What Flexibility Really Means

I recently read a comment to a very interesting posting by Penelope Trunk titled What Obama Means to the Workplace. Don't worry I will not get into politics or my opinion on the article. I am more interested in the comment posted by a baby boomer manager who appears to be unimpressed with Gen Ys attitude toward work. The comment more or less describes her Gen Y employees as selfish, immature people who still live with their parents, but make enough money to buy designer clothes, shoes and handbags. She further went on to complain about these workers leaving at five pm, while their older peers remained at the office.

To say the least, this comment infuriated me and prompted me to write this post about flexibility. Flexibility means I have enough time in the day to; complete my work, exercise, run errands, read, relax and catch my favorite television shows. If I leave for work at 7:30 in the morning and don't return until eight or nine in the evening, how can I possibly accomplish all of these things?

I can only imagine what baby boomer managers who happen to be reading this must be thinking. Probably something along the lines of, who does this kid think he is? Or everyone has to work late to complete some tasks. Yes, this is completely true, often times leaving work at five will not cut it. If you have a major deliverable due the next day or you are simply behind on your work the typical 8 hour work day is not enough.

My peers also recognize this fact and we will not hesitate to work until the job is done. We spent our 4 years in college cramming until all hours of the night for tests and spending countless days researching and writing papers. We know what hard work is, and we know that sometimes you have to sacrifice your social life, exercise and favorite TV shows for the greater good.

However, from my minimal work experience and countless conversations with peers I have discovered that often times us entry level workers don't actually have a lot to do during the day. How much sense does it make to stay in the office until five if we can finish everything by two? Forcing us to spend three extra hours in the office for a little face time instead of giving us the freedom to leave and run some errands or spend a little extra time at the gym will send my peers and me running for the exits at five pm every day. Eventually we will run to the next employer who doesn't concern themselves with unproductive face time.

The only reason this system actually does make sense to many older employees is because it is how the system has always worked. You put in your 8+ hour day, every day. In case nobody noticed, this is the same system that was implemented 150 years ago during the industrial revolution when employees cranked out widgets on an assembly line!

My suggestion is to do away with this notion of a minimum amount of time worked in a day or week. Face time does not equal productivity. Hard work does equal productivity. Focus on the quality of the work being produced rather than the time of day someone leaves the office and you will have happy and productive Gen Y workers. In case you haven't heard, our generation is one of the most self driven, entrepreneurially spirited generations in recent history. Allow us to have this flexibility of getting the job done, regardless of how much or how little time it takes and we will return the favor with an excellent product.

Obviously other factors such as allowing us to occasionally telecommute and providing adequate vacation time will contribute to this flexibility that we demand. These topics will surely be covered in the near future on this site. However, doing away with this idiotic concept that everyone must work a minimum number of hours to do a good job is an easy way to give us the flexibility that we crave while simultaneously improving worker productivity.