The younger workforce.

[kenmac]

Help is very hard to find & keep. I have firemen ,they are my best workers.. I'm their part time job

 

[tbrooks26]

I think the issues are much wider today. Yesterday I was thinking about why. Why are so many people around here, a sleepy apparently old fashioned country place, either high on or dealing in meth....and that includes middle aged folks too. Why is my neighbour with two young kids, rolling drunk (actually paralytic), whenever I see him. Why are people especially the younger generation so determined to blot out life so that they can't feel anything any more.
The answer I came up with is that they kind of know deep down that the good times for our culture are coming to an end. The wealth from the Anglo/US/European industrial revolution and the international power which came with it, is almost done. I reckon they think, why work, let's party 'cos it's going to end soon anyway. Not saying it's right, but I think that's why everything is turning to manure in our society and few people these days, seem to care very much about anything or anyone except themselves.

I think the reason is there's just no reason to work hard. If mommy and daddy won't pay their way, the gov't will. It is the same around here with drugs (and most places don't have testing around here). I know of 3 young families off the top of my head, at least one parent has had and kept a decent job, and they have struggled for years, barely able to even keep 1 good vehicle running. At least one of these guys, with a lady and 2 kids, makes almost double what I do, and made a comment to me about my nice vehicles, and the property I just got, saying he would like to be able to afford that. He has no clue what I make though and probably thinks its more than him. He is a good hard worker though, does tree work. People just don't have the desire to go after their dreams.

 

[newbury]

I think the issues are much wider today. Yesterday I was thinking about why. Why are so many people around here, a sleepy apparently old fashioned country place, either high on or dealing in meth....and that includes middle aged folks too. Why is my neighbour with two young kids, rolling drunk (actually paralytic), whenever I see him. Why are people especially the younger generation so determined to blot out life so that they can't feel anything any more.
The answer I came up with is that they kind of know deep down that the good times for our culture are coming to an end. The wealth from the Anglo/US/European industrial revolution and the international power which came with it, is almost done. <snip>

I don't think that most of the "slackers" (my term for them) act that way because they "know deep down that the good times for our culture are coming to an end".

I don't think they are that bright or think that deep.

When I was in college in the early '70's I figured then we had reached a peak in civilization and it was probably going to be down hill from there.

I think I'll blame the decline in our society on my parents and their cohorts. When they raised me and my peers they did not make it difficult enough. And many of us thought "that was good", so we will make it easier for our children. I had to work nights to pay my way through college, and I'm sure it affected my grades. And I didn't want that affecting my children so since SWMBO and I could afford it we paid a large part of their college costs. So now we have a generation that grew up knowing little hardship compared to the past and they view any effort that they do should be praised and paid handsomely. I'll admit I have not been harsh enough on my children, and it took them a few years to "find" themselves and get their hiny in gear.

I worked with and trained perhaps a thousand or two soldiers during my career in topographic engineering. They all had to have a very high score on the aptitude tests to get in the field. Virtually all of them were between 18 and 25. Very few were "slackers". Most had come from a low income background, couldn't afford college and didn't like flipping burgers or welfare. Most when they got out of the army continued on with schooling and became successful productive members of society. But most of them had "horror stories" about their buddies who didn't join the military or have a good career. These buddies often just saw life as a low paying job and then you die. And they tend to resent the more successful people who worked hard, studied hard and eventually became successful.

I think part of the OP's problem with the young workforce is that the ones that stay around are not the cream of the crop. The cream has floated up and gone to better markets for their job skills.

 

[DFB]

I see all types of young kids come thru the business I work for each season. Some have real future goals they are aiming to achieve. I assume good family or teachers or coaching are guiding them and these few listen to instruction and work out well and we both know they have to move to the better things that are waiting for them.

But now there are others have no direction whatsoever. Obviously they lack real world work experience at their age but it seems no one has ever mentored them in what it takes to succeed in life. Punctuality, getting to the job on time, coming prepared to actually spend all day on the job. Even drivers licensing seems strange in this generation, so many don't have one even into their early twenties. But hey they do know all the local nitespots and other avenues of personal enlightenment quite well already though.

And of course smartphones and Ipods they all got them.

Personal headphones use for music can be an issue too
Like your getting tuned right out.


Most do express a desperation to work, make money but many don't want to be told what to do (it's a job I say to them you don't get a choice in the matter ) or how to do something, because according to them they know it all ready.

When they say to my boss they already know how to do something even though they have never worked at it before he always says "How did you get so smart?"

They think its a complement and don't even realize the sarcasm its intended to be.

One 23 yr old guy told me he had worked more than a dozen different jobs already...geeze I haven't had that many in my whole lifetime


I usually get one or two under my guidance each season. I try to get them interested in different aspects of construction trade work, direct saleswork, aspects of horticulture. They get a chance to use tools, equipment and machinery. Maybe it helps some I don't ever really know. Most I never see again.


