Yay! I finally pulled my head out of you-know-where and discovered that other people are coming to the same conclusion that I have: the modern workplace has to change.
I read this article today while perusing my veritable treasure trove of feeds from various blogs that I love. It talks about the expectations that Generation Y has for our workplace (I relate to both Gen Y and Gen X, as do many people in my age group…but I digress), and I think it’s a great read.
I’ve been saying for a long time that the modern work culture has to change…or more specifically that the employer/employee relationship has to change. Recently, while talking to a friend of mine, I had the idea as to the reason why today’s managers and business owners have a difficult time with concepts that involve what they view as “special privileges” for employees. Essentially, I believe that managers and business owners stuck in what I’m calling Old Work Ethic, or “crappy workplace” for short, are hesitant to hand this stuff out because they had to work so hard to get where they are at and “earn” them for themselves. Of course I can take a two hour lunch…I’m the manager. I’ve earned it.
Ideas like ROWE are threatening to people like this because it suggests that flexible schedules and alternative working environments are to be handed out to the masses of employees simply because they want them, not because they’ve slaved for years and years in cubicle hell working for the man.
The problem is, and you should be listening up, managers and business owners, that the job market is an essential part of our economy, and our economy in these here United States and other progressive nations around the world is based on capitalism. And capitalism, my Friends, thrives on competition. If you aren’t providing the working environment that today’s all-stars want, they will go to someone who is. So regardless of how many years you’ve worked to earn the privilege of working from home or golfing one afternoon, if you aren’t willing to give that to your newest hotshot employee, you’ll have to be comfortable with hiring only mediocre to good people.
This leads me to my workplace theory…but I’ll save that for another edition of “dangross hates real jobs.”