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I don't see many lazy teens... most of the kids I see are working hard to compete for college. The interns we have often work late and work hard. I gave one control over a portion of a project and she knocked it out the park.
Heck most of the kids I meet call me Sir, open the door for me, etc. Very nice. Do you have the knuckleheads running around? Yes.... but I'd say they are the minority.. but people looking for something, will only see those knuckleheads.
But I remember those same old people saying the same thing about me and my friends... yea, I had a motorcycle at 17, drove nice cars, etc... but I worked my butt off... but they did not ever see that for some reason. lol
I don't see many lazy teens... most of the kids I see are working hard to compete for college. The interns we have often work late and work hard. I gave one control over a portion of a project and she knocked it out the park.
Heck most of the kids I meet call me Sir, open the door for me, etc. Very nice. Do you have the knuckleheads running around? Yes.... but I'd say they are the minority.. but people looking for something, will only see those knuckleheads.
But I remember those same old people saying the same thing about me and my friends... yea, I had a motorcycle at 17, drove nice cars, etc... but I worked my butt off... but they did not ever see that for some reason. lol
9 kids wear a suit, one wears shorts and a mohawk... which do you remember?
The problem is, a lot of times the people who come to work and just get the job done aren't the ones you remember because they didn't require your attention. Maybe 1 is a suprestar, 8 are normal, and 1 is a pain. The 8 took on a task and got it done without having to bug you and without missing deadlines. Then you have the 1 who makes your life miserable day in, day out. The one who requires you to go over every job again because they messed something up, couldn't figure it out, or just over all didn't do it.
You always remember pain more than pleasure. Just a fact of life.
Our paper is delivered my a middle aged guy by car. Even people with teenage kids are mowing the lawn themselves or paying a landscaping service.Our fast food places have more senior citizens than teenagers working there. If you go to the 3 high schools in our city the parking lots are full of cars driven by students, Mom and Dad pay for the car and for the gas and insurance. I think this is typical of what's left of the middle class. Our nearest McDonalds was offering well over minimum wage and getting people from much less affluent areas who could make more even with the bus fare than in the city where they live. Parents want their kids to get that 4.0 average to get a scholarship and compete for a good job so they are given everything they need (and want). The problem is they don't learn responsibility, and don't develop a work ethic. When they get that degree they too often expect a good salary but are not prepared to work hard 8 hours a day.
(We too have had young kids cited for lemonade stands without a permit).
I'd say there are a few different points at play with this post.
The jobs teenagers once held are no-longer held by kids. Newspaper delivery is now dependent on cars and vans rather than a bicyclist or by feet. Fast food still has young people but there are more and more older workers taking those jobs. I see more older workers than younger workers at Walmart. The jobs teenagers held are now no longer available.
I think there is something to the schooling issue. Before college was "affordable to everyone" and "important for jobs" there wasn't an emphasis for high school performance so one could work and it wasn't a problem. Now we worry about all the extra-circulars and GPA so we don't want distractions like jobs for our children. Then we wonder why they didn't have work experience and work ethic. It's because parents don't care. Most kids aren't going to care without a parent instilling that into them.
As you mentioned the un-licensed and un-document businesses are cited all the time. If I goto Chase Field for Monster Jam, Supercross or a Diamondbacks game, I can guarantee most of the ones selling water likely didn't get a permit and are one call or police stop from being shut down. The permits can be a deterrent which I know, I know "another excuse" but it is something to keep in prospective.
9 kids wear a suit, one wears shorts and a mohawk... which do you remember?
The problem is, a lot of times the people who come to work and just get the job done aren't the ones you remember because they didn't require your attention. Maybe 1 is a suprestar, 8 are normal, and 1 is a pain. The 8 took on a task and got it done without having to bug you and without missing deadlines. Then you have the 1 who makes your life miserable day in, day out. The one who requires you to go over every job again because they messed something up, couldn't figure it out, or just over all didn't do it.
You always remember pain more than pleasure. Just a fact of life.
