The Real Value of Work

[JimG]

“Apparently, not only are about 20% of young men between 21-30 years of age out of work, but they aren’t too upset about it. Instead, they are finding satisfaction in video games, computers and television, while living in their parents’ basement. Most in this group have not held a job of any kind in at least a year."
The Real Value of Work

This woman’s blog about work caught my attention with its opening statistic, especially since I know of some young relatives who fall into the category above. I worry about their future, but I don’t know what to say to them or how to advise them without sounding like a curmudgeon not minding my own business. My own parents had a policy of putting their kids to work by the time they were teens, working odd jobs around the neighborhood, later looking for after school jobs, and of course looking for and obtaining full time jobs once schooling was complete. The recent phenomenon of young people who are just not interested in work is something new to me.

While the linked blog post makes good points about the spiritual (and physical) value of work, it still leaves me wondering what the solution for the seemingly detached young might be.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

“Apparently, not only are about 20% of young men between 21-30 years of age out of work, but they aren’t too upset about it. Instead, they are finding satisfaction in video games, computers and television, while living in their parents’ basement. Most in this group have not held a job of any kind in at least a year."
The Real Value of Work

This woman’s blog about work caught my attention with its opening statistic, especially since I know of some young relatives who fall into the category above. I worry about their future, but I don’t know what to say to them or how to advise them without sounding like a curmudgeon not minding my own business. My own parents had a policy of putting their kids to work by the time they were teens, working odd jobs around the neighborhood, later looking for after school jobs, and of course looking for and obtaining full time jobs once schooling was complete. The recent phenomenon of young people who are just not interested in work is something new to me.

While the linked blog post makes good points about the spiritual (and physical) value of work, it still leaves me wondering what the solution for the seemingly detached young might be.

Young men with no work has ALWAYS led to war.
I worry too about the “training” they are receiving with the video games.

 

[ConfusedLucy]

I can only comment on my own experience in the UK but I think that with low wages and high property prices a lot of work is a pointless waste of time, if you are low paid then no amount of hard work will enable you to move out of your parents house and make an honest living. It’s like being in a game that is rigged against you. I used to be very judgemental of “benefit scroungers” but after spending several years working full time and not earning enough to move out I started to understand.

It also doesn’t help that a lot of jobs have gone from permanent jobs to temporary and zero hours contracts. I don’t know what the answer is to be honest.

 

[Mystic_Banana]

When I started work, there was a lot of that kind of liberal, non-hierarchical, co-operative approach to work being the prevalent work culture - and economies were doing well. Somehow, over the last 10 years, this was erroded into a “look up to your boss or else” hierachialism, ‘game players win’ approach to meritocracy, and ‘be grateful you’ve got a job’ misery… and economies have gone haywire, the rich got richer, the poor poorer, and job satisfaction has gone down the toilet for all but self serving corporate whores

It’s as if Trumps (or here in the UK, Sugars) gameshow capitalism has been taken on board not as the parody of corporate degeneracy they truly represent, but as models for managerial practice! At least we haven’t got the UK presenter running our country …

And Confused Lucy is right - It also probably doesn’t help that pensions have disappeared and most of us will probably end up working about 2 years after we die… and the justification for meaner pay and conditions for employees? A worldwide recession caused by corrupt bankers who still load themselves with fat bonuses while the rest of us pay for their self serving carelessness - all enthusiastically supported by politicians who allegedly serve the people!

So, I’m not especially surprised if somehow young people are put off by modern work culture!!! Mind you, I was under the impression they were bought and sold into the kind of crass internationalist materialism that supports the misery of modern work cultures - maybe I’m wrong?

 

[dnu]

Doesnt help that many of those able bodied youths think they are too good to pursue some of the work out there. There is a prison near me paying almost $15 an hour with almost no cap on overtime due to it being a 24/7 security operation. A committed person with only a high school diploma and the ability to breathe oxygen can easily work 60 hours a week and make over $50,000 a year, plus have insurance, a 401k etc. yet, with dozens of open positions they can barely even get applications.

 

[Mystic_Banana]

Young men with no work has ALWAYS led to war.
I worry too about the “training” they are receiving with the video games.

I’ve played millions of terribly violent video games… I’m more worried about what training they’re receiving by watching propagandist material (of pretty much all kinds) on telly, Or Youtube. Which is to say, pretty much everything on telly or youtube…

I seem to remember playing video games for most of a couple of summer breaks - looking back, it felt like I’d thrown the time away. But that was before multi player online games…

 

[Mystic_Banana]

Doesnt help that many of those able bodied youths think they are too good to pursue some of the work out there. There is a prison near me paying almost $15 an hour with almost no cap on overtime due to it being a 24/7 security operation. A committed person with only a high school diploma and the ability to breathe oxygen can easily work 60 hours a week and make over $50,000 a year, plus have insurance, a 401k etc. yet, with dozens of open positions they can barely even get applications.

