We’ve been talking a lot about untraditional career paths here over the last few weeks.  After all, with the changing economy, people are looking for ways to keep their heads afloat while spending quality time with their families.  My life has changed over the last few years for that very reason.   

Some folks, like Cathy Benko, feel that the “corporate ladder” is really a thing of the past.  Rather than a trying to get ahead by climbing “up,” people are looking at success differently.  She says, rather than looking at a career ladder as linear, it is now becoming just the opposite.

“Examples of nonlinear careers are everywhere: women who step out of the work force and then step back in a few years later, Generation X-ers and Y-ers who show less loyalty to a single company, executive men who have climbed the ladder for decades and now insist on carving out more family time as they continue to work.”

I can see her point.  My career is anything but traditional these days.  More than that, it changes constantly.  Work, as we once viewed it, has also changed. More companies are allowing their employees to telecommute, many offer flex time, and other people have chosen to drop out of the “corporate world” altogether in favor of entrepreneurial pursuits.

Do you agree with this assessment?  And if so, how has your career path changed over the last few years?

Post from: Blisstree

End of the Corporate Ladder?

The article mentioned three different types of groups when it comes to Gen Yers.  One group has a “clear separation between work and their lives outside of work,” which meant they worked the hours they were scheduled and that’s it.  They left it and went home to their life.

The third group were “willing workaholics” which meant they worked longer hours but resented it.  (Probably something closer to what the rest of us do.)

It was the second group I found most interesting.  They didn’t really work long hours but felt stressed out about the tougher times at their job.  This group was more likely to bring their home mentally but not physically.  To me, this group of people are the least well adjusted to change.  After all, either you embrace it or look for a way out of it.  But if you sit and whine about it?  It won’t get you anywhere.

Thankfully, I don’t know of any of these types of folks.  I can’t imagine working with them.  Can you?

Post from: Blisstree

Gen Y Gets a Reality Check in the Changing Ecomony

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?

Post from: Blisstree

Generation Y and Work Life Balance