people who do know hard work.
They are people who are willing the pay the price in the hard work of competitively displacing you.
Currently their collegiate studies are not pointing them towards a your concept of a comfortable life.
They are equipping themselves to make you conform to their long range goals.
They will work longer for less, and believe it worthwhile to do so.
They will make greater personal sacrifices of freedoms and family time ... believing it worthwhile to do so.
Why?
Because their quality of life calculus involves eventually owning you.
5
@Tim Alexander
Life isn't a zero-sum game, even those people who sacrifice tons of time and energy on work vs. personal goals will lose to those who sacrifice even more time and energy... I would imagine you would be smart enough to understand that this isn't a very sustainable model, and there's valid reason to opt out of the race.
2
If anything, we’re saving everyone by UNIONIZING at resurgent levels. What a quintessentially NYT story about how millennials and zoomers are getting along so well with management and isn’t it great we’re all in this flexible productivity thing together. 0 mention of unions. Also the fact that the author just can’t resist trotting out tropes about how we’re lazy, entitled, obsessed with our phones, etc but lampshaded as critique.
1
I demand more acknowledgment of the yet-again forgotten Gen X worker, who took a job he didn’t want, for hours he didn’t like, and whose prospects stagnated for reasons he couldn’t control, but said nothing, because hey, man, that’s life, whatever and stuff.*
*Speaking for a friend. Ahem.
20
@Ryan Shhhhhhhh. Let the Boomers and Millenials fight. Back away quietly and go live your life.
3
when i started working a "regular" job, my dad -- who knew i was trying to live a "creative life" (painting, writing, acting...) shook his head and sadly said, "you're going to find that going to work will cut into your whole damn day." he was sooo right. then one time he warned me against working a lot of overtime, saying eventually, you lose money (per hour ratio went down, taxes went up). he said, "you may get more money, but you'll never get more time." but the daily struggle to make *enough* -- not a fortune, not excessive amounts, but just enough -- takes everything out of you. its almost too late for me to live a creative life now...at least when my dad was working, there were pensions, profit sharing and paid medical care as a reward for doing your job and contributing "whatever" company's success. i have none of that except for what i contribute myself from my moderate salary. gen X and the Zers have absolutely the right idea... live your life now. retirement dreams are like believing in some fictitious afterlife -- you forget your present hoping for a better future. Live, Xers and Zers... live now. you never get another chance to enjoy today.
5
This sounds to me like a reaction to this century's drop in incomes and living standards. Even in these times of low unemployment, employers are so very reluctant to raise pay, while housing costs are skyrocketing with no end in sight. If we can't have the standard of living that previous generations chained themselves to their desks for, we might as well at least get some flexibility.
6
As I get older (I am in my 70s) things become more clearer.
Every generation brings both progress and also the same old problems.
Boomers (and people directly before) gave us the great civil rights advances and the end of the Vietnam war.
Gen xers and surrounding groups gave us women and gay rights.
However with all groups you get greed, worker abuse, management abuse, new types of discriminations etc. etc.
4
Well, it could be that they are the first to understand the proper role of work in life. But, it’s more likely that they’re the first generation that has been able to take advantages of changes in the nature of work. Working from home wasn’t an option in past generations - the enabling technology simply didn’t exist. Working from home wasn’t an option in past generations - it was hard to tighten the bolts on the heavy equipment that the factory was manufacturing from your kitchen. Working from home wasn’t an option in past generations - it was extremely difficult to communicate in real time with co-workers from your living room. This article is a classic example of what happens when writers think that history is something that happened more than one week ago.
26
Gen Z appears to be smarter than the the previous generations. Good for them. Work was never meant to be your life, but just another avenue to pay for the things you need. Employers have been taking advantage of people for way too long. Life is very short; I don't want and haven't given the majority of my life to an employer. I wish that freedom for others to pursue the things they really enjoy, be it family and/or friends, a hike in the woods or reading a good book in a hammock. It also give them time to read about the world and get involved in pursuits that mean something to them. Work should be a 30 hour a week endeavor for most and the wages for that should be livable wages. Healthcare should be provided and workaholics who try to guilt people into being just like them should be ignored. Enjoy your lives, Gen Z!
13
"But increasingly, younger workers are pushing back. More of them expect and demand flexibility — paid leave for a new baby, say, and generous vacation time, along with daily things, like the ability to work remotely, come in late or leave early, or make time for exercise or meditation. "
This is a privileged mess right here. Something is lost in translation. The author's intent shines through, but at the expense of pragmatism for the majority.
These people aren't rewriting policy under the nose of boomers - their privilege allows them to find a job they love. You write that "work has become an obsession, and long hours and endless striving". No, it hasn't become an obsession. It's out of absolute necessity that people work long hours, endlessly striving to be like Ariel Coleman with the option of working non-traditional hours in order to walk the dog whenever you want. It's coveted of course - jobs like this - but let's not pretend it's the norm or that any similar trend exists for the majority of the working class.
