UNITED STATES—Ever since I was a youngster, it has always been a dream of mine to have a purpose when it comes to work. I don’t want to just work for a paycheck, I want to do something that brings me joy, that makes me happy and brings a vibrancy to my life that I don’t get anywhere else. Work is not only supposed to be fun, but it is supposed to give you an incentive to work.
However, it raises a big question: what do you do about those people who have no incentive, drive or reason to want to work? That is a great question and one that I have been trying to figure out for years. I know people who just don’t want to work, at least not on a consistent basis. When it comes to work, their only goal is to have the money they want to have to do the things they want to do. Nothing else matters to them.
As long as they can earn a few bucks here and there to do as they please that is what they do, but that does not provide any level of longevity or stability. So it appears money is a motivator to some degree, but it is NOT a large enough incentive to make them continue that work without interruption. Now can the argument be made that this is a millennial and Gen Z trend, and I hate to be in agreement, but it does feel that way.
A lot of young adults and adults that fall within those age groups are more focused on money without having to do the work to earn that income. This is NOT to say that all youngsters fall within this troupe because they do NOT, at least I know I don’t. I go to work daily, with initiative and that drive to have success even if my counterparts are not doing the same.
So what can be done to change this trend that I find scary because it seems no one wants to work because everyone’s goal is to be famous, social media famous! Hell back in the early 2000s, the notion of someone making a living by posting, tweeting or making videos on the World Wide Web as a source of income was not looked as something profitable, but in our current decade that is NOT the case. There are a lot of kids, tweens, teens and young adults who make a hefty living being what some have coined a ‘social media influencer.’ Do I find that title laughable? Yeah, I really do because it makes me wonder is the work purposeful or a way to say I actually work without actually working?
This is NOT to say people who do deem themselves as social media influencers aren’t actually working, but when you hear 5 to 6 year-olds saying that is what they want to do when they get older that is damn, damn scary people. What happened to the days of wanting to be a police officer, firefighter, athlete, lawyer, entrepreneur, that drive in people just seems to be lacking, but at the same time we live in a time period where technology dominates so many things including the world of work.
Things in the past that had to be done on paper can NOW be completed on a computer making one’s ability to accomplish goals so much easier than ever before. Life is being made easier for some thanks to the evolution of technology. I don’t know if the focus of providing more time off, paid vacations, higher wages or flexible schedules will invigorate more people who have been skeptical about work to have more momentum to find stable work and want to work.
There is nothing more frustrating than seeing someone just sit, not do anything, think they’re an adult and that someone owes them. Life is no handout, if you want things to happen you have to make those things happen America it is just that simple. The question remains are you willing to put in the work or are you expecting someone to do the work for you?
Written By Jason Jones
