Work ethic!!

[Pearl]

A friend has two adult kids, a son 31, and a daughter soon to be 29! The son co-owns a business and is very driven!! The daughter went to business school a couple of years ago (thanks to her mom) and got a great job around the first of this year. She would never keep a job, but really liked this one! As usual she would call in sick if there was something else she wanted to do, and had a bad "play on her phone" habit. She lost the job this week, fired! My friend had to go the tough love route and told her she could NOT move back in the house! This girl wasn't raised this way. My friend doesn't understand her lack of work ethic! She runs around with a couple of other gals who always have their hands out, sad. There is a lot of this going on today!!

 

[Morgan101]

I hope your friend sticks to her guns, and doesn't let her move back. Work or starve. No such thing as a free lunch.

 

[Amish Heart]

I saw alot of that with the young staff I hired in New Mexico. I fired a good number over the years for cell phone use, excessive call ins. I had a few file unemployment after a no show to work. Thought that was funny. Maybe four staff stayed with us over the years, the rest were fly by night. We'd usually employ 12 to 15 at a time. I learned very quickly to only staff older women to open. One lady who stayed for years on the opening schedule started at age 70. The young ones would come in late, come in hung over. Older women were reliable.

 

[Weedygarden]

Even thought there might have been a strong work ethic at home, there may have been a thing of the girl not be expected to do much and no logical consequences for not finishing tasks in a reasonable time.

 

[Weedygarden]

I saw alot of that with the young staff I hired in New Mexico. I fired a good number over the years for cell phone use, excessive call ins. I had a few file unemployment after a no show to work. Thought that was funny. Maybe four staff stayed with us over the years, the rest were fly by night. We'd usually employ 12 to 15 at a time. I learned very quickly to only staff older women to open. One lady who stayed for years on the opening schedule started at age 70. The young ones would come in late, come in hung over. Older women were reliable.

Being late is something that I cannot stand. I was often and usually first in wherever I worked. Being on time is late for me. Being 10 minutes early is good. Being earlier, even better. Besides usually being first in, I was often last out as well.

 

[Morgan101]

Being late is something that I cannot stand. I was often and usually first in wherever I worked. Being on time is late for me. Being 10 minutes early is good. Being earlier, even better. Besides usually being first in, I was often last out as well.

I agree 100%. If I am not at least 15 minutes early (to me) I am late. I was always the first one in, but I am no longer the last one out. I really do believe it is our generation that had a far better work ethic. I also have no patience with people who think sick days are vacation. I have seen many people abuse that privilege. They don't feel like going to work, so they take a sick day. I secretly pray "I hope God punishes you." Sure enough a time comes when they are genuinely sick, and guess what? They don't have any sick days. I have seen people terminated for this when their absence is excessive. Rightfully so. You knew the attendance policy when you started. It wasn't a secret.

Same with being late. You knew where that building/office/store/whatever was when you took the job. You knew how long it took to get there when you took the job. About 99.99% of the time that building didn't move. Why can't you get there on time? Even if it did move it doesn't take more than one or two trips to the new building to see how long it will take to get there. There is NO reason to ne late. Sorry. Off the soap box. I'm back now.

 

[Weedygarden]

I agree 100%. If I am not at least 15 minutes early (to me) I am late. I was always the first one in, but I am no longer the last one out. I really do believe it is our generation that had a far better work ethic. I also have no patience with people who think sick days are vacation. I have seen many people abuse that privilege. They don't feel like going to work, so they take a sick day. I secretly pray "I hope God punishes you." Sure enough a time comes when they are genuinely sick, and guess what? They don't have any sick days. I have seen people terminated for this when their absence is excessive. Rightfully so. You knew the attendance policy when you started. It wasn't a secret.

Same with being late. You knew where that building/office/store/whatever was when you took the job. You knew how long it took to get there when you took the job. About 99.99% of the time that building didn't move. Why can't you get there on time? Even if it did move it doesn't take more than one or two trips to the new building to see how long it will take to get there. There is NO reason to ne late. Sorry. Off the soap box. I'm back now.

