Work Ethic Definition

Today's youth, who are between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four, have a much poorer work ethic compared to the older generations. There are more opportunities to help and train them; however, it seems that it is not helping to develop them to be working citizens that are able to provide for themselves. They may not have a good understanding of what work ethic is or understand that there are real consequences.
When it comes to a work ethic, companies are looking for some key elements. They want their employees to be on time, and being on time reveals one’s character. Many companies understand that sometimes the employee can get caught by a train, or getting a flat tire. They are not asking for perfection, but when there is a habit of tardiness, that is when they lose their willingness to work with the team member. They also want their employees to be engaged. If they are engaged they will have a motivated attitude and be diligent to get their job done, and on time. Companies are looking for employees that will be able to work in a team.

Working with others is very important in many aspects. Some businesses will have employees on an assembly line in which they must complete your part, so the next person can complete theirs. The first person on the assembly line’s job hinges on the next person getting theirs done. Other aspects of working in a team would be working on a project of creating something or possibly working together to come up with an advertisement. If the team gets the advertisement approved, then it needs to go to the design team, which then needs to go to the publishing team. Everyone needs to be able to work together. If it were to get to the advertising team and they decided they didn't like the way it was worded, then they just cut out the team that created the idea and the design team. That would be frustrating for the employees that put the time into creating the advertisement. Another characteristic that companies look for is a team member that is coachable. They are looking for someone that can receive teaching and not being offended by it or “put off”. When a team member gets hired, it’s likely that they don’t know a lot about the company. They need to be teachable to learn all that they can so they can do their job. Once they are working there, if they didn’t do the job correctly or missed something here or there, they need to be able to receive that criticism without blowing up.
Honesty is a very important part that is a great asset to a company and comes in so many forms.

One, is counting the product sent out by the team fulfilling the orders in a warehouse. Honesty is admitting when a team member made a mistake and learning from it. Honesty would be admitting the wrong order to the wrong person was given out and that is why the business is missing the product. Honesty would be not giving away free food to friends that stopped into the restaurant. Companies may not be making that much profit and they need honest workers to look out for their good that they are servicing. Companies are always looking for respect from individuals toward the company, but also to each other. If there are team members that respect each other, it will turn into a better work environment. There will be less workplace violence, and people will work better together as a team. Respect is a very important part of work

ethic.
Today’s youth are growing up with so much technology in which they are so far ahead of the older generations in regard to computers, internet, phone, and gadgets. It also seems this generation is more distracted as well. So many young people want to spend their time playing video games, texting, and spending time on the computer. They don't have the concept of using these things responsibly. Many of these young people will spend all night playing video games and they are unwilling to get up early to go to a job. Many of them are so addicted to texting that they can't put their phone away when it is time to work. Spending time on the computer can take up so many hours from the youth and they have no idea where their time has gone.
When the youth is approached about how they are not following through on any one or all of the work ethics listed, they are often in defense of why it happened. It seems the young people feel they are entitled, and they aren’t doing anything wrong, even when they have been presented the evidence. As stated, Dr. Twenge “warns that narcissists lack empathy, overreact to criticism, and favor themselves over others" (Narcissistic). In the workplace, this is especially hard because if a manager tries to coach these individuals, it often turns into the worker getting defensive. The workforce needs workers that are coachable because the business needs can easily change and workers need to be able to adapt to change. Some of this entitlement, is believed to have come from the new way we raise children. It has changed from older generations. Society has had the idea "everyone wins", we have softened the blow of bad grades, tried to push self-esteem, self-confidence and self-worth. This was meant for the good of the children and to spare their feelings, however, it has had the reverse effect and made them feel entitled to certain things. The youth seems to be selfish, unprofessional, and have apathy. This generation doesn't seem to understand consequences.
So how can we change this in this generation and the next? The idea that people will stop letting “everyone win” is probably not likely. We can institute certain classes in school that will help them when they graduate. It could be a class or series of classes to teach work ethic and how to obtain it. The class could be one that explains work ethic, and the consequences of not having work ethic in the workplace will cause. It can be a class on diversity to help them when they are employed. We could motivate them and reward them in their first two years when they are out of school to get a job.
Some of the top CEO's for example Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Tim Cook (Apple), Marissa Mayer (Yahoo) and Howard Schultz (Starbucks) are known for their incredible work ethic, according to Max Nisen (Nisen). Jeff Bezos's work ethic involves working twelve-hour days and seven days a week. He will send out any customer service issues to those departments and those responsible must present to him their plan to fix it. Apple's Tim Cook starts emailing team members at four thirty in the morning and used to hold meetings on Sundays to prepare for Monday. Yahoo's Marissa Mayer would pull all-nighters and while she was at Google, she would work one hundred and thirty hour work weeks. Howard Schultz from Starbucks would work thirteen hour days and go in on Sundays to respond to emails employees had sent previously.
CEO’s who failed at leading companies did not have the companies’ best interest in mind and trying to make the company successful. According to Kamelia Angelovia, Gerald Levin was unsuccessful at Time Warner while he was criticized for his leadership skills he continued to use them and would not change (Angelovia). He tried to use his knowledge of numerous facts to impress the board instead of working with them to make the business successful. John Sculley when he was CEO at Apple did not do well either due to not having the knowledge for the industry and he didn’t know how to fix companies who were suffering. Home Depot and Chryslers’ Bob Nardelli was an unsuccessful CEO for both companies. What added to this was that he didn't react when competitors were surpassing Home Depot and he chose to have the retail side suffer while expanding the supplies industry.
It is easy to see that the top CEO's are displaying a great amount of work ethic due to the endless hours they are spending at the office. With the amount of time they are spending there they are likely to be engaged, they can respond to things in a time fashion and react to the needs of the business. One of the negative things that the CEO that failed did was he didn't respond in a timely fashion to the business and that made the business suffer and lose money in which could have been saved. Amazon's CEO displays work ethic by using teamwork to get things done for the business. He gets his team involved when they have service issues he has a particular team help fix the problem so it doesn't continue occurring. Parents can make a difference when raising their children to have work ethic and to help support their child so they can be active citizens one day. Parents can also help to limit technology and to teach responsibility so it does not take over a young person life to where they have healthy limits. We, as a society can teach young people to put in the time, hard work, and they can obtain great things.