The Seasoned Professional Workforce Ethics
The Seasoned Professional Workforce Ethics
The Seasoned Professional Work Force Ethics
Most older workers have workplace experience that comes from years of experience in the workforce. Older workers have better attendance records, better customer service skills, are loyal, dependable and reliable. The benefit of hiring mature workers leads to a low turnover rate, high levels of engagement and greater skill sets. Mature workers are highly motivated, easy to coach, and desire to come to work on a daily basis. They take pride in their work more so than those of the younger generation. Experience does have its benefits, among which are efficiency and confidence, maturity, communication skills, organizational skills, reduced labor costs, honesty, punctuality, dedication and several other benefits. Mature workers set an example to those around them by taking pride in a job well done. They value the company they work for and tend to stay in a position 3.3 times longer than their younger counterparts. The bureau of labor statistics states that the average tenure among all US workers is 3.7 years. However, the median job tenure for workers in the 55-64 age range is about 3.3 times that of workers 25-34 years of age. Employers concerned about the risk of turnover should keep in mind the correlation between turnover and age as well as the cost of turnover.
Workers 50 and older are more likely than their younger counterparts to be independent self employed workers. Older workers are less likely than younger workers to be salaried employees who work for someone else. From 2007-2008 workers aged 54-64 experienced the largest increase in entrepreneurial activity, making it the age group with the highest entrepreneurial activity rate.
Studies on motivation and engagement indicate that motivation and engagement do not decline with age but rather increase. Workers 55 and older are the most motivated, while the youngest workers are the least motivated. Mature workers tend to have higher skill levels than their younger counterparts like math, reading and writing. An employer may have to use non-traditional ways of recruiting mature workers including participating in job fairs, and developing partnerships with local organizations that work with the mature. Another way to recruit more mature workers is to place ads on-line and in the newspapers that reflect the demographic in an effort to draw them.
According to research,approximately 70% of Baby Boomers intend to stay in the work force beyond the traditional retirement age of 65. The two main reasons are money and health insurance. As people live longer, basic needs have to be met for longer periods of time. In addition to economic reasons, baby boomers wish to stay productive members of society. Staying physically and mentally active are major contributory factors in their quest to stay in the workforce. Mature workers want to give back by staying productive and useful.
With such a multi-generational work force of older workers managing younger workers and younger workers managing older workers, companies should include age diversification as part of their company training. Mature workers want basically the same things as younger workers such as on-going training, flexible work opportunities, a positive work environment and for companies to value their work and experience.
Younger workers on the other hand are somewhat more flexible, tend to work longer hours, think somewhat faster, and bring in fresh new ideas. Older workers have the experience, have made mistakes and learned from them and have used them to work out better solutions. On the job experience yields many little tricks and shortcuts that only time in a position can yield. I can vouch for that myself. Older workers are sought out for the advice they can give as well. Overall, there are good and bad workers among the young and the not so young.
The comparison of older vs. younger workers or the work ethic came to the forefront of society with the advent of the Protestant Reformation as physical labor became culturally acceptable for all persons including the wealthy. One of the significant influences on the culture of the western world has been the Judeo-Christian belief system. Traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs state that sometime after the dawn of creation, man was placed in the Garden of Eden "to work it and take care of it" (Gen 2 :15). What was likely an ideal work situation was disrupted when sin entered the world and the occupants of the Garden were ejected by God. Genesis 3:19 states that by the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were formed; for dust you are and to dust you shall return. The Hebrew belief system viewed work as a curse devised by God explicitly to punish the disobedience and rebellion of Adam and Eve. Numerous scriptures from the Old Testament supported work; not from the premise that there was any joy in it but that it was necessary to prevent poverty and destitution (Proverbs 10:14, 14:23, 20:13, Ecclesiastes 9:10).
The Greeks, like the Hebrews, also regarded work as a curse. The Greek word for work was ponos, taken from the Latin poena, which meant sorrow. Manual labor was for slaves. The cultural norms allowed free men to pursue warfare, large-scale commerce, and the arts, especially architecture or sculpture. Manual labor was also considered to be work and denounced by the Greeks.Skilled crafts on the other hand were accepted and recognized as having some social value, but were not regarded as much better than work appropriate for slaves. Hard work, whether attributed to economic need or under the orders of a master, was disdained.
It was recognized that work was necessary for the satisfaction of material needs but philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle made it clear that the purpose of work was in order that the minority, the elite, might engage in art, philosophy, and politics. Plato recognized the notion of a division of labor, separating them first into categories of rich and poor, and then into categories by different kinds of work. He believed that such an arrangement could only be avoided by abolition of private property. Aristotle on the other hand supported the ownership of private property and wealth. He viewed work as a corrupt waste of time that would make a citizen's pursuit of virtue more difficult.
