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One common theme is whenever they aren't required to be doing their specific, they are busy with their smart phones...
Meanwhile me and two other guys, one slightly older than me and one quite a bit older than me do the rest of the work that keeps the restaurant running, on top of our assigned jobs.
...There is always something that needs to be done, and the restaurant would be a lot better if all those slackers got off their phones...
Sadly the manager doesn't do much to keep them in line , but he says that workers have been getting worse ever since phones got internet and "apps".
You nailed it, and thanks for being so honest.
This has been EXACTLY my experience with workers, say about 35 and under. With the internet and social networks right there at their fingertips, and constant texting as well, even when they're not tapping at their tiny screen (or office computer keyboard - even though they are monitored and people get fired on a regular basis for spending inordinate amounts of time online "playing"), their minds are preoccupied, just waiting for the next response from whoever they're interacting with.
It got so pervasive that at one point, I made people put their phone in a drawer - they were not allowed to have it out on their desk. You would have thought that I had told them I had run over their dog in the parking lot. You never saw such a sullen lot in your life. But it was either that - or leave the phones in their cars. When I mentioned that option, the blood literally drained from their faces and they started in with "No...no..." like people do when they get the news that a loved one had died!
This has been EXACTLY my experience with workers, say about 35 and under. With the internet and social networks right there at their fingertips, and constant texting as well, even when they're not tapping at their tiny screen (or office computer keyboard - even though they are monitored and people get fired on a regular basis for spending inordinate amounts of time online "playing"), their minds are preoccupied, just waiting for the next response from whoever they're interacting with.
It got so pervasive that at one point, I made people put their phone in a drawer - they were not allowed to have it out on their desk. You would have thought that I had told them I had run over their dog in the parking lot. You never saw such a sullen lot in your life. But it was either that - or leave the phones in their cars. When I mentioned that option, the blood literally drained from their faces and they started in with "No...no..." like people do when they get the news that a loved one had died!
Employers don't pay people to post on internet forums, exchange texts with friends and family, or otherwise occupy their time with non-work related activities on their cell phones. I thought television did the greatest harm to social interaction, but I've about decided that SmartPhones are worse than television. It's amazing how addicted people are to their SmartPhones, to the extent that true conversation is becoming a thing of the past.
It sounds like you stole my life story. Very similar to yours. And some how we made due and at least in my case I never felt under privileged.
Same here - and as I said in my post, I'm not COMPLAINING about my middle class upbringing in the 1960s and 1970s. For the most part, it was GREAT.
See, when you're not inundated with STUFF and the constant 24/7 barrage of information and junk that's in front of us on various screens all day, other experiences begin to fill your life. For instance, when you walk a mile to the snowcone place with your cousin, with the summer heat bearing down on you, you realize that the sky is an amazing shade of blue and that birds sound sweet and that Mrs Mumphrey's grandkids must be in town because she always makes pot roast when they visit and it smells delicious, and you actually talk with your cousin for HOURS face to face, and you realize that she's got the same nose you have, but her hair has amazing red highlights when she's standing in the sun, and you find out that her heart is breaking because her mom and dad are fighting a lot, but she's found a way to drown out their voices and it's this amazing book called "Whatever Happened to Sheila the Great" and it's hilarious and she reads it at night under the covers with a flashlight because her mom makes all four kids go to bed at 8 even though it's not fair that she, as the oldest, has to go to bed at the same time the six year old goes to bed!
When you ride your bike down to the marina for a soda, with the .25 you earned by picking up the dog poop in the backyard, you feel the wind whipping your hair around, and the sun flickering through the trees like small bursts of lightning because you're flying so fast down that road, and you could ride forever, forever...and sometimes you do ride for hours, exploring the nooks and crannies of the lake - the big mansions that are amazing, and the many smaller little cabins that look like something out of "The Yearling" set. When you finally get to the store, it feels great to pull out that money that you earned, along with the .50 you've saved up from working all morning in Mom's garden last week, and you buy that soda and a Snickers bar and you wander out on the dock to eat it. You savor each bite of this special treat because you certainly don't get such luxuries every day. You're pleasantly tired after your two hour bike ride, but your feet are dangling over the edge now and you pull out the heels of the bread your mom saved for you to feed the ducks. You sit there quietly, no distractions, no beeps or vibrations or ringtones or interruptions, and you slowly peel of pieces of bread to throw to the ducks, as you munch with great satisfaction on that delicious Snickers bar that you earned with your own hard work.
