In the present critical times, there’s not an individual who has not been affected by the ongoing life-transforming events. The series of events have caused lasting impacts on people, institutions and the systems colossally. The following article is crafted by the expert editors of editing and proofreading services; and is intended to provide the useful insight about the changed mannerisms of the Generation Y or Millennials. Any opinion, thought or the idea is not intended to offended any individual, group or community.
Millennials; the generation has witnessed a lot and have lived through a lot. From experiencing the lifechanging incidents, historical chronicles and observing the technology taking over our lives, they have categorically come a long way. Since most of the millennials have graduated, are part of the country’s workforce and living among the times of the world-transforming pandemic, there’s no doubt its impact on them is getting severe with the period of time. Beginning their careers, majority of the individuals belonging to the ‘Generation Y’, anticipated to have flexibility to work from home partially or completely, but as the pandemic has pushed all of us into the lifestyles that we-never-imagined-before, do millennials want to remain away from the workplaces respectively? What is the underlying reason for them wanting to return to their offices?
Let’s have an instant look about the pre-pandemic life of an ordinary millennial. Living in the area closer to their work, sharing an apartment with roommates, which can be one to three. The day starts in the early hours of dawn, they get up, take shower, grab their breakfast on their way to work, commute via subway and reach their destination. At work, they are tied to their computer screens, communicate to their work buddies and take lunch or coffee breaks in between, there are unnecessary meetings to attend, clock strikes 5 pm and you call it a day. After returning from their work, they hangout with friends or hit the gym and finally head to home to get sleep. It’s all work and going up the career through different stages for the people of this generation, and it’s getting harder to afford the decent living in the cosmopolitan city. Managing the responsibilities, creating an adequate work-life balance and budgeting their finances, they have adapted to the circumstances and whatever life throws at them.
But with pandemic surge in the country and no large improvements being observed about the situation, it’d be no brainer to say that ‘work from home’ or ‘WFH’ is here to stay, and it is going to last longer than we expected. When businesses started to shutter few months back, and all companies shifted towards the home working paradigm, for the majority of the millennials to have such a flexibility was long-awaited. It was a dream come true for them to work from home, without the need to commute or dress formally, and receiving their salaries each month. Well, it began and they all adapted to the transformation. The transitional shift wasn’t easy to deal with and there were relevant challenges to resolve. However, working individuals remained dedicated with everything going around and figure out how to make things work when there’s a global pandemic creating havoc in the world. A certain group of working millennials also ended up buying the gadgets, devices and additional connections for their home working; as the idea behind it was to support the smooth working operations while you’re at home. As proofreading services online was garnering facts and details about the topic, the team uncovered that most of the working millennials share apartments with their roommates and distribute the rent accordingly.
Now the current scenario is like that a kitchen table is shared by three employees of respectively different companies, having their laptops and devices on the table tops along with other essentials. The empty snack wrappers are piled up in the corner, cords and wires are all intermingled and it’ll take more than half an hour to untangle it all, so it’s left as it is. Apart from that, there are files, bills and grocery list lying on the same table as well. Amid checking deadlines, communicating with peers, attending zoom meetings, answering your emails even after your workday ends, there are no visible boundaries present between your home life and work now. It feels like you’re thinking about the work all the time, and it’s justified behavior in a way when millions are going jobless and struggling to pay rent and finding it hard to make both ends meet, definitely you don’t want to end up slacking that’ll cost you your precious employment. Indeed, behavior for immense work fixation also roots from the ascended demands of employers asking employees to have the same level of productivity and work efficiency as in workplace.
While another roommate works in her room sitting on the small sofa, and stare outside the tiny room window missing her work buddies. And there’s where it hits us and hits us hard; that we miss being at our workplaces, at our offices and communicating with people, having coffee together and passing gossips, enduring the work pressure in a very familiar environment with familiar people. There are no buzzing sounds of the printers, no passing compliments about the work attires of each other and no discussion planning to watch the upcoming movies. It’s been months now that particular work ambiance is being significantly missed form our lives, which we barely paid extra attention before.
