[Music]
just a few years ago back in 2013 I
lived in New York City at the time I was
a sophomore going to NYU and at the time
I chose New York because I was really
fascinated with all the people that came
to that city people from all over the
place and I was really fascinated with
with people and why they chose to do
what they chose to do and and why they
ended up where they ended up and one of
the things that I loved doing in New
York was sitting on the subway and
watching the other subway cars go by and
watching all the people who were just
going around the city the questions that
came into my mind were questions like
who are all of these people where are
these people going and why are they
going there one day I had just finished
a final I was getting ready to go visit
a friend who lived up on the Upper East
Side and I got on the subway at about
two o’clock in the afternoon on the
subway it was packed with people got off
the subway doing my usual routine and
started to head uptown walking on the
streets walking by coffee shops and I
realized that the streets were packed
too and and so were the coffee shops
people were out and about the question
that kept coming into my brain is what
are all of these people doing it’s two
o’clock in the middle of a work week why
are these people not in an office
working somewhere it’s like don’t you
know that New York City is an expensive
city to live and what are you doing and
I started thinking about it and started
texting some of my friends kind of
joking being like do people work anymore
is it true is our generation lazy what
are these people doing out and about and
some of my friends text me back and they
said no actually this is this is normal
once you graduate from college you’ll
realize that people are starting to work
flexible schedules and this is something
that employers actually give to people
as a retention tool and that notion was
really interesting to me because as a
sophomore I was thinking about you know
what is my career gonna look like and
what am I gonna do next and the question
that I had at the time – which was you
know what happens if I want to have a
family how am I going to be able to work
and raise kids
so I said flexibility totally makes
sense being able to pick where I want to
work and when I want to work that’s
something that I wanted for myself too
and as I started thinking about this
more I started talking to my parents and
about about kind of their career
trajectory hold me she was like yeah
when I immigrated to the United States
from Portugal I worked in a factory and
I worked in that factory for 40 years –
put your dad through college and that
was my job that was my employer just
that one employer for pretty much her
entire life then I talked to my dad and
my dad said you know and we did things a
little bit differently I worked a few
jobs my dad had three jobs and in my
lifetime and still working he might have
one more job before he retires but I was
really interested in that speeding up
that my dad had worked for about three
or four times the employers that my
grandma had worked and then I started
looking at my peers my friends that had
graduated from college and I started
looking at their careers it’ll look very
different a lot of my friends were
graduating from college they were
working for an employer for a year maybe
two years then going on to the next
thing some of them were working for an
employer and trying to do their own
startup or working for someone and
driving for uber
and their careers were a hybrid working
multiple jobs for multiple employers all
at one time and that was really really
fascinating to me
the thing that I asked myself about that
was you know why is this happening why
is it that in my grandma’s lifetime
people worked for one employer and and
now people are working for five
employers at once and what does this
mean from me and I started realizing
that one thing is really catalyzing this
and that’s the speed at which technology
has been created with every new
technology it’s continuing to connect us
globally to the rest of the world and
connect us at all times when my grandma
was working there was no phone in her
pocket she wasn’t getting texted about
something at work when she was back at
home and today work seems to follow us
around just kind of looking at a macro
level of the evolution of work and and
where this all came from if you think
back to pre 1800s and early 1800s we
were really in an agriculture age what
was expected of us was to work outside
and work on the land and that was the
primary form of work for most people
after that we shifted again we shifted
into the Industrial Age where we saw
Henry Ford and factories being built and
people moved from outside into the
factory and that became the new accepted
norm moving even further into my parents
generation the American Dream getting
that corner office that was what was
expected of people and again today
looking at our generation I feel that
we’re again in a transitionary period
we’re moving from that office age into
more of the age of creativity where
people are working for themselves
being entrepreneurial thinking outside
of the box coming up with new ways of
doing things and one of those new ways
of doing things is working in a flexible
manner and as someone who is getting
ready to graduate from from college one
of the questions that I had was you know
how does this actually affect all of us
is this good for us is this change
something that we should embrace and I
started looking into the numbers and I
realized that of employers that offer
flexibility to their workforce 77% of
that workforce reported having increased
