Generations at Work: Working Hard or Hardly Working?

I’m not a big fan of over-generalizing the characteristics of the different generations in the workforce. It’s just too easy to say “Millennials are entitled;” “Baby Boomers aren’t good with social media;” or “Gen Xers are lazy.” Too easy, and not at all true. Any of it.

So I read with some interest the results of a survey about the work habits of the generations that Paychex recently published. There are some interesting takeaways about who wastes time at work – and in what industries, geographic location, organizational role, exempt status and education level – in addition to the obligatory age demographic comparison. It’s interesting food for thought.

Here’s one of the comparison graphics:  this one compares time wasted at work by role, exempt status, and education.

Other comparisons include

• Industries that waste the most and least time surfing the Internet
• Regions that waste the most time surfing the Internet at work
• Most common time-waste reducers
• Comparing generational work habits
• Hardest working generations, industries, and education levels
• Hardest working regions in the U.S.

If you have a sense that you’ve got a time-wasting problem in your organization, this information could be helpful as you work on a solution. If you’re interested in how the generations stack up in the “who works hardest” rodeo, you’ll definitely find this interesting.