Okay, hard to accept or admit it, but individuals specifically from the Generation Y are missing being at their workplaces than any other generations. For me and people like me, the journey of realization hasn’t been easy and we are kind of dealing with it alone. Talking about the adjacent reasons to feel it that way, below is the detailed simplified explanation
- Feeling Lonely
Serving a certain job role or job description, millennials are currently in the managerial positions or were about to be promoted to the next level. In their careers, they experienced remarkable mentorship from their managers, bosses that helped them to develop skills and knowledge to perform better in achieving their short term and long-term goals. The networked guidance from such mentors ranged from workday improvements, entrepreneurial idea, side hustles and surprisingly to life lessons as well in some of the cases. Since employees are housebound, working from home on longer terms, that specific connection to mentors at work has been significantly missed from their lives. In addition to that, employees cannot go around dropping them a mere text to have that particular discussion, as the people they’re trying to reach own privacy and won’t like to be contacted casually. That in-person connection is missed and employees are in need to have that back.
- The Connection Is Missed
You wake up in the early hours of morning by the sound of your usual phone alarm, check your time and get up for the start of your ordinary workday from the comfort of your home. Most of the millennials in the United States of America and United Kingdom live in the apartments or the shared condo with their roommates. After doing the usual morning chores, we stare the screens of our computers for uninterrupted hours, attend meetings and do the assigned tasks. Our livings are tied to the computer screens and we work in silence if there’s not any other distractions present around us. There is no denying that we are working alone, locked up in our homes and the achieved flexibility of WFH is making us miss our team and peers.
Despite of remaining in persistent communication through different channels, millennials are working alone in their homes. There’s not a work buddy to chat with, no gossips to pass and not the beloved excitement to have a coffee or lunch break after hours of draining work. You miss your weekend hangouts with your work buddies and wonder when the things will get back to the normal you were used to. The bland normality of work from home has been making millennials feel lonely for quite some time now. They miss the in-person communication, the heartiest laughter and hangouts after the workday. In conclusion to the facts stated above, this is the topmost reason for the millennials wanting to go back to their workplaces.
- Lesser Productivity
Despite of the high interest in work from home practices, a large group of millennials have lately realized that their minds and beings aren’t designed to work this way. They need to have that habitual commute; they need to have that rejuvenating office coffee and they need to have that communication with their work buddies. Being in a workplace and in a defined work setting help individuals to perform better and deliver the optimum consequences. Online editing and proofreading site has reported that a large group of millennials are getting less amount of work done as compared to how they used to perform in their workplaces. Working amid myriad of distractions have been a demotivating factor for them to keep up the same level of work efficiency, that is largely required. Millennials have been struggled to maintain their productivity and wholesome functionality while being at home. This might end up in costing their job role, and it’s an accepted fact that nobody can afford to lose an employment in the present critical times. Lastly, in conclusion to the facts stated, such pivotal happening can turn out to be inevitable if the required productivity from the employer is not matched.
- Falling Into A Slump
Since the pandemic surge went rampant in the country, there have been nerve-racking events caused in a series. With millions of people losing their lives, millions going jobless and homeless and moreover employees and students being asked to return to their homelands, there’s a lot which is happening and a lot to process. Living through such critical times, millennials have faced some of the hardest circumstances of their lives; fearing to lose their jobs, losing their jobs, losing their family or friends due to infectious disease, managing to make both ends meet, saving to raise-up their newborn or a toddler and there’s more on the list. Living thorough such days have made them vulnerable against depression, draining thoughts and depersonalization. At this point in their lives, they are being skeptical and questioning the worth of everything around them. Relationships, finances, job roles, sustainability, everything is draining them out and they have fallen into a slump. Most of the millennials are expressing how they’re working like soulless being every day, unaware of the fact what future holds for them next. While majority of them finding themselves with zero motivation to repeat the same boring regimen each day. They miss their pre-pandemic lives; they miss their old selves.
Analyzing the current situation in the country, it cannot be estimated when the life will get back to utter normality. The lockdown has lifted in some areas and restrictions have been eased down, but that’s not the case in every region. It’ll take extended amount of time for things to completely get back to normal in every region. Set regulations are being altered and adjusted by the higher authorities to match the occurring situation in the specific regions.
According to the general opinion stated by majority of the working employees of different sectors, most of the millennials want to get back to their workplaces and put a stop to WFH immediately. For their healthy lifestyle, connection development and cultivating bonds along with relationships, it is utmost necessary for millennials to be back at their desks placed in the offices.
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