This post hopes to complement Katie’s the recession is really still on? blog post.
There are a few things that one can’t argue: the recession is still upon us, unemployment is reaching the highest levels in 30 years, and finding a job may be as difficult as getting into Harvard University. Young professionals are roaring out loud across the world because they were handed a raw deal: adults said “study, work hard, and you will succeed”, and the young ones are still waiting for their future to materialize. All such tantrums aside, I’d like to talk about the current situation on the ground.
Many of my close friends were laid off from their jobs in the past year, and none of them has found a job yet. For some it has been just a couple of months, for others it has been 6 months, and for others it has been a year or more. When asked how they feel about their situation, the answers vary, but a general theme seems to be recurring: they are having the time of their life. Sure, no job means no career, means no clear long-term security, means a sense of uneasiness. On the other hand, they know this is just a passing situation. They will eventually find a job and life will go on. In the meantime, they are going to the gym, volunteering in organizations that mean something to them, going to the public pool to relax, visiting their families more, spending more time with their friends, even picturing themselves in different career paths and contemplating going back to school. Generation U has been handed the opportunity of a lifetime: take some time off work, while still getting paid close to what you were making in your full-time job, and just figure out what you want out of life.
I have found myself envying their situation. Collecting unemployment only sounds less than desirable from a career perspective, but it *is* a paycheck, and it is allowing them to lead a life with no strings attached and with complete freedom to look at life from outside of the working world.
At the same time, those of us who were not laid off have nowhere else to go. We grow increasingly resentful of our jobs and employers, and wish we could just get out. The days become boring and drag while we stare at our screens, update our Facebook status, and post blog entries. People are not machines: there is no way you will ever find a single person in the world who can claim a full 8 hours a day productivity every day of the week, every month of the year. It is simply not possible. Our lives are simply wasting away before our very eyes.
The final result is a fleet of workers who don’t have any motivation to get back to work, and a fleet of workers who just don’t want to be at work, period. Is this a sustainable situation? Without a shift in the job market that favors higher levels of work satisfaction, the United States is just headed for a future of a dissatisfied zombies workforce. I can’t stretch my brain enough to calculate the future repercussions of this trend, but something has got to change to get employers to understand that this is not the 1970s anymore: workers will not stay just because they are getting paid. Something has GOT to change at work.
Read more on the Culture Rx: ROWE: Results Oriented Work Environment. That would be a great start at getting our lives back: smashing the clock and just focusing on results. I would be able to get up whenever I want, go get my toes done, run errands, and STILL get my job for the day/week done.
This recession is just the beginning. We need change.
ina