A general comment: Why do "we" (specifically many HBR bloggers) look to Gen Y as the source of how businesses should change? At least a freshly minted MBA with few years experience has studied business with modest focus. Reflexively looking to the newest entrants into the market isn't per se the source of panacea.

Specifically, why do we wait till we are assembled to share info: History for one, prior to recently there were not efficient methods of sharing info with large audiences within an organization; efficacy is another, just because you post something on a wiki doesn't make it meaningful to all, there might be critical context missing from a wiki (such as relevant background info someone who has been with the company a year might lack); context, body language is still THE critical communication factor, smiley faces don't accurately convey this; habit is a lesser valid reason, but provides a reason why.

Just because a Gen Y'er wants to change the company, doesn't mean the other 98% of employees will work effectively or efficiently in the same model.

This is a very good one. I think globally we are ready to embrace this.

Very good point. I have had the opportunity to adapt my schedule in my last job. I would work from home sometime or from other places and could work on week ends instead of a week day if necessary. I was a lot more productive. Still, if everyone at the office had taken the opportunity to do this it could have been a mess... The goal and ways of interaction at the office need to be redefined to make it work.

This is an interesting concept...

On one hand, I think there is something to be said for everyone having the same "off" days. Unless our "blended, not balanced" work/life is moving to a 7-day work-week, having designated days off is valuable to help with boundaries. ("It's Saturday, maybe we don't expect Bill to have his Blackberry at his hip today.")

On the other hand, if a circumstance requires someone to have personal time on a Monday, but prefers to work on a Saturday, it is beneficial to have that flexibility.

Of course, there are pros and cons, and in concept, it would be great if companies had more faith in their non-synchronous employees and would allow everyone to set their own schedules. However, if this idea were widely adopted, I wonder how many people would ultimately realize that they wind up spending MORE hours working and have LESS time to relax without worrying about the Blackberry or the cell phone.

Miriam Salpeter
Keppie Careers
www.keppiecareers.wordpress.com

This might not be directly relevant to this post... But....

Every month our CEO has a meeting with about 20 associates out of the 6000 total associates in the local region. For the last year every month most if not all of the attendees ask about a telework program. Last week my manager told me that its unlikely to happen any time soon and that although associates keep asking about telework opportunities, they only state the benefit that it provides for the associate, not the company. Now I totally believe that there are benefits, but I read many blogs and articles that state that telework provides X or Y benefit but I rarely come across hard data. Please someone point me to the studies and the hard data that all of this conjecture springs out of. I would really like to put the data in front of the CEO, so that he can no longer rely on the fact that most associates will not put forth the effort to find the ROI in a telework or even a flex schedule could bring about.

What about the psychological contract between the employer and their staff? I can't help but think that a lot of the intangible benefits of working as part of an organisation would be lost if we didn't have contact with each other - so even in jobs where it does make sense to arrange working patterns by tasks rather than time productivity and effectiveness could suffer.

I have just quit a job where I worked for a company in Santa Clara when I live in Ottawa, Canada. The reason that I quit was because I found working remote at my level was not desirable.

Working is part of our social life. You are supposed to have fun at work, you are supposed to care for your co-workers, there should be a team camaraderie. None of this exists when you are not collocated with your team. Work turns in to a daily grind, where you misread the intent of emails, and you feel disconnected from your coworkers.

I have two Gen-Y sons. I am very concerned about their complete lack of social skills. They have grown up on MSN, and are very comfortable with Facebook. Nonetheless, put them in a room with other people, and they do not know what to do.

People need to interact with other people face to face. It is part of being human. Machines can interact over the Internet, people need more than that.

Gen Y knows everything. They are 20-somethings who have no world experience other than what comes through their computer screens and they are telling the rest of us how to run companies? They can't balance a checkbook or do math in their heads or know any fact that they can't Google... when did we need to go to the Gen Y mountaintop to seek wisdom?

Don't get me wrong, all this Web 2.0+ stuff is important. We squeeze every bit of it for our brands, but let's remember that the capital to fund the Gen Y needs and wants was made by the Baby Boomers and Gen X folks... Gen Y gets to make any decision they can afford.. and so far, they are still in debt to the generations that came before them.

The Golden Rule of Business: My Gold, My Rules. Don't give up too easily to Gen Y before they start paying for some of this stuff.

One of the biggest surprises to me about the first dot-com boom was the fact that startups began to take over such big chunks of office space as they grew - and then, of course that they vacated it all when the glory days were over.

