Nothing can be further from the truth. A 25-something president of an e-commerce firm says this is a misconceived notion of an older generation of managers who want to work till they drop and never feel old enough to retire. They have built this aura of indispensability around them and look at "work" only from their prism - that is, their desk lamps are the only beacons of light amid a murky ocean of empty desks. In the process, they have forgotten that the world around them has changed - rapidly.
The president says he leaves office sharp at 6 pm (something his older-generation counterparts would consider a sacrilege) but is connected to his offices around the globe till at least 2 pm. He isn't alone. A 20-something intern of a multinational firm says she works from home most of the days and is busy answering queries from her boss often well past midnight. The boss, who is in his mid-20s and works from another city, is back at work from 7.30 am the next morning. Unlike the older generation, he may not be "seen" in office but is nevertheless working at an unbelievably breakneck speed.
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A new survey by Project: Time Off and GfK brings out this gruelling work schedule of millennials who are actually more likely to see themselves as "work martyrs" (basically, people who are afraid to unplug from their all-consuming jobs) than older workers, and less likely to use up their paid leave. The researchers surveyed roughly 5,000 full-time employees and found that millennials were much more likely to agree with three statements they used to assess work martyrdom: "No one else at my company can do the work while I'm away"; "I don't want others to think I am replaceable"; and "I feel guilty for using my paid time off".
It's an irony that some of these statements are exactly what their elders in office would say about themselves. There is no evidence to suggest that millennials are less obsessed about their work as their older peers. In fact, companies may be setting a new workplace norm, one where time off truly isn't valued. Thus, the always-on, 24/7 work environment has eliminated office boundaries and created the new challenge of making time to take time off.
These new-generation, ambitious workers are waking up in the middle of the night, frantic about work-related issues that are seemingly entirely out of their control, and planning every week to ensure that they could devote multiple late nights and early mornings to playing catch-up. Overall vacation usage, according to the survey, has declined since 2000, and about a third of millennials work every single day they're off.
The problem is this is not a healthy way to live. If the "lazy millennial" stereotype is wrong, this label of "work-obsessed" millennial is not right either. As millennials move into the ranks of management, they're starting to apply the same unrealistic pressures to those under them. Almost half of millennial managers say they sometimes refuse leave requests because of company pressure and they themselves put in ultra-long hours at work just to win approval from their bosses.
The problem is deeper in India where millennials work 52 hours a week, according to a World Economic Forum study. That's more than the 48 hours a week the average Chinese millennial works and way ahead of the 41 hours a week worked by the Australian and British competition. It may sound great to have such dedicated employees, but having stressed-out people, who are always at work is actually a recipe for disaster.
Senior leaders and more experienced managers can help nip this problem in the bud, before it becomes a new norm or leads to organisation-wide burnout. The message has to be simple: If we want to have sustainable careers that don't make us crazy, we have to stop martyring ourselves to work.