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The Nature of WorkWORKING NATION 2008 Volume 1

working nation A5(artwork) 15/7/08 14:14 Page 2

Working Nation has been conceived, developed andpublished by Vodafone UK since 2003. This reportis the sixth in an ongoing series.

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Read the report and post your own commentsat www.vodafone.co.uk/workingnation


Mark Bond, Director of Enterprise,Vodafone UK

Welcome to 'The Nature of Work', thesixth report in the ongoing WorkingNation series that Vodafone UK has beenhelping to create and publish since 2003.

Over the past five years we have producedWorking Nation reports on a fascinating arrayof topics, covering everything from agediversity, to loyalty, and even identity in theworkplace, that have proved to be of greatinterest not only to our own managementteams but also our customers and the media.

Our aim has always been simple; to chroniclethe attitudes and trends that shape the UnitedKingdom at work. That is why, in every report,you will find opinion from every level of workinglife - young or old, male or female, north orsouth, employee or employer - the views of allare captured, compared and contrasted toproduce what I believe is an unparalleled 360degree view of the UK workplace.

In 2008 Working Nation is staying true to thesevalues. We have again taken great care to surveythe widest possible range of people - but it is alsoa little different. Rather than taking one particularissue as a theme, we have decided to go a stepfurther and investigate the very 'nature' of what itis that motivates us to work. Not only that, wehave also taken the unprecedented step ofmeticulously surveying and comparing opinionsfrom seven different age cohorts, includingteenagers that are about to start work, andrecent retirees that have just left work.

The reason? One only has to look around theworkplace to see that changes in attitudesacross and even between, generations arehappening at a faster rate than ever before.Technology, according to most observers, is theyouthful driver behind this trend - corruptinghierarchies, creating virtual work communitiesand changing the way that people want tocommunicate and collaborate. People areworking faster, smarter - even greener - butabove all they want success more quickly thanever before.

As I believe this report will prove, the picture in2008 is indeed very different to what it mighthave been 20, or even 10, years ago. However,one of the main motivations behind the WorkingNation series is that we never take these kind ofobservations or findings at face value. This trulyis a time of great change, and we at Vodafoneunderstand that the mobile technology that wedevelop is driving a lot of that change, but wealso understand that there is a human element atplay; we need to understand the widest possiblepicture in order to make our technology asrelevant and useful as possible - for allconstituents of the future Working Nation.

As ever, the result is a report that I believe will beof as much interest to employees seeking tomake sense of changing priorities as it will be tomanagement teams that are feeling the need tolisten, learn and adapt.

I hope you enjoy the read. If you have anyquestions or comments, please don't hesitate towrite to me at [email protected]

Mark Bond

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Foreword


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1. Introduction 5

2. Research findings 9

(a) Young enterprise 11

(b) Mid-career malaise 19

(c) Golden age 30

3. Principles for developing a happier 37 and more motivated workforce

4. Concluding remarks 41

5. Executive summary of research 44

6. Methodology 46

7. About Working Nation 49

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Contents


The purpose of this report is to go beyond thebasic financial imperative - to dig deep beneathits surface and uncover the meaning andmindset of the UK at work in 2008, both for thebenefit of employees that want to understandmore about their role and their ambitions, andfor managers who are faced, perhaps morethan ever before, with a shifting landscape ofemployee expectations and motivations.

As ever with Working Nation, the themes, ideasand line of questioning have not been pluckedarbitrarily out of the air. The research processbegan with in-depth interviews with a panel ofsenior opinion leaders from the worlds ofcommerce and business academia (for a fullexplanation of the research methodologyplease refer to section 6, page 46).

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IntroductionWhy do we work? What do we expect to get out of it? Whatmotivates us to keep going back, to get out or to strive forthe next level?

These are questions that a lot of people ask themselvesevery week, even every day that they return to the fray.Aside from the obvious and unavoidable answer - money -the reason that most people go through this constant cycleof self-evaluation, even when they are happy in their work, isthat the nature of work, and the relative level of satisfactionwith it, is a very complex issue - one that is different foreverybody and certainly one that can be difficult formanagers to gauge with true accuracy.


From that earliest stage of the process itbecame clear that there was a consensusthat one of the issues uppermost in the mindsof today's business leaders is the relationshipbetween different generations in theworkplace - not just those already inexistence, but also the generations about toenter the workplace in the next few years.

Corroborating the value of this angle,Management Today magazine recentlyproduced its own survey in association with theFreshminds recruitment consultancy1

investigating the relationship between thegroups that are commonly referred to asGeneration Y (born 1980 to 1990), Generation X(born 1964 to 1980) and the Baby Boomers(born 1946 to 1963).

“We believed that Generation Y wasn't justdifferent by degrees, but that this group was adisruptive generation, which through itsattitudes and behaviours would have asignificant and lasting impact on the future ofwork,” said Alistair Leathwood of Freshminds,talking to Management Today when the surveywas launched.

Is Leathwood right? Could it be that Generation Yis about to become the most dominant group inthe workforce? Or is the UK set for even morechange, sooner than predicted, as the generationbehind also enters the workforce?

One of the main reasons driving this belief ina new, unstoppable advancement of youth is,of course, technology. New forms ofcommunication, it is assumed by many, willchange working cultures forever, creatingnew kinds of companies as well as new kindsof employees. Indeed, a recent a list ofscenarios proposed and drawn up by seniormanagers at the Chartered ManagementInstitute (CMI)2 warned us all to prepare for arange of futuristic possibilities by 2018 thatincluded increased use of artificialintelligence to support managers, the use ofholograms for communication between staff,even the control of employee behaviour byimplanted microchips.

Perhaps more realistically, the CMI report alsotalked about the proliferation of ‘virtual’companies, enabled by technology, operatingas small community-based enterprises without

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1 Management Today, MT FreshMinds: Work 2.0 Survey - My generation, (February 2008). 2 Chartered Management Institute, Management Futures: The World of Work in 2018, (March 2008).


conventional business premises. Theseenterprises will be more than able to competefor employees, who will subsequently becomemore footloose and less inclined to work fororganisations that do not allow individuals totailor the working day to meet their personalrequirements. As a result, "organisations willhave to address the growing power of theemployee," the report said.

Whether one chooses to believe thesepredictions or not, what the report doesillustrate well is that the continueddevelopment of technology is widely believedto go hand-in-glove with changing attitudes,especially from younger generations, to theworld of work.

The assumption is that is a unique age - a timeof change where technology is playing well intothe hands of younger generations that aregrowing up with its development, and where theattitudes and aspirations of those generationsare changing, as a result, irrevocably.

Is the UK really about to enter a world of workdominated by a new cult of youth? Do youngerpeople entering the workplace really want tochange the working world? How long does the

feeling last? What about those still atschool, nervous about the future andworried about increasing competition?And what about the views of those intheir thirties, forties and fifties? Didthey feel any different in theirtwenties? What warnings do they havefor the future, and how do they feelabout their own working lives today?

