Behavioral Issues Are Employers’ Biggest Concern

2003-10-30   email this article to a friend.

While preparing for an education reform conference held here recently, I called about a dozen local employers and asked them to evaluate the workplace performance of young people in general, and recent high school graduates in particular. I wanted to hear both the positives and the negatives, the successes and the frustrations. Unfortunately, frustrations outnumbered successes about ten to one.

Their reaction was akin to shaking a pop bottle and removing the cap. And while experiences varied from one employer to the next, there was an almost spooky unanimity about the problems they faced. Some employers tried to accept the inevitable and take their frustrations in stride. Others reflected a sense of panic and desperation. It was heart-wrenching to hear their stories and feel their pain.

Before I proceed, let me make this disclaimer. General observations about the job our school system is doing are just that: general. They don’t take into account the performance of each individual student, and many of those individual performances are truly incredible. In fact, I would put Bozeman High up against any public school in this state, in terms of the “star students” it regularly turns out. I commend them for this with deep respect.

Moreover, it is always easy to find fault. Too often, fault-finders are not a part of the solutions – they lob their hand grenades from a safe distance away and then retreat to their caves. A far nobler and higher calling is to find the good in things, recognize that good and build upon it. Were this a book and not a column, I would make every attempt to do just that. But alas, in a thousand words or less, I must limit my comments to the alarming trends I am seeing in the younger members of our workforce. While it would be demonstrably unfair to lay all the blame on our public schools, it serves no purpose to avoid the obvious, either. Most students are failing in the game of life, and most of our schools are failing their students.

The hair-pulling concerns of local employers fall into two broad categories: (1) lack of practical skills, and (2) behavioral and character issues. Of the two, employers see the character issues as the most serious, the most damaging and the most difficult to overcome. But let’s start with skills.

Virtually every employer with whom I have spoken expressed severe frustration with what they termed “the atrocious spelling, grammar and word usage” of the majority of recent high school graduates. Likewise, the ability to read with efficiency and comprehension was cited as a major downfall, as was the “lost skill of writing a coherent sentence.” Most employers seemed resigned to the fact that high school students “simply aren’t learning English anymore.” In the workplace, they are viewed almost as illiterates; if they eventually prove otherwise, employers consider that a bonus. A sad state of affairs.

The other “lost skills” mentioned by many employers include basic computational math (“not only can’t they make change, they can’t even count it back”,) precision thinking, attention to details and the ability to manage their own finances. One person, a private school official who has worked with numerous public school transfers, cited the “alarming lack of thinking skills and the widespread inability to write an essay or develop an original thought.” She has concluded that a young person’s struggles in the workplace are often due to an educational experience that is “mostly spoon-feeding and entertainment ,” rather than a true educational process, where students “seek to learn, do their own research, and make an effort to figure things out.” The results are employees with “sloppy thinking and work habits, who display the attitude that mediocrity is good enough.”

These concerns are serious enough, but they pale in comparison to the behavioral challenges that most employers face. Almost every employer with whom I spoke complained of serious work ethic problems, especially among the younger generation. They were extremely discouraged by the degree to which young people seem to have lost a sense of value in work itself, and neither honor nor understand the employment relationship. Consider these representative comments:

“They want everything on a silver platter. They expect to come to work and be the boss.”

“They often quit without the slightest warning or notice; they just stop showing up.”

“They don’t care about tardiness or missing work and won’t follow the rules.”

“They whine about the job they were hired to do, and refuse work they don’t like.”

“They have no life’s skills or common sense, but act like they know everything.”

“They are very worldly about things that don’t count, & very impressionable with peers.”

“They lack motivation and are unwilling to put out the effort to advance in their jobs.”

“The concept of a day’s work for a day’s pay totally eludes them, and they are not prepared for life’s realities.”

Also very disturbing is the level of cheating and lying that employers confront in the workplace. This should not surprise us. According to a report by the Josephson Institute of Ethics, 74% of high school students admit to cheating, 38% steal and 39% say they would lie to get a good job. These numbers have risen dramatically in just the past two years. Most disturbing of all is the fact that half of all students now believe there is nothing wrong with cheating. Put simply, their moral compass is broken, and with it, the notion of right and wrong. They embrace the idea that they are completely “autonomous” and free to invent their own morality, based on the situation, the need of moment and whatever else they can rationalize.

All of these workplace behavioral crises are grounded in questions of character and morality. They are all about the values young people carry around with them. And the simple truth is this: while employers expect moral behavior, it is impossible to have moral behavior without moral instruction. Certainly, that should also come from the home and other sources. But for seven hours a day, five days a week, a young person’s primary source of training, discipline and instruction is the school they attend. To the extent that schools have shrunk from this responsibility, we have sewn the wind and reaped the whirlwind.

It is indeed a question of values. So can values be taught in a public school setting? They not only can, they are -- every day. All education proceeds from a value system, a framework that imputes meaning to facts and information. Neutrality in education is a myth, an impossibility. The question is not whether our public schools are teaching values, but what values they are teaching? If the system (as originally established) is based on a theistic framework of moral absolutes and definable truth, young people will be steeped in values that emphasize personal virtue, unselfishness, charity, sacrifice and service to others. If the system is based on a humanistic framework of relativism, with man as his own god, youths will be trained in the values of materialism, self-indulgence, situational ethics and short term gratification at the expense of others.

Which set of values is taking over? Employers know the answer to that only too well. We keep hearing the MEA’s claims about the greatness of our public schools, and without a doubt there are many bright spots among some great teachers and great students. But the bigger picture tells a very different story, and as the saying goes, the emperor has no clothes. Laid bare, the ol’ boy is not a pretty sight. For the time being, employers will have to screen and hire the best they can, and live with a difficult and vexing situation. Long term, we all need to encourage the kind of school choice reforms that empower parents as consumers and provide alternative forms of morally-grounded education within the reach of Montana families. We cannot continue to tolerate the fact that Montana is one of only four states in the union that offers neither charter schools nor any other form of school choice. Any way you cut it, that’s bad for parents, students and teachers alike. Competition strengthens performance, rewards excellence, spurs innovation and addresses individual needs. In the absence of an open and diverse education marketplace, we are paying the price, both in the health of our businesses and in the lives of our youth.


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