The Citi Never Sleeps” is an old slogan you may have heard before. Today, this is true not just for the Citi but for every business; and most of them are working 24/7. So, while in the past, the big discussion was around achieving a work-life balance, today, that concept has become redundant. Today, it’s all about ‘blending’ and not ‘balancing’ the personal with the professional. Thanks to technology, we carry our work and our families with us all the time. Technology does not give us the luxury to ‘unplug’ any more. Gone are the days when work was ‘9-5’ and then it was time for home and family.
9 to 5 has to die! It was a concept that suited the Industrial Age. In today’s Digital Age, ‘9-5’ has to give way to a different work culture. As the ‘9 to 5’ concept becomes redundant, so will the concept of work-life balance, for it will be all about mixing work and home effectively and not struggling to differentiate and balance the two. Progressive organizations are now allowing their employees to not just take work home but even bring home to work. Mothers are allowed to get their children to work or leave early and resume work after the kids are in bed. Flexi-hours is a concept now common, but it does not stop at this, as the work places of the future will be even more different.
A new workforce needs a new workplace The ‘millennials’ or GenY are joining the workforce and this generation is different. It does not like the rigid and claustrophobic environment of the large organizations. It’s start-ups which come with the challenge and freedom of ‘being your own boss’ that are attracting these young guys. Work places will have to give up their rigid structures of time and even place if they want to infuse new talent and new life in their companies. The ‘9-5 work day’ will not work anymore.
Floating like a cloud Technology has made work fluid. The ‘human cloud’, which in simple words means a pool of freelancers from across the world from diverse areas, has today been able to give workers the flexibility of both time and place. Companies like Upstart and Amazon Mechanical Turk have created these pools of lakhs of talented workers. They are redefining work and providing flexible work options that appeal to the young workforce. The market is constantly changing and it’s estimated that by 2025, more than 500 million workers would be using these type of platforms to find work, as with the help of these platforms, they can choose not just the type of work, but also when they want to work, at what rates and from which location they want to work. They have the freedom to choose multiple companies, multiple profiles, and ‘blend’ work and pleasure as and when and however they wish to! So, as HR personnel, we need to be sure our organizations are geared up to face the new challenges and make our work environments such that they are attractive for the new breed of work force. We need to show them how to ‘blend’ and not any more ‘balance’ work and home.