This volume of Working Nation researchresponds to these questions by researchingage cohorts that we have not consideredbefore. For example, care has been taken tocanvass the views of teenagers, still at schooland about to enter work, about theiraspirations for their future working lives. Theresearchers also polled recent retirees, andfive other age cohorts in between (age ranges19-21, 26-28, 33-36, 43-46 and 53-56).

Added to this was a unique approach to theresearch, creating a forum that allowed thedifferent generations to deliberate, developand cross-pollinate ideas, considering possiblesolutions to the issues raised by the findingsof an extensive quantitative research survey.

What emerges, through detailed analysis overthe following chapters, is a story of differentgenerations - both the conflicts and the commonground - but one that takes a more detailed,more layered look at the differences betweendifferent age groups than previous studies.

There are some surprises. The youngergenerations, in many ways, reveal themselvesto be not quite as gung-ho as they are

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sometimes portrayed. The people in themiddle of their careers appear to be sufferingfrom a malaise of disenchantment, butperhaps earlier than many observerspreviously thought, while the oldergenerations, enjoying a second burst offulfiling work-life, are not quite ready toshuffle off to retirement just yet.

The findings notwithstanding, it is still fair toassume that the working nation is enteringtimes that are likely to move more quicklythan ever before, where careers are going tobecome more compressed, work/life isintegrated rather than balanced, satisfactionand fulfilment are likely to soon feel verydifferent - and where significant changecould happen over a generation of the nextseven years, rather than alone the fifteen oreven twenty year spans that make upGeneration X or Y.

How can younger people handle their ownexpectations? What can be learnt from thegeneration about to leave work, or those thathave already retired? Where is theopportunity for those in their thirties? Couldthe changing landscape become a catalyst forentrepreneurialism? What are the implicationsfor managers, growing and adapting with thetimes but unsure what will motivate theworkforce of tomorrow?

These are all questions that are investigatedin this, the sixth Working Nation report fromVodafone UK.

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The research for Working Nation 2008 was conducted in four phases:

1. Initial in-depth interviews with members of a steering group of leading businesspeople and academics.

2. Qualitative group discussions with members of the public from seven differentage bands and working life-stages. Each group comprised social influencers; thatis, ordinary people who have numerous social contacts and a strong influencewithin their social networks. Among those of working age, both people who wereemployed and those who were self-employed were recruited.

3. Findings from these group discussions were then used to form the basis of aquantitative research survey, canvassing the views of 3,842 members of theworking nation; including those still in education, those that work for themselves,employees within small businesses, employees within large organisations, middlemanagement, senior management and board directors.

4. An intergenerational workshop, bringing together a selection of the participantsfrom the qualitative group discussions to discuss the results of the quantitativesurvey to develop principles for creating a happier and more motivated workforce.

The composition of the groups is shown in the table below:

Group number Life/work stage Age

1 Thinking about future careers 14 - 16

2 Transitioning between education and 19 - 21the world of work

3 First few years of experience in the world of work 26 - 28

4 10+ years experience of the world of work 33 - 36 - early managers

5 20+ years experience of the world of work 43 - 46 - management combined with parenthood

6 30+ years experience of the world of work 53 - 56 - thinking about retirement

7 Mixture of those still working and recent retirees 63 - 66

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Research findings


During the qualitative discussions with theolder age groups, it emerged thatexperience has taught that there are threedistinct phases to working life:

o An initial phase, where money isthe most important consideration ina job when first starting (or thinkingabout) working

o A mid-life phase, when children orfamily enter the equation and thepriorities become stability andsecurity

o A third phase, when children havegrown older, and workers feel freeto pursue other interests andambitions, focusing on a widerquality of life

Given that these factors in working lifeare likely to remain unchanged for thetime being, even through the

introduction of new technologies orworking practices, the remainder of thereport analyses the research findingsaccording to these three phases,exploring how the emerging attitudesand opinions of the modern age will workwithin these traditional structures and if,indeed, they will ultimately need to be re-evaluated or re-affirmed.

Note: Verbatim quotations appear throughoutthe report. For people speaking during theseven main group discussions, it ispossible to attribute quotations to theirbroad age group (e.g. 14-16 year old).However, it is not possible to identify thespecific ages of people speaking duringthe intergenerational workshop, wherepeople from different age groups weremixed in a single discussion.

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(a) Young enterpriseThree years ago, the second report in the Working Nation series was published under thetitle ‘Loyalty at Work: What Does it Mean Today?’. At the time, it was assumed that thetraditional view of a loyal employee, someone who worked diligently through the ranks for30 years or more before receiving a reward for long service, was an anachronism.

That assumption proved to be correct - just eight per cent of employers surveyed for thereport said that length of service is the best measure of loyalty; placing dedication (44per cent) and achievement (42 per cent) far ahead in the pecking order of desirableemployee attributes.

Within this kind of context, it isnot surprising that a new ideaof work, allegedly created andpropagated by today's youngergenerations, is emerging foranalysis: portfolio careers,switching industries, careerbreaks - these are all definingfeatures of what is perceived tobe the free, easy andsuccessful working style of theso-called Generation Y (i.e. those born after 1980).

When the research processstarted for this latest WorkingNation report it began withanother basic assumption; thatthe main motivating factor forall people going to work wouldbe money.

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The outcome was expected - 70 per centof the working nation agree that thereason that they go to work, above all else,is for the pay cheque. What perhaps wasless expected was that the highest level ofpeople who strongly agreed with thishypothesis was from the 26-30 year olds(33 per cent), followed closely by theyounger ranks of 14-18 year olds that haveyet to even join the workforce.

The attitudes of the employers to loyalty inthe previous report was in many wayslaudable - placing merit and effort overmerely hanging around (and if they dohave a problem with the new career-hopping, flexible-working era, then theywould probably accept that they only havethemselves to blame).

But has loyalty and trust - as a side effectof this prevailing attitude - been eroded tosuch an extent that money is the onlymotivating factor for young people? If so,there could be a serious downside. Arecent survey from the Association ofGraduate Recruiters3, for example,suggested that recruiters are becomingtired of this new 'diva' generation - one

that is high maintenance, selfish, lacking inloyalty, thinking only of the short term andits own place in it.

It might make a good headline but, as everwith headlines, the issue is more complexthan that. Thanks to the multi-faceted,deliberative nature of the research -whereby participants were encouraged toformulate conclusions and solutionsthrough debate - this report is able toreveal a number of layers to the story thatshow, perhaps on reflection for a lot of theyoung people involved, that they stronglyreject the inference that they are workingonly for the money. Moreover, it appearsthat the older generations have a largedegree of sympathy with the position thatyounger people now find themselves in.

