Pull any manager aside and ask them to describe the emerging front line workforce and terms like ‘entitled’ and ‘poor work ethic’ will enter into the conversation. I interact with thousands of managers in the hospitality industry each year, and this I can say with certainty. At last year’s CHART conference in New Orleans, a…
This going to strike a nerve, but here goes… I know times are tough. I know people are losing their jobs and struggling. I know work is hard to find. I know things cost now more than they used to. I know all the rationale behind letting your adult children move back home with you.…
Because the subtitle of my soon-to-be-released book and the tagline of my Reviving Work Ethic brand both include ‘the emerging workforce,’ I’ve been fielding a lot of questions about what that term means or implies. Allow me to explain. In 2002, my first leadership book, Employing Generation Why – Understanding, Managing, and Motivating Your New…
According to a new survey done by Harris Interactive and released by Kronos Inc, a stunning 71 percent of workers in China admit to calling in sick when they weren’t. Conversely, only 16% of all French workers admit to playing hooky. That either means that Chinese people are trying harder to get out of work…
If you need a textbook case of work ethic, look no further than Mother Nature. You may know her better as Andrew, Katrina, or, most recently, Irene, but she doesn’t always wear a name badge. She fires up and thunders down. She clears a path and leaves no stone unturned. She works in scorching heat…
I was in my early twenties when MTV came on the scene 30 years ago today. At that age, I was precisely the targeted demographic this revolutionary new channel had in it’s cross-hairs, and it worked. They played music-videos 24/7, and I couldn’t get enough of them. Before MTV, I was forced to use my…
Five birds are sitting on a wire. If two decide to fly away, how many are left sitting on the wire? Five. There’s a huge gap between deciding to do something and actually doing it. And if the result of doing it is anything significant, the gap is dripping with perspiration. Yesterday I had lunch…
I subscribe to about a dozen blogs, most of which I skim and others I rarely read. But I never miss a day without my Seth Godin fix. I’ve had the pleasure of spending some one-to-one time with Seth and, although I can’t say that we are friends, I can say that he’s a a…
I love it when a young adult comes clean. All too often, young workers who fail early refuse to accept responsibility for their struggles and instead blame the economy, or their company, or their boss, or… This, of course, leads to more failure, which leads to increased bitterness that in passed on to next employer,…
I’m completely baffled when adults approach me after a presentation to tell me that kids are the same today as they’ve always been. “They’re no different than we were back in the day.” Oh yeah? View one episode of Jersey Shore, the wildly popular MTV reality show, and you’ll never say that again. Some are…