A New Work Ethic

Assignment # 1 "A New Work Ethic"

Joel Chagadama

Instructor: Dr. P. A. White

Business Ethics - BUS 309

April 26, 2012

The experiences that Sheehy reported are typical everyday attitudes in the work environment. As a manager of a fast food restaurant in Ocean City, Maryland a resort where mostly high school students, college students and adults from low income families are employed. In my restaurant the typical employee is from 18 to 25 years of age they regard their jobs as something to do until something better comes by and I can relate to James Sheehy's frustrations. What Sheehy uncovered seems to be very shocking yet it's the order of the day in the fast food industry. He described this new generation of workers as having a frightening new work ethic with no regards to superiority. Sheehy states they display contempt for customers, indifference to quality and service, unrealistic expectations about the world of work, and have a get-away-with-what-you-can attitude.

His investigation on the matter reminds me of a group of colleague's I was unfortunate to work with a few summers ago. This certain group of colleagues had a work ethic like no other that I had seen before. Their work habits displayed pure laziness and self-absorbed behaviors which weighed heavily on company production as well as company time. Their bad habits not only put a burden on the company's pocket book, but easily influenced new employees to do the same and angered the ones willing to put forth the effort. Of all the employees I had, the bunch was the loudest complaining about not having enough hours.

The implications of the Sheehy's work ethic study describe a grim outcome for the future of American businesses. Much of America's younger generations lack the initiative and strong work ethics of their older predecessors. The young people of today expect things to be handed to them and often lack the self-integrity to do what is fair and right. Mr. Sheehy happened to explain these individuals' behavior best with one word, "Scamming." The definition of the word is nothing short of what is actually depicted. Their means for taking shortcuts and cutting corners to get the job complete is a mentality that holds for a very scary future. It is absolutely unnerving to imagine a work place that consisted of people who do more scamming than work and of people who are "milking the place dry" for several different reasons. The adult minorities are working either because they lacked the necessary skills or licenses to work in a better field or couldn't