Jena McGregor posted a question on the Management IQ blog for Business Week.com today asking for suggestions on the topic of time management and requesting “secrets you’ve learned trying to keep Monday morning away from Sunday night”.
To begin with, I cannot personally give advice on this topic. I am one of those Boomers who works really hard, and as much as I try to “relax” on Sunday, I am always busy doing something.
However, her question has had me really think about how Generation Y would respond to this question. You see, I believe that Gen Y holds the key to this ever pressing question. In the interviews we have conducted over the last 18 months, we are learning that Gen Y is dedicated to living first and working second (hence the book Live First, Work Second by Rebecca Ryan), getting paid according to the task/not time and taking off to kick back daily. I believe that the traditional M-F work week is changing, and that Gen Y will help to redefine the amount of time we dedicate to work, and our work week may look very different as we move through the next 3-5 years. It is already changing, and employers are responding by allowing much more flexibility in the way work is done.
So…for Baby Boomers…if you are reading this, the best tip I can give you on how to start cracking this “take time off” code is to spend the week with a Generation Y adult (this means someone who is under the age of 30) and pick up some of their “kick back” and “take time off” strategies.
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As a Gen Y person, it’s difficult to understand why the boomers have such a hard time ‘relaxing’ on the weekends (or leaving work on time on weekdays, for that matter). I think part of it might be technology in some cases — Y is really good at leveraging software to make tasks easier, simply because we’ve been doing it all our lives. Another part of it might be that we’re less detail-oriented (not necessarily a bad thing) and more ‘big picture’, so we don’t sweat the small stuff.
Interesting post!
Matt
yworking.com