Just the other day I overheard a twenty-something describing their work hours and a negative comment about working a twelve hour shift. It wasn’t just about working twelve hours; it was the inflection of the voice as if this had never been asked of them before.
I’ve often read about the twenty-something generation of today and how they are labeled as lazy, moochers and so forth. I must disagree about labeling a generation as lazy because you can’t always count the exceptional. However, after listening to this comment I began to think about my early years and watching my father work long hours at the steel mill; tip-toeing around while he was sleeping and on swing shift, hearing him come in late in the evening and hoping to get to see him the next day after school. My father worked in industry. This was the normal cycle to work long hours. My own husband worked paper mill shut downs where sometimes we would not see him for days and the shut down would typically last two weeks. His typical workday was 10 hours. So I’m asking a question on whether or not our young ‘twenty-somethings’ have a lackadaisical attitude about working because they may have not been around industry. I’m not inferring we need a paper or steel mill in our neighborhood, I’m just asking a question about culture. Is our service related industry cultivating a part-time mindset?
I’ve read many articles in magazines and blogs about singles not being able to move out of their parent’s homes because of lack of resources, inability too find a job and the list goes on. Is it too much to ask if perchance they were not ‘brought up’ with a perception of long hours and hard work being a part of lives, maybe they may not wish to partake of such lifestyle? I’m asking maybe, just maybe, our move to a service type industry may have hurt the work ethic of an up and coming generation.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Too much service in part time culture