{"id":1031,"date":"2013-09-03T16:50:24","date_gmt":"2013-09-03T15:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidhing.com\/?p=1031"},"modified":"2013-12-31T15:04:35","modified_gmt":"2013-12-31T15:04:35","slug":"the-uk-youth-work-ethic-the-simplest-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidhing.com\/chaotic-tortoise\/2013\/09\/the-uk-youth-work-ethic-the-simplest-mystery\/","title":{"rendered":"The UK youth work ethic: The simplest mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is filed under “r” for “rant”<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n

Jamie Oliver made the media jump around in excitement and caused small disgruntled and self righteous youth eruptions around Facebook a few days ago in an interview with Good Housekeeping by saying that his restaurants would be unable to run if it wasn\u2019t for the help of young foreign workers to pick up the slack of the UK\u2019s own home-grown talent.<\/p>\n

Claims that the UK\u2019s youth workers lack a work ethic, lack ambition, are lazy and generally \u201cwet behind the ears\u201d as he put it were predictably met by protestations from hundreds of genuinely hard working young workers who disagreed with him. As with any inflammatory statement, there is no right or wrong answer here and both sides have merit, but I\u2019ve been thinking about those young workers that are actually apparently lazy and all I can really think is \u201cit\u2019s really not their fault\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I hesitate there a little because I wonder if I should in fact be saying \u201cit\u2019s really not our fault\u201d but I\u2019m not really sure if I\u2019m lazy or if I still class as a young worker.<\/p>\n

This has been kicking around in my head for a few days in-between frustrating bouts at work where I work as hard as I can only to be met with a tide of disconnected corporate apathy, impotent sympathy and a growing feeling that I never had a chance to get through my work in the first place. It tends to build to a quiet anger and just occasionally makes me want to stand up and scream out \u201cwell what do you expect!?\u201d but doing that sort of thing tends to raise eyebrows in my office full of young 20-somethings who work close to nine hour days in a call centre, trying to sell things to people that don\u2019t really want to be talking to them.<\/p>\n

This is why I don\u2019t find it hard to believe that some UK-grown youth workers might have a little bit of a limited work ethic: They have been taught to dream<\/em>.<\/b><\/p>\n

A generation of dreamers<\/b><\/h2>\n

Children of the 80s and 90s were brought up on a diet of cartoons and children\u2019s TV that taught them everyone was special. He-Man might have been strong with an amazing riding-cat-thing, but he was no better than you, dear 7-year-old viewer, and as the after-show moral-of-the-story would often tout, even the smallest of people can make a difference (although maybe this just meant dwarves and hobbit-like things as opposed to children). Captain Planet could defeat evil polluters with limited motivation and planning abilities, but you were just as important in preventing oil spills and dumping toxic waste somehow. The Hurricanes might well be an international team of footballers with a secret island base, private jets and the ability to play detective, but…actually the Hurricanes don\u2019t look quite so ridiculous this close to Transfer Deadline Day apart form the characters having some moderate personality.<\/p>\n

The education system then made sure to congratulate every minor success we had. I\u2019m not talking about the absurdities of more recent \u201ceverybody wins\u201d sports days, but more ingrained leanings. Routinely disruptive thugs, the type who would be stabbing those around them under the table with a compass point, would be showered with praise when they spelled their name right, or at least started with vaguely the right letter and even significant transgressions were rarely severely punished simply because the authority to lay out such authoritative measures was hobbled. That\u2019s not saying \u201cbring back the cane\u201d by the way, just a simple observation that once a parent turned up to say \u201clittle Jimmy wasn\u2019t stabbing her, he was trying to get her attention\u201d there wasn\u2019t really much a teacher could do about things other than mop up the blood.<\/p>\n

Then all the way through to reaching adulthood, we are bombarded with ads telling us how we deserve to live in luxury, how we can have such wonderful lives if we just buy these select products, that we can get great deals on a new sofa for just a monthly fee so long as we get down to the warehouse soon because sale must end Sunday (of indeterminate date). As for how much it actually costs, well you can buy now and pay later so don\u2019t worry about that whatever you do. You can have it now \u2013 you don\u2019t need to work for it, just pay later. Somehow.<\/p>\n

