Do you agree or disagree UK has a work ethics crisis? Why or why not?

Every day whenever we open the papers or the comment sections of it we hear of EU migrants taking up jobs of UK citizens. There will be those who will say it isn't true while some will say they only have themselves to blame.

In a marked shift from the 70s and 80s, UK had a reputation of poor products due to bad QC and obviously there were major supply issues as well as in the 70s many industries were plagued with industrial action, some say this stems largely from bad management. Did UK have poor management culture in the 70s and 80s? Many would say it certainly did, Margaret Thatcher once said to a bunch of British Rail managers "If you were any good you won't be working here." Today it can be said UK has some of the best managers about, think NHS and how efficient the machinery is despite all the spending cuts. Think all the EPL teams. Think all the financial institutions and O&G companies based in UK. All of it largely rely upon having good managers. In fact today many UK products are considered among the best in the world thanks in part to the engineering and designs behind it but you can't necessarily say it's because of the people building it as it's mostly robotised or out-sourced to other countries or it has had components built for it that there simply isn't any margin for error.

Also we shouldn't say work ethics can't be improved upon, Norway in the 1970s had a basketcase of an economy very much similar to Scotland and laziness was absolutely rife all over. Interestingly, Germany also had to deal with a work ethics issues and it wasn't too long ago that they were known as the sick-man of Europe and German manufacturing seemed as if it would go out of fashion.

Could the same be said about British workers? Have they improved since the 1970s or is there still a work ethics crisis that plagues society?

Some interesting articles to ponder over :-

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/work-ethic

http://www.londonlovesbusiness.com/business-in-london/management/exclusive-managers-feel-non-uk-candidates-have-better-work-ethic/2644.article

http://www.revivingworkethic.com/british-businessman-publicly-blasts-work-ethic-of-young-job-seekers/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19300051

Interestingly many who are older love to blame the young as having bad work ethics. Do you think it's true?

Some like to say it's people of colour who has poor work-ethnics? Should we be inclined to think this is true or does it depend what colour?

Another thing to remember, working long hours does not equal good work ethics.

Discuss

I think this is an interesting topic. Older generations have always criticised younger generations. I know from my experience in the Army, the old and bold would criticise younger recruits for having it easy. The old and bold though hadn't had to actually go off to sandy places to put their training into practice. So basically their criticisms were unfounded.

The argument about what happened in British industry in the seventies will be debated for decades to come. Some people will criticise trade unions, some people will criticise poor management. My own take on it is that nationalisation created a perfect storm where management lost its ability to manage through lack of competition and extremists in the trade union movements took advantage of the situation.

There are social changes under way with many academic papers being written on the issue. The baby boomers for example want a job. For life. Generation X are more likely to move around and Generation Y are quite happy to move from job to job. Basically younger generations are after a greater degree of self gratification. They'll move jobs more as they want challenges as opposed to security.

I do however think that there are changes going on with work ethic. Although much is said about. How hard things are, they're actually easier now than ever. The recent programme benefits 1945 showed the difference. When the welfare state was first set up, welfare pavements were just enough to survive. Now, comfortable lifestyles can be secured on benefits that previous generations could only dream of.

I think that this increased standard of living has toned down some work ethic. People used to work hard to survive, but luxuries can be attained by even the poorest in society.

Having just studied with a load of Indians who know poverty, I always thought that thymes be amazed with our welfare system. They all commented on the lack of drive its created in our society.

I work hard. I always have because I'm glad to be in a job and scared I'll loose that job. I'm scared of being told off for doing a job. Maybe that's where I get my work ethic from. Fear.

Well written post.

It's interesting to note the stark differences in welfare benefits and it's effects on work ethics. There were a few recent documentaries in Sweden about the benefits of their welfare system and how it had instead of being a system that fostered poor productivity it instead has created a class of entrepreneurs, many of them start-ups who simply dared to come out and take the risk as they knew their needs would be taken care off if it didn't work out and it seems it is generally the case for Finland, Norway as well as Denmark and Iceland too as it is generally rare to find scroungers. I wonder if the same could be said off the UK system of benefits and it's effect on work ethics?

