- Location
- West Haven, UT
I think each generation complains about the one coming up behind them, so there's nothing new there. However, I think this is definitely a harder workforce to navigate through than any I've personally witnessed. Granted I've only been in the workforce for 40 years now so not much in the form of experience.
I watch the younger generations come and go through our company's hiring like a revolving door. Some quit halfway through the first day, that is if they even show up for the first day, while most don't make it the first full week. We even only work our new hires 3 or 4 days for the first couple of weeks to "ease" them into the "work thing" plus we have lowered our minimum expectations quite a bit over the past 4 or 5 years now. And shouldn't that "work thing" have been taught long before now? I simply don't understand it, the pay is good, benefits are excellent, and we are offering many more shifts so kids can obtain that "work/life" balance that they feel they deserve. And I'm sorry but work/life balance is a farce, there is no such thing and don't even get me started on that word "deserve" that everyone throws around. I'm sorry, we only deserve things once we've earned them and definitely not on day one. Deserving something from your employer such as a good shift was to do your time in the trenches, sort of speak, and worked a variety of shifts doing a wide range of jobs and tasks to obtain skills and prove yourself. I remember actually working shit shifts and shit schedules to get more exposure to certain tasks that I could become proficient at and use it as some form of "leverage" in which to get a better shift eventually that I could earn, not deserve.
As productive members of a society we are to work and provide a product or service to society or we are a drain on society, one or the other and we shouldn't be a drain until we retire and after a long and productive career in the workforce where we contributed. People these days are always looking for the easy way out. I have watched my brother try every easy way out or get rich quick scheme my whole life. He was always looking for the easy buck yet now in his 70's and doesn't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. IF he would have saved some of that money that he threw away chasing foolishness all those years or what he thought he "deserved" then he would have a pretty nice sized nest egg now to enjoy. I also see these "influencers" on social media and think that people are lulled into thinking that everyone should be able to make a living without actually doing anything. That's simply not how society was meant to function.
I think that parents over the past two to three generations now have set their kids up for more failures and disappointment than any generation(s) previously. I understand that we didn't want our kids to go without but by not teaching them to work for things and then appreciate them when acquired we have turned into a lazy and entitled society. I remember when our son was in grade school and neighbors were hand selecting the teachers their kids would have for the upcoming school year because they heard they were either "fun" or they didn't assign much homework. We did no such thing and when asked once I mentioned that our kids will not be able to select their bosses or co-workers and they need to learn how to fit in and associate with people who don't necessarily agree with them all the time on every subject. I was looked at like I had a second head.
I realize I am probably a bit cynical about such things as work, but I was raised on a dairy farm and there was ALWAYS work to be done and no time to just sit idle. I watch our neighbor kids walk home from school with their heads down staring at their phones like zombies. They are slugs, they don't move with purpose, they walk right past the garbage cans that have been sitting out for a couple of days on the street because they are too lazy to bring them the 30' up the driveway and I watch their parents mowing the lawn or worse, hiring it out all while having young kids at home that should be learning to work. Last winter I watched our neighbors with 5 kids drive over snow in their driveway most of the winter because it didn't get shoveled. I watched the grandfather one day out there shoveling their driveway after clearing his own yet the kids were nowhere to be seen. They are doing their kids a huge disservice and setting them up for failure.
Work creates pride in oneself, regardless of the task yet we are depriving our kids and grandkids of this opportunity to feel good about contributing to society and the ability to accomplish tasks. We are teaching them that work is something to be avoided and all companies are bad and the leaders are even worse. Then by the time they get out into the workforce they don't know how to work and surely don't have any respect for the job or the leaders of the company/organization. I agree that not all companies are good and not all leaders are good, but I can say that a vast majority of them are much better these days than when I entered the workforce back in the early 80's.
Many people these days are entitled and simply don't understand basic economics. They don't understand that a company's objective is to make money. They think they "deserve" something before they have earned it and the company owes them just because they showed up and walked in the door. We have so many freakin' employee "appreciation" programs at work it sickens me. My hell, I get appreciated enough each time my check clears the bank, then the company and I are even until next week. They don't owe me anything more and I don't owe them anything other than the opportunity to come in tomorrow and prove myself again.
