It seems like Gary Hammel is assuming that the corporate Fatcats of the world will suddenly yield to will of a younger generation. No friggen way! How do you think these Cats got so Fat, anyways? Or, maybe this article is really addressed to those Fatcats in an effort to say like "Ok guys, we have to make these young shits think we're responding to like their unique desires or something. You know, make them feel special. Maybe lets trick them into thinking that they're pulling the strings for one." (At which point all puppeteering Fatcats laugh hysterically.)
Here's a little bit of bias (could you tell?). I don't think that the Fatcats of America are ever going to give up the power that they talk about in this article. This is more about adapting tactics to continue Business As Usual. I just think that these Fortune 500 companies are too big and their Fatcat CEOs lounge on too high a floor for Generation F to completely penetrate. Like, "tasks are chosen, not assigned"? I think that as long as it's someone else signing your friggen paycheck, you'll be doing the work that's assigned. Like, yeah, ok. I chose not to do this task, and I've subsequently chosen to find another job at like McDonalds. Not that there's anything wrong with that. You'd have a better chance seeing these work-relevant characteristics of online life in action at a locally franchised fast-food restaurant than you would at fricken J.P Morgan.
This all clearly gets me fired up. I don't think I need to go into that any more. After getting that off my chest, though, I will say that I've seen my employer responding to some of these charachteristics. Granted, the Skirack isn't sitting atop the towers of high finance. It's a small company that's been locally owned for like 40 years or something and has never tried to grow beyond it's one location. I think the scale and lack of corporate ladder rungs to climb have something to do with that. Smaller companies, especially if they're successful, have an opportunity to try some slightly left of center business practices. In my experience, it's been that willingness to adapt to change and try things differently that has kept the doors of the rack open for so long.
See? I don't hate everything.
The choice of task is such a reality, and it can make the workplace hostile in all work environments, corporate and small businesses. If you have someone who chooses what they do and do not wish to do, is that really acceptable? No not really, but I bet it all comes from the status or level of the individual. A manager can easily choose what they want to do and delegate the rest to their subordinates. Basically, you have a job, you should do all the tasks that are relevant. If not, it leads to the entry level or part time people doing the work of a higher level and a much higher pay grade. Fair? Nope.
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