Comments on: Stop wasting time! Or don’t.

By: Jacob Johansen

Jacob Johansen — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 01:16:09 +0000

Young people are wasting more time at work because, quite simply, they can.

Gen X/Y began technology adoption in their teens, and didn’t have to wait to get into the job market to learn any technical skills. The younger demographic is quick, prolific, and productive.

Often a talented young person can do in 2 hours what may take a “committed” (code for older) employee an entire day or longer to do.

Let’s face it, are children are getting smarter in how they procure resources and get things done.

Yet, society is still holding-on to this 8-hour work standard. I beg to question do we really need 8 hours anymore?

By: James Hudson

James Hudson — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 22:41:05 +0000

I would somewhat have to agree with Peter. I agree many managers now are on call 24 hours a day, and many work through lunch (I being one of those), I would have to say there is a new distraction at work that those workers in the 70′s did not have to contend with, the internet. I personally have had to have several discussions with employees, who use the internet for personal reasons while they are on the clock.

By: BlogOxide

BlogOxide — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 12:07:16 +0000

Good points to ponder on! I think i work on both numerator and denominator, but still some of the time gets wasted …. is there any possibility of third factor?

By: Glenn Mandelkern

Glenn Mandelkern — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 04:47:17 +0000

I have found the “Getting Things Done” framework created by David Allen to be an excellent tool for increasing productivity for people of any age.

By: Lavinia Weissman

Lavinia Weissman — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 04:58:10 +0000

I find this discussion on time fascinating, because based on the research I am currently doing, I have to ask are we wasting time or is it a question of how do we use time.

I have just begun the research to author a new series of future scenarios on work. There are many questions to ask ourselves in the US by way of examining what is happening globally right now, that are about exercising intelligence as opposed to working just in time.

For example,

In the US post 9/11 we became very upset about outsourcing to India and other countries for what was perceived as accessing lower rate markets of employment.

Currently we are looking for talent from the US in foreign countries because of the decline in the number of college graduates with the skills we need to recruit for. In addition, when a geographical area loses jobs, e.g. Michigan due to the decline in the US Auto Industry or Massachusetts losing 5 major corporations over 5 years…..we end up retraining people for a lower wage job opportunity.

US is fixated on time,

While in other countries people work fewer hours, are healthier, have access to professional development and education that is affordable and take a month of vacation a year.

Are we wasting time or is a question of how we are spending time and for what? and what is the infrastructure by which we help young adults develop parameters on how to manage their time coming into the workforce for ongoing learning and productivity?

By: peter cappelli

peter cappelli — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 12:34:36 +0000

Over the past generation, the hours of work in corporate jobs and the pace of work have risen enormously. So I’m always suspicious of complaints that people aren’t working hard enough – hard enough compared to what is the question.

I’m particularly suspicious of claims that young people aren’t working hard enough. It certainly is true that young, new hires are not as committed to their jobs than are their senior managers. The reasons for this is… wait for it… they’re young! They don’t have the obligations, the families dependent on them, and the long-term investments in their careers that the senior managers have. Here’s the other obvious point: Those senior managers were just as party-going, fun-oriented, and uncommitted when they were young, new hires, although they tend to forget that. In fact, new hire managers a generation ago worked much less hard than new hires do now. (The three-martini lunch really was a reality.)

So some perspective on these comparisons is probably in order

By: peter cappelli

peter cappelli — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 12:09:28 +0000

Personally, I think people are working much, much harder now than in the past – hours of work among full-time employees are way up, and the demands on white-collar workers have also sky-rocketed. It’s hard to believe, but executives really did have three-martini lunches in the 1970s whereas now a quite remarkable number of managers take no time off for lunch whatsoever, continue to work from home, and are on call 24 hours a day.

What I notice is that more senior managers in these companies seem upset that new hires aren’t as committed to their jobs as the senior managers are. There’s nothing new about that – younger workers and new hires have never been as committed. The reason is… wait for it… they’re young! They don’t have families who depend on them, they don’t have all the responsibilities their elders have, and they have yet to do all the traveling/partying, etc. that their elders did when they were younger. They are acting exactly like the senior managers acted when they were young.