Maybe It's The Work Not The Work Ethics That Is The Problem

Maybe It’s The Work Not The Work Ethics That is the Problem

John Paul Derryberry

There seems to be this ongoing cultural thing in America, where we constantly blame the newest generation for lacking a work ethic; or the first-class folks forgetting or ignoring the inherent advantages of what being born well above the poverty line provides. It sometimes provides the illusion of a great work ethic when it's the money behind the machine doing all the work. I could quickly point to my own life of holding down two jobs until I was 29 as proof of my work ethic. But there is a much more straightforward example to point out right now.

We went through a two-year on-again-and-off-again pandemic and only experienced mild nuisances in our lives. People kept fast food places open. People worked hard enough during a pandemic to keep the McDonald's dollar menu operational. Sure hours changed, how we accessed stores evolved, packages' wait times increased, but overall society functioned. Many people, who were paid low wages, kept our communities humming along. Unfortunately, it's yet another round of people who don't know how hard-to-work stories are floating through our news cycle. It's a disrespect to all that the worker bees accomplished these past two years.

I'm in a position to hire the next generation of workers. Yes, they conduct work differently than other generations. Maybe their view of work is better than past generations. They are finally putting it in the proper context in life. With our short life spans, seventy years go by fast. Maybe keeping up with the Jones's was the wrong idea. But that doesn't mean this generation doesn't work hard. In some respect, they work harder. They kind of have to. Everything is more expensive. We don't blame companies for low wages; we blame the employee for staying. Go get another job, we tell them. Yet when they do that, we say employees are not loyal anymore. I know this last one for a fact because it happened to me twice in my career.

There is a litany of issues about why it appears people don't work as hard as they used to, but not one of them is a lack of a solid work ethic. Almost all people work hard. It's an easy excuse to toss out so we don't have to think beyond five seconds about why we find stagnation in today's workforce. The workplace should evolve; compensation should grow; benefits packages should develop; and so should our attitude about how much of our lives we should pour into the professional portion. And, the measurement should be on a sliding scale due to the different motives people carry to their job. Work ethic isn't the problem. The pandemic taught us that. Maybe now we should focus on real solutions instead of half-baked excuses, with less effort than the folks you are accusing of not trying hard enough. Because, believe me, they are trying hard to make all of this work.