Have American workers lost their pride?

Recently a Chinese co-owner of Cheung Shu-hung, the company that exported toys that were recalled in the U.S. due to lead paint, committed suicide. The reason for his decision to take his life was based on the responsibility he felt he carried in bringing embarrassment to the Chinese government over this latest recall.

Truly, this man took his responsibility in this embarrassment very deeply.

This is something that American workers cannot possibly understand.

American business owners don’t take their responsibility seriously enough to consider such as rash action.

This would require things like ‘pride in workmanship’ and ‘pride in a job well-done’.

These noble ideas have become foreign to the American worker.

The American worker only cares about showing up for work for the sole purpose of collecting a paycheck. And there are a lot of those who scheme ways of collecting that paycheck without putting forth any effort at working for it. And all the while complaining that they aren’t paid enough.

They only perform their job duties to the point that it keeps the boss off their back. Nobody goes the ‘extra mile’ to produce a better quality product, except maybe the ‘new guy’ and then he is laughed at and soon ‘falls in step’ with the rest of the work force.

Everyone of you out there knows this is true. You have either participated in it or have witnessed it.

So when American companies make the decision to move overseas for a cheaper work force, think back on what you could have done to make them think a little harder about that decision. Maybe they would have stayed if they didn’t have to pay you so much to do such little work of such poor quality.

When is the last time you put in a solid eight hour work shift and truly felt you earned that money? Actually, it is unfair to ask any individual this question because I would most certainly be lied to. Let’s ask the question this way, look around you, how many people can you honestly say really work for their income?

I worked in this job market for over thirty years and I am not exaggerating when I say that clearly less than 20 percent of the number of American workers actually put themselves into their job based on pride toward the final product.

This is to say that very few Americans meet their employers expectations to ensure the final product is up to standard.

Most people will look at their job as something they have to do in order to collect money. It is nothing more than a nuisance. There is no pride in what they do and the end result shows it.

This is why our ‘quality of workmanship’ is falling behind the rest of the world. The quality of ‘American made’ is based on an idea that died decades ago.

American workers today just don’t care about quality.

The phrase ‘they don’t make them like that anymore’ is sadly true.

The phrase is very apt because it is based entirely on quality.

The quality of workmanship given to preparing the raw materials, the quality of workmanship given to the final product just isn’t there anymore.

When you see advertisers use this ‘gimmick’ to sell a product, everyone sees through it immediately as BS.

When you walk into any store or any restaurant and try to find someone to help you who actually acts like or looks like they want to help you will be in for a long and fruitless search. Hell, just try to find someone to help you, period! Those people that genuinely do try to help are few and far between.

There are many reasons for this lack of pride and they are all based in selfishness. Nobody wants to work harder than the next guy and get the same paycheck. Nobody wants to stand out as an ‘over-achiever’ which has somehow been twisted into being a bad thing. Nobody wants to look outside themselves at the bigger picture and take that extra step to ensure a job well done. Mainly because there are too many low-lifes ready to backstab you and take credit of your extra hard work.

The end result of this selfishness is that nobody does go beyond, nobody shows any real effort to do it right the first time. Therefore, quality and pride suffers.

Suicide because you brought shame and embarrassment to the U.S. government? Not going to happen in America.

What the U.S. is being left with when all of these manufacturing jobs move overseas is the service industry. God help us because American workers are not ‘into’ serving anyone. They think everyone should serve them.

We need to wake up and practice humility. We need to stop trying to convince ourselves that we are better than everyone else. We need to treat others as we want them to treat us otherwise there can be no respect and therefore there can be no pride.