Taking the easy road

I wasn't really sure what community to put this post in. It's been on my list of things to talk about for a while now. I figured the Silver Bloggers community might be just as well because it likely verges on a boomer rant depending on how you read it.

I've been noticing more and more lately that people seem to have an aversion to hard work. Trust me, I'm all about working smarter not harder, unfortunately many people don't even do that. They just take the lazy route.

Working in education, my wife and I see a lot of this first hand. Okay, it's more her that sees it first hand since she is a school social worker. I just get to hear her rant about it second hand. It's interesting how many parents choose to let a device babysit their kids instead of actually spending time with them because it is much easier.

I don't have kids, but trust me, I get it. The hard road is hard. That's why they call it the hard road, but if you stick with it, everything else usually just gets easier.

Here is another great example:

We've been having issues keeping custodial staff. I will admit part of it has to do with the pay. The pay just isn't that great. We do what we can, the union negotiates as best they can, but yes, the pay is low. You could absolutely go to McDonald's and possibly make more per hour.

Will you get 40 hours per week though? The possibility of healthcare? Payment into a retirement system that as of right now is actually pretty decent?

People aren't able to look past the hard road right in front of them to see that the easy road isn't always easy for the whole stretch.

I think the other part of the issue (at least with the custodians) is that again, the harder you work at first, the easier it is from day to day after that. I know from cleaning my house that if we let it go for a couple weeks, it is much more work to clean it than it is if we do it weekly.

Barring a kid throwing up or something like that (which doesn't happen all the time), as long as you are doing your job, it just gets easier as each day passes.

Part of me wonders if it is just the world we live in now. I know I myself have been tempted to take the easy road when it comes to getting something done. Truth be told, I'm probably pretty lazy. I'd like to say some of that has to do with my un-diagnosed ADHD, because when I actually set my mind to getting something done, I bust my butt to get it done.

I don't know, but it makes you wonder what a world might look like where everyone just chooses to do what is easiest.

If you look at the crypto world, we already see it to some degree. Airdrops happen and people dump the token instead of putting in the work to figure out what it can do. Sure, some airdrops are crap, but what about your Hive stake? Do you want to put in the hard work to make it grow, or cash out your rewards every day/week for that short term easy?

Is this something you have noticed as well? Am I totally wrong? Is my Gen X showing through? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!