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I recently read a report from Project: Time Off called, “The Work Martyr’s Cautionary Tale: How the Millennial Experience Will Define America’s Vacation Culture.” I strongly recommend it to leaders in the AEC industry. The work martyr No generation owns the work ethic, but when it comes to motivation and anxiety, there’s a big difference between millennials and boomers.
While I am always pleased to read reports of millennials labeled as something other than slackers, I was less-than-thrilled to read that millennials are the most likely generation to want to be seen as a “work martyr” – one who avoids taking vacation for one of several essentially narcissistic-sounding reasons: 1) No one else at my company can do the work while I’m away. 2) I don’t want others to think I am replaceable. 3) I want to show complete dedication to my company and job. Guilt associated with vacation led to another depressing conclusion: Millennials are the most likely generation to forfeit time off, even though they earn the least amount of vacation days. I find this interesting for a couple of reasons. During my financial management seminar, I
point out that firms overemphasize utilization in a misguided attempt at accountability that causes employees to respond to what is measured. I’ve heard comments from younger staff during interviews like, “Sometimes I work slowly on projects so I am 100 percent billable and so I don’t get griped at.” That shows a real missed opportunity to emphasize quality over quantity. If your firm is one that focuses on chargeability as the end-all metric, especially for younger staff, another finding in the article is particularly “Millennials are the most likely generation to forfeit time off, even though they earn the least amount of vacation days.”
Jamie Claire Kiser
See JAMIE CLAIRE KISER, page 4
THE ZWEIG LETTER December 4, 2017, ISSUE 1226
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