job satisfaction meaning when they woke
up in the morning that was a place that
they wanted to go to work or that was a
company that they wanted to work for out
of that coffee shop 66% of that work
force said that they were just happier
in general my personal belief is that if
people are happier they typically tend
to be nicer people and that is what
makes the world go round so I was really
excited about that and 59% of people
felt that their stress levels decreased
having that flexibility that optionality
to be able to choose what hours they
were gonna work be able to say hey I’m
gonna leave work now and go pick up my
kid from soccer practice or whatever it
may be looking at all these stats I
started going around to some of my other
entrepreneurial friends who had started
businesses saying you should really
offer flexibility to your entire
workforce
you should really allow people to choose
when and where they want to work started
sharing some of these stats but I think
some of the other statistics that made
me really interested and a big proponent
of flexibility
we’re statistics that had to do with the
business itself I went to some of my
friends and I said if it’s not enough
for you that your employees are going to
be happier they’re gonna be less
stressed by you giving them that
flexibility then look at your own bottom
line 63% of employers said that they
have less unscheduled time where
employee
we’re actually leaving the office and
employees themselves felt more
productivity when they had that
optionality to pick up and go to a
coffee shop one day or pickup and work
from home one day looking at that bottom
line for company’s flexibility matters
as I started thinking about this more I
realized yes we are in fact in a shift
and every transitionary period is hard
we all like to say that we like change
but in reality change is something that
that takes time and it’s something that
has growing pains along with it moving
from the agricultural age into the
industrial age there was a period and a
time of shift where people said is this
what’s really right why is this
happening
there’s skills mismatch and things
happening that make it a tough
transition area period and we’re very
much going through that same thing now
with technology changing from the
Information Age into that creativity age
there are these changes where people
want to work different they want to have
optionality so when I look forward to
the the companies that I build in the
future and the the lifestyles that my
friends have I’m really excited about
this shift this shift from working in
four walls in an office or being told
when we have to work at that retail job
at that restaurant job into an era where
we as human beings get to be human and
experience life on our own terms
thank you
[Applause]
just a few years ago back in 2013 I
lived in New York City at the time I was
a sophomore going to NYU and at the time
I chose New York because I was really
fascinated with all the people that came
to that city people from all over the
place and I was really fascinated with
with people and why they chose to do
what they chose to do and and why they
ended up where they ended up and one of
the things that I loved doing in New
York was sitting on the subway and
watching the other subway cars go by and
watching all the people who were just
going around the city the questions that
came into my mind were questions like
who are all of these people where are
these people going and why are they
going there one day I had just finished
a final I was getting ready to go visit
a friend who lived up on the Upper East
Side and I got on the subway at about
two o’clock in the afternoon on the
subway it was packed with people got off
the subway doing my usual routine and
started to head uptown walking on the
streets walking by coffee shops and I
realized that the streets were packed
too and and so were the coffee shops
people were out and about the question
that kept coming into my brain is what
are all of these people doing it’s two
o’clock in the middle of a work week why
are these people not in an office
working somewhere it’s like don’t you
know that New York City is an expensive
city to live and what are you doing and
I started thinking about it and started
texting some of my friends kind of
joking being like do people work anymore
is it true is our generation lazy what
are these people doing out and about and
some of my friends text me back and they
said no actually this is this is normal
once you graduate from college you’ll
realize that people are starting to work
flexible schedules and this is something
that employers actually give to people
as a retention tool and that notion was
really interesting to me because as a
sophomore I was thinking about you know
what is my career gonna look like and
what am I gonna do next and the question
that I had at the time – which was you
know what happens if I want to have a
family how am I going to be able to work
and raise kids
so I said flexibility totally makes
sense being able to pick where I want to
work and when I want to work that’s
something that I wanted for myself too
and as I started thinking about this
more I started talking to my parents and
about about kind of their career
trajectory hold me she was like yeah
when I immigrated to the United States
from Portugal I worked in a factory and
I worked in that factory for 40 years –
put your dad through college and that
was my job that was my employer just
that one employer for pretty much her
entire life then I talked to my dad and
my dad said you know and we did things a
little bit differently I worked a few