After a bit, you jump up suddenly, throw away your wrapper, turn in your bottle for .05, and jump back on your bike. Within two hours of cycling, running, walking around with your friends, etc. you've burned off every calorie and then some from your little solitary snack.
It's not that life was simpler - after all, we had dads and uncles and cousins and brothers in Vietnam, we had rioting in the streets and the Civil Rights movement, we had integration of the schools which was full of tension at times, we had a pervasive drug culture, and we had to get our heads around such notions as abortion, homosexuality, transgenders, test tube babies, a man walking on the moon, mothers leaving home to work, nuclear energy and it's dangers, war with Russia, why Uncle Mort had those numbers tattooed on his forearm, what Charles Manson did to Sharon Tate, our favorite aunt deciding to keep the baby she was pregnant with but not marry the father, and why, after our best friend's dad was killed in an industrial accident, his widow only got $10,000 in insurance from the company and then had to leave her kids alone each night while she went to night school to become one of only two acceptable professions for a woman - a nurse or a teacher.
But life was real - in real time, with real people, doing real stuff (no Wii or Rock Star required) with real consequences. You suck at dodgeball? You're the last one chosen to be on the team. You don't pay attention to punctuation? You get a C- on your paper, even if you spent four hours at the library working on it. Cause and effect - we learned it. And that's good. We realized that everyone may have equal rights, but that doesn't mean that everyone has equal skills - or challenges. If you want to excel, you generally have to be BETTER than average at what you're trying to do. It's not good enough to do the bare minimum that's expected from your peers - not if you want to rise above the bare minimum of existence.
Employers don't pay people to post on internet forums, exchange texts with friends and family, or otherwise occupy their time with non-work related activities on their cell phones. I thought television did the greatest harm to social interaction, but I've about decided that SmartPhones are worse than television. It's amazing how addicted people are to their SmartPhones, to the extent that true conversation is becoming a thing of the past.
Yep, it is very sad.
I see the allure - I am an information hound, and I also have five grown kids, and seven grandkids. Of COURSE I want to stay in touch with them, see the latest photos, etc. But I began to see how it erodes face time with my husband and my parents and my friends, let alone how it negatively impacts production at work.
Now, when my husband is home, I turn off the computer at 10:30 - after we drink our coffee and sit around a bit and watch the news or he works on invoices, that sort of thing. I had to impose a limit on myself or it was going to cause serious problems - and he was right to expect me to limit that time and spend more time with him.
At work, I just put my phone in my purse, and simply did not get on non-work related sites AT ALL at work. I know what a leech those activities are when it comes to productivity. Consequently, I have always been a top producer - at every job I've ever had. I stay off the damn phone and off the internet. Period. I've had manager after manager tell me how much they appreciate that.
As a manager myself, I'm telling you - that constant pecking on phones or tablets really erodes work quality, service, safety, as well as chances for advancement or raises. I've had to fire otherwise good employees simply because they would NOT stay off their devices, and therefore were not meeting the very reasonable - and MINIMUM - goals and standards of the business. And then they wonder why I'm such a hardass, and why I'm so demanding...when all I'm wanting them to do is work AT WORK while they're being paid to work.
When adjusted for inflation, they started out at wages better than minimum wage workers today?
and that they had a very high minimum wage AND a low unemployment rate?
You mean, do we realize that minimum wage workers have been screwed for decades because the Republicans have kept the minimum wage far below what inflation would justify?
But life was real - in real time, with real people, doing real stuff (no Wii or Rock Star required) with real consequences. You suck at dodgeball? You're the last one chosen to be on the team. You don't pay attention to punctuation? You get a C- on your paper, even if you spent four hours at the library working on it. Cause and effect - we learned it. And that's good. We realized that everyone may have equal rights, but that doesn't mean that everyone has equal skills - or challenges. If you want to excel, you generally have to be BETTER than average at what you're trying to do. It's not good enough to do the bare minimum that's expected from your peers - not if you want to rise above the bare minimum of existence.
But many people who grew up like this chose not to pass those values on to their children. Or at least those in charge of educating decided something was wrong with personal responsibility, and parents went along. Apparently plenty of boomers did not appreciate the way they were raised and wanted something else for their kids. Something went very wrong.
