All play and some work

It's fascinating reading about millennials and attention span, because I want to come at this post with an authority of "I agree and we should put our phones down!" but in reality, I'm part of this generation and I'm not going to put my phone down anytime soon. I do, however, understand the situation at hand perfectly. I have an extremely short attention span, which sucks in important lectures, because I grew up on the internet. I'm so impatient, I won't even wait for a Vine to load. And yet...

I've always been a more traditional person, at least that's what I've been told by my family and in the past by some instructors. I don't like some of the new age decisions, and one of those is quality of work. I grew up watching my parents work at IBM, heck my whole family worked for IBM, and that company is traditionally businesslike. Employees come to work, they sit at their desk and do their job, and they go home. You get a lunch break and coffee breaks sure, but that's about it. I like this model, because work is work. I'm not saying there should be no fun, but I don't think there's anything wrong with this model of business.

My dad recently started a new career at a business that was founded upon the millennial ideal of work. They have foosball tables and music playing all day, and on casual Fridays they bring a keg out. That is just... ridiculous. I feel like there's some kind of running joke about new age jobs and having a foosball table, but it's very real. Does anyone use them? I don't think so. Anyway, the part that bothers me the most is the music. Everyone is making phone calls all day, so playing music over the loud speakers would be so obnoxious. But we have to love our job, right? It's interesting to watch my dad grow and adapt to this job, because he knows the traditional job more than I do obviously, so seeing him interact with working adults my age is a change I'm not sure he was ready for.

I'm not saying this company, or any millennial company, is doing a bad business model. Clearly it's working for now, but all of the fun games and distractions at work feel like just that, distractions. Had a bad phone call? Go play a game of pool. No, no pool. You suck it up and take the next phone call. They had a Pokemon Go day.. during work.. I just.. it's ridiculous. I don't understand the impatience that comes with being entertained at work. I'm impatient and want fast internet speeds when I'm home, but when I'm at work I need to be doing my job and not letting myself get impatient and expect my job to give me a toy just for being there.