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Baby Boomers Don't Have a Stronger Work Ethic Than Later Generations, Says Study (sciencedaily.com)
A team of U.S. researchers from Wayne State University in Detroit have published research in Springer's Journal of Business and Psychology that dispels the popular belief that baby boomers have a greater work ethic than people born a decade or two later. Science Daily reports: The economic success of the United States and Europe around the turn of the 20th to the 21st century is often ascribed to the so-called Protestant work ethic of members of the baby boomer generation born between 1946 and 1964. They are said to place work central in their lives, to avoid wasting time and to be ethical in their dealings with others. Their work ethic is also associated with greater job satisfaction and performance, conscientiousness, greater commitment to the organization they belong to and little time for social loafing. The media and academia often suggest that baby boomers endorse higher levels of work ethic than the younger so-called Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980) and Millennials (born between 1981 and 1999). [Keith Zabel, the lead U.S. researcher, and his team] compiled a dataset of all published studies that have ever used a U.S. sample to measure and report on the Protestant work ethic. Studies included in the meta-analysis had to mention the average age of the people surveyed. In all, 77 studies and 105 different measures of work ethic were examined using an analysis method stretching over three phases, each phase offered more precise measurement of generational cohorts. The analysis found no differences in the work ethic of different generations. These findings support other studies that found no difference in the work ethics of different generations when considering different variables, such as the hours they work or their commitment to family and work. Zabel's team did however note a higher work ethic in studies that contained the response of employees working in industry rather than of students.
Success is easy when half the rest of the planet had been firebombed and needed to rebuild all of its factories. On top of that a huge portion of the people who would have done said rebuliding were dead from war.
teenagers to early twenty-something are almost always a poor example of a generation's work ethic.
once people end up in their thirties and have mouths to feed, they tend to work as hard as their parents once did.
Youth have always been lazy and disrespectful of their elders. This has been commented on for about 4 thousand years; its a wonder kids these days do anything at all.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Every generation thinks their kids are huge slackers, and nearly every successful person attributes his success to admirable qualities he has only in average quantities, when in fact it's usually a combination of luck and *consistent* work over a long period of time.
Except in my case. I derive my success from a sculpted physique and massive charm and cunning with the opposite sex.
That was always the criticism of the Baby Boomers. That they didn't have the same work ethic as their parents.
Exactly what I came here to say. I'm a boomer, but I've never heard anyone lauding us for our work ethic... that was always our parents, members of the "Greatest Generation" - the people who lived through the Great Depression and fought World War II.
Now I have heard the complaints about the millennials... but it was always in the context of "they're even worse than their parents" rather than "why aren't they as diligent as their parents?"
#DeleteChrome
Companies printed circuit diagrams on the inside of their hardware. Go open your HVAC, there's probably a circuit diagram on the inside.
Ford used to publish "This is how you fix our cars" and give it away. The knowledge was there.
Pretty sure when people talk about hard working generation they say "the greatest generation." The Baby Boomers were those slackers who listened to the Beatles, did drugs, and ran up credit card debt.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Ain't that the truth. Baby boomers were not a hard-working generation. It seemed that way during the "Wall Street", "greed is good" 1980s, but that was only because of all the cocaine.
The millennials I know (some of whom are my students) are actually a pretty good bunch. They have good heads on their shoulders for the most part, and a realistic view of the world as a giant shit-show.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Wat? Since when is there a popular belief that 'boomers had a stronger work ethic? Say "boomer" and I'm more likely to think "protest" than "Protestant work ethic". AFAIK the more generally held view is that as long as they weren't traumatized by the Vietnam War, they lucked into an optimal economic situation and that's why they did better.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
The boomers are in power now and they are fucking everyone younger. Tuition and housing prices have skyrocketed. Wages have stagnated. The rich pay the lowest taxes they ever had. They have skewed the system in their favour to enrich themselves at the expense of their children and grandchildren. They need to die.
An academic claims idleness is morally superior to work.
News at 11.
I think that in most cases, if employees felt safe in their jobs, they'd do better work. That Millennial who seems to be "slacking" because they won't put in 90 hour weeks for years on end just sees what's going on. SV startups live on fresh college kids who haven't experienced what it's like to work in an unstable environment or for a hostile employer. Older Millennials are more cynical, just like older people of other generations.
Restoring the balance of employer/employee loyalty would be a good start if employers want a more productive workforce. Smart people see employers who will replace them at the drop of a hat and don't put in the extra effort as a result. Previous generations had some employers who would employ you for life...IBM had a no-layoff policy for ages and there are legions of people who worked for large employers like this their entire careers. In return, their employees were loyal, worked hard, put in extra hours where needed, etc.
Unfortunately, I can't see this happening any time soon. Back in the 60s/70s, the US was quite different. Absolutely everything was manufactured domestically, there was very little foreign competition, only 3 car companies of note, etc. And, companies needed thousands and thousands of people just to move paperwork around the organization, all of whom had stable jobs. Now, we manufacture very little, offshore well-paid technical jobs, and companies just keep squeezing harder to get those pennies out of their operational processes.