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“Money's the main thing. If you cannot liveon what you are earning, then there is nopoint in doing it. ”

14-16 year old

3 Association of Graduate Recruiters, AGR Graduate Recruitment Survey 200 (Winter Review), (February 2008).


VarietyParticipants from all age groups talkedabout the need for variety in their work,both in terms of having a variety of rolesand activities during the course of theirday-to-day lives and enjoying options overthe course of their whole working lives.

This is not surprising in itself. Perhaps whatwas most surprising was that there was aconsensus from younger participants (bothamong those who are still in education andthose who have started employment inrecent years) that there is a fear of beingbored in their working lives. Looking ahead,they see having a variety of jobs andcareers over the course of their lives - whatsome call a 'portfolio career' - as a strategynot necessarily to make more money, butto make life more interesting, to stave offtedium. The youngest groups, still atschool, also talked about the need for jobs

that give them a variety of tasks andactivities, including working in a variety ofsettings and locations - with plenty oftravel - as a means to keep things fresh.

This view, developed through deliberativediscussion, is contrary to the growingperception of young, money-obsessedmercenaries that has emerged over recentyears, and is also borne out by thequantitative data: the second biggestreason (behind money) for all respondentsfor going to work was socialising at 39 percent; but it is the single biggest motivatingfactor for 16-20 year olds already inemployment (57 per cent) and for thoseabout to join the workforce (56 per cent).

Work for the youngest generation it seems,is not all about the money, it's about thesocial network - and the opportunity togrow that network - that it creates.

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WillingDo younger people, later in their twenties,work harder today then ever before purelyas a means of making money?

The quantitative survey found that over athird of 16-25 year olds will happily workall the hours that they need to furthertheir career; falling sharply to a fifth in the26-30 year old age bracket; and thencontinuing to fall smaller amounts aspeople get older by.

During the intergenerational workshop,participants were asked to respond to thisparticular finding. Rather than condemningthis state of affairs, participants from olderage groups accepted that people will tendto work hardest in their twenties becausethis is when people are keen to do welland make progress. They did notnecessarily see this as a problem. Rather,it is the 'way of the world' if you want toget on in life; something that they didthemselves. Indeed, they agreed that thesense that one is furthering one's careerthrough hard work can be a powerfulsource of purpose and satisfaction, that itdoes not last forever.

Conversely, participants in their teens andearly twenties who haven't yet startedwork were concerned about the stress ofthis tough working environment. Many of

them are wary of working excessively andhope that they will be able to manage theirhours. For some of them, this is one of theattractions of being self-employed; theability to manage one's own hours.

DirectionWhile many people in their twenties areworking hard towards specific careergoals, it was also recognised that there aremany people in the same age bracket whoare not yet on a fixed career path.Participants cited examples of youngpeople, especially those in their late teensand early twenties, who are just working toearn money, for instance, to go on holiday,to go out and to buy clothes. At apragmatic level, these people might beprepared to work long hours because theyare paid on an hourly rate and receiveovertime, and because they are driven by atangible, short-term goal.

“I'm 27. I've worked hardfrom the age of 15because I want to makemoney and because Iwant to be successful.”

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It was felt that this lack of long-termdirection might reduce levels ofmotivation as workers move into theirlate twenties - and that this might explainthe quantitative findings that enthusiasmfor working long hours diminishes aspeople get older (falling from 32 per centof 21-25 year olds to just one in tenworkers in their forties and fifties).

SummaryWhat emerges from this story is aconfirmation that young people underthirty are indeed desirous of a workingworld that enables the opportunity foroptions, variety and change - apsychological contract with the employer

written purely on their own terms (if,indeed, they want to work for an employerat all). For example, whilst the surveyshowed that 25 per cent of the workingnation believe that they will be doingsomething entirely different for a differentorganisation within the next 5 years, thisrises to 45 per cent of the youngestcohorts.

Of this group there are clearly two types:those living to work, with the hope thatthey are well established and welladvanced in their careers by their thirties;and those working to live, still prepared towork long hours and hop from job to job,but rather to achieve a tangible, short-term, non-career-related goal.

As can be seen from the survey (figure 1),both 'types' are not necessarily driven by anew kind of apathy or selfishness - theyshare a number of passions and the desireto express and fulfil themselves that theolder generations concede is no differentfrom their memories of their own youth.

What has changed, if anything, is theculture of companies driven by short-termsuccess and interim goals, therebycreating a culture where the psychologicalcontract between employer and employeeis loosened, the portfolio CV is prized andlong-term loyalty is devalued.

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“When I was 27 I threw up my job and justpacked it in. Although it was quite a goodjob, I wasn't enjoying it and I felt as thoughI'd missed something.”


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But of course employers can't be blamed entirely for this new state of affairs. There arewider socio-political influences on young people. Older generations sympathise with the'tougher' working environment that younger people face and the pressure that theyappear to be under to succeed. But there is also a sense that young people are putting alot of this pressure on themselves. They want success quicker than ever. They have seenTony Blair become Prime Minister in his early forties and David Cameron becoming theleader of the opposition in his thirties. They see footballers earning millions asteenagers. They see reality TV stars taking short-cuts to success, avoiding the paymentof 'dues' incurred by stars of the past.

Yes, companies are creating the opportunity for young employees to move withimpunity, to get the most out of them while they can, but young people are alsograsping the opportunity, and adopting as a consequence an inevitable 'me' attitude,with some relish.

The question is, with expectations raised for early success, what happens when thisgeneration reach their thirties?

Figure 1: More than money• 28 per cent of 16-20 year olds go to work to express a skill,

talent or passion• One quarter say that they go to work to give themselves

a sense of identity• One in five go to work to make a difference to others


A first glance at the CV of Andrew Cooke,29, places him firmly in the successful,career-hopping 'Generation Y' stereotype.Whilst studying Business Studies atuniversity he worked as a salesconsultant with Carphone Warehouse andwas quickly able to demonstrate thetalent and drive to be offered a full-timerole after graduating as a visualmerchandiser, looking after the designand production of in-store point of salematerial. After a year Cooke was asked toprogress into the Commercial Marketingdepartment, a job which came with theincreased responsibility of dealingdirectly with the country's largest mobilenetwork operators.

Not feeling entirely satisfied withcorporate life, he then took the decision(only a year and a half later) to return tohis native south coast and work for asmall web publishing firm that aggregatedtourist information and sold advertisingspace to hotels and guest houses.

Next, in what on face value appears to bea classic case of a portfolio, financially-driven career, Cooke took the decisionto start his own business - Think CreativeMedia - which he created to offer, amongother things, a cost-effective web designservice to guest houses.

But all is not as it first appears.

“For me, funnily enough, it's neverprimarily been about the money,” Cookesays, although he does admit that thischanged slightly in recent years with thearrival of two young children. “If it has everbeen about money, it’s only ever been inthe sense that I need to feel that thechildren are secure and comfortable andcan go to the right school if needed.”

In this context, Cooke did not see startinghis own business as a risk, but rather anopportunity to earn more money both forhimself and his children - and, perhapsmore importantly, reap further positivebenefits in terms of flexibility and lifestyle.