These companies were building out the internet -- remote computers, all over the world, with vast numbers of servers and routers to carry the load, that had to live somewhere, I suppose. But why did the thinkers and the writers and the coders need office space?

Even in the Paleolithic period (1998) a project team on a direct mail package could email ideas around in pretty close to real time -- or not -- and in four hours, max, ten people in three time zones could be pretty sure that Sally hates blue. What will amaze Gen Y even more is that three of those ten were over sixty years old at the time.

So I guess the answer is that office space and work schedules exist to massage someone's ego -- so they can say, Look at my great office and all these people who work for me!

So, Daryl, while you're looking for evidence to give your CEO about why telework is good for the company, you might want to find reasons why the arrangement would be good for your CEO personally. Does telework make him look progressive and cutting-edge? Does saving energy in changing employees driving habits have a financial or a public-relations benefit to him or the company?

I'm sure you see where I'm going with this - hope it helps.

Mary Baum

An interesting and thought provoking article.
My only worry is that the lack of social interaction leads individuals to become either isolated or out of touch with the organisational culture in which they work. Unless you can physically "touch" the organisation in which you work can you feel like your part of the organisational culture? or will you remain an outsider to your cubicle counterparts?
The concept reminds me of the old Dilbert cartoon of him working from home sitting (at best) in his underwear.

As a home worker (thankfully wearing jeans & T while I write this) for a large part of my present work, I can really relate to the positive aspects of the concept and do at times embrace the opportunities of living my life when I want to and doing the work when I want too as well. Work-life balance is a tricky one to get right sometimes if you don't have a regular 9-5 (type) job.
Luckily my current employers are already enlightened enough to encourage increasing interaction by telephone conference calls and web based meetings which sometimes is the only time I interact with the rest of my dispersed country-wide team. Interestingly to illustrate, after working with these people for a year I finally met some of them face to face for the first time last week.

So, how does all this feel? Well, it's totally liberating at times (I still do have client face to face meetings to attend regularly, so I am not a complete hermit!) other times it can be a disconnected and disconcerting way to carry out your professional life.

But I would not give it up for the world and could not go back to the numbing and non-productive morning and evening commute. Not unless you gave me that spacious corner office on the top floor with the panoramic views and pot plants....... ;-)

The number on reason why this occurs is money. The FED is only open certain hours of the day & during certain days of the week and controls the transfer of money.

Since many believe the purpose of business is to make money, one is limited to doing business when currency transactions can take place. Let's think, even when you deposit money in a bank account using a teller, an ATM or a transfer of money using online banking, the transaction only occurs when the ACH gets processed. That is why there are limitations on the time the transaction can be completed before it is the same day (ie 2 pm at a teller).

The business model will only change when businesses can exchange money when needed not as dictated by the FED. Once money starts truly moving at 24/7, businesses will be able to take advantage.

Tammy,
Great entry and excellent points indeed. I wrote a piece a while back on my own blog about dated concept [in my opinion] of the "work-life balance" and the more appropriate [again, in my opinion] notion of a "life continuum". The piece is located here:

http://ninasimosko.com/blog/2008/03/26/

and addresses a management style of "managing the outcomes" vs. "managing the process". Maintaining a focus on outcomes allows leaders to responsibly manage their many competing priorities that form part of life’s continuum.

I welcome your thoughts on this piece.

Well, this is a thought provoking article I must say. Does provoke those Gen Ys out there. The culture of organisations have made every persons to be at work and be there.
I would agree to much extent that going through clogged streets and commuters, trains, buses,...name it. That is the rat-race.

Now lets put it in a hoteliers view. A hotel is a synchronous organisation. We invest in time for completion of tasks. How would you actually feel that without managers in a hotel, what would guest think? How would discrepancies be solved? Discrepancies of guests? Webcam? Web 2.0?

Hi Everyone --

Thanks very much for the thoughtful comments. I have a couple quick additions to the discussion -- and encourage others to chime in.

First, I encourage us to distinguish between having NO office time and having the ability, as an adult, to choose the time we want to spend in the office. I'm suggesting the latter. I totally agree that there will be days when each of us will probably want to be in the office -- some of us more often than others, and probably all of us from time to time. I agree that some level of relationship development and social connection is key. I also suspect that there are some people for whom that is such an important part of the day that they'd want to be there every day during "peak" hours, so as to come in contact with as many others as possible.

