* Posts by Eh Canadian

1 publicly visible post • joined 11 May 2023

The world of work is broken and it's Microsoft's fault

Eh Canadian

No, it's Millennials fault

How we forget, but years ago we had articles on how Millennials can't function in an office, and we completely up-ended how offices function to support Millennials. We added daily "stand up meetings" because Millennials couldn't go 8 hours without a primary school teacher checking in to see if they need help. Then we renovated the offices to replace cubicles with "open concept" rows of desks that resemble primary school classrooms. Then we started handing our "recognition rewards" for common office etiquette - participation trophies for the trophies generation.

All the stand up meetings and other "agile" ritual meetings waste time, but that's not the worst part. As a Gen X, those changes took away autonomy over how we did our work, and eliminated any sense of ownership of our work.

And now we have Gen Z entering the workplace and immediately getting frustrated. Gen Z is the "side hustle generation" and is actually capable of working independently! Imagine that! Like Gen X, Gen Z values autonomy and ownership of their work, and feel demeaned by stand-up meetings where they are treated like primary school children who need help writing their name.