The current status of American culture in 2014: a lack of work ethic
America gets a D
I am sad to say this, but America has lost its work ethic. Asia is the place with great work ethic, but due to very unstable economic, political, and environmental conditions, Asia will continue to experience major problems. Americans who I have encountered in the work world are either overburdened, or completely irresponsible and lazy. America will not be able to hold its title of being #1 if these habits don’t change.
My generation born in the late 60’s or early 70’s at least grew up in a time when families were together and people took pride in their work. Although this has substantially fallen apart since the mid-80’s, at least we saw society when it was somewhat intact. The younger kids are part of the A.D.D. generation. I don’t use the terms Z, Y, or millenials. People jump from channel to channel, tweet to tweet, job to job, etc. Education and family values don’t see to be valued as much although a higher percentage of people seem to be going to college. Families are falling apart, and a high percentage of teenagers have sexually transmitted diseases.
When I try to hire people in America to work for me, they either take me on as a client and then don’t do any work, or they just don’t get back to me. It doesn’t matter how much I pay, people are not so interested in working. I also find that standards for quality of work are very low. People don’t respect deadlines either. I tried to hire bloggers, but they want very high prices for what seems to me to be very mediocre work that will not attract traffic to my blogs. So, I am stuck being very busy doing my writing myself.
India gets a D-
Indians want to work. But, most of them lack the education to really be able to do any meaningful work. Most people looking for work make about three spelling mistakes per sentence. Nobody with any standards would be able to hire more than 1% of the applicants. It is very sad. Indian companies tend to be very impersonal about how they handle clients. The focus is on “the requirements,” and contracts rather than tuning in to how the client feels and what they want. If you visit them in person, the boss will be hospitable to you and get to know you, but the others generally will not. By the time you get to know the workers assigned to your project they will either quit or be on maternity leave. The Indian work ethic is there, but it is short-sighted and sloppy. People are out for short term gains, and very little attention is given to professionalism and quality of work.
Eastern Europe gets a D+
Russia and Eastern Europe offer higher class outsourcing. But, I have noticed that it takes them about three times as long as American workers to do the same thing. Hour padding seems to be cultural with them, but it is not acceptable to me as it is not honest or reputable.
China gets F
China has been in a mad rush to make money. They built lots of factories too fast, and now their factories are not close to being fully utilized. It is typical for Chinese companies to put very toxic chemicals and lead in their manufactured goods. Imagine buying children’s toys that children put in their mouths and learning that it is toxic and could lead to brain damage. This kind of recklessness is why China is experiencing a lot of impediments to their growth. Since they routinely fudge their numbers for economic growth, it is hard to know if they are growing or not. They would grow a lot faster if there would be a shred of concientiousness. Additionally, China has salted its soil with chemicals. It will not be able to use a large proportion of its farmland due to reckless use of chemicals. The air is filled with toxic chemicals as very dangerous materials are burned in areas where people live. Additionally, the water is very polluted with dangerous toxic materials. More than half of Chinese over the age of 50 have cancer which is due highly to the toxicity in the area. Why such a highly cultured nationality would trash its own country is beyond me, but I am very sad as I am a lover of Chinese culture and have been since early childhood.
Additionally, China reserves the right to take intellectual property in some shape or form from companies that do business with them. Since they are such a humongous market, companies feel compelled to agree to whatever terms China wants. But, these days, many large companies are pulling out of China because China likes to set the rules of who controls what, and who they will hire, and a bunch of other factors that I am not familiar enough to tell you about. Is it worth it to give up your freedom to get into a big market and be completely at the mercy of a much more powerful entity? Many companies are saying no and are jumping off the bandwagon.
Communication skills at Chinese companies are abysmal. Trying to get programming work done with them is a nightmare. I expect that since Chinese are so motivated to get ahead, that in a few years they will become superstars of the hi-tech world. But, how many years will it take? That is a question that’s answer will unravel over time. I would expect that after 2020, China will be far in the lead for software outsourcing. We’ll see if my prediction comes true!
Does anyone get an A?
Japan unfortunately doesn’t do outsourcing. But, I had the pleasure of having a green tea donut in Little Tokyo here in Los Angeles. I will say that Japanese are the only culture that I would use as a role model. People were very nice to me and engaged me in small talk. The fact that they knew English was a huge perk. But, during our conversation, if a customer walked in, their attention would go to greeting the new customer. There was no delay. It took them less than a second to jump into action. This type of emphasis on being considerate and timely is a huge attribute that only the Japanese have as a culture. I think that the rest of the world needs to learn from Japan. Maybe we should learn to bow too — it couldn’t hurt.