That work "ethics" correlate to age is a given.
At 20, you have no problem telling your boss to stick his job where the sun doesn't shine if it sucks because you can fairly easily switch (provided you have some marketable skills) and if you're unemployed for a while, so be it.
At 30, you usually have some small kids, so it gets harder to tell your boss that he's a leeching bastard, but you can still get by if it gets absolutely unbearable, and you'll still find a new job somehow.
At 40, you have teenager kids that can get quite demanding, also your prospects on the job market are dwindling, so you're more inclined to stay unless it's absolutely unbearable. You might even consider working unpaid overtime when firings are looming on the horizon in the hope that it will hit the other guy.
At 50, you are trying to scrape together what's left of your money to pay for your kids' college. Also you know that you will not be hired again if you get fired now. You WILL do what is necessary to keep this job.
In a nutshell, that's not work ethic. That's simple fear.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Actually, it's Ronald Reagan you have to thank for all the things you're bitching about. Many of us at the tail end of the Boomer generation have had the same shit-sandwich experience as you later generations; at least those of us who didn't become bankers.
Hard work has almost no correlation to success, I've found. The ability to convince people you work hard is more important than actually working hard.
It's actually built right into the word. "Success" means to come soon after. The core meaning of success as it pertains to life is inheritance. The first son was the one to succeed the father, so he was a success. And lo and behold, the best predictor of economic success is in fact your genetic succession: who are your parents?
People with wealthier parents tend to have not only superior access to education and nutrition (even here in the USA, a staggering percentage of children go to bed hungry and malnourished — affecting their brain development!) but they also likely get less of a bullshit song about fairness from their parents. Mine sold me a whole line of bullshit about hard work, because they were still operating under the impression that their failure to succeed was based on their own behavior. But when you can't get a fair shake simply because of how people view your upbringing, it makes it more difficult to remedy your situation.
the people in the very top economic strata convince the rest of us to kill ourselves for their benefit. I'm glad I was able to see through that bullshit early on. My life was much nicer due to that revelation, and I was still able to accomplish a full and happy existence and even be able to leave something to my kid without really breaking a sweat.
And your kid is statistically assured to do much better for it, because success typically results from succession.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
What I've seen in my own workplace is new entrants (whether at graduate or non-graduate level) entering the organisation but generally (and of course there are outliers) without making a full commitment to it and, particularly in the case of graduate entrants, trying to keep their student lifestyle running for a few more years. Over time, usually by the late 20s, this transitions into a much stronger work ethic
I've observed the exact opposite. Graduates come in full of energy and eager to prove themselves, to apply their ideas and skills to the real world. After a few years they realize the truth, that their abilities are rarely properly appreciated and that actually a lot of their working life will be spent dealing with customers who don't know what they want or who demand things work a certain, usually stupid, way.
As they age they also tend to realize that the promises made when they took on student debt were lies, and that the cushy jobs and pensions that the boomers have are not on offer any more and neither are houses, and that working hard isn't the key to success, playing the game is. Switching jobs often, living a transient lifestyle, is the way to get ahead.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Millennials are the most screwed generation since the silent generation had war inflicted on them. The boomers broke the economy, broke the planet, broke all the promises, made sure everything they had for free (like education) is now paid for and extremely expensive, and gold plated their pensions, made property unaffordable, left the EU...
Gen X is just kinda stuck in the middle, unable to effect change because the boomers all go out and vote to feather their nests. There will have to be a great correction at some point, maybe when enough of them die to allow the younger generations to take political control.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Boomers should be lauded for one thing only, they are selfish pricks, aptly named the "me generation". Thanks to the rise of the more populous and much more selfless generation of millenials we'll hopefully stop and reverse the damage the Boomers have done to this country.
Are you kidding me? The millenials are so full of themselves that they take selfies ten times a day and post them to social media. Now that's the me generation.
The Boomers benefited from the reforms of the New Deal to enjoy the most prosperous time in the nation's history.
Then they systematically worked to dismantle those very same protections they benefited from.
Goodbye 40-hour work week, welcome back Jim Crow.
I don't know which ones are worse, the ones that think they're entitled to a "retirement" or the ones who don't have the good grace to die off and make some room for youngsters in the labor force.
Are you kidding me? The millenials are so full of themselves that they take selfies ten times a day and post them to social media. Now that's the me generation.
Boomers: fucked over the millennials by massively overspending and burdening the younger generations with huge debt, impoossibly high housing prices and vast retirement programs to find.
Millenneals: take selfies
Conclusion: fucking millennials are the "me" generation.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
This is generational provincialism. The fact is most people act like selfish pricks, but each generation succeeds the last, becoming precisely the things they despised in their parents' generation.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Err...that's what Bosses and Managers do my friend....welcome to the pecking order.
New guys start at the bottom.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........