I’d suspect prison work is on many peoples “would really rather not do that” list… being allowed to do 60 hours a week of it doesn’t sound like a bonus to me, sounds more like a sentence in itself!

 

[JimG]

I can only comment on my own experience in the UK but I think that with low wages and high property prices a lot of work is a pointless waste of time, if you are low paid then no amount of hard work will enable you to move out of your parents house and make an honest living. It’s like being in a game that is rigged against you. I used to be very judgemental of “benefit scroungers” but after spending several years working full time and not earning enough to move out I started to understand.

It also doesn’t help that a lot of jobs have gone from permanent jobs to temporary and zero hours contracts. I don’t know what the answer is to be honest.

The ones who worry me are not those who are “benefit scroungers.” Rather they are the ones who are living on their parents’ income–often their parents retirement income. When their parents are gone, they will have to figure out how to make a living on their own, being totally unprepared for it.

 

[stinkcat_14]

The ones who worry me are not those who are “benefit scroungers.” Rather they are the ones who are living on their parents’ income–often their parents retirement income. When their parents are gone, they will have to figure out how to make a living on their own, being totally unprepared for it.

Sounds like their parents should be doing a better job. My parents would have never let me live at home rent free while not working or working little.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

I’ve played millions of terribly violent video games… I’m more worried about what training they’re receiving by watching propagandist material (of pretty much all kinds) on telly, Or Youtube. Which is to say, pretty much everything on telly or youtube…

I seem to remember playing video games for most of a couple of summer breaks - looking back, it felt like I’d thrown the time away. But that was before multi player online games…

I grew up shooting actual guns at actual things.

It wasn’t until Halo that I learned strategy…

 

[tawny]

Sounds like their parents should be doing a better job. My parents would have never let me live at home rent free while not working or working little.

Absolutely. I remember when I turned 13 & my Father taking me to get my working papers. That weekend I was working in the Church Rectory making out Mass Cards. The same was done with my older brother & sister. Our parents taught us the value of working & money & how to budget. I may not have realized it back then but they were teaching us how to grow up & become independent & contributing members of society & not people living off the hard work of others. They were not enablers. I thank God for them.

 

[Gertabelle]

I’d like to see where that 20% statistic comes from. And should I assume they’re counting undergraduate and graduate students as being “unemployed” while they’re in school?

Seriously though, I’ve been giving this a lot of thought as my son has now entered his teens.

He’s slowly but surely learning the value of work – rather than just working because we told him to or else.

When I was growing up, one of my dearest friends lived with her parents until she got married in her late twenties. When her father died, her mom moved in with her and her husband for the rest of her life.

I have often wondered (since becoming a mom) if we aren’t following society just a bit too much in our family lives these days. Yes, of course our children should be expected to work. But why do we also expect – often almost or actually demanding – that they will move out and be financially secure on their own by some real or imaginary age?

And why do they shut down if they can’t afford to move out on their own? Why do they give up if they’re not making a six-digit income right out of college? Why have we taught them that the end-all and be-all of their existence is being financially successful, or at least financially stable?

Of course, I was surrounded by the example of my extended family who watched over and cared for my grandma until she died at age 97. Even when she needed to be placed in a nursing home, someone in the family was there with her at dinner every single day!

When our children learn that we care not only for ourselves, but for the generations before us and after us, they learn the value of work intrinsically.

I think there is a whole lot more to this than “oh, those young men are such hopeless slackers.” Seriously, we parents need to think long and hard on what we are actually teaching our children through our ACTIONS, as well as our words.

Personally, my son can live in my home for as long as he needs or wants. But if he ever stops trying to contribute to the world through his God-given gifts, I’ll be shutting off the electricity – at least in the basement.

 

[FollowChrist34]

The ones who worry me are not those who are “benefit scroungers.” Rather they are the ones who are living on their parents’ income–often their parents retirement income. When their parents are gone, they will have to figure out how to make a living on their own, being totally unprepared for it.

I think work ethic is learned at home. If you are encouraged to do well in school, get good grades, that translates to wanting to do well at work, naturally. Parents teach children the responsibility of active engagement in society. Or I guess I should say, more often they don’t…as for work being menial, low paying, everyone has jobs like that at first. I was a maid in a hotel one summer. (disgusting but I did it) Worked in a frozen foods cannery. Lousy jobs when I was a teenager. You get better stuff later. (marginally better anyway ) It is all relative. Sometimes I wonder if society is breaking down more and more by generation. The kids of the 60s, 70s generation were a little off, their kids, a little further off, clueless (80s, 90s), their kids…on and on. I mean as a social trend. Exceptions to every rule.

 

[dnu]

I’d suspect prison work is on many peoples “would really rather not do that” list… being allowed to do 60 hours a week of it doesn’t sound like a bonus to me, sounds more like a sentence in itself!