I think it is more to it than that... older people seem to think they are expected to talk bad about teens.
I don't understand it... makes no sense to me.
Maybe some are jealous at their youth? I don't know.... never claimed to have the answer there. But kids are our future leaders and we need to build them up... give them challenges... give them the same respect we expect... teach them but also step back and learn from them.
Are we talking about the generation of kids that are still in Afghanistan, that are attaining college and graduate degrees at a higher rate than any other in history, or that no longer has the benefit of a protectionist US economy and has to compete in the global market?
Or are we talking about babies? If it's babies then I totally agree--they are totally lazy. They expect us parents to feed them AND change their diapers. And they won't even do any chores around the house or pay their fair share. I sat my two month old down and explained to her that she needed to pull her own weight and think about getting a job and she just sat there and pretended to not understand what I was saying. Talk about a lazy, entitled generation.
If it's the current group of young people in their 20s I think we should maybe give them the benefit of the doubt. Generation after generation has thought those following them were lazy. They also thought their taste in music was shoddy, their sense of morality lacking, and their general level of common sense was dangerously low. They'll think it about the generation after them, ad infinitum. Some people realize this so maybe the cycle will stop itself.
That's way too small a window to notice any generational trends. I would still err on the side of caution and note that 16-19 year olds are teenagers and this really may be "a stage". Considering how competitive college admissions have become, though, I wouldn't say all kids this age are lazy.
When I was a teenager in high school, my parents did not want my siblings or me to work at summer jobs. So I don't think that it is a big deal.
That sounds like a good thing. For many people, once they start in the workforce, they're never able to get an endless Summer like that again until they're just several years away from being buried.
When I was in high school, I had difficulty finding work in the Summer. The economy was terrible. As much as I tried, I couldn't find a job anywhere. And so, by default, I ended up not having a Summer job. I spent those Summers hanging out with friends, reading books (on a wide variety of subjects), writing short stories, road tripping... Now when I look back on that period, after *decades* of working continuously and getting only 3 weeks off each year for vacation, I'm so glad I didn't waste those Summers working.
That sounds like a good thing. For many people, once they start in the workforce, they're never able to get an endless Summer like that again until they're just several years away from being buried.
When I was in high school, I had difficulty finding work in the Summer. The economy was terrible. As much as I tried, I couldn't find a job anywhere. And so, by default, I ended up not having a Summer job. I spent those Summers hanging out with friends, reading books (on a wide variety of subjects), writing short stories, road tripping... Now when I look back on that period, after *decades* of working continuously and getting only 3 weeks off each year for vacation, I'm so glad I didn't waste those Summers working.
I would have loved to do this, but if I didn't work, I wouldn't have had any money to do anything over the summer. Road trips require gas money, food money, and car insurance. Hanging out with friends generally had us ending up at a restaurant somewhere which costs money. If I didn't work, I wouldn't have been able to do much with my friends.
A lot has been written about the latest generation of our youth and their perceived laziness, but overall those observations don't take into consideration that America has a certain magnetism based on notions of a "better life". That draw card of a better life has brought millions from all over the planet to our doorstep, but they don't always connect the dots between some of our sullen and sometimes uncivil youth with the fact that this better life often means living in a world where societal values have drastically changed. Working tempers the soul, it challenges the individual when compared to the performance of others. The fact that some don't work means that others do, and in the case of teens that means the parents are working while the kids reap the rewards, not the best life lesson by any reasoning.
Working, that single most important aspect of modern survival seems to have fallen victim to this idea that life at it's best is all about self indulgent luxuriating, and working certainly conflicts with that notion. Laziness is a human trait that has been a problem for all human societies forever, but the necessity of communal work as an integral part of survival is long gone, it's all about the individual now and that has changed the old ideas of "pulling your weight" in the group (hunter gatherer) living paradigm. Nolan Bushnell, the inventor of so much of what has become the basis of video game technology had said in an interview that he thought of todays kids as "functionally useless", and by that he meant that they had no role as contributors in the greater scheme of things. I think he was correct in that observation.
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