Like the saying goes "soft times create soft men".
I'll get off my high horse now as I realize that I am probably the minority in my ways of thinking.
I watch the younger generations come and go through our company's hiring like a revolving door. Some quit halfway through the first day, that is if they even show up for the first day, while most don't make it the first full week. We even only work our new hires 3 or 4 days for the first couple of weeks to "ease" them into the "work thing" plus we have lowered our minimum expectations quite a bit over the past 4 or 5 years now. And shouldn't that "work thing" have been taught long before now? I simply don't understand it, the pay is good, benefits are excellent, and we are offering many more shifts so kids can obtain that "work/life" balance that they feel they deserve. And I'm sorry but work/life balance is a farce, there is no such thing and don't even get me started on that word "deserve" that everyone throws around. I'm sorry, we only deserve things once we've earned them and definitely not on day one. Deserving something from your employer such as a good shift was to do your time in the trenches, sort of speak, and worked a variety of shifts doing a wide range of jobs and tasks to obtain skills and prove yourself. I remember actually working shit shifts and shit schedules to get more exposure to certain tasks that I could become proficient at and use it as some form of "leverage" in which to get a better shift eventually that I could earn, not deserve.
As productive members of a society we are to work and provide a product or service to society or we are a drain on society, one or the other and we shouldn't be a drain until we retire and after a long and productive career in the workforce where we contributed. People these days are always looking for the easy way out. I have watched my brother try every easy way out or get rich quick scheme my whole life. He was always looking for the easy buck yet now in his 70's and doesn't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. IF he would have saved some of that money that he threw away chasing foolishness all those years or what he thought he "deserved" then he would have a pretty nice sized nest egg now to enjoy. I also see these "influencers" on social media and think that people are lulled into thinking that everyone should be able to make a living without actually doing anything. That's simply not how society was meant to function.
I think that parents over the past two to three generations now have set their kids up for more failures and disappointment than any generation(s) previously. I understand that we didn't want our kids to go without but by not teaching them to work for things and then appreciate them when acquired we have turned into a lazy and entitled society. I remember when our son was in grade school and neighbors were hand selecting the teachers their kids would have for the upcoming school year because they heard they were either "fun" or they didn't assign much homework. We did no such thing and when asked once I mentioned that our kids will not be able to select their bosses or co-workers and they need to learn how to fit in and associate with people who don't necessarily agree with them all the time on every subject. I was looked at like I had a second head.
I realize I am probably a bit cynical about such things as work, but I was raised on a dairy farm and there was ALWAYS work to be done and no time to just sit idle. I watch our neighbor kids walk home from school with their heads down staring at their phones like zombies. They are slugs, they don't move with purpose, they walk right past the garbage cans that have been sitting out for a couple of days on the street because they are too lazy to bring them the 30' up the driveway and I watch their parents mowing the lawn or worse, hiring it out all while having young kids at home that should be learning to work. Last winter I watched our neighbors with 5 kids drive over snow in their driveway most of the winter because it didn't get shoveled. I watched the grandfather one day out there shoveling their driveway after clearing his own yet the kids were nowhere to be seen. They are doing their kids a huge disservice and setting them up for failure.
Work creates pride in oneself, regardless of the task yet we are depriving our kids and grandkids of this opportunity to feel good about contributing to society and the ability to accomplish tasks. We are teaching them that work is something to be avoided and all companies are bad and the leaders are even worse. Then by the time they get out into the workforce they don't know how to work and surely don't have any respect for the job or the leaders of the company/organization. I agree that not all companies are good and not all leaders are good, but I can say that a vast majority of them are much better these days than when I entered the workforce back in the early 80's.
Many people these days are entitled and simply don't understand basic economics. They don't understand that a company's objective is to make money. They think they "deserve" something before they have earned it and the company owes them just because they showed up and walked in the door. We have so many freakin' employee "appreciation" programs at work it sickens me. My hell, I get appreciated enough each time my check clears the bank, then the company and I are even until next week. They don't owe me anything more and I don't owe them anything other than the opportunity to come in tomorrow and prove myself again.
Like the saying goes "soft times create soft men".
I'll get off my high horse now as I realize that I am probably the minority in my ways of thinking.
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