Is Work Centrality As Important to Gen Y As It Is to Older Generations?
ningcontentIn a recent white paper, ”How Central Is Work to Young Adults?” written by Phil Gardner of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute (CERI) at Michigan State University and Georgia Chao of the Eli Broad College of Business also at Michigan State University, research was cited in support of the theory that today’s young adults don’t view their jobs as the primary focus of their lives, the way earlier generations did. Although work is important to them, they also care about having time to spend with family and friends, and doing things they enjoy like hobbies and/or volunteering.
Ten thousand young adults between the ages of 18 and 28 were surveyed. The results of the survey – done in 2005 – were compared to one done in 1982, offering these three statements:
- Life is worth living only when people get absorbed in work.
- Work should be considered central to life.
- The most important things that happen in live involve work.
Young adults in 2005 were more likely to disagree – either moderately or strongly – with these opinions than were their counterparts in 1982. The survey went on to break the results down into differences between genders and found that women were more likely to disagree with the above statements than were men – probably, they surmised, because women usually have other concerns like children and taking care of their homes.
In addition, the survey results showed that young adult workers with high or medium work centrality were less concerned with having entry level jobs with “low stress characteristics” like regular hours (no nights/weekends), and annual vacations of a week or more than they were with having jobs that were secure, provided interesting work for them to do, or had “success factors” like high income and opportunities for promotion.
Conversely, young adults with low work centrality were as concerned with having jobs with low stress characteristics as they were with secruity, interesting work, and success factors.
“Organizations that hire these young adults may benefit from a better understanding of this new generation of workers,” they concluded. Jus as employers are looking for entry level employees who are good fits, so are young job seekers looking for companies that are good fits for them, in terms of how what they want – but can’t articulate – compares to what employers provide.
Finally, Gardner and Chao say it’s necessary to do further research in order to fully understand the new generation of workers and effectively integrate them into the workforce.
