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Crost my FB newsfeed today came this image:
I give you these real life examples:
Some time back I was talking with a community leader. The subject of jobs came up and I mentioned how a then-new industry in town had gone to just about an all-Hispanic workforce for the floor (i.e. the heavy lifting jobs). This plant had opened and hired all local and US natives, the vast majority being natives of this county.
Within six months, the only US natives still employed at the plant were upper management. The locals had mostly quit, a few were fired. Why?
The local folks came in late, left early, didn't bother to show up at all some days and complained vigorously about actually having to work.
I mentioned this to the community leader. He said he understood this, accepted it and felt it was right.
WTF?
He explained to me the people do not want and will not take factory floor jobs. They want (and presumably deserve) inside jobs in the air conditioning.
I suggested these people then need to pay their dues working the line before they can get promoted.
No, he said. We're not willing to work that way.
WTF?
Some of these folks now on the line at this local factory are making more than $30K a year, which is awesome pay in one of the poorest counties in Georgia.
And this one - http://growinggeorgia.com/news/2011/08/probationers-to-help-fill-south-georgia-farm-jobs-again-in-fall/. Most of the probationers didn't make it through the summer either. All their talk about wanting a job fell flat when they actually had to work. I could not find the link, but I recall reading a story of a news crew who shadowed probationers on a farm in Sumter County. Only one was still working after lunch.
The others complained vigorously, had to take smoke breaks, answer cell phones and so on.
OK, so both these stories deal with manual labor, not skilled labor. The central point remains-
Businesses which say they cannot find "workers with the necessary skills" aren't just complaining about the lack of people with training and education. They are complaining about people who think every job needs to come with Silicon Valley perks like free cappucinos, skateboarding down the halls, couches to lounge on and so forth. We have a generation of people who view work as playground, not a place to get busy and start being productive.
That is the real problem. You may disagree. if you do, get out and talk to the people who run business and industry. Ask them about workplace ethics.
Like Herman Cain or not, this man is an example of the kind of people this nation was, to some degree is, and needs to be. Until people get the idea that hard work is necessary, Mr. Krugman et al and going to continue to suffer from delusions of entitlement.
He wasn't talking about manual laborers working for a reasonable pay, he was talking about Corporations that expect (and I have seen and read many cases of this over the years) where management expects people who have gone to school, gotten the proper training and degrees to work for manual labor salaries.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the vast majority of Americans today seem to expect to be paid far better than their skills deserve. Sorry if your job is to carry truck tires from a stack in the back to the front, you don't deserve $15.00 an hour. and if your current job doesn't make you enough money to live off of because you aren't skilled then get a second job. Before this insane era of entitlement that is what people did. My Daddy never made it out of grade school. He worked with the county road crew for 20+ years, plus cut dozens of yards a week during the summer. He raised three kids, had his own house, usually owned two cars and I promise you he never made close to what minimum wage is today.
It's entirely true. People don't want to do hard work for low pay.
ReplyDeletePeople who can't get anything better should shut up and do the work, or accept that they will be broke. We are not entitled to big bucks for 6 hour days of "work" that involves checking a few emails and surfing facebook.
I've had a few of those days - they make me pretty unhappy. I want to do productive work for lucrative pay. Pay me enough and I'll sweep the floor, but I'll do what I'm trained to do for less, because it's rewarding.
I won't do it for cheap unless it's all I can get. I *will* feed my family, even if it means working a midnight assembly line, or shoveling wet concrete into a curb machine. I've done both. But why would I do that if I can get a better job?
I won't buy a Sig Sauer, because I don't need that much gun - but I also won't buy a Raven .25, because for me, it's worse than a knife. If I need a pistol, I'm going to get a solid S&W or Ruger, maybe a Taurus, something solid and dependable and reasonably priced, but not *cheap*.
You get what you pay for, but you gotta pay for what you get. Both sides of the coin apply.
Good article, Ben.