Posted on 07/04/2007 5:34:34 AM PDT by ruination
You could lose your job to a foreign worker—not because he’s cheaper but because he has better workplace skills and discipline. That’s the message Labor Secretary Elaine Chao hears from U.S. executives who are worried about America’s competitive future. While losses are low thus far—one study estimates that only 280,000 jobs in the service industry out of 115 million are outsourced each year—that could change. Beyond the cheaper cost of labor, U.S. employers say that many workers abroad simply have a better attitude toward work. “American employees must be punctual, dress appropriately and have good personal hygiene,” says Chao. “They need anger-management and conflict-resolution skills, and they have to be able to accept direction. Too many young people bristle when a supervisor asks them to do something.”
As for our job future, Chao notes that most of the fastest-growing jobs today are in industries requiring advanced knowledge and skills and are “very high or high wage.” But critics say we’re not doing enough for those without a higher education. “Today, only 30% of the workforce has four years of college,” says Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute. “Instead of factory slots, there are slots for security guards and food-prep workers.”
I wasn't complaining so much as praising some people I know.
Cheers!
Most of those imported workers do not use deodorant and most have terrible hygiene .
Americans take more showers and wash their hair per week than any of the 3rd world or European nations that might come in.
She may be thinking of her illegal housekeeper or gardener.
Slaves never object to a 70 hour work week or mandatory overtime. They are at the mercy of that employer if they want to stay in this country. They have virtually no rights. So yea they will do a 50K job for 20K and work 70 hours work.. I think that is her point and one not missed by her audience. Indentured slavery is definably the way to go
to 33
What this really means is that outsourced labor typically comes from Asian cultures that are mostly obedient societies where people are inculcated to not question their superiors, or are from caste systems where the bosses are of a higher caste than the laborers.
-PJ
I work for a software company where there are many foreign workers and I know first-hand, personal hygiene is definitely not a prerequisite. Elaine Chao sounds like another know-nothing DC insider with her head up her Klymer.
Listening to Hannity’s “On the Street” segments can certainly scare you about the futture of our country.
I find it hard to believe that there are people so poorly educated but scarier is the thought that they may actually vote.
Strange. How did I get a large number of bosses who were more interested in having "a friend" to chat with or an employee to harass because of their own inferiority issues rather than someone who just wanted to do the job?
They also don't seem to be able to grasp the concepts of: I'm trading my time and work skills for money. I don't like to work 'off the clock'. I don't like to be ordered to falsify work results to make the boss look good. I don't like to work until exhausted day after day.
Well, you may have a point, but I will never sit on a public toilet either. No way, ever. However, if I pee on the seat accidentally, I will wipe it off. After I’m done, I go over to the sink, get a paper towel and hold it under my arm pit. Wash hands, turn off the water with the lower part of my arm, dry my hands with the paper towel tucked under my arm pit, then take the same and open the door with it instead of touching the door handle. Paranoid? Maybe, but you could get me to sit on a public toilet EVER.
6% have an advanced degree? Just so I don’t understand you, you mean Masters, Doctorate, JD, PhD etc? Only 6%???
Not paranoid, prudent.
“Well, there’s that, but also if you want to get ahead, either with or without a degree, you need to be willing to work hard.”
No doubt about that. I don’t know how many times I was told, “Work hard and you’ll never do without” as a kid.
An advanced degree is anything beyond a Bachelors. The average is now around 8 or 9 percent.
“The resorts along the east coast are full of young workers from Bosnia, Bulgaria and other nations. There are not enough Americans to fill the jobs.”
Restrict welfare severely and there would be plenty of eager young Americans to staff those jobs.
Those who have not traveled extensively outside of the USA, particularly to Asia, might not clearly grasp what I am talking about. Chao's reasoning may have a few weak points, but in a sense, the old fashioned dedication to service and respect of the customer (plus being able to do general math and not bitch in front of the shopper at the check out line with another checker about having "five more lousy hours to work but luckily today we don't have many customers") is missing in the America of today. Of course, a lot of these slack offs are illegal immigrants to begin with.
Of course, in places like Japan, you really PAY for that extra service.
The Census Bureau's Excel spreadsheet here indicates that just over the 6% of our total population have an advanced degree.
However, I think it is more reasonable to compare apples-to-apples, so if you do the computation for the 25-year-old and older subset of our population (I don't really expect all that many 7 year-olds to have a Ph.D.), it comes to just under 10% of that segment of our population (i.e., display (O24+p24+Q24)/B24 as a percentage.)
She’s still wrong about most American workers when it comes to hygiene...as for work place ethics/attitudes of Americans, she generalizes and badly. I find teens and twenty somethings that work at record stores for example to be fairly surly and un-helpful. The twenty somethings at my cell phone store are very curteous as are the Radio Shack folks nearbye. I love the younger male and female RN’s I work with on my unit...yes they all bathe!
I think Chao has been drinking some of the immigration debacle kool-aid!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.