60 Mins Piece: Can't Find Decent Employees?

[Bosco]

Education has failed to evolve. It's been the same system for decades.

However, the work climate has also changed... In the last four years, companies have learned to sqeeze as much work out of their employees while paying lower wages and no benefits.

Why would anyone (in this society) be motivated to work hard and gain valuable skills to be rewarded with $12 an hour? How do you expect anyone to get exctied about this proposition?

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[lazydays]

I did it to eat.

[decay]

i find it hard to believe that one can increase their income by quantum jumps in this climate of zero yearly raises, 5% if you're lucky.

the only way to jump your income seems to be changing jobs, which sucks, because you are leaving the employer who gave you that on-the-job experience (and training), but then again, employers should do more to retain their good employees instead of letting them jump ship for better opportunities.

seems like the only way to really make money is to run your own business, but as many of you know, the risks are high, and the money isn't always steady or good. hours are longer, but payoff can be greater.

work ethic has surely changed over the past 50 years, but so has the fact that employers would keep their employees until retirement and pay them a pension, offer health benefits, and so on.

i fear we have moved toward a McJob nation.

[Sam3]

archipirata wrote:
I get a lot of opportunities to work with incoming college freshman and I can tell you for a fact that compared to 20 years ago the the current kids are downright ignorant. They lack many basic math, science, and communication skills and most are downright disrespectful to everyone. Our DNA hasn't changed. And not to get political but somewhere along the line our society f$%#ed up educating and socializing our children.

The highlighted portion is so true. My wife works as a nurse and she has been telling me horror stories of new nurses that she has to orient and train. Most of the younger nurses treat her and other seasoned nurses with little respect, and even worse, they treat patients and families with very little empathy, almost if the patient's families needs are a bother. Don't expect them to rush over on their own and help if a patient is crashing, they can't be bothered, they'd sooner sit and chat, or surf on the computer.

[mattkime]

companies that aren't willing to do some amount of training don't need help THAT badly. If it comes along, sure, they'll take it but otherwise they'll pass.

i think there some blame on both sides. some of it may be on individuals (although i truly have a hard time believing that people got stupider) and some of it is on industry that see no value in investing in talent.

[mrbigstuff]

lazydays wrote:
I had the opportunity to tour a local public school and I was amazed by the amount of electronics in the classroom. Middle school students were making their presentations using state of the art projectors and Microsoft PowerPoint. Rather than being impressed I simply wondered how much time was spent playing with these gizmos vs learning. I am all for equipping both students and teachers with the tools they need but I suspect they sometimes go too far.

Also, I enjoy watching vintage tv shows and I am struck by the contrast with current tv. The older shows (that I watch) demonstrate basic respect for people, especially children for adults, where current programming seems to glorify lying and disrespect. I realize the older shows did not represent how things really were but the current shows certainly do encourage poor behavior.

Now get off my lawn!

I'm in agreement, 1000%

It is INSANE to me that we are spending money on iPads and wiring up schools when there are still kids attending the schools - you know, the students - who cannot comprehend basic math and have bad literacy skills. This fascination with technology has really got me crazy, no joke, it's as if no one can see the folly of their ways and we'll gladly sacrifice a generation of kids for this whiz-bang tech. I would have NO such problem if they were being taught programming, but it's all consumption.

[vision63]

JoeM wrote:
Both I and my wife, who is an HR exec. in medical device manufacturing, saw the show. She would agree with cbelt3's comments above about applicants. She mentioned any serious manufacturing company here in the USA today needs to have some sort of training program in place in order to function because applicants cannot run the various machines.

I can tell you when I was teaching audio engineering at The Center For The Media Arts in NYC back in the late 80's, I wrote a specialized course in tape editing (yes, tape) for mostly dance music and hip hop mixer wanna-bes (the majority of students in those days at the school) that was based around using a ruler to measure tape length as it related to BPM and time signatures. With some basic calculations, a mixer could create a masking tape template, then measure and rearrange a mix by cutting and re-editing a two track.

Well more than half of the college-age students who took that course didn't know any subdivisions on a ruler smaller than 1/2 or 1/4 inch and many couldn't use a ruler at all.

I can only imagine what goes on when some of these applicants show up for a job that requires any type of math calculations.

They don't know the calculations because there's no point to them knowing the calculations. When your fellow Americans believe that $12 an hour is good entry level pay (which it is not), AND they expect you to have maintained a certain skill set then those that seek "qualified" workers have misled themselves. Costco pays more than that. If paid enough, their job offers would be overrun with qualified candidates.

People will take a job that doesn't pay well because it's there. But they're gone as soon as something better comes along.

[Bosco]

Another thing to consider:

Kids entering the work force have been raised by parents who have been overextended on so many levels. They don't have the time or energy (or, care) to focus on their kids education or behavior. The parents are doing the the best they can to provide for their families while neglecting key patenting skills.

Unfortunately, their kids have also learned to do the same... Do just enough to get by. Don't think. Just do. Jump through some hoops and be like everyone else.

[decay]

my daughter is in 7th grade and learning Algebra, solving for unknowns long hand. yes, she can use a calculator to check her work.

[chopper]

Requiring someone to know how to code CNC, mic out pieces and set up a lathe correctly before you'll give them $12 an hour seems like an absurdity.