Where's the work ethic?

[slimmer13]

I think that balance is key, especially for people with families. I have seen people so wrapped up in work, that they miss their kids grow up. You can never get that back.

On the other hand, I've seen 20yo single guys who can't pay their bills, turn down hours so they can go home and play video games. I have zero sympathy for them.

I had a chance to go to Alaska last fall to work for 6 weeks. Literally all the hours I could work. I made hundreds of hours of double time. It was a one time sacrifice I chose to make to put my family in a better situation. I wouldn't be willing to work out of town full time though. That's for single guys.

 

[E4mafia]

I think it also deals with the fact some companies love exploiting their workforce. Yeah you should help out and be a team player just don't get taken advantage of to a point where it suddenly becomes expected and then you get nasty emails or stern lectures about doing something outside your job scope. Especially if it involves basically bailing out other slackers who get paid 2 times as much as you. Case in point basically the employees could get away with murder right in front of the CEO and never get fired so yeah after years of putting in the suck and grind I decided its time to apply my efforts elsewhere with more opportunity to climb vs stagnation with growing tasks but not pay.

I just left a job because of that tbh. My bigger issue now is how in the @#%! do people on day shift get away with slack when all the admin/managers etc are on shift but swing/grave get the microscope.

Momma didn't raise no fool tl;dr

 

[notazombie]

I'm working out of the country about 50% of the time so far this year. This is a temporary project that pays really well and my wife and daughter are cool with it. The extra income is channeled toward the balance on my house. Plan to be 100% debt free by Nov. 2020.

I'm in Jamaica right now. Almost zero work ethic here. Jamaican men seem damn near useless. The women seem to do most of the bread winning here. Hardest working Jamaicans I've run across so far are the stray dogs hanging out at the job site -- and they just show up for the free food we give them.

 

[E4mafia]

Oh yeah. Tell HR to vet new hires better and supervisors to know how to screen people and ask questions in interviews to filter out the chaff. Case in point I used to ask my boss questions about potential new hires after his interviews about certain things, long story short it got the point where he would present me their resumes and have me make pointers for him to navigate/expedite the GO/NO GO call.

Biggest problem was "X" company loved hiring people who lived way too far out for lower pay (basically larger portion of income goes to gas to get to work for peanuts) and would be an issue should a call in happen or transportation problems, soon after suggesting we hire more local (portland/aloha/beaverton/hillsboro) it actually retained us some head count for a couple years until my last post became an issue.

Also factor in companies being misleading with hiring details so more often than not when people arrived they only got about 25% of what the job actually was and then within a month or two (a few times in 6minutes to 6 days) we would know if they would work or not. Answer was always the same, this isn't what I signed up for or they didn't mention this almost every time!.

 

[Basedgreaser]

Depends. Past my first job ive always been willing to due extra, push to get more done ect. Someone leadership can come to if they need something done. My attendance and job safety has always been solid, except If the leadership burns me, i say f em and put the minimum in. Got my coworkers back always unless they genuinly worthless lazy people. If the company is asking something completely unreasonable of me i up and leave.
As long as the company and management are reasonable, i put in the extra mile. Hate how slow days go when your not working hard.

 

[jbett98]

"Promise less, Deliver more" was my motto when self employed. As a custom remodel contractor, I was never out of work.

 

[slimmer13]

I'm working out of the country about 50% of the time so far this year. This is a temporary project that pays really well and my wife and daughter are cool with it. The extra income is channeled toward the balance on my house. Plan to be 100% debt free by Nov. 2020.

I'm in Jamaica right now. Almost zero work ethic here. Jamaican men seem damn near useless. The women seem to do most of the bread winning here. Hardest working Jamaicans I've run across so far are the stray dogs hanging out at the job site -- and they just show up for the free food we give them.

So this isn't accurate?

 

[PNWguy]

no

 

[Alexx1401]

Let the grasshoppers laze away in the sun...be the ant storing up food for the winter and a good life will be the reward.

