DISCLAIMER: I know there’s young people with good work ethics, just like there’s older people with horrible work ethics… But with the way these companies act scared to enforce their rules/disciplinary actions trying so hard to be PC (it’s not setting a good work standard with the younger generations entering the work force)
I've never had to work with THIS younger generation but the previous couple DEFINITELY needed work ethics lessons!!
In the late `80's, I built swimming pools. The boss would drop a crew of us at a site where we were supposed to build a pool, tell us where to dig and how deep and I'd pick up a shovel or pick axe and get right to work while the rest sat in the shade making fun of ME for busting ass!! I've got MUCH better things to do with my time than to lounge around for hours in some stranger's back yard!! If I'm there to build a pool, I'm GONNA build the fucking pool!! Otherwise, I might as well just go back home and do the shit I wanna do!!
In the late `90's, I was working for a bank that processed IRS tax checks. 4 times a year, we'd get in some temps for our 4 peak seasons. Most often, all they had to do was sit around and wait for work to come in for them to do. When it did, all they had to do was put a sticker on the tab of a folder, write a series of numbers on that sticker that were on the back of a stack of vouchers they had, put the vouchers into that folder and put the folder in a set of boxes. My dog could do this shit!! My job was to repeatedly run around the entire floor, at least 1/4 mile per trip, and move the work around the floor and, again, I busted ass doing it! Those kiddies would always complain that they weren't being paid enough to do what little they do! They were getting almost $2 more than minimum!!
Throughout most of the `00's and `10's, I worked in a print shop and again, busted ass getting my work done! Sometimes, we had to insert cards into a newspaper. I could blow through a stack of 50 copies in just over half a minute! Everybody else took their good old time (partly because they were too busy talking and,. for some reason, they can't work and talk at the same time) and would spend damned near 5:00 getting through a stack of 50 and then they'd complain about how long it took and, are we done yet, etc.!! Well? If they'd do it the way I do it, we could've had every copy stuffed in about an hour instead of them taking 3 or 5 hours!! My bosses saw how well and fast I did my job and gave me a raise or two!!
I'm half gen x and the very start of the millennials'... transition phase.
For me and I feel for a lot of us as well, we got this bullshit shoved down our throat that we can be anything we want to be... we just gotta try really hard. Oh and college will make you rich (bullllshitttt). I think this new generation is dropping that idea. They sort of just recognize if they have the brain power to be an astronaut or not and then choose accordingly... their own path. That..."just work really hard and you can do it" concept is falling apart.
With that said, I don't think it's really a bad thing. It's bad for oldtimers like me that just want them to work their ass off and try really hard to do it... just to make me rich... but I don't think it's bad for them as human beings.
I mean seriously, how many of us woke up stuck in a job we don't even respect, but we kept trying really hard and never got any happier doing something we don't even like doing? ... I'm probably going to catch a lot of hate from my own kind for saying that shit out loud, but fuck it... I thought this was America!
The problem isn't work ethic. It's entitlement, the plague of younger generations.
It's the fact many people within the younger generation are stupid enough to believe just graduated means they're entitled to same as someone with 20 years experience.
And then when they don't get what they THINK they're entitled to - but are in reality NOT even close to - they act like the children trapped in adult bodies that they really are.
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I work in medical. I graduated when I was 19 with a BSc. as I'm very smart. I've 8 years of medical experience. High level. I was headhunted by a recruiting agency last year.
I chuckle at the new graduated nurses & pharmacists & doctors who think they deserve the same pay as the specialists with multiple years experience AND additional training.
Honestly, there's no incentive to have good work ethics these days. The lazy people are tolerated, while the hard workers are treated like pack mules. I am a hard worker, that's just how I was raised. My father instilled in me from a young age that if you're being paid to do a job, you do it to the best of your ability. This mindset gets you taken advantage of every time.
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As with most things even outside of the workplace, the sense of entitlement is a killer. Brats straight out of college are convinced that they're more valuable and knowledgeable than people who've been working in the same place for years, which is almost invariably untrue, and furthermore they don't even have the same work ethic, or a willingness to learn on the job from the people actually doing the job.
As a member of this younger professionals generation I see in many i work with great intelligence and ability to withstand and be reliable day in day out.
However, that is absolutely not the normal. Even in the military I have seen absolute arrogance and unreliability from people who don't even know what they're doing. Massive lack of motivation and a huge sense of entitlement. In today's society these people aren't discarded though, and just their presence negatively effects nearly every young person who will interact with them. If he's doing that little and got to X then why should I try harder or be better?
Ultimately I think it goes back to parenting or the lack thereof. You cannot blame the generation itself and only itself. I blame the parents, the schools, and the government as well as the leak poison and create the weak willed lazy individuals.