But, not everyone feels that way.

I'm challenging us to ponder whether we need corporations to oversee these sorts of decisions. Or, increasingly, might we leave these sorts of decisions to adult individuals based on the demands of the tasks they're responsible for and their own personal preferences?

Second, as I said in the article, there absolutely are some jobs for which this idea will not work -- there are jobs that require synchronous activity -- either among coworkers (e.g., as in the assembly line example) or among workers and customers (as one of you rightly pointed out, in the hotel industry). So, it can't work everywhere.

How might it work if we decouple these assumptions?

Warmly,

Tammy

i agree with the thought and personally practice it in the companies owned by me. all of us plan our calendars online on google to scynchronise our common time, schedule events/decisions involving multiple people. it saves us from the drudgery of the monday morning communte, the long friday afternoon and sometimes the unproductive saturday morning.

there is a caveat though- why it works for us is that we are a small team of 10 people with at least 10-15 years of work experience per person . and all of us value our leisure time as much as business time and dont mind working on a sunday if work demands it.

in a sense we work around tasks rather like chronology

good idea! i find that i am most productive when i work from home (i have a home office in a separate room w/ closed door). and sometimes, i feel like working on a sat or sunday afternoon but may feel exhausted or "blah" on a wed afternoon or thurs morning and wish i could take that as a weekend day! while this will not work for all places, this is something HR should allow or introduce in many offices - designate one or two days for meetings (maybe a monday and thursday) where people must show up in the office..and the other days are productivity days...meaning ppl can work from home or choose 2 of those days as their weekend, etc....

Once again I am disgusted, although not surprised, by the attitudes expressed by those such as Chris (July 2, 11:18) and Gerard McLean (July 7, 3:52PM).

If you want to know why HR bloggers and academics are looking to Gen Y to provide some alternative ways of working it is pretty simple. One classic way of encouraging innovation is to get advice from those who sit outside the dominant paradigm. It is exactly Gen y's inexperience that allows them to view the workplace with fresh eyes, unencumbered by the dominant culture, or 20 years of 'this is how we do it'.

The other reason of course, is the GenY are the first generation to be bigger than the baby boomers, which coupled with the current skills shortages puts GenY employees in a far stronger position than their predecesssors have ever experienced.

I believe the flavour of the day in management circles is not to force people to work in GenY ways, but to provide opportunity for those who look for more flexible, output focussed methods of working, to improve their productivity through working smarter, not harder. It's time Baby boomers and Gen X stopped lamenting that 'it's not fair', and started realising that they NEED the Gen Y workforce. Life isn't fair; get over it.

Tammy,
I agree that sometimes employees and corporations waste time by holding superfluous meetings but I believe your ‘analysis’ is a bit over simplistic. While social networks and other virtual forms of communication can make it easier to get in touch, it is often less than ideal to hold complex discussions, examine graphs and figures, or make important decisions via the Web (or phone). When you use these virtual forms of communication you are focused solely on getting something done, on finishing a task. However, I find the occasional small talk and the personal face-to-face interaction among employees and between employees and managers very critical. Opinions or reactions can easily be masked when communicating via the Web or the phone and you certainly can’t map out an idea that just popped into your head on the whiteboard and quickly explain it to others before it leaves your head if you aren’t at the office together. I think perhaps your comments are more accurate in regards to a very large corporation, but I believe what makes mid and small sized companies stand out in comparison to large organizations is the collaborative environment that they provide.

Also one thing that brings all working people together, and on a more micro level brings families, or husbands and wives together, is anticipation of the weekend and the opportunity to spend it together.

Of course it is nice that we can communicate more easily when someone is out of the office, but I think moving away from synchronous schedules may be a bit extreme. An interesting concept nonetheless.

Juhi
Brilliont

My work is just like the movie office space. i'm beginning to hate it. I'm asked to work weekends when at work on a weekday i do nothing all day. why can't i take off tuesday if i've got nothing to do. why can't i be "on call" during the week if they really just need me for the weekend. Corporations or largely in-effic

This idea is a great one if we forget that we're already turning into a society where business people, stay-at-home Moms and even kids are stressed out of their brains and killing ourselves at earlier and earlier ages from heart-attacks, obesity, diabetes, etc. because of the workaholic demands of senior executives and society generally.

24/7 does not promote work-life harmonization.

Our Creator may have known about what he was talking when He wrote: "Six days shalt thou work!" in His famous King James English.

Gary