Working Too Much: No Millennials Just think about work too much

Editor: Philip Ragner | Tactical Investor

Thinking About and working too much Is Not The Same Thing

In one study, researchers with the happiness app Happify found that millennials live with a relatively negative state of mind. In fact, they discovered that in addition to more stress and negativity, members of the generation reported having fewer positive emotions than any other generation. But at the time, the researchers weren’t sure why.

Now, they’ve conducted a separate, new study that analyzes data from more than 250,000 Happify users and the things they write on the app. The study looked at three separate writing activities, and the results were published in an article in the Harvard Business Review.

“What we found,” the article states, “is that millennials are obsessed with their jobs, socialize with friends less often than many older folks assume, and don’t seem to set many stores in developing a spiritual life.”

The researchers began by scanning users’ profiles to determine the things for which they were most grateful. In general, the most common responses boiled down to time spent with family and friends—but not for millennials. Millennials were most grateful for “positive interactions with colleagues,” “having a low-stress commute,” “getting a new job,” “being satisfied with an existing job,” “sleeping,” and “relaxing in bed.” (If you’re counting, that’s four out of six things revolving around work.) Full Story

It would help a lot of they thought less about working too much and actually did some work.

Millennials Care More About Work-Life Balance But Not About Working Too Much

Today, 42 per cent of employees feel obligated to check in with work while on vacation, according to Randstad’s Employee Engagement Study. The study also found that Millennials were the generation “most inclined to remain ‘on’ during off-hours.”

For Millennials, the never-offline and the always-available workplace is all they know. To them, turning off work at 5:00 p.m. is an antiquated practice. Due to their always-on approach to life, Millennials see no problem with blending work and life. Checking e-mail before they get out of bed in the morning, then shopping online while at work, exchanging texts with their managers after 8:00 p.m., and then catching up on e-mail on Sunday afternoon is native to them.

Every generation seeks a healthy work-life balance, but it’s Millennials who most demand it from their employers. In today’s employee market, creating a work-life balance for Millennials is a compelling competitive advantage.

According to EY’s Global Generation Research, nearly one-third of Millennials say that managing their work, family, and personal responsibilities have become more difficult in the past five years. And 47 per cent of Millennial managers around the globe reported an increase in their hours at a time when many are moving into management and starting families (compared to 38 per cent for Gen X and 28 per cent for Boomers).

According to a 2015 EY study, Millennials find it harder to achieve work-life balance because they are almost twice as likely to have a spouse or partner who works at least full time than Boomers (78 per cent versus 47 per cent). Full Story

Translation they want their cake and pie too, but don’t want to work for it. Once again, instead of thinking about working too much, millennials should focus on doing some real work.

What Do Millennials Value?

When asked what they are grateful for, people typically respond with the things they personally recognize as important — what they appreciate and value. Gratitude text can, therefore, provide a glimpse into the fundamental life priorities of individuals. In our study, 276,296 Happify users (30.7% of them in the age range of 25–34) responded to a gratitude exercise where they were asked to “jot down three things that happened today or yesterday that made you feel grateful.” Users were directed to think of a broad range of possibilities: “It could be something someone did for you, something you did for yourself, or just the simple fact that the sun was shining.”

Across all ages, the most common topics were related to “spending quality time with family and friends.” Yet the topics for which Millennials specifically expressed the most gratitude were different: “positive interactions with colleagues,” “having a low-stress commute,” “getting a new job,” “being satisfied with an existing job,” “sleeping,” and “relaxing in bed Full Story

Thinking About and working too much Is Not The Same Thing

Millennials Care More About Work-Life Balance But Not About Working Too Much

What Do Millennials Value?

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