16
@D.A.
Very, very well said. Glad to see that somebody "gets it".
2
One deficit in this article is the acknowledgement of the types of tasks, roles, or organizations that cannot (yet?) offer flexibility. I work in a professional services industry, and we need to keep the same hours our clients do, to be available both by digital communication, but also to have the responsiveness and commitment to be present in the room with them, often at the drop of a hat. Change is possible, but it will require moves on both sides of the table, and an understanding from newer employees that there may be reasons beyond their employer that triggers certain requirements and expectations for consistency or timing of work.
10
No, they were not the first people to think of this, not by a long shot. Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers (my generation) longed for the same flexibility and work-to-live options, but there was no support for this from the corporate world or society at large when we were young. I hope the younger generations have more success in achieving work-life balance and a happier, more sane daily existence!
45
I was on one of the many hiking trails near my home last fall when I came across several young adults on the same trail.
But they weren’t just hiking. I didn’t overhear much, but I did hear enough to understand that the midday hike was actually an office meeting!
What a great idea.
41
I recently left a job with a major corporation because of changes they were making to the telecommuting policy.
Until recently, people were allowed to work remotely several days a week. Most of us were spread out geographically, so team members didn’t even work in the same buildings, let alone states.
Out of the blue, the company suddenly changed the telecommuting policy, saying everyone had to come into the office to “collaborate” with coworkers. Most of us had no coworkers in our local offices, and we were expected to still use the online communication tools to “collaborate” with those workers, but from the office. It made no sense. The change greatly affected my life outside of work. There were other simmering issues with that company, but taking away the telecommuting for really no legitimate reason pushed me out the door.
Working remotely is a huge perk of the modern workplace, and it greatly enhances work/life balance. People can work longer when they aren’t stuck in traffic. Being able to pick my kid up from school or meet the plumber was a huge deal. Admittedly it can be abused, but the company has to plan for that. Telecommuting is a wave that’s coming, and companies ignore it at their own peril.
70
@John Smith you must mean IBM, correct?
I was one of the first people in my industry to work full time from home. While I loved it, my family suffered as I was never fully away from work. This has been further exacerbated by the use of cell phones and email which further blur the lines of work/play/home.
16
Is anyone addressing commuter times and costs (almost 1/4 of peoples take home pay) that keep going up, even when your paycheck isn't? That too is added to the number of hours worked.
The majority of employees in the cities cannot afford to live close to where they work and this makes their quality of life insanely miserable. I see no happy commuters "EVER". This is why working from home, flexible work schedules, shorter work weeks are needed.
It's one thing to work a 40 hour work week (as though you are actually working the whole 40 hours) but, then add on another 20 hours commuting is wrong. Our quality of life and happiness is definitely being sabotaged by greedy employers and older workers who cannot change. The quality of everything is suffering due to unhappy, exhausted people who feel there is no end to the monotony or time to do anything meaningful with their lives. Could be why politics has run amok too and no one cares.
43
@LM commuting time is something that I carefully manage in my life by moving close to my employer. If I can't do that, I find a different employer. Life is way too long to spend it stuck in traffic.
3
@LM I agree with you but I don't think it has anything to do with age. In my workplace everyone prefers to have some flexibility when it comes to how they work.
1
@LM A few years ago, a study looked at factors that correlated with happiness. Among the top 5 was a short commute time.
I've been lucky to be within a 15-min or less drive to my workplace every job. Even before this study, years ago, my mom advised me to live near work, even if it is pricier. But I recognize that's not possible for many people's budgets.
4
I think the "work/life balance" is something that has been an issue for working people ever since unions first fought to establish a five day work week, and probably before. Certainly it was so for the boomers, who were called lazy and entitled back in the '70s whenever they rejected the vision of success (ie, climbing the corporate ladder) that had generally made their parents miserable. The only difference, really, is that technology is opening up a number of options (such as working remotely or during "off" hours) that didn't exist previously.
Some things have remained constant: one of them is that in the real world the biggest paychecks are still going to go to those who put career over all else. Another is that the ability to choose between different employment options in order to find the one that provides the best work/life balance is largely dependent on education and training.
Same as it ever was. If we want to give millennials credit for "changing the workplace," well, sure, why not? They get bashed on unnecessarily all the time, so let them take credit here. But I tend to think of this as another chapter in a very old story.
