Why Boomers Don't Comprehend Work-Life Balance
This evening's #HRHappyHour was on the subject of work-life balance. When the discussion turned to generational differences, there was a palpable cringing from several of the Gen X and Gen Y participants. The post-Baby Boom generations are absolutely sick and tired of being grouped, labeled and stereotyped. They want to be accepted as individuals with various preferences unrelated to their age, generation or the times in which they have come of working age.
Fair enough. I can respect their frustration. Being prejudged based on a classification is never fair and often leads to incorrect assumptions.
So in this post I will stick to commenting about my own peers, the Baby Boomers and our relationship to work. (Aren't you allowed to stereotype your own group?)
Why is that many Baby Boomers have a hard time grasping the concept of work-life balance? The answer is very simple: Guilt.
For most workers my age and older, there has always been a clear designation between work and non-work. During work hours, you better be working. Lunch break and coffee break were available for personal errands. Unless you had a funeral to attend, taking off work time to attend to family matters (or heaven forbid fun/hobbies) was a signal that an employee was lazy, not dedicated to the company, a lousy worker, a poor planner, or a combination thereof. No self respecting employee would even think about taking time off for personal matters.
We have always felt that it was our responsibility to make arrangements so that life did not impede on work. Personal life and family life is something that happens after hours.
Work-life balance? It's like an oxymoron to us. Our idea of work-life balance is chit-chatting with co-workers about our families and having birthday cakes and baby showers in the office conference room.
Truly this is one paradigm that is difficult for us to shift. We hold fast to these views. We still feel guilty if we are not working during work hours.
On the brighter side, most of us our doing a better job of understanding and accepting that employees can accomplish a full week of valuable work while mixing and matching work hours with life hours. I see this in my own company every single day.
Companies have made tremendous strides in work-life balance. We're seeing flexible schedules and virtual workplaces like never before. We old timers are coming around. And if we don't, no worries. We'll be out of the workforce before you know it. You'll soon be able to mix-up your work and your life as much as you please without our baby boomer guilt looking down on you. Just make sure you keep getting your work accomplished or we'll be saying "I told you so" from our wheelchairs.....errrr.... from our lovely retirement communities where we are relaxing without any work to feel guilty about.
Fair enough. I can respect their frustration. Being prejudged based on a classification is never fair and often leads to incorrect assumptions.
So in this post I will stick to commenting about my own peers, the Baby Boomers and our relationship to work. (Aren't you allowed to stereotype your own group?)
Why is that many Baby Boomers have a hard time grasping the concept of work-life balance? The answer is very simple: Guilt.
For most workers my age and older, there has always been a clear designation between work and non-work. During work hours, you better be working. Lunch break and coffee break were available for personal errands. Unless you had a funeral to attend, taking off work time to attend to family matters (or heaven forbid fun/hobbies) was a signal that an employee was lazy, not dedicated to the company, a lousy worker, a poor planner, or a combination thereof. No self respecting employee would even think about taking time off for personal matters.
We have always felt that it was our responsibility to make arrangements so that life did not impede on work. Personal life and family life is something that happens after hours.
Work-life balance? It's like an oxymoron to us. Our idea of work-life balance is chit-chatting with co-workers about our families and having birthday cakes and baby showers in the office conference room.
Truly this is one paradigm that is difficult for us to shift. We hold fast to these views. We still feel guilty if we are not working during work hours.
On the brighter side, most of us our doing a better job of understanding and accepting that employees can accomplish a full week of valuable work while mixing and matching work hours with life hours. I see this in my own company every single day.
Companies have made tremendous strides in work-life balance. We're seeing flexible schedules and virtual workplaces like never before. We old timers are coming around. And if we don't, no worries. We'll be out of the workforce before you know it. You'll soon be able to mix-up your work and your life as much as you please without our baby boomer guilt looking down on you. Just make sure you keep getting your work accomplished or we'll be saying "I told you so" from our wheelchairs.....errrr.... from our lovely retirement communities where we are relaxing without any work to feel guilty about.
posted by Beth N. Carvin at 6:25 PM
3 comments
