Workplace redefined?

Time is running out for me to enjoy the perks of being a student who relies on parents financially. I know, and no matter how  it disturbs me, I have to be mature enough to assume the role of our family’s breadwinner sooner or later. We discussed in our previous classes in Communication Trends and Styles that the dynamics of the workplace, particularly on employees as to what motivates or compels them to work and the values they bring along with them, has changed thanks to ‘generation gap’ (as we may call it) between the ‘baby boomers’  and  the ‘NetGen’.

Being a part of NetGen makes me question the nature of workplaces, hierarchy, or even work itself time and time again. Maybe I am just that kid before who was used to have things set by parents that’s why applying for my first own job and setting my career are difficult and, sometimes, tear-jerking. I contemplate on things regarding life after college these days no matter how exaggerated this is for others.

I don’t know but, perhaps, people enter college to secure employment upon graduating. This is a fact. After years of being in school, we as students have to pay back our parents who spent most of their earnings for our education. And so, it’s highly depressing to know that jobs are not everywhere, competitors abound, and opportunities are most of the time biased. Moreover, it’s sad to note that your own country can’t support you to have your dream job that you just have to forget attaining it. After years of study, it will be just salary, salary, salary. Sometimes factors like self-fulfillment are considered less.

But then, whew.

A New Workplace

Perhaps, the Internet has been changing a lot of aspects in our lifestyle today and there’s nothing it does not affect at all. The notion of workplace is definitely one of these. If work is just a means to an end which is connected to financial stability at the very least, then some factors will not be that held important. Nowadays, more and more people looking for income or jobs  are opting to take freelance work or work at home instead. Virtual companies such as those of language tutorials are on the rise.  For instance, in freelance work, one can enjoy:

• flextime at its fullest
• working at home (while attending to other matters)
• no or less dealings with difficult bosses
• no interaction with difficult co-workers
• a salary that office employees are likely to earn

There are even call center companies that allow employees to work from their homes. Of course, these are all possible through the use of new social media. Language tutorials are done in Skype where people of different nationalities converse. Web designers do the layout of corporate websites without being those company’s employees. Organizations hire bloggers just to make blogs and comments for their companies’ sake. There’s a lot of avenues new social media could provide now- without the limits of organizational hierarchy or policies and regulations.

"Freelance work" photo credit: http://www.atniz.com

New behavior?

Would there be a point that employees will stop seeking for corporate life? Would there be a point that they ’employees’ or ‘workplace’ are going to vague terms as well? Employees, being individuals, will continue to have increasing demands, differing values, and new priorities as they, of course, age.I know some people who abandoned their corporate life to give way to their own business they manage through new social media. Most of them value being at home and with their families as to decrease the chances of them being so workaholic neglecting their responsibilities with their children at home.

Organizations, in the advent of NetGen in the workforce and as ‘baby boomers’ are about to retire, should be ready for the ‘unthinkable’ implications today’s trends concerning new social media. This will in turn provide new paradigms in communication within organizations above all. Could it be possible to have computer-mediated organizational communication in the future?