Does the younger generation have our work ethic?

by compound complex 21 Replies latest jw friends

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  compound complex

  Greetings, you hard workers:

  I've had enough of speaking in generalities during my time as a JW evangelizer. While my own experience will offer up mere anecdotal examples at best, my contemporaries and I have found that kids today lack the earnestness and drive we older folks have had since youth: setting up a lemonade stand; doing yard work without power assist; mopping floors; running errands for a dime; cleaning parking lots, etc. We were eager to work, maybe making 50 cents for a job well done. My parents couldn't afford my piano lessons at $1.50 a week, so I did yard work for my teacher.

  A friend told me yesterday that she couldn't get her teenage neighbor to return to finish weeding her garden. When weeding his parent's garden -- reluctantly -- he used one hand for weeding, the other for chatting on his mobile. Personally, I no longer recommend kids to people who ask for inexpensive labor. The usual, poor results reflect on me, although the disappointed asker-for-help says it's not my fault.

  What has been your experience or observation?

  Thanks.
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  AllTimeJeff

  Since you asked......

  My feeling is that generationally, everyone goes through their 20's in the same way. They're adults, trying to understand the world they find themselves in, wondering who they are. Some are good, some not so much.

  I read a blog by a millennial a couple of years ago, where she wanted to have a job with meaning, the resources to be happy, yet not a slave to a job or money. That was me! I just didn't have social media as a platform for my angst. That blog convinced me personally that it isn't a generational thing, it's what you go through in your 20's...

  My personal conclusion is firstly, millenials are just like others going through their 20's and 30's. They're just the first group that had access to and used social media to discuss these things, which had the unintended consequence of glamourizing their generation and their plight. Prior to this, people in their 20's were told to shut up and wait their turn.And let's face it, whatever the "American Dream" was, is not available to this group. Crushing student loan debt and a country that hasn't been this divided since the 60's has served to turn millenials off from anything older generations have to sell. There is no trust, because that trust has been destroyed.

  Secondly, what constitutes "work" has changed. It's not like your day Coco, or even mine. And yes, there are those that work hard and get that. However, it is to be expected in my opinion that since work has evolved into "knowledge" work, and manual labor/trades are generally looked down on (for no good particular reason) that millennials are not going to be looking to lemonade stands, when they actually can see the abyss better than any other young generation, and are generally turned off by their prospects.

  Another quote that I respect goes something like "Young people will pay the price if they can see the future." No future has been provided that millenials want to work for, and I think they have a point. It isn't about work ethic, it's about the cliff we all are collectively hurtling towards.

  Hope sells. Whether it's MLK Jr, Reagan, or Obama, what is needed is a vision that people can buy into. Without that, chaos ensues.

  Just my two cents....
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  Sour Grapes

  This is my experience with the younger generation.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo0KjdDJr1c
  
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  snugglebunny

  The current zeitgeist would seem to be all about over- parenting. Kids don't take many risks anymore. But that's the fault of their parents who are not doing them any favours at all in humouring them and providing for their children who should have left home years ago.Or at least made a sizeable contribution to the family pot!
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  compound complex

  Thank you, AllTimeJeff, Sour Grapes, and snugglebunny, for insights beyond my own microcosmic experience and for a good laugh, SG: "Are you firing me?"

  I admit my own view has been narrow; the well-founded points made by ATJ are, as of this consideration, patently obvious but, previously, not passing thoughts for me. Excellent point, sb, about over-parenting (of which I was guilty).

  This is why we naive gliders-over-the-surface old timers need the wisdom and expansive worldview proffered here on JWD.

  With gratitude, . . .
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  pepperheart

  Im not sure its a age thing just a people thing, some people know what they want and go 100% for it some people people dont know and go with things as they happen and some people are lazy.Would you count bill gates,the founders of google and the founders of facebook as being young
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  steve2

  What"s that old saying:

  Each generation thinks the one that comes after it is going to the dogs.

  Remember how much the older generation maligned the hippies and then the hippie-era folk maligned the punk rockers? And now the millennials' Moms and Dads shake their heads in despair.
  
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  cha ching

  OMGGGG!!!! Sour Grapes! That video is JUST like my office! Don't you DARE ask them to do, aha, hmmm anything? more than minimal?

  They call in late ALL the time, they 'get sick'... they are ready to scream "mental health'!/ HR, and totally have their latte's, starbucks, etc.

  It is ALLLLL about THEM! Ages? There were a couple in their 20's, but these are the 30-40 year olds.

  I have a few co-workers that actually work, are courteous, and reasonable. They are the 'older' generation, 50+, except this one girl, she is around 40, very polite, quiet, helpful.

  Is it just the 'society', the 'culture' that we live in? I just don't know, but I absolutely hate their attitude. They want ME to come to THEIR desk to answer questions... Will they come to mine? NOT! Me first, me first, me always..... that is how I would describe them.
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  WTWizard

  Do the younger generation have the opportunities to set up lemonade stands without having them get raided? No. Do they have the opportunity to play outside without someone squeaking about that they could get hurt? No. Do they have the opportunity to learn real skills in school instead of how to be perfect slaves? No.

  People by nature resent being slaves. Employers treat them like slaves. And trying to start up something useful is going to be met with the strong arm of the law, controlled by the big companies. So, they react to slavery by not showing up or by doing a lousy job for their masters.
  
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  Old Navy

  Quote from WT Wizard:

  And trying to start up something useful is going to be met with the strong arm of the law, controlled by the big companies. So, they react to slavery by not showing up or by doing a lousy job for their masters.

  There is some truth there. Our modern society has become one of indoctrination with emphasis on compliance/obedience. When one is in compliance/obedience with the demands of our "lawmakers" then one may enjoy some small amount of "freedom." "The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave" is long gone. Perhaps it never really existed.

  There is considerably more freedom in most of the Asian countries than in the U.S. of A.