There has been a trend at the job place to introduce certain commodities that one normally associates with free time. For example the installation of a gym may be commonplace compared to the setting up of a dance floor for happy hour festivities, yet employees appreciate these innovations at the workplace. Now that baby boomers are retiring or about to retire, the new guy on the block is less likely to want to make those sacrifices that used to be made for the company ideal. He is more likely to say that if he doesn't get the job, he'll be passing his cell phone onto to his dad so that you can explain why he isn't worth it.
There are generational pressures also in China with young people challenging their older relatives to the point of accusing them of being "old". One can see generational differences when younger family members communicate through chat lines and the older generation only in their forties can't make head or tale of the writing. A Chinese lady friend made a mention of not understanding what her younger relatives are writing on the chat forums or in their emails. When she asked her younger relative, she was challenged with, “Don't you know? All my friends know what it means.” Than she was accused of being too old because she did not understand the new expressions or words that her younger relative was writing.
Younger people who are now targets for recruiters want to make choices that their parents didn't. In a recent report on the new generation hitting the market a couple interviewed on a documentary said that they did not want to make the mistake their parents did about sacrificing their lives for their families. They want to be less pressured at the work place and that could mean "chilled out." That is their way of being less stressed at the work place, they admit. Job recruiters at "Zappatos", a shoe manufacturer, have said that with a dance floor installed at the work place employees are happier. That way they perform better at the work place and are less stressed. Perhaps baby boomers that are still working can learn from an example like this.