21
I think that "young people" as you call them are not making work better, they are making it worse by working at all hours of the day, all days of the week, and not setting boundaries or limits with co-workers or clients. Perhaps it's my age or my old-school tendencies, but I would much rather work an hour later each day and go home to be with my family and really be there with them, than go home at 4 to go to the vet, and be managing phone calls and emails for the rest of the evening. What this generation has done with their never-ending quest for work life balance has destroyed the life portion. Clients and co-workers now expect a return email at 9pm, and we are waking up at 6am checking emails before saying good morning to our spouses or taking the dog for a walk. I think the solution is quite the opposite of the current trend. Work should be confined to work - 8-4, 9-5, 10-6, etc., and that's it. I don't want to read your email when I am watching tv or reading a book at night or on the weekend, and neither should it be expected.
2
Unfortunately, another modern workplace trend is "open desks" where each desk isn't formally assigned to any individual, and you arrive in the morning to find some new scavenger set up in your usual spot.
I absolutely hate it, and if they don't go back to assigned desks soon I'm going to start interviewing elsewhere.
105
@asdfj Unfortunately your workplace is showing a total lack of employee respect. Apparently to them one employee is just like another, totally stripped of their identity, just another body to sit at any desk. Whatever your workplace, it is Neanderthal. Yep, you might be wise to start interviewing elsewhere.
3
@asdfj Unless you all en masse issue an ultimatum about this, it will not change. If you have portability, I would at least investigate other job possibilities. This type of desk-shifting arrangement would make me far less productive, always acclimating instead of concentrating.
1
@asdfj I worked in an office where I had this type of desk-hunting every morning. By sitting at a new computer and keyboard every day, I contracted warts on my fingers. This was the only time in my life I developed warts. Since then, I realized how mentally and physically unhealthy this practice is.
4
This generation have no sense of ownership, but they have an overblown sense of self-importance and greed. I think American businesses are in for a difficult time....a revolving door. However, American business...the large corporations, brought this on themselves with broken pension promises, broken union contracts, abandoning American for higher profits, etc. So there has been a loss of ownership and buy-in that is lost. Karma??
23
@J. G. Smith I'm sorry to say but this argument sounds like a bit of juvenoia to me (disapproval younger generations just because things are done differently). I really want to highlight that corporate loyalty is less important to younger workers because large corporations have shown they don't care for their workers. So in that case, why not go work somewhere better? Is that greed or a positive coping mechanism? If my employer makes me miserable, of course I'll go to a company or non-profit where my work is appreciated, it's just a no-brainer. I don't think it's greed to put yourself in a job/company where you can work effectively and sustainably because you enjoy it and feel appreciated for your work.
23
@J. G. Smith
Why do you think there is self importance and greed? I'm one of the oldest millennials but it's already a different world than the one I was prepared for. I live in the same area as you and housing costs/commuting costs/overall cost of living is skyrocketing. Is it greedy to want to go to the doctor occasionally? Or to not spend 15 hours/week commuting? Or to be able to take off any time after having a child? Childcare costs are huge. We all need this flexibility - its rare that a household can afford to live on a single income anymore.
11
With at will employment, there is no loyalty. I am happy to get flexibility.
4
I REALLY want to hear more about this part!!
“They also say they are more practiced than older colleagues at setting boundaries on how much they use their phones, so it doesn’t become overbearing.”
I could use the advice, millennials!
8
@Catherine it's just like training a dog. People get used to what you let them get used to. My boss used to try to call me at odd hours on WhatsApp, and he eventually gave up when I mysteriously kept missing every one of his calls.
3
@Catherine just turn your phone on airplane mode and stop caring about what other people think. you'll find the consequences are far less than what your work anxiety would lead you to believe in the hypothetical.
3
Nice article. It has only taken a decade for The Times to finally start distinguishing between Millennials and Gen-Zs. Progress indeed!
7
There was a time when work did not run our lives to the extent that it does now. I think that employers became spoiled with the baby boom generation because there were so many of us chasing jobs that they could pick and choose and we could not. We took the jobs as we got them and we weren't in any position to negotiate. Perhaps this new generation of younger workers, having seen what was done to their parents has decided that they want to be able to enjoy life before it's too late.
Corporations have done this to themselves. By firing people for no reason or stupid reasons, refusing to accommodate for anything, discriminating on the basis of marital status or gender, and deliberately underpaying employees, hiring temps with no plan to bring them on board, etc., employees are not going to care or want to put in extra time. That attitude cuts across all generations now.
If you want my loyalty treat me like an adult. Don't tell me how valuable I am and then fire me for no reason in 2 months because I'm too old or too expensive. Don't do it to others either because I can see the hypocrisy.
97
Oh, please! We baby boomers (aka hippies) were the first to reject the 9-to-5 life. And then, guess what happened? We grew up and had to make a living.
This is just one of the perennials: each new generation also seems to discover hooking up and not dating. Or, y’know, sex.
And I suppose every generation does—for itself—but nobody has reinvented the wheel just yet.
