In my personal experience it has been lack of self motivation, attention span, and an entitlement attitude. Basically people that want to go to work and get paid regardless of what they actually do at their jobs.Cell Phones, Smoking or Other?
In my personal experience it has been lack of self motivation, attention span, and an entitlement attitude. Basically people that want to go to work and get paid regardless of what they actually do at their jobs.
just an anecdote. in 1990, i worked for a short time (2-3 months) at a furniture factory (assembly line). it was a horrible job and the pay was crap. you would get an additional $20 per paycheck if you clocked in on time every day during the week. i was really surprised at how many folks didn't get that extra $.According to employers I talk to, it's some combination of self-motivation, entitlement, simply showing up on time, and soft skills required to keep the job. These problems are forcing them to either remediate on basic job skills, or fire them for someone else. For example, many of the manufacturing positions obviously require 12-hour shifts, sometimes rotating through the night shift. They're finding that some of their applicants, the ones with no job experience, will refuse to work those shifts because it makes them change their schedule. They do not realize that if you're at the bottom of the ladder, you have to work your way up the ladder. One story I heard is that in a job interview, the employer noticed that an applicant had worked at 4 different plants by the time he was 25. When asked why, the applicant said that he never got a raise after working at the locations for a month, so he just quit. It's unbelievable, but I even see it in my classroom; some students appear to be immune to any type of external motivation and they cannot explain how they can be properly motivated. They think just showing up and essentially existing should be enough for the people that hire them.
AbsolutelyAdmittedly, pay has been pretty stagnant compared to inflation. People need more more regardless of what they actually do at their job partly because of that fact.
One problem at some software outfits is that lower management doesn't know much about the industry or the product, and as a result they make decisions in a vacuum. "Oh hey, you have project management experience? COME ON DOWN!"I think the biggest problem in software engineering is on management/executive level. It seems like a problem across the industry that management tends to be terrible at setting realistic goals on timelines. Also executives seem wont to take on projects that aren't worth the money so they have to grind their human resources into bits to make the cost-value tradeoff workout for them. Accordingly this is a pretty unfulfilling industry for the grunts and job turnover is nearly 1 year per employee in regions that have more than just a couple IT-related employers.
I was a 35 and under worker killing myself (semi-literally) at two separate manufacturing places (years apart) to try and move up the ladder only to see the supervisor role I was pushing for go to someone with zero experience who had a connection to upper management. After seeing enough of that kind of stuff you stop even bothering & the do the bare minimum attitude starts to creep in.The biggest issue I see is the lack of work ethic by younger workers (35 and under). In a mfg setting they are pretty much useless. Working your way up the ladder seems to be a thing of the past. There are so many opportunities but no one wants to put in the time and effort to take advantage of them. You can't get promoted if you don't stay long enough to show what you can do.
On the flip side of this management has to provide opportunities for people to be able to move up instead of hiring people from the outside. You don't give me a reason to be motivated and go above and beyond and I probably won't.The biggest issue I see is the lack of work ethic by younger workers (35 and under). In a mfg setting they are pretty much useless. Working your way up the ladder seems to be a thing of the past. There are so many opportunities but no one wants to put in the time and effort to take advantage of them. You can't get promoted if you don't stay long enough to show what you can do.