The Lack of Work Ethic and the Need for Laborers
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I saw this on Facebook and felt it really cut to the heart of an issue that is so prevalent in the world today.
@scottalanmiller posted an interesting anecdote here... http://mangolassi.it/topic/5063/the-hospitality-management-anecdote ...talking about how relevant work experience will often outshine fancy, schmancy degrees without any real-world experience.
Well, I thought the below, while a little political to start, hits the nail on the head with an issue in today's world. There are so many ways people can advance in the world, but many get fixated on only taking a certain path. Sometimes this is what is considered the mainstream path, other times not. Either way, many viable opportunities are passed up in the name of being "beneath" them.
Bill Gates gave a great speech one time and I love number 3 but especially number 5. So many people pass up not only viable work experience, but critical work experience because it's not glamorous enough for them. I will admit I've dealt with this issue with myself in the past, although my perspective was different at the time. I've since corrected that thinking.
Many want to jump right to Boardwalk without going around the entire board first. Just felt like sharing.
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Hey MikeYour constant harping on “work ethic” is growing tiresome. Just because someone’s poor doesn’t mean they’re lazy. The unemployed want to work! And many of those who can’t find work today, didn’t have the benefit of growing up with parents like yours. How can you expect someone with no role model to qualify for one of your scholarships or sign your silly “Sweat Pledge?” Rather than accusing people of not having a work-ethic, why not drop the right-wing propaganda and help them develop one?
Craig P.
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Hi Craig, and Happy Sunday!
I’m afraid you’ve overestimated the reach of my foundation, as well as my ability to motivate people I’ve never met. For the record, I don’t believe all poor people are lazy, any more than I believe all rich people are greedy. But I can understand why so many do.
Everyday on the news, liberal pundits and politicians portray the wealthy as greedy, while conservative pundits and politicians portray the poor as lazy. Democrats have become so good at denouncing greed, Republicans now defend it. And Republicans are so good at condemning laziness, Democrats are now denying it even exists. It's a never ending dance that gets more contorted by the day.
A few weeks ago in Georgetown, President Obama accused Fox News of “perpetuating a false narrative” by consistently calling poor people “lazy.” Fox News denied the President’s accusation, claiming to have only criticized policies, not people. Unfortunately for Fox, The Daily Show has apparently gained access to the Internet, and after a ten-second google-search and a few minutes in the edit bay, John Stewart was on the air with a devastating montage of Fox personnel referring to the unemployed as “sponges,” “leeches,” “freeloaders,” and “mooches.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/…/daily-shows-jon-stewart-bu…/
Over the next few days, the echo chamber got very noisy. The Left howled about the bias at Fox and condemned the one-percent, while the Right shrieked about the bias at MSNBC and bemoaned the growing entitlement state. But through all the howling and shrieking, no one said a word about the millions of jobs that American companies are struggling to fill right now. No one talked the fact that most of those jobs don’t require an expensive four-year degree. And no one mentioned the 1.2 trillion dollars of outstanding student loans, or the madness of lending money we don’t have to kids who can’t pay it back, educating them for jobs that no longer exist.
I started mikeroweWORKS to talk about these issues, and shine a light on a few million good jobs that no one seems excited about. But mostly, I wanted to remind people that real opportunity still exists for those individuals who are willing to work hard, learn a skill, and make a persuasive case for themselves. Sadly, you see my efforts as “right wing propaganda.” But why? Are our differences really political? Or is it something deeper? Something philosophical?
You wrote that, “people want to work.” In my travels, I’ve met a lot of hard-working individuals, and I’ve been singing their praises for the last 12 years. But I’ve seen nothing that would lead me to agree with your generalization. From what I’ve seen of the species, and what I know of myself, most people - given the choice - would prefer NOT to work. In fact, on Dirty Jobs, I saw Help Wanted signs in every state, even at the height of the recession. Is it possible you see the existence of so many unfilled jobs as a challenge to your basic understanding of what makes people tick?
Last week at a policy conference in Mackinac, I talked to several hiring managers from a few of the largest companies in Michigan. They all told me the same thing - the biggest under reported challenge in finding good help, (aside from the inability to “piss clean,”) is an overwhelming lack of “soft skills.” That’s a polite way of saying that many applicants don’t tuck their shirts in, or pull their pants up, or look you in the eye, or say things like “please” and “thank you.” This is not a Michigan problem - this is a national crisis. We’re churning out a generation of poorly educated people with no skill, no ambition, no guidance, and no realistic expectations of what it means to go to work.
These are the people you’re talking about Craig, and their number grows everyday. I understand you would like me to help them, but how? I’m not a mentor, and my foundation doesn’t do interventions. Do you really want me to stop rewarding individual work ethic, just because I don’t have the resources to assist those who don’t have any? If I’m unable to help everyone, do you really want me to help no one?
