I have to admit that Memorial Day ranks pretty close to Christmas as a favorite holiday in my book.
Other than the sun, I do believe in the significance of Memorial Day. It’s a time to honor those who work to tirelessly to preserve our freedom and died fighting for us. While a little bit of R & R is nice, the weekend really drives home the how hard others have worked.
On Saturday afternoon, I was outside washing my wife’s car and was able to observe three generations of men hard at work on our neighbor’s yard. My neighbor was out with his father (grandpa) and his probably 8 year old son. Watching the modern family ‘work’ together made me think about the time honored traditions of hard work and what, sadly, could be in store for the future.
To make the story short, the grandfather was doing most of the heavy lifting and had the vision for the project. The dad was doing a great job at ‘supervising’ as he watched his son and father toil with heavy loads of dirt, pecking away at his Blackberry. The son, while he was doing a good job at shoveling dirt, told Grandpa that he was doing a poor job and called him stupid at least 4 times in the 35 minutes I watched.
This may be an isolated incident, but it made me sick to my stomach to see a father stand by while his son belittled his grandfather and didn’t even say thank you to his dad for helping all day. This same father told his 8 year old son that he could be done working after about ½ an hour (I think because he was annoying him) and let him go play with friends.
I know this isolated incident gave me a few reminders we can use at home or at work to help ourselves and others work:
- Respect for Elders is a Lifelong Value- They may be old and not understand our technology, but their wisdom will always surpass us. At work or at home, an elder holds a special status they have earned. Show them respect and learn from them.
- Rewarding Poor Work Doesn’t Create Good Work- Letting employees off the hook because you can do it better yourself is no excuse. Hold them accountable for working until the job is done right.
- Hard Work Breeds Hard Work- Model the behaviors you want people to follow. Pick up the darn shovel, spatula, garbage can, whatever and help!
Tags: generations, grandfather, respect for elders, values, work ethic