14
@M. Not all baby boomers were hippies, and not all baby boomers rejected the 9 to 5 life, nor did we manage to pass along anything that helped the next generation do that for themselves. The younger people I know are, in fact, doing exactly what this article claims that some of them are. We baby boomers can well afford to turn some of our tendency for self-congratulation into recognition of what these younger people face that we did not face, and of what they are doing that we did not manage to do.
4
@M. What happened was you sold out and became yuppies in the 80's.
Don't blame them because you decided to sell your revolution for a BMW.
6
@M. Every generation thinks they're going to change the world for the better. Then they grow up.
4
I negotiated a reduced workweek (32hrs/week) when I had kids. My employer had also always offered the ability to occasionally work remotely or odd hours (eg come in late and stay late or work more hrs one day and less another).
The reduced schedule and the flexibility are major factors in my staying in the workforce, and at this particular company) after having kids.
I’m very good at my job and give my employer 32 REALLY good hrs each week. I ’ve been w the company 15 yrs and have no plans to ever leave.
The one issue with “flexible” work environments is that people define “flexible” differently. Also, the article quotes people very willing to answer emails while on vacation, but the blurring Of work and personal time has its problems. It leads to burnout even if you are not working all the time, bc you mentally never leave work.
15
This isn't just a private sector phenomenon; it has also begun to hit government agencies that have assumed for decades that employees will just accept rigid work schedules, miserable commutes, and retrograde technology in exchange for thirty years of their existence and a not-so-generous-as-people-think pension that they may never live to collect. Thus I applaud their refusal to devalue their own selves in the pursuit of material comfort.
18
I fear that what we have here is an attempt to flatter a a highly coveted readership demographic by playing with language. Young people aren't "lazy", just more "balanced".
Perhaps, but if so, from what wellspring of cultural wisdom does this desire for balance come? From Instagram or Facebook or Twitter?
Again, perhaps. But perhaps instead from World of Warcraft and Fortnight and the desire to retreat into fantasy.
3
@Mark I would say the desire to lead a fulfilling and enjoyable life in the short 80 or so years we are on this planet. I think the Instagram/facebook/video game fixation is a little bit of a stereotype...it's like my great grandparents having distain for their children for watching too much TV after satellite was invented.
If I can work to support myself and my responsibilities (if I have kids, spouse, etc.) what does it matter to anyone else how one chooses to work? Why would anyone care if I want a work/life balance?
Be careful about the "back in my day" mindset we tend to get into.
10
@Mark your comment makes it seem you are inclined to believe the stereotype that millennials are lazy. But you betray your true feelings by bringing up Twitter, Fortnight, WoW, IG, Facebook, etc. How are they relevant at all? Even if these ideas have spread through digital avenues, so what? Does the value of an idea suffer because it was read on a screen rather than in a book or a newspaper? I feel as though we could transport this comment back to any decade as long as we hit the right boogieman buzzwords. Every generation changes the world around them and their influences change along with them. And inevitably every generation is chastised for those differences by the generations that preceded it.
~a lazy millennial~
3
Sample of n=1:
I have not had an "office job" in over ten years. 100% of my work is remote except when I have to be F2F, usually out of town about once a month. I make an excellent living that affords a comfortable, relatively stress-free life. I call it work-life /integration/. Because I never have to be anywhere, I am happy to work anytime because I get to things, mostly, on my timeline. My clients and colleagues recognize that I'm adult and in all these years I've never missed a single deadline. When I worked in an office, with the endless nothing-meetings, and corporate neck breathers forever piling on new distractions, deadlines were more like ideals.
I wouldn't go back even if they doubled my current income.
29
I'm right there with you!
@TFD I work the same way as you do, ever since I became self-employed in 2003. You describe the maximum freedom of the work/life "integration" beautifully. I'll work a bit today on a Saturday because I'm going to do something incredibly fun on Monday, a one time opportunity. My clients appreciate my responsiveness at any time of day, and that's why they won't even miss me on Monday.
I appreciate the goal of this article, but like many commenters have mentioned, it would be great to see some acknowledgement that a huge number of jobs simply cannot be done remotely (e.g., sanitation worker, musician, teacher, nurse, etc.) And, as we talk about more flexible schedules and working from home, it is important to consider the ramifications of having no clear work/home boundaries. People interviewed here even admitted to spending MORE time working than they did before they had more flexible schedules. Hmm...
To truly move forward for a more equitable workplace for all, we need national legislation on a grand scale, to mandate paid family leave, sick days, reasonable vacation time off, etc. Informal flexible arrangements are great for some, but in the end even those people end up mentally tied to their jobs at all times, and this doesn't create a model that can benefit workers who rely on more than just technology to do their jobs.