“When I was at university I used to have anambition to be comfortably well-off andestablished by the time I was thirty, but Ialways thought that this would be with abig company, with all the benefits andpension that go with it. Today, I'm not surethat I could work for anyone else again.For a start they would have to match whatI am earning with my own business.”

“A lot of my friends that I went touniversity with work for other people,some of them for large companies. I knowthat they sometimes take a day and off in

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[Case study]


the week and watch a few DVDs orwhatever to relax. I could never envisagedoing that kind of thing anymore, not whilerunning my own business, but I think I enjoy

more flexibility than they do. Tomorrow I amgoing to see my son's sports day. I can dothat easily and have no problem at all withthat. You can't really buy that kind of thing.”

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(b) Mid-career malaiseIt is over forty years since Elliot Jacques, a Canadian psychoanalyst and organisationalpsychologist, first introduced the term 'mid-life crisis' into everyday language. The termis most often used to describe a period of dramatic self-doubt experienced by someindividuals in the middle years of life, which was felt by Jacques to be a result of sensingthe passing of youth and the imminence of old age. The outcome is generally perceivedto be a desire to make significant changes in aspects of day-to-day life, such as career,marriage or pastime.

There has been debate about (and criticism of) the concept ever since, both about itscauses, its effects and even its very existence. There has also been much work done toascertain the precise age at which the 'crisis' occurs. A large US-based study in the1990s, for example, found that the average age at the onset of a self-described crisiswas 464. Worldwide, there is broad consensus that the condition most commonly occursin the age range between 35 and 50.

Working Nation 2008readdresses this question bylooking specifically at careerexpectation and fulfilment inmodern Britain. The resultsare clear. If a crisis does existwithin the contemporaryworking lifespan, then itoccurs at a much earlier agethan defined by other,broader social studies - itoccurs in the age bandbetween 30 and 35.

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4 Elaine Wethington, Midlife Development in the United States, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthurFoundation Research Network on Successful Midlife Development, (1998).


When asked about 'feelingsabout work', the 30 to 35 yearold cohort topped the chart inevery single negative category:they feel more trapped (39 percent), dissatisfied (44 per cent)and more lacking in control (36 per cent) than any otherage cohort surveyed. As theillustration below reveals, thereis also a period of hope runningup to the thirties, where thenegative feelings are lesspronounced, and a tailing offthereafter as working satisfaction seemsto be regained in the later years of life.

Why does this 'mid-career malaise' exist inthe UK today? A brief review of modernhistory can reveal much. As Stefan Sternwrote recently in Management Today, “Thestory begins in 1945. The landslide Labourelection victory of that year laid thefoundations for modern Britain. The pre-war, pre-welfare state model wasdismantled. Even those who grew up in thepre-war years were powerless to resist thetemptations of the consumerist world ofthe late 1950s. When in 1957 PrimeMinister Harold Macmillan declared peoplehad ‘never had it so good’, he was right.”5

Profound social change and the liberalreforms of the 1960s followed. The babyboom generation that grew up in thattime started to exhibit a laid back, open-minded attitude to life and work thatbegan to feel alien, even embarrassing totheir children - the Generation X'rs nowin their 30s.

Later, in the 1980s, when Mrs Thatchereffectively removed the liberal reformingworld known by the baby boomgeneration, it wasn't necessarilyGeneration X that adopted the full forceof the laissez-faire work-culturerevolution that this entailed. It was in fact

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16-200%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55

Trapped

56-60 61-65 65+

Percentage that feel trapped in their current role

Q

5 Management Today, MT FreshMinds: Work 2.0 Survey - My generation, (February 2008).


their own children, GenerationY. As Stern puts it, this couldexplain the youngergeneration's flexibility,ambition and career agility.“They know that there is nojob for life, and they are notgoing to pretend to want one,”Stern argues.

The result, according to theMcKinsey Award-winning authorTamara Erikson, is thatGeneration X'rs are the mostconservative cohort in today's workforce,surrounded by ‘shake 'em up’ types on bothsides. Many X'rs, Erikson writes, arecharged with managing Y’rs, which she saysis an impossible task, if ‘manage’ is defined

as controllingchannels ofcommunication.X'rs, shecontinues, are infact sandwichedbetween a ‘love-fest’, whereboomers and Y’rsare learning fromeach other - ‘andenjoying theirinteractions’6.

When these notions, and the findings of thequantitative survey, were put to theparticipants in our discussion groups, thosein their thirties and above recognised theidea that many people hit difficulties intheir working lives at this stage.

DisillusionmentA degree of exhaustion anddisillusionment can set in, it was felt,with people having been working for tenor fifteen years and, in many cases,finding it extremely hard to establishtheir careers. For some at this age, theircareers might not have turned out asthey had hoped. They may not haveachieved what they set out to, or having

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6 Tamara Erikson, Harvard Business Publishing website, blog post, (May 2008).

16-200%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55

Without contol

56-60 61-65 65+

Percentage that feel without controlin their current role

Q


reached a certain level, thejob/career may not havedelivered the benefits thatthey had hoped for. Thediscussion groups concededthat even those who are doingwell can feel daunted by theamount of time that they'vealready been working and bythe length of working life thatis still ahead of them.

“I work withseveral 30 yearolds, one of whom has justgiven up and gone toSpain to live because shejust is so disillusioned bythe system. I think theystarted in their 20s,they're working in socialareas and things like thatand they really felt theycould make a difference…they've been ground downby a system ofbureaucracy.”

Family life stageAdded to which, the thirties oftencoincides with entering the family lifestage, so that many people in their thirtiesare under pressure from the competingdemands of work and family. Participantsfrom both mid life and older age groupsagreed that the responsibilities ofmortgage and family can encouragefeelings of being trapped, of needing tocontinue in a job or career out of financialnecessity rather than out of a sense ofpersonal fulfilment. This sense ofentrapment can occur just at the timewhen people are starting to reassess theirworking life, having by then been workingfor ten or fifteen years.

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16-200%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55

Dissatisfied

56-60 61-65 65+

Percentage that feel dissatisfied in their current role

Q


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Work-life balanceTellingly, the deliberative research processrevealed that it is those in their earlythirties that are most threatened by anover-emphasis on their job within thework-life balance equation.

Participants in the 14-16’s group are keento maintain boundaries between their workand their outside work lives. They worryabout work-related stress and a lack of'free time'.

Participants in their twenties do not seework/life balance as an issue, believingthat the two happily overlap; they stressthe importance of a social life at theworkplace.

“The key is try find a jobthat combines your workand social life. I knowmine definitely does. Ihave found a greatbalance between what Ido for work and what I dosocially. Technically, I amalways at work.”

26-30 year old

Similarly, those with older children andchildren that have left home (i.e. those intheir forties, fifties and sixties) say thatthey do not have a problem balancingwork and the rest of their lives, and feelthat they have got the right mix.