There is a great humor piece about this I see from time to time talking about the Socialism so many seem to beg for. Ant is comfortable as grasshopper complains. So Gov showed up and kicks ant out of his home and gives it to grasshopper who promptly trashes the home and dies from drug use.

 

[Alexx1401]

100% agree here. I actually watched this interview this morning. Whether you like the guy or not, he makes some excellent points about working hard to move up.

That was well worth the time it took to watch it. I had heard of this guy in passing, never paid any attention to him. Interesting life he has lead and where he is now.

 

[Alexx1401]

Work ethic is rare these days.



I'm a dinosaur at 50, and the differences in the culture from when I was a kid to now are becoming more and more stark. We're not going in the right direction.

No we are sadly going the wrong way fast. I am the oldest in my department. A lot of the people who work there are younger than my kids. Many of them don't "get me" and my "way" either. I gave up my time off to come to work last week even though I could have told them to pound sand. Time off was long ago approved. Many co workers think I am nuts. I just shrugged and told them if Wife and I had plans? I would have told them sorry, can't help. Since all that was on the agenda was get some work done in the garage and make a few trips to the range instead of the normal once a week, why not. We hire in getting 6 weeks of paid time off that is available as soon as you hit your 90 days. Yet we always have a few who manage to burn all their hours and end up short. Of course when they get a short check they whine and cry. Most avoid doing it in front of me any more though. They know what I will say to them. You can't handle having 6 weeks paid time off? Great go get a job where you get 1/3 of that and see how you like it.

 

[Alexx1401]

I think that balance is key, especially for people with families. I have seen people so wrapped up in work, that they miss their kids grow up. You can never get that back.

On the other hand, I've seen 20yo single guys who can't pay their bills, turn down hours so they can go home and play video games. I have zero sympathy for them.

I had a chance to go to Alaska last fall to work for 6 weeks. Literally all the hours I could work. I made hundreds of hours of double time. It was a one time sacrifice I chose to make to put my family in a better situation. I wouldn't be willing to work out of town full time though. That's for single guys.

Last time the economy was cooking like this I worked at a shop that paid about twice min wage if you knew zero but would show up. I am getting lunch at burger place. One girl is giving manager hard time about putting $20 in wrong slot of her till, she almost gave it to me instead of a 5. Manager ignored her. She mumbled they would probably have taken it from her check. I asked, are you over 18? She said yes. I said place next door is hiring, we will pay you twice what you make here. Every worker in there who was hearing this stopped what they were doing to look at me. Manager who was ignoring her suddenly came to life to tell me she was a worthless employee. I then dropped the bomb on them that you do have to work a 40 hour week. Every worker in there got a sad look and went back to making burgers and fry's. None of them wanted to make twice the pay if it meant they had to work 5, 8 hour shifts. Amazing. This was 20 years ago and it has sure not gotten better.

 

[The Heretic]

My grandparents and parents taught me my work ethics on the family farm.

Part of that was growing and harvesting the food we ate, but a lot of it was my grandfather teaching me during the summers to do a good job and work hard at it.

I didn't always pay attention at the time, after all I was just a kid (I did notice that other full time farm kids worked harder and longer than I did. about half the time I lived in the city after I became a teen), but it slowly and at least partially took. Part of that was honesty too - you get paid to do a good job and work hard, and it feels dishonest to goof off.

The older I got, and the more I worked off the farm, the more that ethic took hold.

There is another aspect to work ethics though; that is the ethics of your employer. They should waste your time/effort. They should give you the tools/etc. you need to do the job. They should respect the hard work you do and that includes paying you what you are worth - in short, if you do good work, and increasingly do a better job, becoming more productive over time, then you shouldn't need to ask for a raise, much less demand one.

I have seen time and time again, employers not give raises to high value employees who over time increase their value to the employer. Believe me, the employer notices the value of the employee, but because the employee often doesn't ask for a raise over time, the employer thinks they can get away with not paying them more. The employee becomes disgruntled and either does less work and/or leaves to work for someone who recognizes their worth.