57
I never understood the need for mandated sick/PTO time until I joined a mothers group with diverse group of moms. When my children got sick or a snow storm shut down school for 2 weeks, I stressed about taking unplanned time off and keeping my clients happy and all that. What I never stressed about was my paycheck, which always remains steady due to my paid leave. Meanwhile, I watched a bartender mom stress about paying rent when the snowstorm shut down her restaurant for almost 2 weeks, and another mom w hourly wages who lost her job after her young children got sick too often one winter.
7
@Emily you are right, there are jobs that require you to be present or onsite. But that still doesn't mean that the people doing them should have to expect long hours, low pay, and no bargaining position. The answer remains the same even if the details are different. Newsflash! nearly every 'service' job in America is understaffed. Because the people in the corporate office make that decision for their own benefit and low level employees are left to sort it all out. When is the last time you went into a grocery store and every register was open and staffed? When is the last time you went into the bank and every teller booth was occupied and open? And have you ever tried to get someone to help you at Home Depot? All symptoms of the same problem.
BTW its bizarre that you think 'national legislation' is going to level the playing field. First of all, when has any legislation delivered on its promise? EVER? Second of all how much money have you given to your local politician? That business that is exploiting you and your coworkers, already has him in their pocket. So if the idea of you having the self esteem to stand up for your own humanity and dignity is so out of the question, you won't do any better playing politics. Have you not noticed that while our privacy and rights get stripped away, corporations get relaxed regs and lower interest rates. That basically the net sum of all 'legislation' up to now. And you think that more will somehow be better?!
4
Before these youngsters can understand the nature of “work” and responsibility they must actually engage in it. There are certain realities in life and, if they are to change, they must first be understood.
We need a “National Service” mandate for EVERYONE, preferably right after HS (or postponed in certain cases for basic medical education and certain college degrees). That would give all a chance to experience OUR WORLD first hand and then make better, more informed decisions about it. Without that it’s all hyperbole.
5
@RealTRUTH The average millenial is over 30, and the oldest are nearly 40 now. They've been engaged in work for quite a while now.
10
@RealTRUTH "We need a “National Service” mandate for EVERYONE, preferably right after HS (or postponed in certain cases for basic medical education and certain college degrees)."
Really? And what did you do for "National Service" right after high school? Was it either unpaid or lowly-paid, which is what these public service schemes always entail? Gotta love it when people sit at home diagnosing the shortcomings of others (while exempting themselves, of course) and prescribing a cure that aims to teach the rabble a thing or two. Please.
3
The hard work and advancements in the quality of life here in the first world made by previous generations made this work-life balance choice possible. I’m not so sure the attitude towards work of current generations would have worked a century ago when we were an agricultural society. I think they would have simply starved.
2
@Craig
they indeed would have starved.
But we have progressed and are no more an agricultural or industrial society, we are now a service/information society.
As conditions have changed, work, and how we get it done, can change and get better (at least for those that are no more in the agricultural sector): I don't see the reason to use older work models that have been surpassed (as some would impose, see comments above: it would be like imposing to use a typewriter so we can learn how to use a cellphone. Nonsense).
6
@Craig
I agree with @gct. @Craig, I'm not exactly sure what your argument is here. You seem to be saying "if it weren't for my generation, you wouldn't be able to have that work/life balance." Thank you? I'd agree that older generations built the infrastructure we now enjoy today so that we can switch to a service-sector economy, but isn't that what you were aiming for? I'll give you kudos if you want them, but please don't base your disapproval of a new and pervasive lifestyle just because it looks different than what you may be used to. Difference does not necessarily equate to "wrong."
5
"More of them expect and demand flexibility — paid leave for a new baby, say, and generous vacation time, along with daily things, like the ability to work remotely, come in late or leave early, or make time for exercise or meditation."
But these cream puffs are also demanding universal health coverage, free tuition, no limit to immigration, and lots of other costly goodies.
Who is going to pay for that ? The rich !
But "the rich" didn't get to be that way by taking time for meditation or showing up late to work.
Somehow we are raising a generation who know how to demand but don't quite know how to step up and pay for it.
Eventually, they are going to run out of other people's money, and then they'll have to get real jobs.
3
@G The article clearly states that the people asking for these things are wealthier, white collar workers who have the leverage to demand things from employers. So these "cream puffs" are making money and change. They also aren't asking for revolution, just what other prosperous nations provide.
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@G
you probably are not part of the club (neither I'm, but I have spent some time studying the group): the rich are a category whose large fortunes are created by someone else. They don't have the problem of work/life balance: work (as we mean it) is not part of their day.
14
@G
I think there is the perception that liberals, esp. young ones, are asking for "free things" for themselves. Actually, we believe in those things because they create a society where everyone has equal opportunity to succeed. I've already been to college and am drowning in loans, free college won't save me. But I want those who have less to be able to go to college without cost being a barrier. I want my grandparents to be able to age without fear of going bankrupt. That's why I struggle with the label of the "me, me, me" generation. It's not that we are asking for these things to improve OUR lives, but help give everyone a an equal chance to go to school, be healthy, and get your basic needs covered.