It is those who have family commitmentsnow (i.e. are in their thirties now), or haveexperienced it in the past, who say that itis during the family life stage that thework/life balance issue is most acute - thepressures of having a family and theresponsibilities and duties that it entailsmakes it difficult to juggle familycommitments with work commitments.

“I can identify with the thirty-somethings feeling trapped,because for me around that age, it'sabout trying to juggle family life.”


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SummarySo should there be real concernfrom employers and Governmentover the apparent work-life malaiseof the mid-thirties?

The answer should be yes, especiallyif it is taken into consideration thatthose in their thirties and forties arein a position to be an inspiration tothose generations beneath; that theyshould be stepping up to bemanagers and the primary corporateleaders of tomorrow.

Many of them aren't. They areplanning to leave corporate life, tostart entrepreneurial ventures or atleast work for smaller companies wherethey have a greater say in direction and agreater amount of autonomy over bottom-line business decisions. Indeed, when theWorking Nation programme investigatedthis issue in 2006, it found that mostpeople starting (or thinking about starting)a business are either starting a family,hitting a landmark age, going through adivorce or getting married - all activitiestypical of the thirties. This is good newsfor entrepreneurialism, but bad news forUK plcs.

What can be done about it? In many waysthe negative feelings about work

experienced by people in their thirtieswere seen by our cohorts in the older agebrackets to be inevitable, indeed feelingsthat they had experienced themselves. Afeeling of burnout after the first ten tofifteen years of striving in a career, thesqueeze on time and sanity when thefamily life-stage occurs; these are allnatural feelings that are unlikely to changetoo much over future generations.

If anything can be done, it is with the issueof disillusionment. As the previous chapterindicated, the research conducted for thisreport has shown that the generationsbelow thirty, both in their twenties and at

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“It's a long, long day.”33-36 year old


26

school age, are shortening their projected timeline to success. This younger generationis ambitious, hopeful - and in a hurry. But if it does not achieve what it wants, by thetime that it wants, it is likely to feel the same trough of disillusionment currently beingexperienced by Generation X, only magnified by the factor by which it had expected tocompress its route to success.

This is well illustrated by the fact that all measurable indicators of contentment andachievement in this report suffer a considerable drop amongst those in their earlythirties, suggesting a new work expectancy deadline of just one decade. If this is notmet, disenchantment and frustration grow, posing a problem for individuals and thewider working nation.

The challenge for today's organisations, it appears, is to manage the expectations of theUK’s younger workers currently forging ahead with their careers, controlling and shapingthose expectations according to reality - but without curtailing ambition or enthusiasm.

Levels of the following negative sentiment are highest amongst 31-35 year old workers:• Feeling undervalued (59 per cent)• Unfulfilled (49 per cent)• De-motivated (43 per cent)


[Case study]The onset of the early thirties and thearrival of a family can for many people bea catalyst for a complete and positivechange in career. Su Sharrocks, now 40,is a case in point.

After graduating from university with adegree in psychology Sharrocks brieflytrained as a broadcast journalist beforesettling on a career as a primary levelteacher. For Sharrocks this proved to bea very fulfiling move, providing her withboth the variety that she craved as wellas the flexibility to fit work around herlife - even after her first child was born at

the age of thirty, she found that was ableto return to work for a significantproportion of the week and progress tothe stage where she was asked to applyfor a deputy headship.

“A lot of people who teach tend to choosethe same path each year because it'seasier that way, but I think it's also a goodway of getting bored,” Sharrocks says. “Ialways had variety when I was teaching. Itaught different age groups, special needs,was a key stage manager. I always wantedto do different things in my role and waslucky to work with very progressive andinnovative people that encouraged that.”

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It was only after Sharrocks had her secondchild, in her early thirties, that her careerbecame more complicated. “I looked into going back to work ineducation again and got a part-time job,”she continues, “but I realised before I wasdue to start that by the time I had paid forchild care I was only just breaking evenfinancially. It was just unviable.”

Undeterred, however, Sharrocks thentook a decision to make a change andemploy a long-held aptitude formathematics by studying to be anaccountant, while also working onSaturdays in an estate agency.

“I am not particularly good in my owncompany,” she adds. “I'm the sort ofperson that loves to have a family butalso needs to get out and work, to bechallenged, to be social. I am alwaysseeking constant change.”

The move proved to be a good one.Sharrocks quickly found a local job as afinance assistant and within a couple of

years had been promoted twice into amanagement role. She now works fourdays a week while also continuing tostudy for accountancy qualifications andis satisfied in her work.

One thing that Sharrocks does concede,however, is that these opportunitieswould not be available to everyone in herpeer group. “I'm very lucky to have avery supportive husband. He also worksin education, which means the holidaysthat he gets are very helpful. There areother women I know that haveconsiderable skills that have not beenable to get back to work, perhapsbecause their partners work very longand impractical hours. In my opinionthese women are a wasted resource.”

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(c) Golden ageWhen the Working Nation series waslaunched in 2003 the first report, ‘YoungGuns, Mature Minds’, tackled the issue ofage diversity in the workplace. Most ofthe findings made depressing reading.Older workers felt undervalued andunderrepresented, while younger workersfelt that they had more to learn fromtheir older colleagues - but in manycases were not provided with the rightenvironment to do so.

The report garnered praise and supportfrom organisations such as the Third AgeEmployment Network and the EmployersForum on Age, both of which were verymuch in tune with the report’s rallying cry,not so much to positively discriminatewithout reason, but to do more to provethe advantages of an age-balanced policyby helping the young and old work moreeffectively together.

In 2008, it is clear from the findingsgathered for this report that the value andsense of this message still applies. Whathad perhaps not been realised in 2003,however, was that it was those in theirmid-thirties as much as their twenties thatcould benefit from such a policy, in termsof both motivation and inspiration.

‘Second burst’

In 2003 Working Nation investigated agediversity by examining specific tensionsand niggles within the workplace. In 2008there is a difference. Older respondentswere asked to look not just at the here-and-now, but also to evaluate the relativemerits of the entire working lifecycle,looking back at their own experiencesand thinking about differences in thesituation that younger generations findthemselves in today.

The result is that the findings indicate a farmore positive outlook - not just for thosethat are already in their forties, fifties and

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31

sixties, but those about to enter this agegroup from their thirties, because the goodnews - the light at the end of the tunnel -is that older participants reported a‘second burst’ of working life once theygot through the pressures of the familylife-stage. They describe themselves intheir forties, fifties and sixties as becomingmore relaxed and satisfied in their work.

Many older participants in the discussiongroups and intergenerational debate saidthat their children growing up andbecoming more independent provided awelcome opportunity - a breathing space - to assess what they reallywanted to do in their working lives. Somechanged careers and some retrained topursue roles that provided them withgreater satisfaction. Others renegotiatedthe terms of their existing careers: forinstance, some reduced their workinghours and others became self-employedbecause it gave them greater controlover their workload and allowed themmore free time. More than their youngercounterparts, the older workers are keento prioritise satisfaction at work and,crucially, they feel freed up to do it.

