I find the tone and content of this article wildly obnoxious. It addresses the entire situation from a place of undeserved righteousness. These pesky kids, how do we let them know that we've already decided how business people ought to act permanently? I have mental images of this guy firing Zuck for showing up to work in a hoodie.
Seriously though, the way young people think about personal information, privacy, and transparency is going to change the way we act at work. I'm at a startup now where our founders are a bit younger than I am (I'm in my early thirties). I remember being really surprised and even off-put when I got Facebook friend requests from them. I was used to keeping my personal and work life pretty distinct. That wasn't as much the world they lived in. They were used to the idea of working with their friends. Now it's super normal to me, and the company really benefits from the fact that we're all actively interested in each-other's lives. It's a bit of a paradigm shift and you can like it or dislike it but I think to paint generational differences as universally 'bad' is really unfortunate and short-sighted.
I think it is a bit of a generalization to say younger people mix business and personal lives.
Opposite of you, I'm in my late 20s, the youngest person in my organization; and I get Facebook friend requests from people in their 40s and 50s that I only know at work.
Perhaps it is more accurate to say people who do not have the same values in privacy as you use things like Facebook differently.
I certainly didn't mean to imply that only younger people do.
The overall point I was making is that the world is changing, and it's fair to point out that it's young people that are the primary agents of that change. Hell, people younger than you built facebook. I don't think my generalization was over-reaching.
Seriously though, the way young people think about personal information, privacy, and transparency is going to change the way we act at work. I'm at a startup now where our founders are a bit younger than I am (I'm in my early thirties). I remember being really surprised and even off-put when I got Facebook friend requests from them. I was used to keeping my personal and work life pretty distinct. That wasn't as much the world they lived in. They were used to the idea of working with their friends. Now it's super normal to me, and the company really benefits from the fact that we're all actively interested in each-other's lives. It's a bit of a paradigm shift and you can like it or dislike it but I think to paint generational differences as universally 'bad' is really unfortunate and short-sighted.