Absenteeism

[Michael L. Gooch, SPHR]

Why do we have an absentee problem? When I was a young man, it was unheard of for someone not to show up for work. There were fences to mend, cow to be milked, chickens to be watered and fed. If someone missed his assignment, it was because he was dead or dying! I’ve seen my father, who would sometimes “get down in his back,” work all day and most of the night and then limp out at midnight in a snowstorm to pull a calf (assisting with a difficult birth).
What happened to the work ethic? The further we get from the Great Depression, the worse the attendance problem. Maybe the Me Generation started the spiral. Sometime back, we started a disturbing tend in the nation whereby some parents focus life around the wants (not needs) of the child. Regardless of when this started, suffice to say it is fully entrenched. We call this the Cult of the Child, and I believe it has something to do with absenteeism and our work ethic in general. Spoiling children, allowing them to back talk, and generally running our adult lives to pacify the child are simply wrong. It is our job to be parents, not accomplices. Not all kids are bad. In fact, most of our younger generation will work and work hard; but the trend is there, and it is getting away from us. It breeds a spoiled brat who will not work and crumbles under pressure. Even the best of the lot often lack workplace skills. These poor pampered kids grew up under coddling, permissive conditions whereby we tell the kids, “No. You’re not going to do that and that’s kind of, sort of final.” …

So where do we go from here?