What Happened to Work Ethic

Each month, front-page headlines report the dismal job numbers across the United States. Week after week, the situation remains the same—unemployment lines remain long, and record numbers of people are receiving unemployment benefits, while job openings are few and far between. Of course, these reports tend to focus on Fortune 500 companies and often obscure the labor shortages in smaller, less prominent North American businesses. Chances are, the local mom-and-pop gas station, thrift store, hair salon, and nearby hotel are all searching for workers, but struggling to find applicants.

The Shift in Job Perception

We’ve become a society where mundane, blue-collar jobs like dishwashing at a Mexican restaurant, shampooing hair at a salon, working as part of a hotel cleaning crew, or helping on a peach farm are seen as “beneath” us. These jobs don’t pay well and require hard, physical labor—what some today might call “actual work.” Young people, it seems, are simply unwilling to do these kinds of jobs. Decades ago, no one started their career in an air-conditioned office high above a city street. Some of the world’s most successful executives once worked their way up from the mailroom, motivated to make something of themselves. Today, it’s not so common.

So, what happened to work ethic? Are young people being raised to expect too much too soon when they enter the workforce?

Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, director of the Institute for American Values, believes that our work ethic hasn’t changed. Rather, it’s the type of work we’re willing to do that has shifted. She points out that today’s workers are putting in longer hours than ever before, often taking work home with them. Standard office hours have lengthened, and there’s no longer a 5:00 p.m. whistle signaling the end of the workday. The difference now is that the jobs people want to fill aren’t physically demanding. Whitehead argues that work ethic hasn’t necessarily declined, but instead, it’s simply become “softer.”

She believes that many migrant and immigrant workers are filling labor-intensive jobs for low pay because Americans aren’t interested in competing for them.

Additionally, according to Tom Lutz, author of Doing Nothing, people today have become smart enough to recognize that it doesn’t make sense to take low-wage jobs when they’re receiving impressive government benefits. For instance, why would a single mom accept a job paying $6.50 an hour when she’s already receiving $1500 in monthly benefits? The financial incentive simply isn’t there.

Work ethic today is also complicated by government-mandated laws and regulations, which dictate what employers can and cannot expect from their employees. With agencies like OSHA focusing on equality and humane working conditions, employees may lack the motivation to go above and beyond. Customer service often takes a back seat, especially when young employees with high expectations are hired.

Just the other day, a mother of four visited her local Wal-Mart and purchased 22 bags of mulch. The young garden employee, whose job it was to help customers load their purchases, made every attempt to appear busy setting up a display, rather than offering to help her load the 50-pound bags. A few decades ago, this would have been considered rude and unprofessional, and the employee would likely have been fired. Today, however, such behavior rarely leads to termination.

Work ethic has also become entangled with narcissism. Many young people today are more focused on finding jobs that satisfy them creatively or fulfill their dreams, rather than acknowledging the harsh realities of the workforce. As Maxim Gorky, a Russian novelist, once said, “When work is a pleasure, life is a joy! When work is a duty, life is slavery.” Today’s workers often come in with the expectation that their job will be fulfilling and enjoyable, but fail to understand that hard work is required to succeed in a competitive world. If they don’t enjoy the job, they’re likely to quit, especially when they can earn more money from government benefits.

The foundation of work ethic is often built during childhood. When children witness their parents working hard in and outside the home to achieve success, they learn the value of hard work. But when children are shielded from responsibilities or fail to see their parents working hard, they may never develop a strong work ethic of their own. As a result, work ethic continues to suffer with each passing generation.