Manic Mondays.

Why do Mondays feel different to any other day? Is the weekend too short? Are we working too long?

All questions asked as we head out for the start of the work week, pushing and shoving our way through the public transport jungle. Well it used to be the start but I’m not so sure there is a start or finish with technology giving us the ability to take work with us where ever we go and as such blurring the lines of the old clock on, clock off mentality. So it comes as a surprise to find a recent survey by Bankwest that found we are spending less time in the office than we did 10 years ago and a lot of that has to do with technology and the freedom it has provided for communication. After all it was the communication at work via face to face or phone that tied us to a particular address and the hours required.

It seems that Gen Y are the best adapters of the new communication channels, as the survey found they are the only group working under the 40 hour week while having a better grasp on that work life seesaw. Who’da thought they’d figure it out before anyone else? So who is teaching who on work life balance? I know what you are thinking, what do they know about life but you can’t argue with the statistics. Seems the Gen Xers and the Baby Boomer examples of work till they stick you in a box did not appeal, geez how did they work that out?

As leaders in a new workforce, Gen Y has something to offer their older counterparts and maybe some of them are listening as the reclamation of nearly two weeks a year of free time against ten years ago shows. While the Ys get better at time management (wasn’t that a Boomer thing?) there are still many who work longer hours and farmers and miners are the leaders when it comes to putting in the long hours at work. Seems the technology improvements have not equated to shorter hours but greater production which sees our mining state WA as the hardest workers in the nation.

It should come as no surprise that government employees in the ACT work the fewest full time hours. No jokes about “Yes Minister” departments, as we all know our bureaucrats work hard for the money (queue Donna Summer music). Maybe they are readers of Tim Ferris’ “4 hour work week” which isn’t about working less, just a lot smarter using outsourcing facilities available via technology. And in the end that is the most important aspect of working nowadays, to find a better way and improve work life balance without having to fill 40+ hours just because the boss says so.