Gen Y and Work/Life Balance

Posted on November 8, 2005

Generation Y has a different outlook on life and apparently different expectations in the office as well according to a new USA Today article.

Conflict can also flare up over management style. Unlike previous generations who've in large part grown accustomed to the annual review, Gen Yers have grown up getting constant feedback and recognition from teachers, parents and coaches and can resent it or feel lost if communication from bosses isn't more regular.
"The millennium generation has been brought up in the most child-centered generation ever. They've been programmed and nurtured," says Cathy O'Neill, senior vice president at career management firm Lee Hecht Harrison in Woodcliff Lake, N.J. "Their expectations are different. The millennial expects to be told how they're doing."
Matt Berkley, 24, a writer at St. Louis Small Business Monthly, says many of his generation have traveled and had enriching experiences, so they may clash with older generations they see as competition or not as skilled. "We're surprised we have to work for our money. We want the corner office right away," Berkley says. "It seems like our parents just groomed us. Anything is possible. We had karate class, soccer practice, everything. But they deprived us of social skills. They don't treat older employees as well as they should."

The article also says today's work environment sometimes sees 20-somethings working next to 60-somethings. You might remember this theme was raised in the movie In Good Company. Some of the things Gen Y is supposed to want are similar to the employees appreciation for concierge services so some of the employee wants being associated with Gen Y may be more of an overall change in workers' needs than just a Gen Y issue. Some of these issues were addressed in a recent study conducted for Spherion that shows increasing gaps between critical workplace issues.

60% of workers rate time and flexibility as a very important factor in retention, but only 35% of employers feel the same.
Only 49% of employers rate financial compensation as a very important driver of retention, but 69% of workers believe it is.
On average, employers only expect 14% of their workforce to leave in the next year, but Spherion data shows that nearly 40% of U.S. workers intend to find a new job in the next 12 months.
Less than half (44%) of U.S. workers believe their companies are taking steps to retain them and nearly a third (31%) believe there is a turnover problem at their company already.
Only 34% of HR managers mention turnover/retention as a key HR concern.

The biggest gap between employees and employers is that employees want the company to help them better manage their lives yet employees are either not recognizing this need or not doing anything about it. This is not just a Gen Y demand but an overall change in the workplace and the introduction of new technologies like telecommuting. The Spherion study refers to these issues as work/life balance issues.

One of the biggest disconnects between employers and employees is the importance workers place on their ability to maintain a balance between their professional and private lives. In its previous Study, conducted in 2003, Spherion found that 86% of U.S. workers agreed that work/life balance and fulfillment was a top career priority and 96% agreed that an employer was more attractive when it helped them meet family obligations through options like flextime, telecommuting or job sharing. However, it appears that U.S. employers have not significantly responded to that need.
According to the 2005 Study, one-third of workers between the ages of 25 and 39 feel burned out by their job and 28% of all workers say their employers expect them to stay connected to the office outside normal office hours. At the same time, only 24% of employers offer a formal flex-time program, only 12% offer telecommuting and 11% offer job sharing.