Is work out of style? My parents were middle-class people. As kids, we didn’t have to work to eat, but we DID have to work. Because my dad owned a manufacturing plant (and since you can legally hire your own children at age 14) my sister and I went to work all summer long at 7am on the assembly line, 5-days a week, every summer, all through high school.
I didn’t hate it. I made some money, got to know the ladies on the line and sweated with them in the unair-conditioned old airplane hanger where four assembly lines and a few hundred people produced loud speakers. What I didn’t know at the time, was that I was learning valuable lessons about coming under authority and how to negotiate a job site long before I would ever need those skills.
I saw a sign in a shop today, it said: “DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU CALL THOSE WHO USE TOWELS AND NEVER WASH THEM, EAT MEALS AND NEVER DO THE DISHES, AND LIVE IN ROOMS THEY NEVER CLEAN? IT’S NOT A HOUSE GUEST. THOSE ARE MY KIDS.” It’s supposed to be funny, but it’s not far from the truth. In fact, in many households, homework is the only work that the children are expected to do.
Without ever having those start-up jobs, young people have no conception of what to expect when they do have to work. “Who’s FICA?” they cry when they see how much is taken out of their first check. Even the Bible’s Paul continued to mend fishing nets wherever he went. His money didn’t come from his dad. In 2 Thessalonians 3:10 he said it all: “If a man will not work he shall not eat.” Often he shall become a jerk too. See the 30-something guy who is rude to the waitress? I’ll bet you 20-to-1 he’s never had a service job in his life, and he might be one of those adult/children who are still living in his parent’s basement, on his parent’s money.
Meanwhile many think they will be able to work forever via Zoom in their jammies, as some employees in California demand to be able to do. Maybe that’s the future, but for others it is not an option. A truck driver won’t get your can of tomatoes to you from Georgia via a Zoom call.
Executives say we’ve entered the “Era of Aggressive Entitlement.” According to a new survey, 1 in 5 executive leaders agree: “No one wants to work,” and a Gallup poll says that 86% of employees are “actively disengaged at work.” Wow. Actively disengaged? Try that with parts coming down the assembly line at a rate of three every minute and you have to solder two wires onto the part in 20 seconds and get it back on the moving belt. That was my job.
At UNITE INDY we believe in the value of work, and that household responsibilities and high school summer jobs are the best start you can give your kids to have success as employed, self-sustaining adults (who maybe won’t need to live in your basement.)
Nancy
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