FASTforward09: ‘No Boundary Between Work and Life’
by Joe McKendrick
Call it striking the Great Bargain, 2009 style.
That is, employers may look the other way, willingly or not, as employees spend time on the Web and social networking sites during work time.
In return, employees may be spending their off hours doing research and answering customer inquiries related to business.
The US Department of Labor, with all its rigid rules about workplaces and overtime hours, would have a hissy fit if it was able to uncover all this blurring between worklife and personal life. But it’s a huge wave, and a way of life for the connected generation.
This blurring was discussed at length today by the keynote speakers opening the Microsoft FastForward conference taking place in Las Vegas.
Dan Rasmus, director of business insights for Microsoft, said his team looks at a lot of likely scenarios for the network-enabled workplace, and that it’s looking like “in 20 years, there may be no boundary between work at life.” Call it “placeless work.”
Don Tapscott, author of Grown Up Digital, said the incoming “Boomer Echo” generation expects to be working with social networking tools as part of their jobs. “This is a powerful new force — these kids are different.” They were raised on the Internet.
Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, said there are many instances of enterprises bowing to pressure from social networks, and even seeing these networks as sources of additional value at no cost — they even refer customer service questions to these sites. However, these communities have great value to their members beyond corporate purposes. Nevertheless, larger enterprises are beginning to leverage these values, and may be better able to introduce advantage of scale than seen at smaller companies.
Rasmus, Tapscott and Shirky all raised the recurring theme that today’s networked employees (and that even may include some Baby Boomers) lead digital lifestsyles that they want to bring to the workplace. The question is, will corporations let them? Will governments also bend to this new workplace?
