Hmmm
Well I am of the humble opinion that we want grown ups in the workplace. This all reminds me of the time when teachers donned romper-type suits and got down and dirty with the children and wanted to be called 'John' or 'Mary' and 'be friends' rather than Teacher- Pupil. I suppose there are companies that think bright-primary-coloured bean bags and 'chill-out' areas and being Facebook-Twitter-et-al friendly is the way to go. Good luck to them. What will that company be like when the 'coddled' generation is in the driving seat? Romper-suits and playing in the lifts and chunky crayons to be 'expressive' on the walls I suppose. We need to have a grown-up approach to this; young people, and I was one once, need to understand that the workplace is not an extension of kindergarten; college-campus-capers and rag-days have no real place there. Rather than dumbing down (haven't the schools and TV done enough of that already) and 'dealing with' Tommy's 'I'm leaving' tantrums and pandering; shouldn't we be showing them respect and treating them like the adults they think they are? Of course workplaces can and should move with the techonolgy and make use of it if it does make a difference to productivity and efficiency etc., and of course coming to work should be a good experience; but let's not forget that we are there to do a job of work not to play. If the prospective employee does not like the sound of the company because there is not enough 'playtime' and toys I guess they can go elsewhere.
