How Many Americans Believe That “if You Work Hard Enough, You'll Make It?”

Describe how typical the attitudes that Sheehy reports appear to be in work environments you have experienced. Typical attitudes appear in almost every aspect of the work environments. Most people do not give 100% of their work potential because they do not feel they are appreciated. I managed a group home and some of the workers had nonchalant attitudes. They would make comments like, “I’m going back to school because this job isn’t good for me. ” They would not put anything extra into getting their jobs completed, their work was very messy.

Co-workers would each partake in acts of wrongdoing, but each would step on each other’s back when they were caught in certain situations. They would steal the group home children’s food and they would go to sleep on the job. This is just a few examples of the typical attitudes that I have had to deal with in my work environments. Explain the implication of the work ethic Sheehy describes for the future of American business.

Sheehy describes the work ethic of future American businesses as being populated mainly by college students who will maintain a no-holds-barred, trample-over-anybody, get-what-you-want approach.Sheehy believes that these college students really believe that this approach is a necessary and glamorous road to success. Sheehy feels that there is a whole generation of workers with frightening new work ethics, such as contempt for customers, indifference to quality and service, unrealistic work expectations, as well as a get-away-with-what-you-can attitude. These college students feel that “scamming” was the ideal way.

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They would be taking shortcuts, not putting much effort into their work, and by delegating their work to someone else.They felt that they would only put that time and effort into that big job that they were holding out for. They were basically saying that this job is a means to an end for right now. Explain whether it is more reasonable to expect workers, especially in a capitalist society, to be more devoted to their jobs, more concerned with quality and customer service, than Sheehy’s coworkers were. It is not reasonable to expect workers in a capitalist society to be devoted to their jobs, nor is it reasonable for them to be concerned with quality and customer service when hey are being treated unfairly. These attitudes have the attitude that you get what you get from us, nothing more, but a lot less. Our capitalist society today is mostly motivated by their own self-interests. Workers sometimes feel that they are being treated without respect so they think up ways to get back at their employers. Most employers in this capitalist society focus mainly on maintaining their profits, distribution and how they can get a better quality of service.Look at the companies that have lain off thousands of workers only to send their company overseas where they pay lees, or they bring in outsiders to fill high-end jobs, instead of trying to hire in-house first. This is why I feel that it is not reasonable to expect workers to be devoted to their jobs, when their jobs are not devoted to them. It is not reasonable to expect workers to be concerned with quality or customer service, when workers are treated as unequal’s and why would they be concerned with customer service when workers could care less about how customers feel or how they are treated.While you would think that these things should matter, in a realistic, capitalist society, they do not. Explain the reasoning behind employee theft. Technically there is no reasoning for employee theft. There should be no reason why a worker would steal from their employer, no matter what the situation. Reports state that employee theft accounted for about 50% more revenue loss than shoplifting. Some workers felt peer pressure to steal in order to fit in with a particular group. The basic rationale for being dishonest and stealing was, “It don’t mean nothing,” as well as, “getting on with getting mine. Explain ways the culture of our capitalist society encourages attitudes like those Sheehy describes. The socioeconomic problems in the world today include an almost depleted manufacturing sector, outsourced jobs, a trillion dollar trade deficit, and a short-term performance mentality, but with all of this comes the people’s changing attitudes towards the government, social institutions, business, and work. The American work ethic appears to be slowly fading away. The expression, “If you work hard enough, you’ll make it,” seems to be dwindling away as well.Only one in three people believe this to be true today (down 60% from a 1960 survey). Experts believe that as people become less optimistic about their futures, they start doubting that their efforts will ever pay off, they become less interested in work than in looking out for themselves. Paul Kostek, believes that people have started looking out for themselves and focusing less on what they want out of their career. Abigail Hubbard appears to be seeing more of the ‘me-first’ attitude. Loyalties to employers are declining, while loyalty to their coworkers appears to be on the rise.Turnover rates are becoming alarmingly expensive. Authoritative demands have no clout like they have in the past. Employee sabotage and violence, have become enough for management to start worrying. Americans do not held work as important as they do their values (i. e. their children’s education and their love lives). They are choosing their families over work. They are only willing to work hard for what they are interested in and for what is rewarding to them, just so long as it suits their lifestyle. References (Shaw, 2010 Custom Edition)