Several recent studies of Generation X workers, and to some extent those following, in Generation Y, show how the workplace is likely to change over the coming decades. These generations are now increasingly likely to be found in managerial and leadership roles in corporations, so they will wield increasingly more significant influence as the Baby Boom generation moves towards retirement.
Generation X workers demand more flexible work hours, less meetings though more collaboration, and seek broader extra-curricular activities to foster team work and reward performance. They seek more interesting and meaningful work rather than job security. This group desires more movement within a corporation to seek broader experiences, and they wish for more frequent (but smaller) rewards and feedback from superiors and peers, and clearer objectives.
These differences in motivations, social habits and objectives from the prior Baby Boom generation will affect considerable structural change in the workplace. As a result, some key trends are likely to gain traction as Generation X (and Generation Y) workers become the majority in the workplace. This may include the advent of more flexible workspace; broader, non-monetary incentive systems; rewards to teams rather than individuals; greater focus on ad-hoc teamwork, and more flexible and broader training. The ComputerWorld report below highlights this in more detail.
(Generation X commonly includes people born in the 1960s and the ’70s up through the early ’80s; Generation Y (or the millenial generation ) usually covers people born between the mid-1980s and 2000.)
Kristine Harper thinks she and her millennial colleagues will run things better when they’re in charge.
“Our generation will be a little bit more fun, encouraging, flexible, positive. There’ll be fewer meetings, more networking, more teams,” says Harper, who works in research and development at Neon Enterprise Software in Sugar Land, Texas, and is project manager of zNextGen, an offshoot of the IBM user group Share for young professionals..
Flextime will be ubiquitous, and managers will support employees in their efforts to balance work with other interests. Good jobs will be those that always challenge. A day’s work will be measured by results, not hours at the desk.
Make no mistake: The workplace that this 27-year-old software developer envisions a decade out won’t look like the typical office of the 20th century. “If I were a manager in the future, I would focus on increasing motivation and community in the workplace,” she says. “I would try to emphasise the importance of employee get-togethers outside of [work] to promote a stronger sense of community and friendship. I think when you feel strongly about the workplace and the people involved, there is a sense of motivation that comes with it.”
Generation X’ers and millennials — those from Generation Y — are now becoming managers, and they will take on more of the top positions in the coming decades. As they do, they will bring their own philosophies about how the workplace should operate. Expect a more open and flexible work experience where people’s careers don’t necessarily just advance up the corporate ladder, but rather move laterally and possibly down as well, depending on changing personal and professional ambitions and needs.
“We want to be successful in our jobs, but just in a different way. It doesn’t mean being in our office every day nine to five, it means getting your job done, whatever your job is,” says Harper.