Having worked there myself a number of years ago I can say it is no picnic. I could share storied that would make you nauseous. Nonetheless, the income is nearly unlimited and one can hold their head up high knowing they not only served and protected their community, but also that they are earning their own way for themselves and/or their families.

Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 3:10b “if a man will not work, he shall not eat.” Too many able-bodied folks would rather sit at home leeching off of their parents or the government than get a job and provide for themselves.

 

[LaughingBoy1503]

Doesnt help that many of those able bodied youths think they are too good to pursue some of the work out there. There is a prison near me paying almost $15 an hour with almost no cap on overtime due to it being a 24/7 security operation. A committed person with only a high school diploma and the ability to breathe oxygen can easily work 60 hours a week and make over $50,000 a year, plus have insurance, a 401k etc. yet, with dozens of open positions they can barely even get applications.

No way… the same kids who most likely have reserved seats in college “Safe spaces” and rock “Man bun hairdos” wont become prison guards? I’m shocked… lol

 

[Mystic_Banana]

Having worked there myself a number of years ago I can say it is no picnic. I could share storied that would make you nauseous. Nonetheless, the income is nearly unlimited and one can hold their head up high knowing they not only served and protected their community, but also that they are earning their own way for themselves and/or their families.

Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 3:10b “if a man will not work, he shall not eat.” Too many able-bodied folks would rather sit at home leeching off of their parents or the government than get a job and provide for themselves.

The sad fact is, that despite all the horrors of modern work culture, I still suffer from an old fashioned work ethic that, yes! It’s worthwhile trying to do something useful in your job, rather than just maximizing profit margins. It’s just not an ideology that I see being practiced or supported much at the moment, least of all in or by top level managers, and I’m under the impression that experience is widespread.

I read somewhere (Metro, I think) that the average modern office worker is a back stabbing Machievellian, and I have to say, I wasn’t especially disbelieving…

…

 

[esieffe]

Doesnt help that many of those able bodied youths think they are too good to pursue some of the work out there. There is a prison near me paying almost $15 an hour with almost no cap on overtime due to it being a 24/7 security operation. A committed person with only a high school diploma and the ability to breathe oxygen can easily work 60 hours a week and make over $50,000 a year, plus have insurance, a 401k etc. yet, with dozens of open positions they can barely even get applications.

1. What city and state is this prison in?
2. Are they hiring?
3. Are there good Catholic Churches in this town?

Post or PM me!
Thanks!

 

[ConfusedLucy]

The ones who worry me are not those who are “benefit scroungers.” Rather they are the ones who are living on their parents’ income–often their parents retirement income. When their parents are gone, they will have to figure out how to make a living on their own, being totally unprepared for it.

There are a lot of difficult long term questions that no one wants to answer. That’s definitely one. I feel that the UK government now just sees it as normal for people to continue to be supported by their parents well into adulthood and work. It puts people whose parents don’t have a lot of disposable income at a huge disadvantage.

As for work ethic, I feel us millennials are very results motivated, probably why so many of us like video games. When I was at school the mantra was essentially work hard, do your homework, study, get into university and you will get a good job, ie the kind of job that will support a middle class lifestyle. Schools wanted good results for their reputations. We can work hard when motivated but this has left us poorly prepared for working in pocket money jobs with little prospect of an independent life.

I only got out of my rut when I married someone who earns more than me and was able to request a relocation to a cheaper area to live. Otherwise I don’t know what I or my parents would have done.

 

[AdamP88]

“Apparently, not only are about 20% of young men between 21-30 years of age out of work, but they aren’t too upset about it. Instead, they are finding satisfaction in video games, computers and television, while living in their parents’ basement. Most in this group have not held a job of any kind in at least a year.
​

I agree. I have a friend who has never worked a proper job and believes that the state ought to pay for everybody’s food, medical, rent etc. in order that they might be free to “better themselves”.​

 

[ShrodingersCat]

“Apparently, not only are about 20% of young men between 21-30 years of age out of work, but they aren’t too upset about it. Instead, they are finding satisfaction in video games, computers and television, while living in their parents’ basement. Most in this group have not held a job of any kind in at least a year."
The Real Value of Work

This woman’s blog about work caught my attention with its opening statistic, especially since I know of some young relatives who fall into the category above. I worry about their future, but I don’t know what to say to them or how to advise them without sounding like a curmudgeon not minding my own business. My own parents had a policy of putting their kids to work by the time they were teens, working odd jobs around the neighborhood, later looking for after school jobs, and of course looking for and obtaining full time jobs once schooling was complete. The recent phenomenon of young people who are just not interested in work is something new to me.

While the linked blog post makes good points about the spiritual (and physical) value of work, it still leaves me wondering what the solution for the seemingly detached young might be.

What percentage of young men 20-31 are in fulltime education? Or did the study account for that?