I agree with you 100%! You are right in that we are probably the generation with the better work ethic. I think the consequences that happened for me if I was late really helped me and the fact that it came from a neighbor. Late? Walk to school. On time? Get a ride and really be early and ready when school started.

I had a student whose mother brought them to school after 10:00 a.m. when children began arriving on buses from 8:30 to 9:00. This child stayed in most days for recess to catch up on her work. Her mother wanted to know why? Because she missed at least an hour of school every morning! Was it the right thing to do? It certainly wasn't the child's fault that she was always so late, but she also struggled with reading and other aspects of education.

Mother's excuse? She couldn't wake up and get her kids to school any earlier. She was an exotic dancer, or so I was told. I actually had more than one student whose mother was an exotic dancer. The others got on the bus and to school on time. Any of these children qualified for free breakfast and lunch.

 

[Amish Heart]

We had two little girls who had a mom who was an exotic dancer. Problem was, the girls would watch mom practice her "dance" moves at home, and then they'd come show the other students.

 

[Morgan101]

We had two little girls who had a mom who was an exotic dancer. Problem was, the girls would watch mom practice her "dance" moves at home, and then they'd come show the other students.

Gives a whole new meaning to the term "Show and Tell". A pole dance was probably not what you had in mind.

 

[Amish Heart]

Yep! And the stories we'd hear. Heard about a dad on the recliner who tells the 4 year old to bring him a beer all the time. I taught the child to say, "beer makes you fat and stupid".

 

[UrbanHunter]

Yep! And the stories we'd hear. Heard about a dad on the recliner who tells the 4 year old to bring him a beer all the time. I taught the child to say, "beer makes you fat and stupid".

err, as in fatter and stupider...

 

[Pearl]

I hope your friend sticks to her guns, and doesn't let her move back. Work or starve. No such thing as a free lunch.

I think she will, she cut her off her cell phone plan!

 

[Spikedriver]

I have a real hard time with a lot of the younger people. I wasn't a good worker when I was 21, just because I wasn't serious about anything. But I did understand that someone was paying their money for me to do something for them and I had a responsibility to do it. By the time I was 25 that changed. I understood that efficiency is money. I'm still not a fireball at work, those days are over now. Work is a marathon, not a sprint and you can get a lot done at a steady, slower pace, and you'll have less stress that way. But Gen Z thinks that the job exists to pay them, not that the job exists for them to get paid to accomplish a task.

I've met a couple recently that give me hope though. They still have youthful stupidity, but they do work hard. The instant they have a break they're on their phones, but they work when it's time to work...

 

[Pearl]

I have a real hard time with a lot of the younger people. I wasn't a good worker when I was 21, just because I wasn't serious about anything. But I did understand that someone was paying their money for me to do something for them and I had a responsibility to do it. By the time I was 25 that changed. I understood that efficiency is money. I'm still not a fireball at work, those days are over now. Work is a marathon, not a sprint and you can get a lot done at a steady, slower pace, and you'll have less stress that way. But Gen Z thinks that the job exists to pay them, not that the job exists for them to get paid to accomplish a task.

I've met a couple recently that give me hope though. They still have youthful stupidity, but they do work hard. The instant they have a break they're on their phones, but they work when it's time to work...

You work hard Spike, I'm sure you are a great example for the younger ones on your job!!

 

[Plainflatlander]

This is the reason why I downsized my landscape operation to just me over 15 years ago. I saw the wave of workers coming up and was not impressed. I use to employ many men who would work the night shift in local factories then work for me 7 hrs each day. No, they dont make men like that anymore. I hesitate to call young males men nowadays. Not all, but most dont care to work.

 

[Morgan101]

I think she will, she cut her off her cell phone plan!

That's a start. Don't let her fall back into bad habits. My Dad had a friend who used to call it a "Plate Breaking Ceremony". When one of the kids moved out of the house, he broke their dinner plate, so they couldn't come back to eat.