My goals are modest, and they’ll remain that way. I don’t focus on groups. I focus on individuals who are eager to do whatever it takes to get started. People willing to retool, retrain, and relocate. That doesn’t mean I have no empathy for those less motivated. It just means I’m more inclined to subsidize the cost of training for those who are. That shouldn’t be a partisan position, but if it is, I guess I’ll just have to live with it.
Mike
PS. The Sweat Pledge wasn’t supposed to be partisan either, but it’s probably annoyed as many people as its inspired. I still sell them for $12, and the money still goes to mikeroweWORKS. You can get one here, even if you’re not applying for a scholarship. http://profoundlydisconnected.com/foundation/poster/
PPS. If you’d like Craig, I’ll autograph one for you!
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Bill Gates didn't say those things. It was Charles Sykes from a book called Dumbing Down our Kids". I think most of it is bollocks, personally, but then I'm a bit of a left wing, bleeding heart liberal. It might be because I'm European
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@Carnival-Boy said:
Bill Gates didn't say those things. It was Charles Sykes from a book called Dumbing Down our Kids". I think most of it is bollocks, personally, but then I'm a bit of a left wing, bleeding heart liberal. It might be because I'm European
@scottalanmiller Perhaps you're not close enough to the education system in Europe so maybe you can't answer this, Do you think the education system in the US vs Europe is so horrible that the above mentioned things are true, but because of the difference in systems Europeans can't see them?
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@Carnival-Boy ,
I would love to see your counter-argument to each of the 11 points made above. -
I'll have a go.
Rule 4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
When I was 7 my teacher smacked me in the front of the class for talking. I was devastated. I wish I'd been told then that a boss will never physically hit me or humiliate me. That day was really as bad as life at school or work ever got. Fortunately, teachers aren't allow to physically abuse my own kids, but the average, low level bullying that kids have to put up with is far worse than most people have to deal with at work and a lot of teachers are meaner than bosses. If a colleague hits me he'd get sacked, if my kids' classmate hits them the worst they'll get is probably detention. So my kids have to put up with far worse treatment that I do.
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OK physical abuse is definitely not called for, probably ever (though who doesn't want to smack an ID10T sometimes). But bullying happens as much if not more in work environments than in school, if for no other reason than you work for 50+ years and only go to school for 13 (not counting collage).
The biggest problem we have in our office is bullying. We have a staffing problem because of this.
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- Life is not fair - get used to it
No, don't get used to it. Fight it. Try and change the world. Join political groups. Join protest groups. Go on marches. Sign petitions. Make the world fairer. It probably won't help, but better to die trying than give up and accept it.
I've given up trying. I'm old and cynical now. But I don't want to tell my kids to be more like me.
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@Dashrender said:
OK physical abuse is definitely not called for, probably ever (though who doesn't want to smack an ID10T sometimes). But bullying happens as much if not more in work environments than in school, if for no other reason than you work for 50+ years and only go to school for 13 (not counting collage).
The biggest problem we have in our office is bullying. We have a staffing problem because of this.
I agree that physical abuse isn't really generally an issue in the workplace, but the bullying factor is WAY worse. How many people have jobs they are stuck at where they are treated horribly by peers, or worse, a supervisor, but can't do anything about it? I've seen this more times than I can count.
No, work is WAY worse than school.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
- Life is not fair - get used to it
No, don't get used to it. Fight it. Try and change the world. Join political groups. Join protest groups. Go on marches. Sign petitions. Make the world fairer. It probably won't help, but better to die trying than give up and accept it.
I've given up trying. I'm old and cynical now. But I don't want to tell my kids to be more like me.
Life isn't fair. No amount of political change or anything will ever change this. People who are good people get sick while assholes are fine. The hard workers don't get ahead at work, but the boss' son gets promotion after promotion and bonus after bonus. No, you can change small pieces, but life will always be unfair.
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@handsofqwerty said:
@Carnival-Boy said:
- Life is not fair - get used to it
No, don't get used to it. Fight it. Try and change the world. Join political groups. Join protest groups. Go on marches. Sign petitions. Make the world fairer. It probably won't help, but better to die trying than give up and accept it.
I've given up trying. I'm old and cynical now. But I don't want to tell my kids to be more like me.
Life isn't fair. No amount of political change or anything will ever change this. People who are good people get sick while assholes are fine. The hard workers don't get ahead at work, but the boss' son gets promotion after promotion and bonus after bonus. No, you can change small pieces, but life will always be unfair.
He never said life was fair. He said don't get used to it. Read the words, not want you want to hear.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
- Life is not fair - get used to it
No, don't get used to it. Fight it. Try and change the world. Join political groups. Join protest groups. Go on marches. Sign petitions. Make the world fairer. It probably won't help, but better to die trying than give up and accept it.
