The new co-workers definitely feel quite strongly about striking a work-life balance, leaving unapologetically to go grocery shopping, or refusing to use a computer, instead conducting business by cell phone. I can only imagine the remarks and eye rolls if I left work to go to the store or get a load of laundry started. With millennials, we just shrug and smile and chalk it up to their generation. OK, so maybe I am maligning a bit.
In my previous career, I was transferred to a new division, which was located in the office building next door to the one in which I had worked for about 20 years. I refer to it as the time I was shipped off to Siberia. The office had an open floor plan, so I was placed in a poorly-arranged sea of desks, staring square into the face of some twenty-somethings who thought their creativity was being stifled in a desk job.
We shared a common kitchen, which was nicely stocked with appliances, free coffee, plates, bowls, silverware, and cups. And a sink, filled with dirty plates, bowls, silverware, and cups. I’m truly not sure who they thought was going to wash their dirty dishes. Was it me, the woman old enough to be their mother? Did they expect the custodial staff to swoop in after hours and clean up the plates with hardened food because no one even thought to run a little water on them before leaving them to sit? Or perhaps they thought the job fell to the already over-burdened admin assistant who had been given a multitude of non-admin tasks to make her feel fulfilled? I only stepped into the kitchen for the free coffee, refusing to look at the dirty refrigerator with old carry out containers. (I sure couldn’t afford carry-out when I was in my early twenties.)
Occasionally, a treat found its way to the community table in the kitchen – donuts, cookies, leftover Halloween candy and the like. But no one ever brought in enough to feed everyone, so you had to act fast. One day, in need of the rare afternoon coffee, I entered the kitchen to spy a bowl of M&Ms on the table. Jackpot. I walked past the sink full of dishes and grabbed a chubby fistful to take back to my desk. The afternoon was looking up, I thought, until I deposited a few in my mouth. Skittles. What self-respecting adult likes Skittles?? I did a lot of maligning that day.