Generation Y and Work Life Balance

Is this whole work-life balance thing a problem for everyone but Generation Y? 

Granted, Gen Yers are younger and may not be juggling family and career at this point.  But after reading an article that talked about how Gen Y’ers are generally so comfortable with technology they don’t view free time the same as other generations, I had to wonder how this might change our general workforce going forward.

Emma Reynolds, for example, is the cofounder of a group called Ask Gen Y.  She says:

“When I’m working, I am on e-mail all the time, which I use for personal e-mail as well,” and “… while working, I log onto Facebook and communicate that way. There is a complete blur for me between work and play.”

While I think there is some truth to this, I also think it doesn’t always play well in a corporate setting.  As a Gen Xer, I saw too many of the younger generation take the attitude that they had completed a day’s work so they could do personal stuff because they “were done,” when in reality there was plenty more work to do.  They just didn’t ask.  So guess who got to do the leftover stuff?  Everyone but Gen Yers.

The Gen Yers may argue that they value free time more than the rest of us, and therefore don’t see the benefit of busting their humps.  Again, I can see this argument in theory, but not in reality.  In the real world, when someone else slacks off (even if they have a certain amount “done” and feel their day is over) there is usually still more that should have been done. 

At least in the places I’ve worked, there wasn’t much of an expectation for the Gen Yers because they didn’t seem that motiviated.  This was a perception based on the attitude that if they completed the first thing handed to them, they were “done.”  They never came back and said, “I finished this, what else can I do?”  Instead they texted pals or went on Facebook.

This is one person’s perspective, of course, but I know through talking with friends that I’m not alone in the experience that work that gets leftover then gets completed by a GenXer or Baby Boomer.  So what will happen when the older ones retire?  What kind of workforce will we have then?  More than that, what is your experience?  Do you think Gen Yers have the same motivation the older workforce does?