KA and I must be about the same age but our upbringing was vastly different. She was raised by sane people. I was not. Living with an obsessive alcoholic and his co-dependant was not likely to produce cooperation or social adjustment. Not everyone grew up in Mayberry. KA is very lucky she did.
I still do not trust managers unless I really get to know them and they prove to be friends not enemies. I realize that, even with 45 years of help from very good friend and wife, I am better but not completely sane. I doubt if I ever will be anywhere near "normal". Fortunately I will be retired soon so I will be able to drop the act of tame employee.
02-26-2013, 09:03 AM
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n/a posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Gringo
That's because we were better in the good old days, kid. We didn't spend our time at work gaming on smart phones and gettin' paid to do it. We had to snuff out volcanoes wearing cheap cotton gloves and clear forests with a scroll saw. That kinda stuff. Things that were worth the buck twenty-five an hour we earned.
That must be why productivity has soared - everyone sitting around playing Angry Birds.
The fact is that it's much harder to get ahead today than it was 40 or 50 years ago. It's the entirely predictable result of a concerted effort to concentrate wealth at the top while squeezing those at the bottom. Decades ago, a high school diploma and a decent work ethic would allow one to establish a decent middle class life. Today, that'll leave you slowly circling the drain, trying to stave off financial ruin as long as you can. And that doesn't just happen because people are blowing their money on houses and cars and smartphones they can't afford. Just paying for a basic necessities leaves one with nothing leftover. Even a tiny medical issue can send one's finances spiraling out of control.
KA and I must be about the same age but our upbringing was vastly different. She was raised by sane people. I was not. Living with an obsessive alcoholic and his co-dependant was not likely to produce cooperation or social adjustment. Not everyone grew up in Mayberry. KA is very lucky she did.
I still do not trust managers unless I really get to know them and they prove to be friends not enemies. I realize that, even with 45 years of help from very good friend and wife, I am better but not completely sane. I doubt if I ever will be anywhere near "normal". Fortunately I will be retired soon so I will be able to drop the act of tame employee.
Well, I didn't grow up in Mayberry. My mother is manic depressive. I mean, SIGNIFICANTLY jacked up emotionally and mentally. But to her credit, she did realize that she had some sort of problem, and tried to be a good mother. She WAS a good mother in many ways, that I truly appreciate, but her mental issues created some serious problems in our household. And my dad is the classic enabler - he didn't want to divorce her - and he didn't want to fight with her - so she was allowed to wreak havoc based on her mood swings, which were frequent.
That being said, I am still grateful for the childhood that my parents gave me. Most importantly, they gifted me with a strong work ethic and a zeal to achieve, to strive for excellence. That was the best gift they gave me and I am very appreciative for that.
They also are both intellectual and artistic, so they made history and art a priority wherever we lived. Vacations (on a shoestring but kids don't notice that) and outings to local sites, museums, festivals, etc were a top priority for our family. That is the other gift they gave me - in the form of time spent with family - which is also precious to me. Real time, real conversations, real interactions with real people and places and things. It's great.
They also gave me my purple Schwinn bicycle - which allowed me to fly on the wind away from that house when my mother was on a rampage.
But many people who grew up like this chose not to pass those values on to their children. Or at least those in charge of educating decided something was wrong with personal responsibility, and parents went along. Apparently plenty of boomers did not appreciate the way they were raised and wanted something else for their kids. Something went very wrong.
I'll get viscerated for this but I don't care.
Two career families created a wide array of social ramifications that I don't think people expected - or handled all that well.
Between both parents working full time (to pay for two cars, more stuff, and a car for every member of the family, etc) , smaller families (which meant that everyone "got their own space" -ie, their own cocoon away from everyone else), more "things" (ie, distractions), less time together as a family, less control over what is influencing the minds of children in the family, less emphasis on a healthy lifestyle (emotionally and physically), higher divorce rate, etc...and we're seeing the outcome of all that social change now.
Every generation wants their kids to have it better than them. But I think we've reached the tipping point. More STUFF doesn't mean a better life. A kid may think they want a pool in the backyard, but they don't realize that to put that pool in, Mom has to go back to work. Mom home with preschoolers is better for them than a pool - but hey, Mom wants that pool too!
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We are about the same age