12
I'm all for working remotely—my company allows it one to two days a week, and I'd do it more if I could. But answering e-mails at 8 p.m. or when I'm supposed to be on vacation? Ugh, that doesn't sound like freedom to me.
I keep set hours (roughly 9 to 5, M to F) and completely disconnect from work outside of those times. Personal preference or old-person attitude? (I'm 38.) Who knows ...
43
The actual differences between millennials and workers in other generations are minimal in my experience. I’ve managed employees across multiple generations. There are some in each gen who are all about career advancement. Others in each gen are all about work life balance. Some are in between.
Rather than focus on the generation or age of the employees I’m managing I focus on each individual and their needs.
72
Of course this generation has great ideals and work environment life goals and benefits, it would be great if all workers had access to them. The fact that only a very small portion of Corporate America now offers it, should tell you something. They like the fact that they only pay for 40 hours and get 60 or 80 week after week from employees. As a baby boomer, I still put in extra hours as needed to meet the demands of my job. Not all firms spend to allow remote access. I actually like being able to leave work at the office. Home is where I live, not where I want to work. I hope this generation makes progress for future workers, but they must fight the greed of the corporate bottom line.
6
No one will understand the proper role of work in life until the workers themselves control the means of production, to quote the old philosopher who knew a lot more about capitalism than Milton Friedman ever did.
And no one will understand the proper role of work until all work -- ALL work -- is respected. Oddly enough, a socialist principle and most definitely not a capitalist one.
26
"Still, there are signs that things could change for more workers. Some large and influential companies, including Walmart and Apple, have recently begun talking about the need to shift from prioritizing shareholders above all else to taking care of their employees too."
I doubt Walmart will EVER take care of their employees, this is only a talking point for the week.
35
@Jacquie In my experience employers never do anything that is not in their best interest (meaning, financial best interest).
2
I certainly hope so.
Laziness is the mother-of-invention for productivity improvements and the motto "Work smarter, not harder."
Unfortunately, who benefits from this?
Not the employee; the employee is rarely rewarded for their efforts. Ideally, a productivity improvement should either lead to:
1. less hours for the same job, so the employee can have less hours in the work week and/or ...
2. wage increases: more pay per hour and/or ...
3. hiring more people if each employee can have shorter hours due to the improvements.
But, the reality is that ownership just pockets the windfall income from productivity savings and that just helps further create economic class separation. We've been living this experiment for 40 years now since the dawn of the PC age.
What millennials and subsequent generations do is demand a shorter full-time work week and more vacation time so the quality of life is better. This is a different form of wealth distribution. It's not communism and it's not taxation of the wealthy. It's simply a method so that we, as a society, can gain from productivity improvements.
One gain is the lower levels of fiscal and time stress and that permits people to both exercise more, eat better, and thus have lower health care bills as a society.
Instead, ownership pockets the gains of the improvements and doesn't either have less hours for the same job or pay more per hour.
10
It is wonderful that some of us in (relatively) highly-paid technical/digital jobs have this option. The rest of the workforce does not often have the opportunity to share in this luxury. And the divide widens ...
107
You do realize that the flip side of this "benefit" is an unending workday, and no separation from work. Weekend, night, vacation...all good times to work?
3
@Samuel Markes
But if your schedule is made flexible by your employer and then you end up working nights, weekends, etc. is that not based of personal choice? Since the employer is allowing you to set your own schedule, you could just work 9-5 if you fancy.
1
"At another, someone worked remotely while living out of a van for three months, skiing in the mornings and working in the afternoons."
Some companies must be truly desperate for employees these days.
8
@mpound Why? The person did the work. Who cares what they do the rest of the time?
10
It sounds old-fashioned, but the basic divide is still between the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. Here, the millennials described are bourgeois, and so have increased leisure and less financial pressure (they were born into households with some capital), whereas the proles--those who change oil, recoat bathtubs, clean houses--must be on the job in person, because they can't afford to do otherwise. No self-respecting millennial would do these jobs because, the jobs don't fit in with their social class. The jobs also tend to be harder. One group picks the fruit; the other eats it.
130
@GP Bravo for this point. Another issue to consider is gender (and I say this as a feminist): Men are still more often expected to be the primary earner in straight couples with kids, and primary earners often have less freedom to take chances on the types of flexible boom-bust jobs profiled here. Women from the upper middle class will still be able to access more flexible, variable types of work while the men who are primary earners have much less freedom to do so. That discrepancy will result in continued over-valuing of work in men's lives, undervaluing of those women who actually ARE the primary earner, and gender pay inequities based on entrenched expectations of who is "really" a career employee in the hardscrabble world of the professions.