• 97 per cent of those workingbeyond 65 feel 'enabled' in theirwork compared to just 61 per centof 31-35 year olds

• Seven out of ten workers aged 50+say they are fulfilled, yet just halfof 31-25 year olds say the same

• Satisfaction levels peak at 90 percent + amongst the oldest agecohort (65 per cent)

“What happens is you getmore self-confident, youhave more understandingabout how work works;your role in it, what yourresponsibilities are. Itbecomes easier for youas you get older.”

Retiring retirementIt is important to stress that many peoplein their fifties and sixties do not regardthemselves as 'winding down' toretirement. Rather, they are pursuing ahigh quality of working life - that is, workthat brings them a strong sense of purposeand satisfaction. Most say that they wantto remain busy and do not wish to retire.


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Several participants in their fifties andsixties said that they feel more satisfiedwith their lives in general, having greaterconfidence about who they are and whatthey want, and this has fed into a greatersense of satisfaction at work.

34 per cent of the UK working nationsay they go to work to express a skill,talent or passion, but this jumps to itshighest level amongst those workingpast retirement age (53 per cent)

ControlOlder participants described a greaterdegree of harmony between their worklives and the rest of their lives. They areno longer prepared to work all hours, asthey might have done in their twentiesand thirties. Instead they feel that workfits in better with their lives. They mightstill need to work through especially busyperiods but they have a calmer, moredetached approach and will allowthemselves to enjoy the quieter periodsthat follow. They have learnt how to pacethemselves.

Many older participants expressed anincreased sense of control over theirwork. To a degree, this comes withincreased seniority and responsibility,

since those in senior positions findthemselves less at the beck and call ofothers. But there is also a sense in thelatter stages of a career of being 'in agroove', knowing well how to do the joband what is expected. Participants alsoreported being in a position to have morecontrol over their work, in terms of whatthey wanted to do and how they wantedto work.

They also said that they are able to work'smarter' by being more effective ingetting their work done. Participants alsofelt, to a degree, this ability to worksmartly is a skill that develops with ageand cannot be taught.

“The older you get thesmarter you work. I thinkwhen you're very young,you work hard but youdon't work smart becauseyou don't understand thatyou can get probably moredone if you thought or hadmore experience.”


SummaryAs was noted in the introduction to thisreport, there is a widespread assumptionprevalent today, as illustrated by the CMIManagement Futures report, thattechnology will fundamentally change theworld of work over the next ten years.Attendant to this assumption is the feelingthat the consequence of this change will bethat young people will be handed anunprecedented advantage, allowing themto leapfrog older generations into positionsof power and create hitherto undreamed ofnew business opportunities.

This report serves to temper that viewwith the perspective of oldergenerations, bringing to the fore thehuman factors that in many ways cannotbe substituted or replaced, regardless oftechnological innovations.

The quantitative figures also suggest thatnot all in the working nation believe thatthe change brought about by technologywill be so radical. Just 18 per cent of theworkforce believe that technology willchange the way they work entirely.

Significantly, this rises to 31 per cent of16-20 year olds. No doubt they trulybelieve this, but will this generation trulybe able to work smarter, better thanbefore? In the deliberative discussion

phase of this research, even betweengenerations, there was consensus thatthere are some things that cannot betaught, a feeling that the ability to trulywork smarter can only come with age.Technology will no doubt change a lot ofthings, but it cannot buy the youth oftoday the priceless gift of experience.

Finally, a note on planning. Therespondents to our quantitative survey saidthat just one in five of them planned theircareers outright. Significantly, this rises to32 per cent of 61-65 year olds, who saytheir careers were thoroughly planned.

Is this just the benefit of hindsight? Orwas there more opportunity to plan, orperhaps less opportunity to change,thirty to forty years ago?

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Both are probably true. Whatever thecase, planning is important to fulfilment.69 per cent of all respondents who saidthat they planned to be where they aresay that the world of work has met theirexpectations, while only 44 per cent ofthose who left it all to chance say workhas met their expectations.

Happily, the state of flux that theworkplace is predicted to enter - wherecareer changes will apparently come to bethe norm - does not seem to have affectedthe attitude and determination of thegeneration currently at school toodetrimentally - four out of ten say that theyare carefully planning their career, rising to47 per cent of 16 year olds. The hope isthat these best laid plans will be supportedby a future working environment thatencourages them to come to fruition.

[Case study]When Roger Maynard, 65, looks back onhis career, he concedes that it looks like itwas all planned, but he refuses to revisethe truth through hindsight.

“My career absolutely wasn't planned.” hesays. “It may appear that way but itwasn't. I grabbed opportunities when theycame along and saw what happened.”

Maynard graduated with an economicsdegree from Cambridge University beforesitting the Civil service exams soonafterwards. Having been accepted intowhat is now the Department of Trade andIndustry he went on to work for theservice for a total of 22 years in a varietyof different roles, including an eight-year

35


secondment with the Foreign Office inSwitzerland and the United States.

During the latter stages of his civil servicecareer Maynard had responsibility for anumber of airport and aviation-relatedissues, which ultimately led to him leavingto work for British Airways, where he hasworked for the past 21 years and is still thecompany's current Director of Strategy,with no immediate plans to retire.

When he looks back, what is clear toMaynard is that this 'second wind' in hiscareer in the commercial world would nothave been quite as possible earlier in his life.

“When I was in Government I would saythat the work and life balance was prettygood, which was essential when bringingup a young family. The time I leftgovernment and joined BA coincidedalmost exactly with the children leavinghome. Since then my working life hascertainly been a lot more chaotic andthere is no doubt that the enormousamount of travel involved has impacted mysocial life in a way that would have been areal issue earlier in my life.”

In terms of the motivation to work,Maynard says that he has always lookedfor variety and interest and people aroundthat are fun and stimulating to work with.

This is something that he appears to havein common with those younger people thathe works with and manages today.

“The younger people, those in theirtwenties, they are much more willing toswitch around and move companies tofind what they want and what intereststhem - more so I think than thegeneration that preceded them andcertainly my own generation.”

Maynard does not necessarily see thistrend as a negative, more of a symptomof the way companies view employeestoday, and he can see similarities withthe way in which he took on differentroles in his early career in the civilservice. His approval does, however,come with a warning:

“I think it is more difficult for youngpeople today, definitely,” he continues.“There is more pressure to perform morequickly and to move on to prove yourselfin a few places. The result is that theyhave less certainty about where theircareer really lies.”

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The goal of the deliberative, intergenerational phase of the research for this reportwas to task the participants with developing a set of principles for creating andcontributing to a happier and more motivated workforce. These principles are listed atthe bottom of this section.

