Future generations and evolving workspaces
Tuesday night, the Colby, Abbotsford, and Loyal school districts hosted Dr. Luis F. Cruz at Colby’s high school theatre. As a public educator, Cruz has won several awards for his efforts in that realm. He has contributed to several books and gives presentations about educational and parenting culture across the country. The presentation that he gave Tuesday, which he called “Seven Habits of Highly Effective Parenting in the 21st Century,” revolved around building healthy habits and important skills for children.
Now, I wouldn’t say that I was exactly the target audience for this presentation. Having no kids of my own, nor any immediate plans to change that status, much of what Cruz said Tuesday evening did not have a direct application to my life. Yet, duty called (pictures don’t take themselves yet), so I took a seat in the back of the auditorium and settled in.
And while, like I said, some portions of what Cruz was saying did not exactly apply for me right now, I was surprised to find myself thinking over some of the things presented after the fact.
One thing that Dr. Cruz brought up is that children growing up now will later have to join what has become a global economy. He gave an example of an engineering friend who, because of the advances in communication technology, has worked with clients from India, China, and Egypt all from the comfort of his living room. And while that may be something of an extreme example, working from home has become a prevalent reality for many Americans in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a February survey conducted by Pew Research Center, 59 percent of Americans that state that most of their job can be done from home are continuing to do so. A separate survey published by McKinsey and Ipsos in June of 2022 found that 58 percent of Americans say that they can work remotely at least part of the time. These numbers reflect an evolving workspace, one that holds the potential for jobs like the example Cruz gave to become all the more common.
It’s an interesting thing to contemplate. In Cruz’s presentation, it was suggested that this globalization should not be disregarded, as people entering the workforce would not be competing for jobs on the local scale as they had before, but on a global one. Cruz highlighted this as a kind of motivation for why the habits he had spoken of earlier were so important, as it seemed like he foresees this as a way in which the job market will become even more competitive for future generations. I think I view it more as an opportunity than Cruz seemed to have phrased it, but regardless I do believe that working on a national or even global scale is a challenge that more and more people will encounter while trying to navigate their careers.
Another topic Cruz brought up was that he believed that there has been a decline in the work ethic displayed by people of younger generations. While I’m not sure if his entire theory behind this was given on Tuesday, his thoughts during the presentation labeled an overreliance on technology, the Internet, and Google in particular as causes for this decline. He stated that, because the way technology like Google functions, people growing up with this technology do not feel that they need to learn certain things, as that information can just be found online. He stated that this makes the process too easy, that having to put the effort in to find information before helped promote a more healthy attitude towards work.
While I can agree that having a wealth of information at one’s fingertips has the potential to cause people to disregard the importance of knowing things for oneself, I do think that this perhaps overstates its importance towards a declining work ethic, if that even exists in the first place.
It’s difficult to gain empirical evidence on whether or not there is a declining work ethic. Statistics show that there were still 11.3 million jobs available in mid 2022 with employers struggling to find people to work these jobs. However, there is data that would suggest the opposite, as a 2017 study from the Institute of Labor Economics stated that Americans work 25% more hours, will take less vacation and sick time, and retire later in their lives in comparison to other workers throughout the world. However, neither of these really can quantify “work ethic” by themselves, and there are certainly various other factors that go into why these numbers work out the way that they do.
What I can say is that while technology has changed the way in which information can be gathered or work can be done, I do think that it is just that. It is “different,” but perhaps not “worse.” Yes, I am aware that I can go to Wikipedia and look up the War of 1812 at any moment to see the commanders involved, and as such, I don’t feel the need to memorize it. That being said, how many people actually memorized such a thing in the first place, or were even taking the time to look up that information? Yes, you are losing the thought process behind looking up that information, but instead you’ve gained the time for perhaps more effective work. Or maybe less effective. Arguments can certainly be made in one way or the other, but they are certainly interesting to contemplate. The biggest thing is to have these types of conversations, so that we can remain informed on the potential advantages and pitfalls that can arise.
At any rate, I’d highly encourage those in the community to engage with events such as this in the future. I’m not sure what the expected turnout was, but there was certainly more room in the Colby theatre for those interested. Even someone as myself, who seemingly didn’t have much to gain from the topic, got an entire column’s worth of thoughts from it. Not sure what that says, but it’s certainly something.
A C ERTAIN POINT OF V IEW
NATHANIEL U NDERWOOD R EPORTER
