The younger generation aren’t slacking, they’re working smarter

Everyone, it seems – including the subjects themselves – seems to agree that the youth of today have never had life so easy.

The internet provides endless access to information, and makes communication easy. In the West, there is plentiful, cheap food, and household comforts continue to be invented, then subsumed into our culture as essential.

But behind this easily applied label, there is the danger that the older generation, looking down their noses at their loafing offspring and their peers, are actually missing a key change in the way younger people are approaching work and the world of business. And, according to an article in the New York Times, this fundamental difference is something they ignore at their peril.

For some bosses, it is the frequent moan that younger workers use their day at their desks “wasting their time” on Facebook or Twitter, or sit there with their earpieces in, avoiding contact with fellow workers. But these complaints demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding, apparently, with plenty of research to support this assertion.

One major characteristic of this younger generation is their belief in the value of working in teams, something the older generation look upon at work as a weakness. This collaborative approach comes from being brought up sharing information with peers, across social networks and in playing online games.

And then there’s the demarcation between work and play. Older generations have a black and white distinction, often based on command and control, and the days when time spent at a desk correlated directly with output, such as the processing of paperwork. Today’s youngsters operate in a linked online world and have a much more blurred distinction, being comfortable mixing work with play; and they see examples all around them where the delivery of results is no longer as linear as it was.

Examples of highly successful brands such as Skype and Facebook, teach that the business model counts success in ways other than simply short term profit. And new media hero Google, which is now highly profitable, famously allows staff to play games in the office, and spend work time on personal projects.

For those already running their own SMEs, the message is clear. You can simply rant on about the younger generation, and their weird ways, or you can attempt to understand them, or at least harness them. One SME I interviewed recently only came to understand the value of collaborative working and business networking, thanks to having the foresight to let a junior team member “waste” time investigating online forums. The links he created, and the influence those have had on the thinking of his seniors, have completely rewritten the company’s business plan.

So take a look around SME7 – it’s all about helping existing small businesses make the most of the changing tools open to business; tools that the younger generation are already familiar with using. Organising your company to be flexible; to outsource and collaborate rather than simply take on more staff; to built bullet-proof and expandable IT systems on the cloud; to turn your website into a profit centre: all these are achievable aims, with the right team helping you along the way.

And doing nothing, continuing in your old, established ways, is not sustainable in a world where the youngsters of today start their own businesses, which will operate completely differently to yours. As one young employee said to me recently: “The last three years, I have been a bit like a sponge. In five year’s time, I’ll be dangerous.”

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