Things sure seem to have changed a lot since I started working every summer at age 14

 

[stan33]

When I was in college in the early '70's I figured then we had reached a peak in civilization and it was probably going to be down hill from there.

Yes, I think the platform shoes and bell-bottom pants signaled the beginning of the end for civilization as we know it

 

[bcp]

The young people with a good work ethic already have their jobs and are keeping them. That's why you guys aren't seeing them.



Bruce

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I have two grandsons in college; one working on his CPA the other in his Senior year majoring in Industrial Safety. They both have jobs, for which they were recruited, working all the hours they can muster. Both are intelligent, hard working and dress and act like gentlemen. My point being, that there is education, and there is education. A degree in Poly Sci, or some other liberal arts degree pales when compared to a degree in Civil or Chemical Engineering, accounting or law. Show up stoned, with tattoos between your eyes and on your fingers, pants dragging the ground, with Neanderthal level speaking and writing skills...and your chances have just cratered.

I graduated from college the first time in 1964. I was married, child on the way, painting houses to keep us going. I took any job I could find to make a paycheck; miss one and we would have been out on the street, an absolute certainty. In those days you worked sick, you worked hurt, you worked any holiday that you could get paid for; you thanked your employer and kept your mouth shut. My first job as a college grad was $364 per month, less than I was making painting, but it was inside, with AC and it was in the area of my degree.

Kids today have too many safety nets; either Mom and Dad bail them out, or Uncle Sugar will. An old coal miner told me one time that during the depression he worked in the mines even thought they were dangerous, filled with Methane, and subject to explosion. I'll never forget his remark..."When the kids start chewing the paint off of the table legs, you gotta do something".

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I have two grandsons in college; one working on his CPA the other in his Senior year majoring in Industrial Safety. They both have jobs, for which they were recruited, working all the hours they can muster. Both are intelligent, hard working and dress and act like gentlemen. My point being, that there is education, and there is education. A degree in Poly Sci, or some other liberal arts degree pales when compared to a degree in Civil or Chemical Engineering, accounting or law. Show up stoned, with tattoos between your eyes and on your fingers, pants dragging the ground, with Neanderthal level speaking and writing skills...and your chances have just cratered.

I graduated from college the first time in 1964. I was married, child on the way, painting houses to keep us going. I took any job I could find to make a paycheck; miss one and we would have been out on the street, an absolute certainty. In those days you worked sick, you worked hurt, you worked any holiday that you could get paid for; you thanked your employer and kept your mouth shut. My first job as a college grad was $364 per month, less than I was making painting, but it was inside, with AC and it was in the area of my degree.

Kids today have too many safety nets; either Mom and Dad bail them out, or Uncle Sugar will. An old coal miner told me one time that during the depression he worked in the mines even thought they were dangerous, filled with Methane, and subject to explosion. I'll never forget his remark..."When the kids start chewing the paint off of the table legs, you gotta do something".

 

[downsizingnow48]

I think the country has changed.

I started working around the neighborhood at age 14 and built that into a landscaping business that I gave to my younger brother when I got my first "W2" job at a gas station. From that time until I retired in 2009, I was never out of work except for 2 weeks after I got out of the Army. And then in college on the GI Bill. After that I did a lot of different things always moving ahead.

Bootstrapping used to be how almost everyone did it. But I just don't think that is generally doable anymore. NAFTA and other global trade trends have dismantled the old line companies that provided a lot of decent jobs leading to middle class mobility. As a society we have not paid nearly enough attention to our education system, which now turns out mainly ignorant unskilled folk.

We paid for our two girls to go to college. Otherwise they would probably have been sales clerks in a mall somewhere. Then they put themselves through grad school, hydrology and public health. Now they both have solid jobs.

For kids that don't get an education and don't get a substantial helping hand, I think it is pretty darn hard to get any traction in the economy as it is today.

The politicians of both parties care a lot more about their next campaign donation than about building jobs. And they either want to dismantle the education system entirely or hand it over to unions. Both terrible.

I am positive in outlook by nature but right now I do not see anything going on that will lead to progress on either jobs or education. Which is what we need to turn the country around.

 

[davesl708]

I think the reason is there's just no reason to work hard. If mommy and daddy won't pay their way, the gov't will. It is the same around here with drugs (and most places don't have testing around here). I know of 3 young families off the top of my head, at least one parent has had and kept a decent job, and they have struggled for years, barely able to even keep 1 good vehicle running. At least one of these guys, with a lady and 2 kids, makes almost double what I do, and made a comment to me about my nice vehicles, and the property I just got, saying he would like to be able to afford that. He has no clue what I make though and probably thinks its more than him. He is a good hard worker though, does tree work. People just don't have the desire to go after their dreams.

The sad thing is there are families that have been on welfare for multiple generations in several areas of the US. Unbelievable but they refuse to move where jobs are and know what to say and do to stay on the dole. We ( the voters and taxpayers) enable this behavior. As long as we enable it it will continue and grow.