Can we just admit it? We are spoiled in the workplace.
Ok, maybe some of you don’t have a good employer or working conditions, but on the whole the workplace has drastically improved over the last 50 years.
When I hear my parent’s stories, I can’t help but to savor just how lucky I am to be working in this generation. Gone are the days where you could be fired for showing up late (yes, I’m aware this may still a reality for some of you). Like my father says, “Nowadays a start time is just a ‘suggestion’ of when people should show up to work.”
While some days I want to criticize the evolution to a casual work setting, I also recognize that it's not a direction we will be moving away from any time soon. Like it or not, our ability to attract, develop, and retain future generations of workers will make or break a company. This includes the way we praise employees, the types of rewards we offer, and the phenomenal office perks. We don’t have to agree with it, but we can’t ignore it either.
Of course the downside to all this 'spoiling' is that we take more and more for granted, leading to what I refer to as “First world work problems.”
Below are some of the complaints I’ve recently overheard (I confess the sushi one is mine). Please feel free to add to the list.
- A 7am call on my work from home day? That's too early.
- Our annual sales conference is in the same resort every year, can't we go somewhere different?
- Our water cooler is broken and our tap water doesn’t taste right.
- My iPad isn’t showing today’s presentation properly.
- Our team lunch is sushi and I hate sushi.
- Whoever brought in all the loose leaf tea didn’t think to include an infuser.
- The elevator is broken AGAIN in our four story heritage building.
- My boss is too cheap to let us have our own hotel rooms during the staff retreat.
- The gift certificate I won at the company party is for a store I don’t even go to.
- The new vending machine sells Pepsi and I’m a Coke drinker.
- My doggy day-care cancelled, so I am stuck working from home today.
- We have to wait until January to get our xmas bonus?
- The on-site fitness center is always overly crowded at lunch.
- Whoever bought today’s donuts clearly forgot that I don’t eat gluten.
- A black work iPhone? I wanted white!
