Gen Y Spokesman

Goes Completely Off Rocker.

"There should be no such thing as vacation days. By telling employees they are allowed fifteen days off from work a year, you are in effect telling them that they will need to escape the daily grind.

"With new technologies and telecommuting being more and more common, 'vacation days' will ultimately be a thing of the past."


I guess you gotta forgive him, he's just a little punk.

File Under: Gen Y, Vacation, Brazen Careerist, Employee Evolution

Comments

[Paugh]

Damn millennial punks! They'll never be forgiven!

[Devin Reams]

Wait, you failed to tell us why that's crazy...

[Recruiting Bloggers]

Hey, Devin. If you have to ask how can I ever hope to explain it to you?

[Paugh]

Crazy people don't think they're crazy, I get it!

Lame answer though.

[Recruiting Animal]

Listen here Pepe Le Paugh, I'm not someone who says all time off is as sacrosanct as the Sabbath. But your little pal is recommending no real time off for anybody. In his little world you are always on call.

But wait, he works for himself at a nice and easy does it job he likes. Does that make a difference perhaps? And oh yeah, no wife or kids. And he still lives with Mom and Dad. You'd think he might hesitate a bit before he recommends his particular lifestyle for everyone else but no he's delusional and thinks that everyone else is just like him.

Pardon me, he's not delusional? Just young and naive. Okay, I've got no beef with that argument either.

[Paugh]

See. Was that so hard? I just wanted to hear your opinion. Calling someone a "little punk" without any actual framework is just slander. I think you've got a little more to share with us than that. Maybe I'm just delusional.

Check your facts before you make assumptions too. Healy has a day job (where he doesn't work for himself), so do I. Everything else we juggle in between. Nothing "nice and easy" about it.

Respect.

[Ryan Healy]

I don't live with my parents.

[laurence haughton]

Wait a second. Ryan's got a good point. ("By telling employees they are allowed fifteen days off from work a year, you are in effect telling them that they will need to escape the daily grind.")

Vacations were invented in the days when we believed things like "if it's not a grind, it's not work" and "you have fifteen days where you are in the boss of your time and after that when I say jump your only question is, 'how high?'". Now we know that lots of work isn't a grind if it is properly designed (and staffed) and bosses who can't let go of their "bossiness" actually kill innovation and profitability.

One of the most innovative executives I interviewed told me he encourages his people to ask "those good dumb questions like, ‘Why do we do it that way?’ that really clear away the hidden assumptions.” I think that's what Ryan is doing here. That's good.

That said, I agree he could do more homework on issues like recharging one's batteries, the economic value of time off for reflection, and very real family needs before posting but he's new to management writing.

[Recruiting Animal]

Larry you are a good salesman. You come out fighting, standing up for Ryan Number One. He's not crazy you say, he's just got the guts to ask dumb questions.

But by the time you sign off it's clear that you are in complete disagreement with him. You disagree, however, in a low key way to he won't be disengaged and a guy like me will be pacified as well since you have come over to my side.

And, Larry, I am agreeance wif you. This guy has not taken into account the creative refreshment associated with not being on call 24/7/365.

Still, he is wise to make crazy statements because these make him stand out. Kooky ideas are of special interest to the general media.

When I spoke to Jeff from the Wall Street Journal he wanted to know how he could find Ryan Le Paugh. And why was he interested? Because of the wild rant left on this very blog.

[Colin Kingsbury]

Well, I've got to give the young punk credit for knowing how to stir the pot.

The problem is that for a lot, perhaps the vast majority of people, work is a grind. Even when you love your job and it pays well, there comes a time when you need some variety or your brain will turn to butterscotch pudding.

The flip side of this is that getting rid of vacation would probably be a lot harder for most companies to swallow than it initially sounds.

At my company we have what I consider an extremely flexible work environment. That's due first and foremost to the fact that individual performance is obvious--there's no rooms full of people averaging each other out. People know what their job is, and the rule is that it's up to you to get it done.

What that means is that sometimes a supervisor gets an email from someone on his team saying "I'm a little tired so I'm going to come in a bit later today." This assumes, of course, no calls with clients, meetings, etc. Some supervisors can't take this sort of thing--they merely see "slacking" and want to impose discipline. The flip side though is that in this environment, good people acquire a sense of ownership, and don't see it as out of order to respond to an email on a Saturday night.