As a young twenty something, I'd like to give another perspective on this issue. To establish my background, I'm a 26yo American woman who earned my masters in Business in London at one of the most prestigious Business Schools in the world. Before I started the position I'm in now (Business Development Manager for a successful technology start up) I temped for many companies in London while looking for a permanent position. One of the biggest differences I experienced between UK and US companies was a desire to cling to hierarchy and "the way things have always been done".
I'm a very hard worker, but I am a lot more motivated to work in environments where I am treated like an adult and trusted to get my work done without being constantly monitored. My current employer allows me to come in late if I choose to work through lunch instead. If I'm running late in the morning, I'm not questioned. Because my employer trusts me. This makes me happy to come into work each day, rather than dreading being constantly reprimanded. I feel like the skills I have to offer are appreciated.
I've had employers who lecture me for coming in 5 minutes late, but then think it's perfectly acceptable for an executive to come in whenever he pleases. This instantly makes me feel like I'm not valued and makes me not want to put as much effort in. (This of course doesn't apply to shift roles or meetings, when punctuality is important). In other positions I often thought "Well I don't smoke, I don't take tea breaks, I don't chat, why shouldn't I be allowed to come in 10 minutes late when other employees spend much more time throughout the day taking 'acceptable' breaks". To address the posts above, I would be horrified if an employer was monitoring my bathroom time. Why would I go the extra mile for an employer that treats me like a child? They're obviously not going to give me more responsibility even if I do perform well. In one instance, I started at a company where the MD was not very technologically savvy. I had not been assigned a computer yet so was unable to do any work. Rather than waiting for a computer to be free, I decided to be proactive and use my mobile phone to research the necessary information. However, I was still reprimanded by the MD who did not believe I could possibly be using my phone for work purposes.
We now have technology that allows us to do so much more work than we were able to do 10 years ago, yet we still work the same amount of hours. Sometimes, work isn't stimulating every minute of the day. And like it or not, work/life balance is a huge factor in accepting a specific position. Majority of workplaces do not mind if employees use their mobile throughout the day (ie high paying positions in consulting, investment banking, etc) I've had roles where I've missed out on a lot of outside work activities because I was not allowed access to mobiles/email during the day while the rest of my peers were. This is bound to bring down employee morale. Perhaps this employee is spending so long in the bathroom because he knows it is the only chance he will have to look at his phone for several hours so he needs to stretch it out as long as he can? Whereas if he was allowed to access his phone whenever he had a free moment he would probably be much more efficient and wouldn't need to take extra long bathroom breaks. Stricter rules are not always the best solution. There will always be employees who are lazy. But I know I, and many of my peers, are much more motivated to work when we're in an environment where we're trusted, valued, and offered flexibility rather than just following arbitrary rules for the sake of it.
There's a really interesting article in Forbes entitled "The Three Paradoxes of Generation Y" by Lynda Gratton. It offers some more perspective on changing work place norms as Gen Y enters the work force. The focus is on how UK employers mistakenly view Gen Y as unwilling to fall into line with the "the way things are done around here".
