The Missing Today: A Strong Work Ethic

We now live in a world where social media has changed the way we interact with the world around us. At a young age we are programed to worry about how strangers view our lives and our decisions. People are worried about how many likes they get and social acceptance. Though these outlets individuals build their social foundations that will later become the building blocks of their careers. People tend to fall short excepting criticism, communication skills, and analyzing information.

“We don’t have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how we do it” (Qualman, n.d). According to Merrain Webster 1828, “social media is form of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messaging, and other online (such as video). Technology has involved into something that everyone can utilize effectively just by the swipe of finger or by pressing a single button. We don’t have to go the post office for hand written letter from families and friends abroad, but we can get them through simply opening a chat box online. However, social media has become the addiction to many young people today and even adults alike. We eat with your phones. We study and communicate with others on your various devices. We even go into the bathroom with our devices to ensure that we don’t miss a tweet, recent Instagram post or a WhatsApp message.

Parents who encourage their kids to work are giving their kids an advantage. Research shows that kids who never worked for privileges, money , were more likely to be unsuccessful later on. Parents work extremely hard to put food on the table for their children, If they are

Throughout my educational career I have learned the importance of a strong work ethic. In middle school I was able to accomplish all of my school work, take advanced classes, maintain grades above a C average, and take part in after school activities without much effort. High School on the other hand, forced me to mature and develop a work ethic to succeed as a student. Maintaining, the same GPA, I balance acting and directing for my school’s theater company, volunteering as a part of the National Honor Society, being involved in International Club and Student Council, working part time at my local library, and excelling in Advanced Placement classes. With so many obligations, sound time management skills are a necessity. Since I learned to succeed with a multitude of responsibilities that once seemed overbearing, I am seeking to challenge myself through an education at Indiana University with a clear and organized approach.

was raised by my parents to never lose sight of my goals and to always have a positive work ethic. My parents were born in India and they moved to Canada in hopes that their children could have a better life. They work hard everyday so that my siblings and I do not have to quit school like they did. My greatest eye opening experience was when I started working with my mother as a general factory worker in grade ten. The working conditions were very tough in which we stood for long hours and we had to be constantly working quickly. I met many great women and men who were new immigrants and heard their struggles in their birth country. However, despite all of the pressure they were thankful for their job and to be living in Canada. At the young

I agree that in general, we are more lazy and are a tad hypocritical. Thinking that just because you don’t have to work since you are under 26 and quit your job to do more “meaningful” things, that is not necessarily considered a good, productive thing. But being one, a millennial that is, I also see the other side of the argument. I believe that we can be the most productive when we are passionate about something and the idea that non-millennials have little to no faith in what we can accomplish has a very negative outcome in what we then actually do. We are very proud of who we are for the most part, and that may just be part of our generation’s view on how life works, but generalizing every single child under 26 or 31 to say that they are not the most motivated and all we want is free stuff and to not have to work is not true. If I were to do a study, I bet it would show that they are only happy to still be apart of their parent’s plans because they are broke and what is most likely the main reason they are broke? They are college students who are trying to pay for continuing their education so they can further use talents to help the economy all the while taking disses from the older generation saying how we are so lazy and only want free stuff. Times change, and along with change, there needs to be adaptations. I do not know enough to say what the mandates should or should not be, but I do not think that stereotyping us is not going to

Times are changing in the world we live in today. Our younger generation’s work ethics are not what they were when my parents and grandparents were growing up. What is causing people to become lax and feel like the world owes them? What happened to the old days when people worked from the time they got up until the time they went to bed? Perhaps, more of our younger generation need to be taught how to work for a living.

They focus to much on work that they forget what it is to live, to have fun. The only time when they feel somewhat free is when they are home. For example in World in Brief, “Shop rules forbade workers from singing, chatting…” (Stearn 395). They are being controlled by capitalism and in this way they are being alienated from themselves, including kids since they were expected to put their contribution too. Working class kids did not have a full education or non at all and mostly did not have a childhood because they were trained to work at a young age to help bring food to the table. Children where alienated from being just children. Their infancy was taken by the economic struggle, and this is the life they lived and learned.

