Our Changing Workplace

The 1999 movie Office Space captured everything Gen X'ers hated about work – cubical farms, corporate blandness, uptight bosses pretending not to be uptight. And while the film still resonates for many, watching it today makes it feel dated. There's a new wave of employees joining the workforce, bringing different values, skills, styles, and technologies with them. That influx puts three, and sometimes four, generations all under the same office park roof. On today's show, we’ll talk about the changing dynamics of the workplace.

First, we talk about merging generations in the workforce. We have 78 million baby boomers, but only about 47 million Gen X'ers. To tell us why this is an issue for employers, Dr. David DeLong, author of Lost Knowledge: Confronting the Threat of an Aging Workforce, joins the show. He’s also a management consultant and researcher at MIT's AgeLab.

A Microsoft survey of more than 38,000 people worldwide found that workers, by their own admission, average only three productive days per week. We discuss some dos and don'ts for managers who are hoping to keep their age-assorted work forces productive, and happy. And we find out if Michael Scott, the bumbling boss on TV's The Office, is doing anything right. We speak with Dr. Ben Dattner, a workplace consultant and industrial and organizational psychologist.

We also hear a commentary from writer, musician, and stay-at-home dad Matthew Broyles. According to a May 2006 U.S. census report, there are 159,000 stay-at-home dads - up from 98,000 in 2003. A group out of Wakefield, MA, the North of Boston Dads playgroup, has created a new social networking site to bring at-home dads together.

(Photo by John / Star5112)