jobs my dad had three jobs and in my
lifetime and still working he might have
one more job before he retires but I was
really interested in that speeding up
that my dad had worked for about three
or four times the employers that my
grandma had worked and then I started
looking at my peers my friends that had
graduated from college and I started
looking at their careers it’ll look very
different a lot of my friends were
graduating from college they were
working for an employer for a year maybe
two years then going on to the next
thing some of them were working for an
employer and trying to do their own
startup or working for someone and
driving for uber
and their careers were a hybrid working
multiple jobs for multiple employers all
at one time and that was really really
fascinating to me
the thing that I asked myself about that
was you know why is this happening why
is it that in my grandma’s lifetime
people worked for one employer and and
now people are working for five
employers at once and what does this
mean from me and I started realizing
that one thing is really catalyzing this
and that’s the speed at which technology
has been created with every new
technology it’s continuing to connect us
globally to the rest of the world and
connect us at all times when my grandma
was working there was no phone in her
pocket she wasn’t getting texted about
something at work when she was back at
home and today work seems to follow us
around just kind of looking at a macro
level of the evolution of work and and
where this all came from if you think
back to pre 1800s and early 1800s we
were really in an agriculture age what
was expected of us was to work outside
and work on the land and that was the
primary form of work for most people
after that we shifted again we shifted
into the Industrial Age where we saw
Henry Ford and factories being built and
people moved from outside into the
factory and that became the new accepted
norm moving even further into my parents
generation the American Dream getting
that corner office that was what was
expected of people and again today
looking at our generation I feel that
we’re again in a transitionary period
we’re moving from that office age into
more of the age of creativity where
people are working for themselves
being entrepreneurial thinking outside
of the box coming up with new ways of
doing things and one of those new ways
of doing things is working in a flexible
manner and as someone who is getting
ready to graduate from from college one
of the questions that I had was you know
how does this actually affect all of us
is this good for us is this change
something that we should embrace and I
started looking into the numbers and I
realized that of employers that offer
flexibility to their workforce 77% of
that workforce reported having increased
job satisfaction meaning when they woke
up in the morning that was a place that
they wanted to go to work or that was a
company that they wanted to work for out
of that coffee shop 66% of that work
force said that they were just happier
in general my personal belief is that if
people are happier they typically tend
to be nicer people and that is what
makes the world go round so I was really
excited about that and 59% of people
felt that their stress levels decreased
having that flexibility that optionality
to be able to choose what hours they
were gonna work be able to say hey I’m
gonna leave work now and go pick up my
kid from soccer practice or whatever it
may be looking at all these stats I
started going around to some of my other
entrepreneurial friends who had started
businesses saying you should really
offer flexibility to your entire
workforce
you should really allow people to choose
when and where they want to work started
sharing some of these stats but I think
some of the other statistics that made
me really interested and a big proponent
of flexibility
we’re statistics that had to do with the
business itself I went to some of my
friends and I said if it’s not enough
for you that your employees are going to
be happier they’re gonna be less
stressed by you giving them that
flexibility then look at your own bottom
line 63% of employers said that they
have less unscheduled time where
employee
we’re actually leaving the office and
employees themselves felt more
productivity when they had that
optionality to pick up and go to a
coffee shop one day or pickup and work
from home one day looking at that bottom
line for company’s flexibility matters
as I started thinking about this more I
realized yes we are in fact in a shift
and every transitionary period is hard
we all like to say that we like change
but in reality change is something that
that takes time and it’s something that
has growing pains along with it moving
from the agricultural age into the
industrial age there was a period and a
time of shift where people said is this
what’s really right why is this
happening
there’s skills mismatch and things
happening that make it a tough
transition area period and we’re very
much going through that same thing now
with technology changing from the
Information Age into that creativity age
there are these changes where people
want to work different they want to have
optionality so when I look forward to
the the companies that I build in the
future and the the lifestyles that my
friends have I’m really excited about
this shift this shift from working in
four walls in an office or being told
when we have to work at that retail job
at that restaurant job into an era where
we as human beings get to be human and
experience life on our own terms
thank you
[Applause]
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