As for impressionable young adults finding their way in the world, after they\u2019ve been told they\u2019re special and told they can have anything they want right now, what are they then hit with? Support on how to find a fulfilling career? Advice on how you can earn money to put a roof over your heads? Not really. But there is an overwhelming pressure from the ever-present media that the only thing that is a worthwhile investment of your time is to sing shallow pop-songs, or dance and gyrate around like a stripper in front of a baying whooping hoard whipped into a frenzy by flashing lights and loud noises.<\/p>\n

Everybody loves Mondays <\/b><\/h2>\n

The only area of life that doesn\u2019t match up to the expectation of fame and fortune and comfortable living is the world of work. One of the accusations levelled at this generation of dreamers is that it lacks ambition, but this simply isn\u2019t true. This generation has plenty of ambition \u2013 there\u2019s just no diversity in that ambition.<\/p>\n

My mother was a teacher for many years (she\u2019s feeling much better now though) and one of the things that often distressed her was that all the children in her year six (10-11 year olds) class would almost always say that when they grew up, they wanted to be famous. Famous for what, they didn\u2019t know \u2013 they just wanted to be famous.<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t want to be entrepreneurs, they didn\u2019t want to be scientists, they didn\u2019t want to be TV presenters, actors, rock stars, footballers or models \u2013 they just wanted to be famous. That was the ideal position in their eyes and it is hard to blame them for it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m just as guilty of this really. It\u2019s only recently that I\u2019ve got my act together (sort of) with regards to work. I\u2019m now doing something fairly close to what I want to do and working in areas that will build a career out of it or at the very least serve me well in the future, but going into and coming out of university, I had no idea what I wanted to do, other than also having this odd \u201cI want to be famous\u201d hangover from when I was younger.<\/p>\n

I can clearly remember thinking that if I was not famous in my life and recognised by those around me, then I would have failed in my life. I also remember more recently hitting my mid-20s, seeing I was carrying cardboard boxes full of paper around and printing out 60,000 letters a week to be sent, glanced at and binned and thinking that was it and I\u2019d failed already because of that stupid, ridiculous and unrealistic ingrained notion. Not to get too \u201cback in my day things were different\u201d, but I can\u2019t help feeling that pressures around young people these days has got a whole lot worse.<\/p>\n

You see my thoughts of failure-without-fame echoed if you ever watch the \u201csob story\u201d parts of whichever gaudy talent show is being shovelled down your throats during the year. Sometimes the person\u2019s story that classifies them as \u201cstrong for trying\u201d is just that they didn\u2019t get onto the show last year. Others are often peppered with remarks that this audition will be their \u201clast chance\u201d or something, as if the production team is going to rip out their vocal chords and break their kneecaps backstage if they\u2019re not a hit with the audience and judges.<\/p>\n

I have no idea what\u2019s wrong with doing the pub circuit and building up a strong consistent and dedicated fan-base if it\u2019s what you want to do, other than the fact that it isn\u2019t the instant gratification and meteoric rise to the top that we\u2019ve been led to believe we are entitled to.<\/p>\n

But maybe that\u2019s exactly the problem. We\u2019ve been brought up to believe not only that we deserve a life of luxury because we\u2019re special, but that it\u2019s easy to get and you shouldn\u2019t have to slog your guts out to get it.<\/p>\n

Only fools and horses (and maybe the happy ones) work<\/b><\/h2>\n

Jamie Oliver claims that during his early 20s, his working week was between 80-100 hours. That, if it is true and was sustained for a significant period of time, is incredibly hard work and highly commendable to a point. It is of course from someone who is clearly passionate about his career and chosen line of work, although in fairness, maybe that wasn\u2019t always the case.<\/p>\n

These days however I would be incredibly twitchy about witnessing someone stacking shelves, making sales calls, serving tables, writing up news and features or doing anything for 100 hours a week and my instincts would tell me that person was being exploited. I also wouldn\u2019t be surprised if I found out it was part of an internship scheme, but that\u2019s a rant for another day.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Jamie Oliver can\u2019t inspire his workforce to work harder and is a poor leader. \u00a0Maybe they\u2019re just not happy with the idea of labouring for a third of their week, let alone two (before deductions for sleep) to make their boss rich. Maybe they\u2019re doing it to pay their bills and not to follow a life-long dream to work in the catering industry.<\/p>\n

Maybe, just maybe, they have been programmed to believe that they are in fact the centre of the universe and are moments away from becoming the Next Big Thing thanks to some fickle fame-lottery.<\/p>\n

As a society, we so frequently attribute value to those with none and so others will inevitably try to emulate them. There\u2019s no easy fix to this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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