I think work ethics is something you need to earn as a company rather than something that is expected. Modern corporations in for example USA has abused their authority over their own workers to such an extent that they have destroyed the willingness to work of an entire generation. Be it through exploitation, abuse, shitty work condition, pathetic pay or all of the above. Modern corporations simply are not worth the respect of their own workers. In a way "you get what you paid for", as in the absolute bare minimum.
I can’t stand how the younger generation wants bring politics and social causes into f*cking business.
Business is business. Corporations exist to make a profit not to be woke. And corporation isn’t “evil” just because it makes a profit. It exists to deliver products and services to consumers in a free market economy.
The good news is some corporations are finding out the hard way not push leftist causes on consumers. Just ask Bud Light.
I'd say the biggest thing is that the POINT of work is that you are delivering something of VALUE to someone else.
One place I KNOW young people don't get this is with the concept of a "strike." When teachers, or medical workers, or airline pilots go on strike, it's a HUGE deal. WHY? Because they provide something of VALUE to other people and now when they're on strike, no one is providing that thing.
Young people then (moronically) think, "I know! What if we had the STUDENTS go on strike to protest X, Y, Z? That's a GREAT idea!"
Problem is, it turns out you being a student trying to make yourself into less of an epic moron isn't exactly a service you're providing me. So no one gives a shit when students go on strike. Hell--most of them are so stupid they do just about as well on their work while on strike as they do when they show up!
ik im young so it's kinda silly but people don't know how to take one on the chin
I've met people my age who've never had a job yet or they'll complain if they never had a lunch break today. i just roll my eyes bc that's just life. i think life is more comfy now so a lot of people grow up not realizing no one gives a shit lol you gotta put in work to get money even if the job sucks
They don't respect seniors and supervisors. A lot of them don't understand that your first years of employment are probably going to be very sh*itty and not what you envisioned for yourself. They don't understand that it takes time to earn a certain amount of money but you also need to prove that you deserve what you get. I could go on.
Maybe I've been lucky but I've had much better younger employees than older ones. The last 3 employees I've fired are all over 43. They think they know everything and don't want to change the way they do things and adapt to new technology
What don't they get about work and work ethics? The whole concept, basically. They plod through life, thinking that the world owes them a living! In the US, they get life, and the liberty to PURSUE happiness, NOT that they WILL get it. If you put worth more effort, the odds of you being happier will increase.
Personally I feel this generation and the one before are bunch of cry baby entitled twits that Want everything handed to them. out of all the different generations I have worked with and been around in my 41yrs of life is this generation and the one before are so disrespectful. im not saying all because there are really good hardworking respectful kids out there.
Wages don't nearly go as far today as they used to nor does a college degree. I have been dealt with quite severely by employers at times. I don't blame companies in our tough economy, I blame crime and how it has made many cities and suburbs desolate and unproductive.
Like you said, employers have gotten to soft. There was one guy at my job who would come in and eat his lunch, then sit in the back and watch movies until we changed shifts. He once sat with me for 6 hours and didn't do shit. The most he got was a talking to. If I was in charge, I would've docked him pay for those 6 hours and I would've made his ass come in at 6 in the morning on a busy Saturday by himself, so he can see what it's like.
Most of the time everything about work. They want the high pay rate but they don't want to do the labor that goes along with it. I own my own business and tried interviewing guys to hire. They wanted top pay but when I told them the different tasks they were required to do on different types of jobs, they said " I'm not doing that ". I wouldn't make my employees do anything that I wouldn't do
I have always worked hard and always do more than expected at my job because that's how I am from a very young age. I find that people this generation are trying to get rich fast ( tik tok, crypto, social media, etc). Social media is a big reason for this
u anything and everything that we didn't taught them well
their faults and their flaws are our own...
and anything we claim for ourselves to do better... credits should go to our previous generations who raised us better, lol
I suspect the reduced pay and opportunities - as the super rich with no work ethic whatsoever gobble up all the resources - has young people thinking if we just kill the rich like we all seem to want to anyway, the work load will instantly become lighter and more meaningful.
It took me time to learn to concentrate on work every minute of the working day.
LOT's of people only focus sporadically on work. I tend to think social media generation won't have that level.
I think boomers and their hoarding of wealth is the reason people don't want to work hard.
When Mexicans go to America they're known to work very hard. But in Mexico they take a 2 hour siesta every afternoon.
The difference isn't work ethic. It's how much money is available to make.
Work ethic is related to how much someone values societal norms. Also, employers want full time workers and then don’t always give them full time. People quit to find more promising stable hours but employers keeps pulling out the bullshit card. Again, staff have to move along again finding something sustainable.
Is the younger generation an easy target instead of dissecting the issue to resolve it moving forward?
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