Comments on: 1 in 5 young employees want this more than money

By: Michele

Michele — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:21:07 +0000

Have people forgot that employers are paying for a service. This means that the employee should be offering good customer service. When did the roles get reversed? If I am paying someone for a haircut, I expect that my hair will get cut. If I am paying someone to produce 20 widgets an hour, I expect to get 20 widgets an hour. Employees are providing a service to the employer and it is about time they remember that.

By: Denise OBerry

Denise OBerry — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 13:51:41 +0000

Whether you provide these young people access to technology in the work environment or not, they are going to visit and participate in social networking. It’s part of their culture and will end up being a part of the business culture. If they can’t access the services on your business network, they’ll use their mobile phone where they already have the capability. It’s time to stop counting minutes when it comes to productivity and begin measuring people on their outputs. Our mindset about how work gets done must shift if we are to survive over the next few decades.

By: HB

HB — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:08:59 +0000

Oh you gloomy grammarians in golden gowns, the times they are a changing.

By: B. W.

B. W. — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:38:45 +0000

I find it interesting – in my experience, the people that want the company to relax the IT policies are NOT the people working in the IT department. Those employees that are actually responsible for the network — regardless of age — are well aware of the risks involved in accessing these sites and don’t want anyone doing something that might cause a network issue that they would have to clean up. I think education is the key. Most of the tech-saavy (non-IT) employees know just enough about the technology to be dangerous. Somehow, they learn how to use it — and be quite proficient with it — but their learning stops short and they never seem to get to the security issues and best practices. A quick look at how they maintain and protect their personal equipment will give you an idea of how they’ll treat your company assets.

By: Judith

Judith — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:25:30 +0000

Great attitude, IT GUY!! You should go far.

By: IT guy

IT guy — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:44:09 +0000

Randy makes a point that Uber-successful companies have the money to spend on “extra” employees which help alleviate everyone’s work loads. But in a small to medium-large company workforces are usually smaller which means workloads are more. But giving a smaller company the same privileges of a larger company goes back to the entitlement that younger kids want just because someone else has it.

It all depends on the specific company but as a default rule, social networking should be left for home.

I am in my late 20’s and I am a member of many of those sites but I didnt rise to the top of my department by watching others work harder than me.

By: Sharon M. Mulligan

Sharon M. Mulligan — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:25:04 +0000

To even suggest, that the business community should continue to foster the erroneous self absorbed, me serving and entitle to, concept that our young people are currently deluded with is preposterous.
Honestly, this line of reasoning is so incredulous to me – I could make a day of it ranting about it.

Reality – The self indulgent life style is a luxury and takes money. One must work and earn the privilege to become self indulgent. It is not an entitlement. It is not something a company owes an employee. If people want the liberties to intermingle their personal time with work, they need to have their own business. Until then, employees need to recognize, whom ever is paying the bills and has the money the employee is accepting, the employee lives by conditions/expectation of that employer.

I am not advocating servitude. I believe both the employer and the employee have a professional, personal and moral obligation to conduct themselves in honest, forthright and dependable manner. Each recognizing, both the employer and the employee need to be benefiting from the relationship.

Bottom line – work is work and play time is “Free” time.

By: Randy

Randy — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:20:05 +0000

Hasn’t anyone heard of the successful workplaces like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo? They offer a lot more than access to IM and Facebook and their employees are very productive. The more we as employers can do to improve the working environment the more employees are going to want to do.

By: B. W.

B. W. — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:17:01 +0000

Over the past year or so I’ve heard myself refer to this age group and “their sense of entitlement” more times than I care to admit to. From an IT perspective, it’s a nightmare and a neverending battle. And the problem is not just social networking sites. iTunes, music web sites like Pandora and photo upload sites — just to mention a few — all have the potential to suck up computer and network resources. We block the activity and modify the technology policies…and the whining ensues. The argument that the activity is impacting the entire network — and all of their fellow employees — doesn’t phase them.

When they took the job, they knew they were walking into the “grown up” world. I’d much prefer to treat them as adults, than to feel as if I’m dealing with whiny kids.

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:07:27 +0000

“Sam Says:

January 19th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
When an employee spends time on Social Network sites, there will be no work done. How will you balance it off, will you put a time restriction spend on Social Network sites?”

This is the future. I am 46 and I can understand how new technology can provide the younger people access, networking and other possiblities to restructure jobs and positions. Its working smarter that should be looked at instead of thinking that all they will do is chat.