The “Millennials” Are Coming, Morley Safer On The New Generation Of American Workers – CBS News

I love this article, its is absolutely hilarious. Essentially, due to the way my generation is grown up (they list people from 1980-1995 birth years, so 28 or younger), we are all lazy, me first people. The blame is in part put on Mr. Rogers and telling everyone their special. Because of this me first attitude, my generation no longer values loyalty to the company, or working through the hardships.

Yet, is this really the reason?

Decades ago, the worker was the most important thing to a company. Companies would run for many years with losses, or essentially cared about the employee but nowadays, layoffs are one of the first things to try to bring back profitibility. Frankly, if the company no longer had loyalty to the workers, this result should be expected. The most interesting thing about all this is that we are in fact not lazy, just different. There is an understanding of efficiency. If a worker was going to work really 6 hours in a day and goof off for 2 more, why force them to sit at their desk for all 8? If a worker can works better at night in front of the tv, why force them to come in at 9 in the morning? If a worker is more comfortable in tshirts and jeans, why force a tie? All of these things were originally put in place to make a more productive worker, but quite frankly they didn’t work. This realization means that we now have companies which are trying to bring out productivity. Now, some of these things won’t work (i dont’ believe masseuses really work), but some are very legitimate and work great. As long as someone is getting their work done, their time should be theirs.

So here is the hard part to it all. In order to get the right amount of work out of a person, you need to have good managers. The manager has to bring out the most productivity in people while still keeping the workplace happy. This is a hard balance that most managers are unable to do. This is exactly why you have mandatory work weeks, and internet filters. I think my generation is as driven as any other has been (see Zuckerberg). Quite frankly, if we weren’t hard working, we would just be fired (and we pretty much would expect to be fired due to lack of loyalty from company – see above) This is just the new dynamic of the world. Scaremongering isn’t going to change that.