To think the British youth of today is a bit lazy??

[TwittyMcTwitterson]

Disclaimer: sweeping generalisation so obviously not true for all. Also, basing a lot of this on my friends and what they do.

I work in the office of a factory where I regularly go down to the factory floor. We have approx 95% Eastern European workers. They work shockingly hard and some of them are my friends who I love. There's a slight issue of communication but we have translators so not a problem.

We rarely get British people through our agency and when we do I always think 'brilliant, they'll be easy to tell what's what' rather than guessing, doing strange hand gestures, calling another person off their shift or google translate.

The problem is, they're no where near as nice as our current workers (the last pair felt the need to tell me they thought my DP was my son when he pulled up one day) and they work at snails pace. And run off screaming 'yay break time' at break. They also stand back doing nothing while regulars set up the shift. Though that may be a communication issue as the regulars aren't telling them what to grab from where as they can't. Basically, they are never called back.

Looking at my Polish friends, not one is unemployed or lazy. My English friends... They either work in some fancy role and work hard or Most popped a baby out not long after school and saw it as a means of staying at home. They feel they are entitled to benefits. They talk a good talk about wanting to work but when I ask how many jobs they've applied for I get excuse after excuse.

It's all very well saying British jobs for British people but I feel like younger people don't push themselves.

For the record I'm 26

Do we have less drive than our Eastern European counterparts???

[TwittyMcTwitterson]

Forgot to mention... The fact we get less British people from the agency also makes me wonder if they're applying for jobs but getting put to the bottom of the pile because they are perceived to be slower workers or if they're not really applying...

[georgesdino]

Its the same in my nursery as all the polish work, and a lot of the English like the free hours and dont bother working and go on benefits. I really like the Polish as they are all motivated, and hardworking and are good examples to their children.

[RestingActress]

I tend to agree that IME there is a different work ethic.

I hear lots of people moaning that there are no jobs in our nearest big town, yet that's not strictly the case. There are loads of care jobs, but lots of people don't want to do it.

I worked in care for several years and noticed that there is a vast proportion of highly skilled Eastern European HCPs working in care homes for NMW, they were cheerful, thorough and hard working rather than sloping off for a fag every hour or so like a lot of the young 'uns. That said, if I was in residential care, I'd much rather be looked after by someone who wanted to work there rather than someone who was half hearted about it.

[akachan]

Immigrants are a self selected example of the locals though. They're the ones with the drive and gumption to move abroad. I imagine if you compared English young people who're working abroad with your Polish friends it would be closer.

[NoodleOodle]

YABU

[missymarmite]

Immigrants are a self selected example of the locals though. They're the ones with the drive and gumption to move abroad. I imagine if you compared English young people who're working abroad with your Polish friends it would

If you are the sort of person who has left home, friends and family, to build a new life in a strange place , you have to be a particularly driven personality, don't you think?

[MaryPoppinsBag]

There's nothing wrong with having children and staying at home with them.

I don't want to do care work or factory work. But I'm not unemployed or a 'youth'.

I think you are generalising too much.

[RunRunRuby]

I was going to say similar to akachan and missymarmite. And at 23 I haven't noticed what you describe with many of my peers.

Of course some are lazy gits. Just like some people of every age. But plenty of people are working hard and doing to do their best.

There seems to be this attitude sometimes, I'm not necessarily accusing you of having it, that if you work hard enough you will get a job, and therefore anyone who hasn't managed to get one is not working hard enough. There are simply not enough jobs to go around.

[really1234]

Immigrants are a self selected example of the locals though. They're the ones with the drive and gumption to move abroad. I imagine if you compared English young people who're working abroad with your Polish friends it would
If you are the sort of person who has left home, friends and family, to build a new life in a strange place , you have to be a particularly driven personality, don't you think?

This is very true.

[Smoorikins]

I would love to see said employees running off screaming break time.

Its lucky you don't get many, everyone screaming would get very loud!

-misses point of thread completely-

[MyBodyIsAtemplate]

got an article to write have we op?

[HadABadDay2014]

My boss has just hired a lot of young workers, all seem to be hard working ATM.

Nobody should go into care unless they truly want to, the clients are old, frail and need the best care they can get. Not someone who is only there for the money.

[TwittyMcTwitterson]

No article to write. I simply work in a sector that has a high amount of foreign workers and I'm wondering why we only get them through. Are agencies putting them forward as they know they will make the agencies look good or is there a lack of British people on their books.

I'm certainly not saying there is anything wrong with being a SAHM. That's their choice but you cannot disagree that a lot of people do it as 'the easy way out'. Yes if you do it properly it's not easy but you know what I mean.

I'm from Derbyshire originally and moved to Northampton for UNi and have stayed here. I have both highly qualified friends and bums so I see both ends of the spectrum. I would class mysel somewhere in the middle. Not a fancy job but I work long and hard.

In the last six months we have seen five English people. One was an FLT and left to get a better, longer hours, higher paid job. One came for a day and said it was too much. Two worked a week as we promised them that but were so slow they'll never come again. One was an interview and as soon as we said he'd have to work til ten on a Friday night he said sod that and walked out.