To contextualize and fully understand the problem we must first understand the debate about technology. Technology is highly criticized over whether it is good or not. Some of the complaints about technology are that it is leading to a lack of work ethic. Derrick Thompson, a renowned journalist who has degrees in political science and journalism, in his piece A World Without Work, he realizes that whereas, technology is entertaining and accessible, but as it replaces jobs and putting more and more people out of work it is causing an effect where people are giving up and losing their work ethic and becoming lazy. In fact when he says, “The jobless don’t spend their time socializing or taking up new hobbies. Instead, they watch TV or sleep” (Thompson

He was just an average guy. Nothing special to most people, I guess. But to me, my dad exemplified the epitome of a hard-working, loyal employee. He hardly ever called in sick; and if he did, he was really sick. He never dreamed of arriving late, clocking out early, or shirking his duties. He was glad to have a job that provided for his family and spoke proudly of his job with General Motors.

Businesses today in the new millennium face a different challenge compared to the businesses in the past. Nowadays, three generations are theoretically supposed to work at the same workplace. The baby boomer generation, Generation X and Generation Y all of them has their own ideology and work ethic. It is the job of the Human resource team to look past all the differences and get the best out of them. How to attract more applicants, how to recruit them and how to engage the newly hired employees to work together are the three main obstacles a human resource manager faces in this new millennium. In this paper, we will see how each of these obstacles can be overcome so that a team can work together, bringing the best of each employee and produce

Declining since the 1970s, working-class wages, adjusted for inflation, are as much as 25% less than several decades ago (Silva, pg. 14). Facing reduced earning power, the working-class view hard-work as a source of honor, not financial reward. Jennifer Silva finds workers living on the margins of society share a belief in the value of hard work despite the lack of financial gain (Silva, pg. 84-5). Michelle Lamont notes a similar response from members of the working-class she interviews, with them identifying hard-work as trait of moral people (Lamont, pg. 21). Workers define a good person as one who works hard to provide for and protect their family, financially and physically (Lamont, 24 & 29). The working-class view themselves as

Then I got to experience real work when I was doing yard work, which showed me the real meaning of hard work. Millennials are missing out on challenging work because their parents would care about them, so they would give them the easy way out of things, but if their parents would make their kids struggle or work hard for things then they will comprehend the meaning of hard work.

First of all the time period that millennials are growing up in is affecting how other generations look at their work ethic. From worldwide layoffs, soaring divorce rates, war, and unemployment, millennials have been through a lot already in their life for being so young. The unemployment rate and the increase of the cost of living is hitting this generation the hardest, it’s the main reason why young adults are still living with their parents. Young adults are most affected by the unemployment rate in general, which makes times primarily hard. In fact, in one report they found that, “Many Millennials couldn’t work right now if they wanted to. According to the report, 37% of 18–29-year-olds are unemployed or out of the workforce, the highest share among this age group in more than three decades” (Williams). Work ethic is difficult to define when so many are unemployed, after the recession hit in 2008 it has been especially hard to find a job. Although the economy is healing and people are starting to find more work opportunities, times are still strenuous. For some it can almost seem impossible to try and save money for college to get a job that can support the cost of living in this day and age. If anything millennials work ethic is strong, this generation isn’t just sitting around and waiting for a job to come to them. In order to live comfortably in this time period it’s essential that one has a job. They are taking this

I haven’t had much experience with this generation, but I have heard similar stories from other friends of mine. This is a real concern; a lack of a work ethic in a world as competitive as ours is today is a recipe for an unprosperous future. Too many young people have been raised as the center of the universe and appear to lack perspective on how things work. I wonder if having a mentor might help.