Don’t Be A Grasshopper in an Ant World

“What!" cried the Ants in surprise, "haven't you stored anything away for the winter? What in the world were you doing all last summer?"

The Ants & the Grasshopper Aesop’s Fables

The grasshopper was fiddling and didn’t have time to store anything away and so asked the ants for something to eat. The fable is relevant today. People in their 20s and 30s today are likely to see the results of synthetic biology used to delay cell aging, drugs that may delay aging (even old ones like Metformin), or using neural technologies to convince cells not to age. No matter which works out, there’s a good chance they could live a lot longer than any group in the past. The bad news is that Social Security is expected to run out by 2037 and, if they are adopting the grasshopper’s philosophy, they will be in trouble.

I recently met two young men in retail settings that restored my faith in markets, particularly given all of the negative attitudes I have observed and read about. The negative attitudes, particularly from young people, are about backing off from working hard at their job. But the positive attitudes of the two young told me that competition is alive and well, but some people are going to be slow to get it.

A recent article summed up the negative attitudes. In an article posted by a young worker, Emily Kitazawa in March of this year (2023), she noted some of the changes toward work in the U.S. To wit:

1. People are working to live, not living to work. In other words, they are directing more of their time and ambition away from work toward other pursuits. Many are working part-time.
2. They are fighting for a fair workplace, protesting and unionizing.
3. They are choosing the gig economy and freelancing so that they have the flexibility of working from home.
4. They are taking more leave and sabbaticals.

Part of this is quiet quitting. An article in the Wall Street Journal describes a freelance digital marketer’s life choice as what she calls a, “Lazy Girl” Job.” This is described as a job that can be done from home, has a “chill boss,” ends at 5pm, and earns between $60,000 and $80,000 a year. It avoids the “horrors of overwork” and has a no-pressure schedule that allows for midday dog walks. A senior social-media strategist responded and said “they don’t understand the damage it (the Lazy Girl label) can do.

It's not really new. I saw it in the Army with sergeants who would sneak out to the NCO club in the afternoon and FDA employees who would sit for hours talking about what they had for dinner last night. They believed they were “getting over” the system, but I also recall one man furious that he would not be promoted even though he had “been there long enough.”

But let’s move back to today to two positive employees I met. The first is a young man who escaped horrific living conditions in Guatemala and is now working as an Assistant Manager at a restaurant in McLean, Virginia. He told me how his cousin, who was married to a drug dealer, was murdered because she wanted to leave her husband and join her brother in the U.S. She wanted to escape a country beset by corruption and poverty. Her brother works hard and sometimes works long hours but he loves his job. He does whatever is required in the restaurant, from cooking, cleaning, and serving to managing. He is learning the business and feels that he is on his way up in his new country.

The second young man is a black man about thirty years-old who works in a local vacuum repair shop (Dyson). He also loves his job, particularly learning about how the product works so he can better interface with customers. He plans to move up in the company and perhaps work in IT in one of the European branches some day. He loves his boss who helps him and educates him on all aspects of the job. He told me that many of his friends work part time in gig jobs like DoorDash but that’s not for him.

I compare both of these young men with those with what I regard as an attitude about working in a market-based economy. The attitude appears to be that they are deserving, and employers better get on board with what they demand.

The problem with this latter group is that they don’t understand that they work in firms that are competitive. Problems start with consumers or businesses who don’t like what they are buying. Retail consumers have recently experienced this as a decline in competence, a decline in service and sometimes, an attitude problem. For example, Fox Business ran an article in April, 2023 reporting that “Americans are fed up with bad customer service…” NPR also reported on the National Customer Rage Survey that tracks incivility and satisfaction reported that 74% of Americans say they have had a problem in the last year.

When this begins to affect sales, managers must identify the problems and remedy them. One remedy for managers concerned about their own job is to get rid of the problem, i.e., entitled employees or, at a minimum, not promote them. These things are difficult to do in tight labor markets, but tight labor markets don’t last.

Its already started. Quiet quitting has now become “loud firings.” This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Eventually, low unemployment that forces managers to accept poor employees and junior managers will end and be able to rid themselves of poor employees.?

This is how markets work and while some may get away with poor attitudes for a while, eventually they will be left behind. The grasshoppers may find that they don’t have a job and, eventually, won’t be prepared for life’s challenges.