There were many useful insights brought out by the discussions that led to thedevelopment of these principles. One of the clearest was the sense that having 'upsand downs' through working life is natural and is not necessarily a cause for concern.The majority understood and accepted that there will always be periods of being busyand pressured. However, these are usually balanced out by periods of being lesspressured. Work life, it was said, occurs in peaks and troughs of busier periods and

quieter periods, which can occur over thecourse of a single week or over longer periodsof a month or a year.

There was also consensus that the pressure towork long hours - and not to allow breathingspace and recuperation from busy periods -can come from individuals themselves and isnot just due to pressure from above. For thisreason, it was felt that managers need to helppeople to manage themselves in relation totheir work, in other words, ‘encourage peopleto be kind to themselves’.

The upshot is that flexibility and empathy(understanding and responding to people'sindividual needs and circumstances) on thepart of managers and organisations are seenas the key qualities and skills that will helppeople through difficult periods - including theperiod, often during people's thirties, when

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Principles for developing ahappier and moremotivated workforce


they are under pressure from thecompeting demands of work and family.Flexibility and empathy are not simplenice-to-have qualities; they are crucial tomaintaining a motivated workforce. Inthe long-term, they ensure a situationwhere employees feel satisfied,motivated and in control, andorganisations where managers aregetting the best out of their workforce.

In the words of Mary Chapman, ChiefExecutive of the Chartered ManagementInstitute, who spoke recently to theGuardian newspaper on a related issue,“a greater degree of emotionalintelligence will be required by managersand leaders so they can understand howpeople work and their likely reaction tochange. They will also need to shift fromtoday's input-driven approach to a focuson output, achievement and a betterintegration between work and personal lives.”7

Principles for the employer:

o Listen to and have empathy withemployees; understand people'sindividual needs and circumstances.

o Provide clear opportunities forprogression; clear steps upwards,including appraisals and training.

o Embrace empowerment andflexibility; allow people to beresponsible.

o Provide fair pay and conditions; fairrecompense is important in makingemployees feel valued.

o Remember that technology is notthe preserve of youth; educate theolder users that can combine itsbenefits with greater experience of'working smarter'.

“Have very strong clearobjectives so peopleknow what their goalsare; reaching those goals,reaching those targets.”

“Flexibility because weunderstand each other,we understand whenwe've got kids, weunderstand whether we'vegot problems at home.”

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“Have empathy and treatpeople differently, dependingon their individual needs.”

7 The Guardian, “Wave goodbye to the nine tofive”, (March 2008).


Principles for the employee:

o Speak up; be clear about youraspirations, goals and hopes.

o Plan your career as much as ispossible; those that have done so saythat they have found that work hasmet their expectations more thanthose that didn't.

o Work-life expectancy; settingdeadlines for reaching career goalscan be beneficial for self-motivation,but they can also result in a feeling ofdepression and dissatisfaction if theyare not reached within thedetermined timeframe. Set deadlinesfor your mid-thirties - but also beprepared to take into account theother life factors - such as family -which will come into play.

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“Speaking up is reallyimportant - if you'redissatisfied withsomething, stop moaningabout it and dosomething about it.Managers generallyappreciate it, as long asyou don't just go in withnegatives and it's aconstructive process.”


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David Molian BA / MA Diplome MBACranfield University School ofManagement

When I was asked to review and commenton this fascinating new Working Nationreport I was struck by the importance of thefindings to my own specialist interest inentrepreneurship. It is, after all, the growingbusinesses of tomorrow that one wouldexpect to take heed of the latest research,the latest trends, the likelihood of changeand the need to embrace that change.

In my opinion - and through my ownresearch - there are two dominant agecohorts of entrepreneurs that correspondto groups identified in the report:

o Generation Y’rs, who start businessesin their teens or twenties, with thedesire to control their own lives anddestinies. This group is encouragedand motivated by the growing numbersof successful, wealthy role modelsthey see of people who have ‘made it’in the their thirties and forties.

o Generation X’rs, who start businessesin their thirties and forties, typicallyrefugees from corporate life who arefrustrated by the constraints andpolitics of corporate life or who havefailed to climb the corporate ladder.

Neither group is motivated solely bymoney; the desire for autonomy or toachieve something unique is usually themain driver, while the money made merelykeeps the score.

What I believe the report shows beyonddoubt is that this drive for uniqueness -and the subsequent need for imagination -should not be confined to a marketoffering or service, but should also applyvery much to the management of staff.Managers of growing businesses, indeedany employer, should know that they haveto meet their employees half-way; thesurvey confirms that people do not expecttheir work and personal lives to be whollydistinct any more.

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Concluding remarks


Sometimes this means creative solutions.One owner-manager I know - instead ofbanning personal emails - allowsemployees 15 minutes to send and receiveemails at the beginning and end of theday. A second permits employees to do soat any time but only on two machineswhich are the ones solely configured foremailing. These are placed in full view ofeverybody, so that peer pressure preventsabuses. A third I know bans the use ofmobile phones and emailing duringworking hours (apart for emergency use)because the nature of the business meansthat employees have to be contactablecontinuously. This is explicit, is written intocontracts of employment, and is observedfrom the Managing Director down.Employees accept this because theManaging Director is leading by example.

Ambitious entrepreneurs also have tocome to terms with the rising expectations

of job satisfaction from the workforce,highlighted in this report. The brutal truth isthat even in a modern economy there justaren't enough interesting jobs to go round.

But - again with a little imagination, andsome empathy - there are things that canbe done. An expanding manufacturingbusiness that I have worked with has beenre-designed so that variety and flexibilityare built into the work wherever possible,and work teams are regularly exchangedbetween locations, both in the UK andoverseas. Compensation is also designedso that the workforce can increase itsearnings significantly if it can find ways tocut costs and improve efficiencies: theworkforce effectively owns the problem,the solution and shares the benefits. Theemployer, for his part, commits toproviding them with the best possibletools and techniques to help theworkforce to achieve this.

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The report also highlights the emergence ofportfolio careers. Some people see it asbad thing, an erosion of the bedrock ofloyalty on which British companies wereonce built. Others see it as a positive thing -a free market that encouragesachievement, success and growth. I believestrongly that we will see this trendincreasingly in the UK workplace, but mostsignificantly within the entrepreneurcommunity. Those who 'cash out' in theirthirties or forties don't want to retire. They

want to create new businesses, or helpothers do so through investing or advising.More and more they also want to putsomething back. We see daily presscoverage on the growing importance ofphilanthropy, driven by entrepreneurs likeTom Hunter and Chris Hohn, who approachnot-for-profit ventures with the same steelydetermination they bring to making money.

If that is the future of the working nation,then I for one would like to be part of it.

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The backdrop to this report is the widelyheld belief that developments in technologyand new forms of communication arechanging working cultures forever, creatingnew kinds of companies as well as newkinds of employees.

The future workplace is thus oftendescribed in terms of ‘virtual’ companies,enabled by technology, operating as smallcommunity-based enterprises withoutconventional business premises (not fornothing did Microsoft founder Bill Gatespronounce that the 21st century would bethe century of the SME).

