How can I think outside the box when I work inside a cube?

I ran across this list in Time Magazine about the top 10 things kids of this generation will never experience – below. This list made me chuckle, made me feel nostalgic and made be feel down right old. Which I am happy and proud to be!!

“The class of 2014 doesn’t wear watches, doesn’t write in cursive and has no idea why Nirvana is awesome.”

1. Camera Film
2. Landline Phones
3. Real Books
4. Being Lost
5. Music Videos on MTV (I can’t remember the last time I saw a video when I turned on MTV)
6. Walkmans
7. The Glory Days of Nick at Nite
8. Tan M&Ms (I wish we still had tan, I don’t trust blue colored candy)
9. Czechoslovakia
10. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Terminator

I’ve been a professional the last 15 years. After reading this article I reflected back on my first job and what the day to day operations were like compared to what I see in the workplace nowadays. My top 10 things new professionals of this generation will never experience…and for some that’s a good thing:

1. Sending a fax – enough said
2. Ending work for the day – the world is connected. There is no turning off the computer anymore for the day/weekend – our hand-helds are computers. You could chose to ignore a message if it’s after working hours – but you’ll only have it waiting for you when you being work the next day, among 500 other emergencies.
3. Lunch hour – if you take an hour for lunch you need to make it up somewhere. It seems luxurious to take an entire hour. But yet when I do I feel rejuvenated.
4. Escaping – now with Facebook launching “Facebook Places” a location-based service to find people and places and GPS tracking devices basically being embedded in our underwear, you can’t go anywhere and not be found
5. Looking for a job in the paper – not for professionals anyway
6. A delay – sure there will always be travel delays (and they are getting worse and worse) but when it comes to sending emails, getting verifications, looking at apps, downloading documents, uploading pictures, etc the infrastructures are so robust now that email is the new snail-mail.
7. Water cooler breaks – the term is a pop culture phenom, but the days of a “break” or even companies footing the bill for water coolers is o.v.e.r. Bring your own re-usable water bottle to work – it’s more eco-friendly anyway.
8. Reading a newspaper – not only are we armed with iPads, mobile apps and computers to read the content – it almost looks like you don’t have much going on if you are caught reading a paper at work
9. 1 garbage bin – I don’t know about you but we have four different garbage bins at work; 1) metal/plastic/glass 2) white paper 3) mixed paper 4) trash/garbage. I embrace it, but I wonder…what should go in the trash/garbage bin?
10. Waltzing into a building – they frisk you at the airport and now they frisk you at work. And thank goodness they do after the tragic bombings and shootings that happen in the workforce. But gasp if ever you were to leave your security badge at home.

There you have it. Lesson learned – wear clean underwear to work, never leave with out your hand-held and don’t question if all the garbage actually goes into one bin at the end of day – be happy that your company is trying to be the change we need.

Make it simple. Make it fun to read.

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