Personally I don't think the differences between the generations is accurate along all strata of society as job-hopping especially hopping for an increment isn't really that much of a possibility in many working-class type jobs, it's more applicable towards middle-class professional jobs and above. Can't remember when exactly it became common to job hop.

I don't think all is lost though. You've used entrepreneurial spirit in Scandinavian countries. I think that somewhere in our psyche we've learnt to criticise success. Its not just in the business world. We love to build up our sportsmen and celebrities and then try and destroy them in the media.

Scandinavian countries however do have one significant difference. Immigration. I don't want to try and being immigration into this debate, but do you think that may be an factor of perceived lack of work ethic. And I'm coming at it from the angle of 'why bother working because we can just ship in johnny Foreignor in to do the jobs I don't want to do. I'm far ttoo important for that.'

Equally it may be down to the outdoor lifestyle of those nations. You'll never find a lazy farmer in the UK as they are used to being outdoors.

I think the reaction to the Amazon working conditions shows just how poor the average person's work ethic is. I'll admit, their disciplinary system is unfair and punishes those who are genuinely ill, but otherwise the requirements and expectations were perfectly reasonable.
I've worked several different jobs and witnessed the most appalling work ethics from my colleagues. In retail, there was one guy who wouldn't turn up for pretty much every other shift! And yet because he wasn't paid when he was absent, the management didn't seem to care enough to take any action. In an office job, there were people who thought their job was to turn up, sit at a desk, or even just be present in the office and logged in to their computer, from 9-5 (or rather, 9.10-5 by the time they had logged in), rather than actually sitting at their desk WORKING. The same people had no issue with pulling sickies and leaving their work to others.

I think part of the problem is the fact that children are taught from such a young age that certain jobs are to be desired, and others are not. If somebody says "I want to work in Tesco when I grow up", their teacher chides them for a lack of ambition. Thus the class get the impression that this job is worthless, and if they ever ended up doing it, they would not do it well, because they would not take any pride in a "worthless" job. I think children need to be taught that money is to be earned, and that working earns you money, not having a job. Turning up and doing the job is what gets you money. We should also impress upon the younger generations the fact that your worth should be judged much more by how well you do your job, than what that job is. I think an investment banker who works 65 hour weeks but puts no effort or care into his work is worth less praise than a factory worker or shelf stacker working the same hours or less to the best of his ability.

I got a good laugh at this post. Why does it bother you if people are lazy at work? If anything, it's a good thing.

There's too much work ethic in this benighted country, not too little. People live to work and drive themselves insane over it, and due to the reduced amount of time to think it allows the government and corporations to get away with murder.

Also, everyone knows managers do no work whatsoever and have to create jargon and make people think their pay is worth it. The work is done by the poor buggers on the bottom who get treated even worse than the **** they sweep up.

It is an absolute fallacy that you and MatureStudent36 appear to have fallen for that with hard work anyone can rise up the ranks and "become successful", and anyone who doesn't manage this must be lazy.

In reality, the better posts go to those who have ponied up money for them (via education) or who have used their connections, and business success is reserved for those who strike lucky or at a pinch are very innovative with their business idea. None of these routes to success require anything but the maintenance of an illusion of hard work.

it bothers me because I get paid the same amount of money to actually do my job properly. How can it be a good thing to be lazy at work? For starters, I don't understand how they don't get incredibly bored, plus they will never get a promotion or even a good reference with that attitude.

As long as they're not hurting you why does it matter? Just focus on what you're doing. Maybe they don't want a reference or promotion? Maybe they're happy?

How can it not matter?! There are people in this country failing to get jobs, and yet there are people with jobs who don't care about doing them properly?!!!!!!!! Yes I'm sure they are happy getting paid for not doing any work. That doesn't mean they should be allowed to do it!

By not doinng any work what do you mean? Doing nothing or just doing less than you

Some of them doing actually next to nothing. Most of them doing much less than average. I know I work hard, so I don't expect everyone to do exactly the same as me, but I do expect them to do as much as is required/expected by the job.