Canadians are spending less time at the office. Statistics Canada reports that the average workweek in this country declined from 38.6 hours to 36.5 hours between 1976 and 2006. But are we working less? Do we have better work-life balance now than we did 30 years ago? There’s evidence that we don’t.

Consider a recent online poll by the popular job search engine Monster.ca, which found that 23% of Canadians check their email and phone messages while on vacation. Another 17% work right through their holidays.

Information technology has blurred the lines between work and life. Computers allow and encourage us to take work home or on vacation with us. BlackBerrys and cellphones tell clients and bosses that we’re available practically around the clock. Working during off hours has become an accepted—if not expected—practice.

Employers who have come to expect this short-sighted behaviour from their employees will be in for a rude awakening in the years ahead, according to some experts. Generation Y (1977–1994), which has begun to replace retiring baby boomers in the workplace, is arriving with very different expectations than those of its predecessors. This generation places a premium on work-life balance.

A 2007 Ipsos Reid/Benefits Canada magazine survey of 30-year-olds found that Gen Yers rank spending time with family and friends as more important than career advancement. Some 40% expect to work 36 to 40 hours a week, and many believe their employer should offer 30 days of annual vacation.

To attract and retain workers, employers will have to adapt to the new demographic and social realities.

“[Organizations] got away with unhealthy behaviour for years. We are now moving into a seller’s market (more good jobs than good workers),” says workplace health researcher Linda Duxbury. “You got shareholder value by working your organization to capacity. [The younger generation] isn’t going to take it.”

Offering incentives such as flexible work arrangements, up to five paid personal days a year in addition to vacation time, and performance measures that focus on meeting objectives rather than on hours will give companies a competitive advantage, Duxbury says.

Over the next 30 years, it will be interesting to see whether the average workweek in Canada continues to decline.

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© Copyright 2008 Rogers Publishing Ltd. This article first appeared in the September 2008 edition of WORKING WELL magazine.