The Greeks believed that a person's prudence, morality, and wisdom was directly proportional to the amount of leisure time that person had. A person who worked, when there was no need to do so, would run the risk of disrupting the distinction between slave and master. Leadership, in the Greek culture was based on the work a person didn't do and any person who broke this cultural norm was acting to subvert the state itself.
The Romans adopted much of their belief system from the culture of the Greeks and they also held manual labor in low regard.The Romans were industrious and demonstrated competence in organization, administration, building, and warfare. The Roman culture was spread through much of the civilized world during the period from 500 BC until 117 AD. The Empire included most of Europe, the Middle East, Egypt, and North Africa and greatly influenced the Western culture.
Slavery was an integral part of the ancient world prior to the Roman Empire, but the employment of slaves was much more widely utilized by the Romans than the Greeks. Early on in the Roman system, slaves were treated well. As the size of the landholdings grew, thousands of slaves were required for large scale grain production on some estates, and their treatment grew worse. Slaves came to be viewed as cattle, with no rights as human beings. Cattle were often treated better than the slaves because cattle could not care for themselves but slaves could.
For the Romans, work was to be performed by slaves and only two occupations were suitable for free menagriculture and big business. A goal of these occupations, was to achieve an honorable retirement as a noble gentleman. Any pursuit of handicrafts or the hiring out of a person's arms was considered to be vulgar, dishonoring, and beneath the dignity of a Roman citizen.
Both the Greeks and Romans viewed the work that slaves performed and the wealth that free men possessed as a means to achieve the supreme ideal of life: man's independence of external things , self sufficiency, and satisfaction with one's self. The most accepted view was that pursuit of gain to meet normal needs was appropriate.
The fall of the Roman Empire marked the beginning of the period known as the Middle Ages. During this period, from 400 AD until 1400 AD, Christian thought dominated the culture of Europe. Hebrew, Greek and Roman themes were woven into the Christian conceptions of work. Work was still viewed as punishment for original sin but earnings became acceptable because they prevented people from relying on others for their physical needs. Wealth became an opportunity to share with others who were less fortunate and the work which produced wealth became more acceptable.
In the culture of the medieval period, work still held no real value. It was simply around to meet the physical needs of one's family and community and to avoid idleness which would lead to sin. It was believed that idle hands are the Devil's workshop. Work was part of the economic structure of human society which was ordered by God.
Along comes the Protestant Reformation, a period of religious and political upheaval in Western Europe during the sixteenth century. This period introduced a new perspective on work. Martin Luther and John Calvin were the main proponents who influenced the development of Western culture during this time. Luther believed that people could serve God through their work and that they should not deviate from the profession to which they were born. He believed that work was useful and the universal base of society and the cause of differing social classes.
It was John Calvin who introduced the theological doctrines along with those of Luther to form a significant new attitude towards work. Calvin taught that all men must work, even the rich, because to work was the will of God. It was the duty of men to serve as God's instruments here on earth, to reshape the world in the fashion of the Kingdom of God, and to become a part of the continuing process of His creation. Men were not to lust after wealth, possessions, or easy living, but were to reinvest the profits of their labor into financing further ventures. Earnings were to be reinvested over and over again. Using profits to help others rise from the heap violated God's will since persons could only demonstrate that they were among the Elect through their own labor.
The norms regarding work which developed out of the Protestant Reformation, based on the combined teachings of Luther and Calvin, encouraged work in a chosen occupation with an attitude of service to God. It viewed work as a calling and avoided placing greater spiritual dignity on one job over another. It stated that working diligently to achieve maximum profits required re-investing of profits back into the business. It allowed a person to change from the profession of his father and associated success in one's occupation with the likelihood of being one of God's Elect.
In conclusion, the attitudes toward work which became a part of the culture during the sixteenth century, and the economic value system which they nurtured, represented a significant change from medieval and classical ways of thinking about work. Max weber, the German economic sociologist coined a term for the new beliefs about work calling it the "Protestant ethic." The key elements of the Protestant ethic were diligence, punctuality, deferment of gratification, and primacy of the work domain. Two distinct perspectives were evident in the literature with regard to the development of the Protestant ethic.
One perspective was the materialist viewpoint which stated that the belief system, called the Protestant ethic, grew out of changes in the economic structure and the need for values to support new ways of behavior. This view is attributed to Karl Marx. The other perspective, put forth by Max Weber, viewed changes in the economic structure as an outgrowth of shifts in the theological beliefs. Regardless of the viewpoint, it is evident that a rapid expansion in commerce and the rise of industrialism coincided with the Protestant reformation.
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