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I don't know about work ethic (my opinion is people are overall pretty lazy, since we are generally coddled by technology and all that "makes life easier") but I can say with confidence the younger generation expects far more reward for far less effort. I am 30, and have been a non-traditional student for the past few years. I am surprised by the expectations of my younger peers- six-figure salaries, important titles/functions, etc. Yet many of them have never worked outside of a summer internship, or the occasional weekend shift scooping ice cream or whatever. The lack of work experience and naivete about what to expect in the workforce is pretty glaring when you consider how exceedingly competitive the market is. Well-educated, experienced professionals have trouble finding great jobs with considerable benefits and comp- why should anyone fresh out of college?
Communists were the ones who said there was inherent value in hard work. They had all kinds of propaganda about how the manual labor man was the most virtuous type of person.
I don't value hard work. I value getting the job done & working smarter. I work smart to get the job done efficiently so I can be done and move on.
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The lack of work experience and naivete about what to expect in the workforce is pretty glaring when you consider how exceedingly competitive the market is. Well-educated, experienced professionals have trouble finding great jobs with considerable benefits and comp- why should anyone fresh out of college?
I don't blame them for that. I'm 33, but I was the same way when I was 18-20. You grow up with all this propaganda, all these movies with youngish people in their 30s with good jobs and great apartments, etc... and to get it all college seems like the ticket because everyone tells you it's true. They just don't go into detail about the intervening period where they worked up.
As I said upthread ... conditions were different (which is what I meant in part by 'apples and oranges'). That is why the study really means nothing. It doesn't begin by defining what is even meant by 'work ethic' either as I said - and as someone else above this post mentioned, it is probably a really individual thing so should groups from different generations be lumped together side by side for comparison? I still can't figure out the point of this study .. can you? I think it is poorly done and has little relevance, except perhaps to either inflame or mollify - depending who is reading it.
If one wants to talk about 'work ethic' I think that one should be talking about individuals, in the same generation, under the same economic conditions, etc. But, even there the subject is fraught with problems because if you survey 20 people who actually work, few will say they don't have a good 'work ethic' .. some might say they do because they actually show up most of the time, others might say it is because they do the work assigned to a reasonable standard, others might say it is because they innovate and go beyond the standard, others might say it is because they stay till 10 pm every night of the week when some people leave at 7 pm., others might say it is because they worked from the day they got out of college (or high school or trade school or whatever .. or were at least always looking for a job even if they didn't have one). The list of reasons why one might decide one has a good 'work ethic' goes on and on - so unless that is clearly defined first, how does one 'study' even one generation much less compare two and come out with any logical, substantiated conclusions at all?
Work ethic is a personal quality imo and has nothing to do with what your employer does or does not provide as a reward for that ethic.
Work ethic is a matter of the personal pride you take in whatever your responsibility is within any specific job.
No it isn't that's just want corporate America wants people to think because corporate America wants robots willing to be wage slaves. Work ethic or lack of work ethic is influenced by the company.
I'll say this. A few years ago, I was in a position that had me supervising 30-50 interns at a given time and this was each semester for over a period of three years. I worked with hundreds of them. Most all of these younger workers were highly educated, most in grad school, a few already through school. Of the estimated 300 or so I worked with over those three years, about eight I recall as someone I would consider to hirer to work at, say McDonalds. They were almost universally whiney, lazy, incompetent. Despite being educated, they were ignorant, self indulged, had egos the size of mount everest, were frequently, if not consistently late, would come in and sit and complain when given work assignments. It was so bad, I almost could not believe it. I used to get done with work so angry I had to deal with these people I would be shaking. They worked harder at getting out of responsibilities than if they just did the damn work.
Again, I did come across a few who had strong work ethics and really cared about proving themselves. But they were far and few between. My opinion is this is a result of the mass induction of social media and these young people getting a sense of entitlement, fake and false praise for everything they do, a sense of things that are not real from social media by pandering compliments online 24/7 and being raised in a way that teaches them they are just special for being alive. It really was that bad.
I suspect as they were thrown into the work force and fired from a few jobs, many will wake up, unfortunately many were just a lost cause. It's sad really. Spending tens of thousands on an education, that most just faked their way through and professors passed them, going into the workforce in debt with no work skills.
Perhaps more amazing than this, was how these younger people all bragged non-stop about their educations, yet when you sat and talked with them, it was immediately apparent they weren't learning much and were in fact usually quite ignorant. And common sense was non existent.
The place I worked for actually began targeting people at age 30 or older to attempt to avoid this.
It's a myth that baby boomers have a stronger work ethic than later generations
This boomer retired about 3 nanoseconds after I reached eligibility.
Retirement rocks!
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It's a myth that baby boomers have a stronger work ethic than later generations