Employees, it is held, will subsequentlybecome less willing to work fororganisations that do not allow individuals totailor the working day to meet their ownbespoke requirements.

Associated with this idea is the prospect ofa new cult of youth in the workplace. Theassumption is that this is a unique age - atime of change when technology is playingwell into the hands of younger generations(born after 1980) that are growing up withits development; where the attitudes andaspirations of those generations arechanging, as a result, irrevocably.

The findings of this research confirm thatyoung people under thirty are indeed

seeking a working world that enables theopportunity for options, variety and change -a psychological contract with the employerwritten purely in their own terms.

However, the research also finds that theyoungest people in the workplace are notnecessarily driven by a new kind ofselfishness - they share a number ofpassions and the desire to express and fulfilthemselves that the older generationsconcede is no different from their memoriesof their own youth.

What has changed, if anything, is the cultureof companies driven by short term successand interim goals, thereby creating a culturewhere the psychological contract betweenemployer and employee is loosened, theportfolio CV is prized and long-term loyaltyis devalued.

At the other end of the age scale, the oldergenerations (in the forties, fifties and sixties)still working or recently retired, reportenjoying a second burst of fulfiling work-life.This 'baby boomer' generation, as it is quiteoften referred to, is not quite ready toconcede to retirement just yet.

In the middle, the people in the middle oftheir careers in today's working nation -those now in their thirties - say that they aresuffering from a malaise of disenchantment.

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Executive summary


This is perhaps not surprising initself. Generation X, as it isknown (i.e. those born in the1960s and 1970s), is oftenportrayed in the media as beingcharacterised by cynicism.

What is surprising, and revealing,is that this report shows that thissense disaffection is happening alot earlier than manycommentators may havepreviously realised. Whereas itwas once thought to occur in thelate thirties to early forties, it is nowhappening, for many, as soon as the earlythirties, brought on by shortened career andexpectancy (in other words, a self-imposeddeadline to have 'made it' by 35).

Within this finding is a warning. Even theolder cohorts surveyed for this report, theapparently contented baby boomers that areforty and over, reported experiencing thesame kind of mid-career crisis. In manyways it is seen as something that can't beavoided - a symptom of other pressuresoutside work such as family life - even bythe young technocrats supposedly at thevanguard of the new world of work.

Do the younger people believe that it willhappen to them? In many cases they donot. Just like the generation before them,

they believe that they will avoid burn outand apathy by reaching the top of treeearlier than was ever conceived to bepossible before.

The only difference in this new (and nextgeneration) from the last is that the timeline- the route to success - is self-projected tobe even shorter. If this is the case, it couldbe that Generation Y (born after 1980) isheading for the same mid-career malaisethat has ever been - only this time thesense of raised expectation and increasedself-confidence could mean that in the nearfuture it is going to hit harder and earlierthan ever before.

This finding, if it holds true, could prove tobe one of the biggest management issues(and challenges) of the next ten years.

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16-200%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55

Without contol Dissatisfied Trapped

56-60 61-65 65+

What do you chiefly feel in your current role

Q


The research for this report was conducted jointly by Opinion Leader and OpinionMatters between February and June 2008.

All employees of both Opinion Leader and Opinion Matters are individual members ofthe Market Research Society and all research conducted was in accordance with theMarket Research Society Codes of Conduct.

Opinion LeaderThe initial qualitative/deliberative phase was conducted by Opinion Leader in threephases:

1. Initial in-depth interviews with members of a steering group2. Qualitative group discussions with members of the public at different ages and

working life-stages3. An intergenerational workshop bringing together a selection of the participants

from the group discussions

Steering groupOpinion Leader conducted fiveinterviews with a steering group ofbusiness people and academics. Eachinterview lasted approximately thirtyminutes. The purpose of the steeringgroup was to test and validate theideas and approach developed forWorking Nation 2008, highlighting anygaps or further areas of interest.

46

Methodology


Qualitative group discussionsOpinion Leader conducted seven extended group discussions, each with a different agegroup, to explore people's experiences and attitudes towards the world of work. Thediscussions lasted two hours, allowing time and space to scope out the issues. Eachgroup comprised social influencers; that is, ordinary people who have plenty of socialcontacts and a strong influence within their social networks. Among those of workingage, we recruited both people who were employed and those who were self-employed.

The composition of the groups is shown in the table below:

Group number Life/work stage Age1 Thinking about future careers 14 - 16

2 Transitioning between education and 19 - 21the world of work

3 First few years of experience in the world of work 26 - 28

4 10+ years experience of the world of work 33 - 36- early managers

5 20+ years experience of the world of work 43 - 46- management combined with parenthood

6 30+ years experience of the world of work 53 - 56- thinking about retirement

7 Mixture of those still working and recent retirees 63 - 66

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Intergenerational workshopThe final phase of the qualitative research was deliberative in nature, allowingparticipants time to feedback on information presented to them and to consider issuesin depth. It involved fourteen 'reconvened' participants; two participants from each ofthe discussion groups - that is, from each of the different working generations. Theworkshop lasted three hours and brought these representatives of the different agegroups together to develop and cross pollinate ideas, as well as identifying points ofdifference. The workshop aimed to consider possible solutions to the issues raised bothin the group discussions and in the emerging quantitative research findings. Theworkshop involved participants working in two groups; each group consisted of sevenpeople, one from each generation.

Opinion MattersFindings from the qualitative research stage described above fed into the developmentof the quantitative survey research conducted by Opinion Matters for Working Nation2008. The Internet panel survey polled a total of 3,842 people, including:

o Over 300 one-man-band businesses, 1,000 SMEs and 1,300 large corporateworkers

o 440 board directors/CEOs/MDso 750 in senior and middle management o 528 future members of the working nation, aged 14-18

Findings from the Opinion Matters survey were presented to participants in theIntergenerational workshop in order to stimulate and facilitate debate.

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Working Nation is a major ongoing studythat chronicles the attitudes and trendsthat shape the United Kingdom at work.Researched independently, the studyprovides a series of compelling reportsthat offer an insight into the views ofopinion leaders, employers and employeesabout changing roles, responsibilities andperceptions in the workplace.Five other reports in the series havepreviously been published:

o Leading Lights: the DNA ofBusiness Success

o Identity at Work: changing faceso Ideas at Work: the untapped

resourceo Loyalty at Work: what does it mean

today? o Young Guns, Mature Minds

If you would like to find out more aboutWorking Nation or get involved in thedebate, please visit our interactive forumat (www.vodafone.co.uk/workingnation).All previous reports are also available fordownload from this site.

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About WorkingNation


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Vodafone Ltd, Vodafone House, The Connection, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2FNTel: +44 (0)845 444 4466 www.vodafone.co.uk


the nature of work - realwire nation... · 2008. 7. 16. · mark bond, director of enterprise,...

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