Where did the work ethic go?

I was being rung up at QFC last night by a guy about my age who was the only store employee to be seen.  A line was forming behind me (apparently the 9:30pm rush) and no other cashiers were to be seen.  I made some comment about that and he said, "do you ever look around and notice you're the only one working?"  I smiled and agreed as I get that feeling all too frequently.

I've noticed, since I started working, that many people don't have much of a work ethic.  I have always thought that when I was being paid to work, that is what I should be doing.  Sounds pretty obvious, but apparently it's not to some.  When it's slow, especially in the late evenings, it isn't uncommon to see someone doing something completely unrelated to work: checking email, chatting with a co-worker, etc.  I'm not saying you can't have a conversation with a coworker about something other than work, but it is possible to multitask, even if it's just something mindless, like filing, that needs to be done.  This kind of thing is frustrating to those of us who work hard from the time we start a shift to the time we are off.   It makes more work for us, plus we are both getting paid comparable amounts of money but not doing nearly comparable amounts of work.  Also, it is very annoying to be waiting for help when you go to a store and you have to wait for someone's conversation about their new shoes to end before they even acknowledge your presence.

I'm thankful to work at a place where this work ethic deficiency is rare.  Most of the people I work with are fantastic, which is part of what makes my job so enjoyable.  It's too bad, though, that this problem is spreading.  More and more people at different places you go just don't have the motivation to get to work on time, to do the job they're there to do, to search for other tasks when their regular duties are complete, or to go out of their way to help the customer.  It's too bad that so many of today's kids are being raised to be lazy; I'm just glad there are places to work like Camp Parsons that can teach you how to be a useful member of society and a hard worker.

As an aside, I started rereading all of the Harry Potter books last week.  Listening to them, actually, at the suggestion of my favorite Harry Potter expert (there you go, Chris, you've been mentioned).  The audio books do have a couple advantages over reading: I don't have to carry the heavy book everywhere and can listen while I drive around or walk through campus.  Also, I have the tendency to read more quickly during exciting parts of books and miss details.  Plus, Stephen Fry's voice is just delightful.  I just hope that I still pass my classes while listening to the books for such a large portion of the day.  I guess if I could pass the first midterm while watching the entire series of Scrubs the first half of the quarter, I can manage this…