23
@GP I don't disagree with you on the divide, but there are different issues at play that I don't think are being considered in your response. First, there are Millennials on both sides of the coin — there are plenty who ARE doing these jobs. Also, many of these labor intensive jobs have set hours that allow the worker to leave their work at the office/on the jobsite. When they go home or leave for the day, they don't have to continue doing their job after hours. For the "bourgeois" workers, this is not the case. There is an expectation that because of technology, they are on the clock at all times. There are few companies, as this article suggests, that don't expect this and have good work-life balance. The financial pressures are different. The social pressures are different. And the mental sanity issues are different. Each "class" of workers unfortunately has its own problems.
18
@GP
Plenty of self respecting millenials change oil and work blue collar jobs. Plenty of white collar millenials advocate for better worker protections for all people.
While it is true that not many people have the luxury of working remotely, I don't see that having anything to do with someone choosing blue collar work. Are you attempting to chastise millenials who are taking white collar work over poorly paid blue collar jobs? Do you change oil for a living when you could otherwise be working in an office?
13
I appreciate the author’s intent with this article. Yes, flexibility and outcome-based work environment, not anchored to a location or specific timeline, do indeed encourage more productivity and employee engagement.
It would have been nice to note that is not a new idea or management strategy; as IBM was doing this in the mid-ninety’s when Lou Gerstner took over.
1
While it may be that many jobs are becoming more flexible in terms of time and place, the highest paying jobs are likely to continue to be of the inflexible, demanding, on-site variety. What I see happening is a diverging of gender into the two categories of work, where straight coupled women opt for lower paying flexibility and straight coupled men, still expected to be the "earner" in the family, have little option but to continue to migrate into the higher paying, inflexible, soul-crushing professions. This is understandably a difficult topic. But the fact that expectations to be a primary earner are still greater for straight married men than for straight married women must be part of the conversation, because it factors in here. Differential expectations regarding who will earn the money result in varying degrees of freedom and choice around work life. When a straight couple decides to have children, the woman is typically asked whether she will continue with her career, stay at home, or maybe cut down on work. The father is asked no such questions. Until we get equality in those expectations around work/life balance, until women and men are BOTH expected to be equal in terms of financial support of the family, we will not see improvement in gender pay equity, women's career trajectories, or men's early death rates. Flexible work outside of an office is healthy. But it will be accessible only to a few, and that access will continue to be largely gendered.
8
This article ignores the many people working in jobs requiring coverage at specific hours - service jobs, healthcare, retail, etc. Not everyone is employed in the rarified digi-sphere.
168
@Laura True. But there are ways to still staff these areas 24/7 and have better work life balance. For example, in hospitals, nurses can work 12 hour shifts 3-4 days a week and fulfill their 40 hr/wk work schedule. Other specialties are moving towards a 10hr work schedule, allowing employees to work 4 days a week versus the traditional 5 days. Having that extra day off is a lifesaver sometimes.
9
@Laura These people also know when their work day will be over.
10
@Laura My thoughts exactly. Education (as in K-12) can't really accommodate this need. No teacher can do their job from home. -no you cant come at 10 am to sleep in a little more.... there are 25 students waiting for you... - We all wish for a better life/work balance. A 7-4 weekday work day (as in NO work during the weekend) would suffice. One can dream.
4
When times are good, we get to indulge ourselves in this fun fantasy, and read articles about how to break pasta equally in the NYT.
I live in a resort town FULL of remote workers from the Bay Area, and as of August, all of them are now being called back to HQ more and more. And more. Of course workers declare that they've changed the working dynamic toward this new view because it is in their interests and while talent is tight, we'll see this.
Just wait until the economy turns, jobs are pared, and this policy will crumble as companies want their workers on site, during business hours and also after hours. That is the true reality and coming to your "flexible" workplace very soon.
34
@Matt
THIS.
Forest. Trees. So many don't see them both.
I'm Gen X and I left a very rigid office environment for a flexible work environment; the flexibility came with a pay cut. It was the best decision I've made in my career thus far. I'm not stressed about office schedules and I actually have time to (gasp!) TALK to my kids when they come home from school. My spouse also works and that is an obvious advantage when moving into a lower paying job. (We did have to modify our expenditures to make this happen.) I'm fortunate because I could make this choice; not everyone is as blessed as me. I used to live to work. Now I work to live. I'm much happier this way.
139
@Anonymous my exact story too and I'd never go back to the old way. I'm HAPPY and fulfilled. Every day. Imagine that...
1
@Dutch Me too! Chose a slightly lower income for a bit more laid back employer. LCOL part of the country. Results are time with the family, opportunities to do community activities. Bicycle for fun and transportation.
1
@Joe @Dutch @Anonymous
Same here. Most importantly, yes, I'm very fortunate to be in a situation where this is possible.
