Smoked Jalapeños

Tattoo your work with excellence. Or don’t. Just continue to do it poorly and with complete disregard for anyone around you all while expecting—no demanding— top dollar wages.

Why? Why did I just wait for 20 minutes in a glorified cafeteria line behind ONE person?! 

Let me make you a list:

1. These kids don’t give a literal crap about what they are doing. 
2. It doesn’t feed their soul or whatever, so they can’t possibly do it well.
3. There are 2 online orders of 1 burrito bowl each.
4. You can’t buy good help. 
5. These young people are given everything their parents never had, but the parents have forgotten to give them what they did: grit, tenacity, determination. 

In short, they are ill equipped, overwhelmed and no one cares enough to correct them on any count. The lack of speed, the lack of cares, and the lack of training in homes, is to blame—it’s why I wait far longer than I should in what I wouldn’t even consider a line. 

2 years ago, my son took a job at a local tree farm. He didn’t have a drivers license. We would ONLY drive him to the tree farm. We knew if he worked there, he’d sweat and earn every penny of his paycheck. They gave him day time, Monday-Friday hours—which allowed family dinners and sports in the evenings. We told him once he got a drivers license he could choose where he worked. 

The farm, a family run business, was paying their high school workers considerably less than my son could have earned working at a fast food place like the aforementioned. He griped to us about the wage as he told us all he completed that day.

“Cool story, bro. I’m going to tell you something right now, son, so listen up. You aren’t worth the wage that XYZ companies are paying. When you prove yourself worthy of more money, you’ll get a raise. Right now, you’re lucky they are paying you at all. You don’t bring much to the table.” I responded. 

What kind of mother tells her son he’s not worth the wage he’s being paid?! The kind who was raised blue collar. The kind who watched her dad turn wrenches to afford those ADIDAS she desperately wanted, but didn’t deserve. The kind who knows her son is soft, and he needs to learn to be a man—something you can’t always teach only at home, even if the lessons start there.  Farming taught the lessons this kid needed, and they even paid him! 

Last week, my son worked independently operating a skid loader to move rocks in a landscaping project surrounding a building on the same farm. He works alone or effectively with a group. He started as a seasonal employee and was never laid off. He is now a FT employee. I made sure to praise him when he got those coveted raises. He learned he brought value to an hour rather than standing around collecting a wage. 

Where did we go wrong? As a society we offer no correction. We continue to allow workers to stand around ineffective and lost. We are complacent. It isn’t our problem. Except it is. They can’t take direction, and they sure as Sunday can’t give it either. 

They move slowly, slovenly even. They lack the forethought to operate with any efficiency. I witnessed a worker running back to the cooler 3 times to grab three items that I see plain as day from my side of the glass are empty. Time stops. I can’t even keep myself from rolling my eyes. 

They say if don’t want to be part of the problem, you better be part of the solution. 

You cannot expect others to correct your children. You can’t expect people to parent for you. You can’t demand good behavior at school and work, while allowing disrespect and laziness at home. You can’t raise good workers by allowing sloppy standards. 

Here is my challenge to you:

Teenagers can do hard things. They are very capable. Correct them. Starting at home. Don’t expect schools or employers to do it for you. Starting right now, demand excellence. Push them to finish jobs correctly. If they sweep poorly, make them redo it. If they wipe the bathroom down sloppily, redo! If they cry and whine, even better—push them harder. If they don’t like it, too bad. Make them do better! Correction at home sets the expectation that they will face correction in the workplace. Or on the sports court. Believe me, they will be corrected in both places. I pray they remain employed long enough to withstand correction—the prospects I witnessed today don’t stand a chance. 

If you aren’t a parent or don’t have teenagers, never fear! You, too, can be part of the solution. Take time to correct the kids around you. Speak truth in their lives. If you see bad habits and laziness in school or the workplace, say something. You can be gentle in your approach and maybe, just maybe, they’ll take it to heart. Sometimes, they need to hear it from someone else. 

If you see my kids in the marketplace offering you subpar service or ineptitude with no effort, please, for the love, please correct them. Sometimes they need to hear it from someone else.