Work Ethic

[Impish]

Maybe its just Wolf and I, but there seems to be a rampant lack of work ethic happening around here.

 

The job he's in, he sees all sorts of people come and go. Full time, summer students...it just doesn't seem to matter.

 

He gets frustrated b/c getting anything done at work is like slogging through quicksand. Everyone wants to get paid, and they get paid *well*, but doing the actual work? Heaven forbid.

 

What the heck is happening? Why does working hard seem to be a bad thing?

[Dawn in OH]

My husband works at a very physical job, where most of his coworkers are half his age. They all want a raise and work half as hard as he does. In addition, they show up late, call off at the last minute, and take long breaks.

[3lilreds in NC]

It's true - no one seems to get work ethic anymore. I was taught that you do your best job and work hard no matter what.

 

I haven't worked in a long time, but my dad, after he retired, worked for CarQuest or something like that. He was stocking auto parts. He was not a part of their union at first, and all the other people were. He said he was not working hard, just keeping busy, and he did more work than any of the regulars. He was actually told to slow down, because he was making the rest of them look bad. :confused: My sister worked there part time and had the same experience.

 

I hope and pray that I am teaching my kids to have a solid work ethic. Do you think the current lack of work ethic has anything to do with the "entitlement" mindset that seems to be so prevalent?

[Renthead Mommy]

 

I hope and pray that I am teaching my kids to have a solid work ethic. Do you think the current lack of work ethic has anything to do with the "entitlement" mindset that seems to be so prevalent?

 

Yes!! YES! YES! YES!

:iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree:

 

YES! YES!! YES!!

 

 

Okay so I guess I told you how I really feel about this!

 

Just because everyone else has it, doesn't mean you need it!

 

Just because you'll get paid anyway, doesn't mean you should do your best!

 

Just because no one saw it, no one's there to catch it, and you could get away with it doesn't mean you should!

 

Just because you don't get a 'real' report card, won't really 'fail' (because if you don't get it, we keep doing it till you do!) doesn't mean you shouldn't try your best!

 

Just because your friends don't have to do it, doesn't mean you shouldn't have to do it! I'm raising you to be a productive member of society, their parents want to support 30 yo kids, that's their parents problem!

 

Yes, sometimes things are hard and require work! I don't ask you to do things I don't think you can do!

 

And finally...

 

"Do you want to discuss your grandfather and the cows at 6am before school? Your great grandfather who worked an almost full time job while going to school starting at 13? His brothers who only went to school till 6th or 7th grade then worked 60 hour weeks? Do we need to discuss Almanzo Wilder again? 13 year old Matt, left on his own for 6 months in the wilderness? (Sign of the Beaver) Samuel Collier in Jamestown???"

 

And finally, my personal favorite (which is the one that made my husband, who, like my son, still doesn't really get it, but made him tell me perhaps I needed to go spend a little time alone at Starbucks that day!) "Laura didn't even have a doll! Mary had a doll! Laura had corncob with a dress over it!!!"

 

 

Not that I've ever had to really have this conversations or anything. And they've never ended in anything like "And for god sake it's a dishwasher! It washed the dishes FOR you! Take six minutes and put the already CLEANED dishes away!"

 

Yeah right! LOL!

[Murphy101]

He was actually told to slow down, because he was making the rest of them look bad. :confused: My sister worked there part time and had the same experience.

 

 

My dh has heard this too. He has actually taken specific training to learn how to pick up on this before it hurts him at work. Seriously. He has had BOSSES reprimanded him for it, bc he is literally outperforming his coworkers AND his bosses and when higher ups notice, the boss gets mad. He has also noticed, people take advantage of his work ethic to do less themselves. And they get royal POd when he refuses to give them joint credit or when he gets recognition and they don't.

[RoughCollie]

I don't think it is anything new. I noticed a lack of work ethic 30 years ago. The company I worked for had to hire 2 senior cost accountants to replace me when I quit. The reason was that I actually worked the entire time I was at work, except when I was at lunch. No one else in my department did that.

[Peela]

Maybe its partly because kids don't really see their parents working much- at home. They go "away" to work and when at home, they do some housework but they are likely to also be watching TV, playing on the computer etc.

 

Farmkids would know about work- they would be far more int touch with it, immersed in a lifestyle where physical labour is a normal part of life. If you live in the city, it usually isn't- and mental work is probably too abstract for kids to grasp as "work".

 

I was watching a show yesterday where some Amish teenagers were taken to London and spent some time with some typical London teenagers. It was very shocking to them- but the bit that relayl caught my eye was that when the London teens were all sitting around playing computer games- the AMish kids got really bored and just wanted to go outside and "do" something. To them work was not a bad concept.

 

I dont think you can blame anyone really- we buy dishwashers, electric mixers and sewing machines, and packet foods....we short cut every experience of "work" that we can, then we go out and pay for experiences like learning to sew or spin or cook because we don't know how, and they seem creative. We sit at computers all day in offices- how is that "work" in any really healthy sense of the word?

 

SOme traditional cultures dont even have a separate word for "work" in their language. Work is just life, not separate form life- yet our culture does everything it can to make life easier and easier but then people aren't happy anyway, and they have to go to work for 10 hours a day to pay for the car and the house and the electric work-savers. Its all screwy.

 

I think we live in strange times, disconnected times, and the young are just struggling to find a way to live. They probably need to see their elders model a healthy way to live- but theres not a lot of that around either.

Edited April 8, 2011 by Peela

[pdalley]

My husband has the same problem. He's very meticulous, works hard and works - doesn't goof off. Still he gets passed over for promotions and raises (except this year) because he 'makes others look bad'.

 

Even the higher ups are more concerned about 'numbers' (Which aren't grounded in reality most of the time - they are manipulated to make things look better than they really are.) than they are with building a good solid base.

 

It's frustrating.

[My3Boys]

My dh has noticed the same thing. He works for an engineering firm. He says the younger people that come in have an attitude of "you owe me this job, I'm entitled to it". He said the workers that are his age have more of an attitude of gratitude for having a job, that it's a privilege that you have to earn (and keep earning if you want to keep your job). The younger workers also seem to think they should have all the privileges the older employees who have worked their way up the ladder and paid their dues have.

 

We are quickly becoming a nation of 2 basic beliefs. One says you are born entitled to everything under the sun whether you have earned it or not (everything is a "human right"), and the other says you are born entitled to nothing and should work for what you have (you need to earn your place in society). I don't know how these 2 vastly different worldviews can ever be reconciled.

 

We have worked hard to instill work ethic in our boys and all 3 of them are hard workers and more mature in this respect than most of their peers, and even many older adults.

Edited April 8, 2011 by My3Boys