It's something I think back on and shudder to imagine my life had I not come to the realization that the extra hours for family, friends, hobbies, exercise, etc. is so, so much more valuable and fulfilling than the additional money and ego corporate ladder climbing offered.
Some of those that are up in arms about this article, I think are missing that point - whereas it used to be a given that young white collar workers would give 3 decades of their life and soul to a corporation in a Faustian bargain for wealth, power, and prestige, there are many of us with an opportunity to, and therefore choose, to never realize our full earning potential, but to instead work a flexible job that can pay the bills, allow me to spend lots of time with the people I love, but won't leave us on our death bed with an 8-digit bank account, a gold watch, and dozens of regrets.
To those that consider that approach to life "lazy", well... I would recommend being a little introspective and asking yourself what it's all for, lest you find yourself in the throes of a mid-life/existential crisis at some point.
4
I know it's not the focus of this article but I think being entitled, and having a good work ethic and/or concept of work-life balance are not mutually exclusive.
Younger people can be entitled and still be hard workers. For instance they could feel entitled to senior-level compensation, scheduled promotions rather than merit-based, and the ability to pick and choose their tasks while still putting in 100% on a flexible schedule.
Self-care isn't a free pass on entitlement.
6
@Scott Do you supervise millennials who are actually asking for senior-level compensation?
2
@Joseph i have and it's hysterical.
in my industry (advertising and content production) 4 years of work experience now entitles a 27 year old to have a senior title, a six figure salary and a staff to delegate to.
when i was 27, we were basically all still assistants and our roles were clearly executional- our bosses, who took 3 hour expense account lunches lunches and were still allowed to smoke in their offices, reminded us of this fact every single day. and i made $20k a year.
1
@cascia So you point being? That younger generation needs to suffer what older generations have been through? Even when it's demonstrated that they (or just some of them) are fully capable of having a greater set of responsibilities and managing a staff at the age of 27? Good for them I say.
1
I'm 40 but have benefited tremendously from working in senior leadership roles fully virtually for the past ~15 years. In my experience, this works best when the organization is fully virtual- having some people required to be in a physical location and others "allowed" to be virtual creates all kinds of tensions and sends the message that some people are more trustworthy or higher performing than others, if working remotely is seen as a "reward." In an office-based organization, I truly can't see a business case for why ANYONE needs to work full-time in an office. Sure, maybe a company needs to maintain a physical space if in-person meetings with clients are helpful and need to be done in a more private setting than a coffee shop. But I really bristle at the argument from my current employer that central services like finance and tech can't be virtual- having worked for a much larger company that was fully virtual, including central staff, I can say with certainly it CAN be done- if the org can get out if its own way to make it happen.
There is certainly an equity problem in this conversation though, in that there are workers who are never going to get this kind of flexibility, and its no surprise those are people in service and production jobs that are low-wage. Those of us with the luxury of working in office based jobs should be on the front lines of pushing for policies like universal health and child care that improve work for everyone.
31
While not a complete millennial's dream, my group allows a lot of leverage in regard to working from home, working flexible hours, etc. We don't care about how long your seat is occupied, just whether you pull your weight.
Need I say it is the happiest, most energetic group I've ever worked with.
9
Working from home has been a life-changing experience for me, and it just makes sense. I live Brooklyn and run a national magazine for a company based in the UK. I can work with my associates in England in the morning right when I wake up, take a nice long break at noon when they go home for the day, and then be refreshed enough to deal with writers and publicists on the West Coast off and on for the rest of my day. I don't even mind answering emails at night, because my work is better integrated with my life. Best of all, I'm not another body on a crowded subway train making rush-hour commutes. Better for me, better for New York.
30
I worked "virtual office" for 15 years for a major telecommunications company (which, ironically, given the nature of its business, vacillated between promoting the arrangement or eliminating it, depending on how false and outdated the assumptions of the regime in charge in upper management were at any given point in time).
Best benefit: no commute!
Biggest drawback: you were expected to be available all the time, at all hours, for a company that operated in all domestic time zones and worldwide. Sometimes it was like being under house arrest.
9
Maybe. And maybe working for Uber is the path to financial independence and success.
6
One factor might be divorce? As a 31 y.o, myself and my friends usually had a half-brother, stepdad, or elements of broken home. Now it wasn't always a catastrophe or some endless cycle of abuse but it takes its own mental toll.
As with all things as all-encompassing as work, it is hard not to consider that inflexible and long hours on the job contributed to this sad movement in America.
It seems like young people are willing to trade additional income for personal freedoms.
13
The future for most office jobs won't be going in for meetings, etc. It will be far more efficient for workers to stay home and just get the work project done. Saves real estate costs for the biz and more productivity from employees who aren't waiting in traffic and are happier. Most would trade a lower salary to be able to work from home anyway. Therefore, more work/life balance and dress however you please.
42