I've given up trying. I'm old and cynical now. But I don't want to tell my kids to be more like me.
I see where you're going with this, I guess instead of saying simply fight, I'd change to that to know which battles to fight and which ones not to. But realize that life isn't fair, and never will be, so don't allow yourself to become jaded over it, instead look for ways to better your own situation instead of always fixing the broken one.
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VP with a Car Phone? A car phone hasn't been "cool" since 1989. Car phones were generally the big bulky units before mobile phones could be made small enough to be, well, mobile. I had a mobile phone (post-car phone era) by 1992 as a teenager in high school, just to put a date on things. Even by that point the idea of a "car phone" where the phone was attached to the car was dated enough that having one would have seemed weird or very special case (like a limo that was shared by people who shared a phone account.)
Either this thing is ancient or whoever said it is desperately out of touch. A very odd thing to have said. What high schooler today would even understand the reference?
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I'll have a go.
Rule 4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
When I was 7 my teacher smacked me in the front of the class for talking. I was devastated. I wish I'd been told then that a boss will never physically hit me or humiliate me. That day was really as bad as life at school or work ever got. Fortunately, teachers aren't allow to physically abuse my own kids, but the average, low level bullying that kids have to put up with is far worse than most people have to deal with at work and a lot of teachers are meaner than bosses. If a colleague hits me he'd get sacked, if my kids' classmate hits them the worst they'll get is probably detention. So my kids have to put up with far worse treatment that I do.
I actually was thinking the same thing. School is much harder, emotionally, than work. School work is all about busy work and making sure things are hard, even when you can excel. The "real world" after school cares about results. If you do the work well, no one cares how you did it or that you did work at home while no one was looking. Bosses want you to make them money.
School is very tough, in really bad ways. When I was a kid my father always said he would never going back to being a kid, the work world was so much better. It lets you grow, learn and is happy when you succeed. You get to be productive and creative and no one wants to screw you over just to do so, because they lose too, even more than you normally, when they do that.
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@handsofqwerty said:
I agree that physical abuse isn't really generally an issue in the workplace, but the bullying factor is WAY worse. How many people have jobs they are stuck at where they are treated horribly by peers, or worse, a supervisor, but can't do anything about it? I've seen this more times than I can count.
There is no comparison. Adults can change jobs, change careers, are emotionally and mentally better equipped to handle bullying and have far, far more laws and employment structures to protect them. Children are often not just bullied by other kids, but are bullied by the school administration itself and in many cases the schools assist bullies in bullying the weak kids (like by equally punishing both the bully and the bullied - making the victims of bullying victims of the school too!)
It is not worse in the workplace. That that are outlying cases where someone is bullied in the work place and not in school doesn't imply that it isn't worse for kids. The "Lord of the Flies" or "prison life" effect of schools full of immature, no success ranking or goals of kids creates a bully-rich environment with few consequences.
The work world, while imperfect, has checks and balances built into the system. Those that bully create work environments where good people don't want to work and profits are lost. Not in every case, but in general. In schools, there is no such natural adjustments. Children and captives of their schools, not in a free market able to move location, job description, etc.
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Rule 3: Dispute.
While lots of people won't and shouldn't make $60K right out of high school. Many will. Even in the early 1990s I knew people hitting $70K the year they were out of high school (hitting that rate within a year, not accumulating $70K within the first calendar year.) Common, no. Doable? Yes.
And that wasn't in IT. I remember by 2000 talk of kids graduating with $75K deals offered to them in their junior years in high school (upon graduation, not to drop out) for work in IT. I didn't know any of those kids, though.
If someone is really passionate in high school and a hard worker, $60K is pretty hard to do, but it isn't some magic, unobtainable number only for kids of the ultra rick or wonder kids.
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I do agree with Rule 5 a lot. Flipping burgers (or similar, bagging groceries and making pizzas) were major growth things for me personally. Hated doing it, very glad that I did it.
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I don't care who said/wrote any bit of that article. I agree with 95% of it whole-heartedly. That is all. And, to be clear, I am speaking of the heart of what's said, not the silly details like the exact "$60,000" value, or the "car phone" remark. Those are only making a point, not the crux of the matter.
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@art_of_shred said:
I don't care who said/wrote any bit of that article. I agree with 95% of it whole-heartedly. That is all. And, to be clear, I am speaking of the heart of what's said, not the silly details like the exact "$60,000" value, or the "car phone" remark. Those are only making a point, not the crux of the matter.
I very much dislike people that copy/paste crap on FB. Most of the time these people have no idea what they are even reposting. Seeing something blatantly wrong on ML is just insulting to the intelligent people that I thought were participating in this community.
The OP's posted information was two different things that were wrote by two different people and neither of the original authors were credited.
