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2009
Soap Box Archives Attitude I just hate to go into some fast food place and be waited on by some surly teenager whose attitude borders on arrogance and hostility. To begin with, it's not a pleasant experience to spend your hard earned money with somebody who is just trying to make it until their shift ends, hates the job and is taking it out of the world. But the real shame is that -barring a major change of attitude- that person is going to be working at fast food joints or holding down some other menial job for the rest of their lives. The converse situation is a good experience when you run into a kid who is pleasant, efficient and courteous and when I do I sometimes think, "That kid is going to go somewhere in life," because they are valuable to an employer. I know that many young people these days come from broken homes where the teaching of work ethic is not exactly at the top of the list, but somebody, somewhere needs to step up and save this generation from themselves. Unfortunately work ethic has been a casualty of government social programs as four generations have now taken their turn at the public dole and have come to think of their government check as something they are entitled to rather than something to help them over a rough patch. It is my contention that a person who is willing to work, to give an employer not just an honest day's labor but a little extra every day is going to go far, but it all has to start with attitude. Some people are less naturally talented and have to work a little harder and a little longer to get there. I know because I am not a natural musician, I've had to grind to learn and maintain on my instruments, but success is there for those who are willing to go the extra mile, to be the first one to get there and the last one to leave, to apply yourself to whatever situation is at hand and be a part of the solution and not part of the problem. As someone who has had employees for over fifty years I know what I'm talking about when I say that an employee with the right kind of attitude is worth three with a bad attitude, in fact I don't want to work with anybody with a bad attitude Somebody who holds everybody else up by being habitually a few minutes late is a pain in the neck and considers their time more valuable than the rest of the people they are working with. With some employees there is always something wrong and they bring it to work with them and try to make everybody else as miserable as they are. Nobody cares about your problems but you. Solve them yourself. Leave them at home. Then there's the employee who thinks that life has not been fair to them, that they have it worse than anybody else. If it's hot, it's hotter for them than for anybody else, if it's cold, it's colder for them than for anybody else and life just conspires against them and they turn into verbal hypochondriacs and you just don't want to be around them. Compare those examples to an employee who shows up every day ready to conquer the world, who is always on time, who works out their own problems without dragging everybody else through them, someone with a sunny outlook and treats the public with respect. Now which kind of person do you want working for you? I think the answer is easy. I care very much about the future of America and nothing is going to affect it more than the attitude of our young people. And as I watch the government leaning further and further toward socialism and trying to become all things to all people it makes me fear for our future. It is not just something I'm making up, but a documented fact. Socialism kills productivity with the non-productive half living off the productive half with the productive part growing smaller all the time as taxes and government interference eat away at the will to produce. I hope and pray that America will come to it's senses before our nation gets so broken that we can't fix it and I'm afraid that's just a few trillion dollars down the road. What do you think? Pray for our troops, and for our country God Bless America Charlie Daniels
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