I have left a number of gigs to get better pay - in the tech sector it is the quickest and easiest way to increase your income. When that happens, often the previous employer loses out as now they have to find someone to replace me, and they take a gamble that they can find some as good, and most likely won't find someone who knows the job I left near as well. Even if they get someone good, maybe even better, it will take them months to become familiar with the project I was working on, costing the employer much more than they would have paid if they gave me a raise, and costing them time and lost opportunity. One job I left I was replaced by three people after asking for over a year for additional resources.

Of course, my point is that work ethics goes both ways.

 

[No_Regerts]

The problems with the work force are on everyone's hands. Employees, unions, first-line supervisors, administration. Its everyone's fault. Especially in a .gov agency.

Mediocrity is the goal. The employees know that as long as they aren't the worst, they're gonna be ok. The unions don't like highly motivated employees because it makes the rest look bad. Good employees are also scary for unions because they call out the slackers. They also don't rely on the union to keep their job. God forbid someone get fired ot leave the union and the union don't get theirs.

First-line supervisors have the challenge of keeping everyone positive and productive while dodging the union and their admin and their own subordinates. The slackers hate the hard chargers and vice versa. Some become real political animals and live by manipulation rather than doing whats right.

Admin didn't become admin for no reason. Every once in a while you get one who is good to work for. Supportive, remembers what it was like to be on the bottom. Someone who motivates others. But mostly, they don't want anything on their plate. Can't have disciplinary reports on slackers and union grievances keeping them from rubbing elbows.

Worse yet, whenever a line worker does something noteworthy, its usually a real motivated "cowbow" type. Sure, they smile and shake hands, but the admin is more afraid of thr paperwork and possible fallout. They'd rather you just be a normal drone.

 

[Member 5605]

I stumbled upon this the other day and I think it's great.

 

[WAYNO]

 

[The Heretic]

Working smarter vs. harder.

Both have their advantages.

In my profession, which is all about logic and solving problems, it is almost always about working smarter and I keep stressing that to others there. In both the short and long term, thinking about the solution almost always saves time.

With physical work at home, I often get done with a task, only to realize later that if I had done it differently the task would have gone a lot quicker and usually done better. Sometimes safer too - I was reminded of that a couple of weeks ago when I took a shortcut (literally) without thinking, fell, and injured myself seriously enough to wind up in the ER.

At home there usually is no particular hurry - I am not getting paid to do these tasks - so thinking about them a bit usually have a good payback.

 

[The Heretic]

 

[Sbarton]

So, last week, I reminded two gals that work for me that coming in to work hungover is not just dangerous, but negatively impacts productivity (one of them was so hungover that week that she could barely string a sentence together for two days).
They complained to HR and I got written up!
I guess I hurt their feelings.

 

[clearconscience]

I have a horrible time trying to find people for work.

I have an open position. Facilities Tech job. Easy, but pretty busy. Decent pay.
In 2 years I've gone through 4 people.
The first guy, highly trained military Vet.
Fired him for getting arrested trying to pick up a 12 year old online.
He was a waste of space anyway. And just cried about every little thing he had to deal with.
2nd guy, transfer from Cali (should have known) quit (right before we fired him) because he couldn't get along with his manager. That guy was a freak.
Posted his "art paintings" in his maintenance room and referred to himself as a white male feminist. Wtf.

3rd guy lasted a month, we fired him because he couldn't show up to his shift or show up on time.

4th guy wasn't right for the job, but a Military Vet who unfortunately left after 2 weeks due to on going TBI disability.

5th guy didn't even start before he backed out.

I called this place the Black Pearl because it's cursed.

But in general yeah people these days young and old are entitled, lazy, and have no common sense. They always try to play the victim, and can't understand why they have to follow procedures, rules, actually do the work they get paid for, etc.

It's the welfare society birthed from the everyone gets a trophy and it's not my kids fault parents.