Completely agree it could be the selection of people who have the drive to come here. Obviously if you've made the effort to come abroad , you put the effort in!

[OhMerGerd]

I think it's shocking how so many people have bought into the myth of our young people being feckless, benefits scroungers etc. People come here from Poland, Hungary, Lithuania etc because they are raising themselves into a better standard of living even when they factor into account living three or four to a room (not house a room). If Poland etc had anything to offer our young people by way of jobs or a way up out of poverty your post would be one crying because all the people you went to school with had emigrated and you were left in the crumbling ghost town with the poverty stricken oldies left in your home town.

Is this the future you aspire to for your children if you have any? Where they scrabble for crumbs at the bottom at home or scrat around the world chasing the few bits of work that global companies have farmed out to whichever state is offering the lowest tax and poorest workers rights?

It must be sole destroying to be from a working class background, to do as you've been told, work hard at school gets GCSE's and A levels and go to Uni and find that people who select employees for NMW jobs are discarding their cvs in favour of 'hard working Poles'...as the young man I met with a first class degree from a good Uni is finding.

He isn't lazy but he's very very disappointed and feels as if he's been lied to all these years that he worked in the hopes he might raise himself out of poverty. He sees that crime does pay if you're a gangmaster doling out work under nmw or an MP fiddling expenses, but real hard work not leeching off the misfortune of others ..... he's yet to reap his rewards for that.
He's not sitting back though he's volunteering in his community working to help the elderly at a day centre, youngsters at an after school club and getting involved with local council politics .. oh and filling in hundreds of job applications for ANYTHING. Too clever for Tesco, too British for the the meat factory, too male for the care home.

Stop running down your neighbours and look to what it is in yourself that makes you feel the need to boost your own self esteem by making such sweeping statements. Your own place in this world is fragile too you know. Once everyone working in non supervisory roles is on nmw or less the attention will turn to people like you. Too smug to realise that you're the turkey voting for Christmas

[TwittyMcTwitterson]

Also not saying young parents means failure. My mum had me at 19 n became very successful after getting a degree when I was teeny.

[cory]

it says more about the individal young people you know, OP

Considerint that the rate of teenage pregnancies has been plummeting over the last few decades, it can hardly be the truth generally speaking that most British youngsters pop out a baby straigth after school: statistics show us quite clearly that this is getting rarer and rarer.

The young people I know (dd's friends) are working hard at college and doing extra jobs that will enhance their qualifications:

my friend's ds volunteered in a care home for dementia sufferers in the evenings

my other friend's dd often serves me at the till in the local supermarket: lovely girl who is also working hard at her A-levels

dd leaves home at 7 o'clock every morning to catch the college bus; twice a week she goes straight onto working on a show and doesn't get home until 10.30 at night; last week she did a 7 a.m- 10.30 p.m. day every single day

Fwiw I am an immigrant: most of my school friends stayed at home in our small market town and settled down. Of all our class, I and the other handful of friends who left were easily the most driven and focused even in primary school; I am sure my primary school teacher could have predicted this with her eyes closed.

[expatinscotland]

YABU.

[NigellasDealer]

Though that may be a communication issue as the regulars aren't telling them what to grab from where as they can't
sounds like a management issue if you cannot be arsed to train your English speaking workers, easier to not call them back right? and have a whinge about them.
if you want to exploit Polish workers to make your living, fine, but do not use 'ooh the British are so lazy' to justify yourself.

[NigellasDealer]

also your workers should use English in the workplace, quite honestly i would not be too impressed if I turned up to work and found 95 [per cent of my colleagues communicating in a language I could not understand, unable to pass on what I was supposed to be doing. have you got any idea how bitchy Polish women are?

[limitedperiodonly]

I was going to reply but find OhMerGerd had already said everything I wanted to say to you.

Especially this:

Your own place in this world is fragile too you know. Once everyone working in non supervisory roles is on nmw or less the attention will turn to people like you. Too smug to realise that you're the turkey voting for Christmas

[VestaCurry]

I'm with OhMerGerd, whose post if far more intelligent and insightful than the OP.

[limitedperiodonly]

I was going to reply but find OhMerGerd had already said everything I wanted to say to you.

Especially this:

Your own place in this world is fragile too you know. Once everyone working in non supervisory roles is on nmw or less the attention will turn to people like you. Too smug to realise that you're the turkey voting for Christmas

[cory]

Coming back to this, I realise my post was totally irrelevant and that this is of course a manager's excuse for exploitation.

And yes, as a young immigrant without a permanent visa, I did work under exploitative conditions: I was young and careless and it suited me. I could go home before my body was wrecked, I had no commitments, I could make capital out of that foreign working holiday and wasn't troubled by what this meant to the people who couldn't get away. In retrospect, I have realised how wrong it was: letting others use my transient status to keep conditions down for everybody.

[bruffin]

If your only using agency staff, your not really the type of company that has any investment in its staff or commitment to training them.

My ds 18 in 6th form and currently has 2 p/t jobs. My dd 16 has been offered two p/t jobs in the last couple of weeks, as well as taken a professional qualification to do another. This is the "youth" of today I know.