Millennials : work culture is changing           

         Various studies have shown that for millennials, remuneration is not the main factor encouraging them to stay in a job. The gift of flexibility is greatly valued by them as it enables them to get the most out of life.

A company approached a B-school to make its annual leave calendar more employee-friendly, by incorporating features that will let them  have a personalised leave structure.

Some employers offer bottomless holidays, which is basically “take as many days of leave as you want to, just ensure the works done”.  

A  few organisations are allowing their employees to “customise” their holiday calendar.  Besides state-declared holidays, they can choose to mark “their holidays” drawing from a special reserve.

It was a democratic process that brought every employee on board.  Associates from various locations of a company voted through a virtual ballot box, there by picking five days they wanted included in the company’s 2019 calendar.  The company observes 10 holidays in a calendar year, which includes mandatory and company vacation.   Based on voting, employees got four additional festival holidays.  They would have these holidays in lieu of four holidays.

Employees get to celebrate days that are important to them, but are not on the official common holiday list.

Holiday calendar is an investment a company makes to its employees’ well-being and happiness.  It involves planning and feed back from employees. “When such a calendar is well-designed, employees can plan in advance.                                            

                                                                                                     Observations of  Liffy Thomas 

          A full time job with one employer has been the norm for decades, but increasingly this does not capture how an increasing share of the workforce makes a living.  Even as the workplace is rapidly readjusting to changing demographics and the needs of millennials – the group of people born between 1980 and 2000,  who grew up with access to the internet and digital technology including social networks, smart phones, tablets etc.,  are struggling to keep pace.

For this group, the line between work and play has blurred .  The never offline and always available workplace, is all they know.  Given their always – on approach to life, millennials see no problem with blending  work and life.  Checking email even before they get out of bed in the morning, then shopping online while at work, exchanging texts and taking conference calls with co-workers after office hours, and then catching up with office mail on a weekend is native to them.   

                                                                                                              From Lloyd Mathias article