The Work Ethic in Today's America

America’s younger generation, that would be millennials and Gen Zers, explain that they have overcome the dread work ethic. If we are to believe famed sociologist Max Weber, that would be the Protestant ethic, a decisive break with European decadence.

Nowadays our young generations are incapable of doing very much. They spend their time complaining about how much they need to work and they yearn only for the moment when they can take off in search of what they call work/life balance. Doubtless they think that hard work is bad for their mental health and that leisure is therapeutic. They will also explain that they want their jobs to be meaningful, even though they do not know what that means.

Dare we say that it’s a sad state of affairs. And dare we notice that countries around the world are watching and deciding that America’s best days are behind.

Anyway, corporate hiring officers have found a stopgap short term solution to the problem. They are hiring the elderly, 

Callum Borchers explains it in The Wall Street Journal. He quotes one Kip Conforti, owner of a packing shipping company:

Mr. Conforti has grown weary of younger employees who, he says, arrive late for shifts, call out of work often and spend more time scrolling social media feeds than chatting with customers. About a year ago, he tried something different—recruiting people who are more likely to carry AARP cards than the latest iPhone. 

He is hardly the only manager who finds serious fault with young workers. They do not know how to do jobs. They do not care to do jobs. They are not motivated to do much of anything. With the elderly, things are different:

‘This is what we’re doing today,’ and it gets done. Their shift starts at 9 and they’re here at 8:50. It’s their work ethic.”

And then there is KinderCare, which offers day care and some educational services. It too has turned to the elderly:

Less than a year in, KinderCare hasn’t tallied the resulting hires, but the payoff is already clear, says Travis Trautman, the company’s senior director of talent acquisition. 

“There’s a willingness from this group to work the opening shift or to close down for the day, to cover during lunches and breaks or even be on call as needed,” he says. “I could go on and on about the value and benefits.”

As for the younger generation, they have been out complaining. They tell us that they are being subjected to discrimination. Hmmm. In truth, they and their peers have, as one manager says, earned a reputation for “flakiness.” Why would you hire someone who brings that reputation and the attendant work skills to the job?

There is no official measure of discrimination claims on the basis of being too young because federal law protects only workers over 40, but human-resources departments frequently field grievances from millennials and Gen Zers who say they’re unfairly passed over because of their generations’ reputations for flakiness, Mr. Taylor says.