I can’t get over my frustration with the work ethic of some people in this country. And I note that it isn’t just some Bermudians; there are some guest workers too now who exhibit these unacceptable work attitudes.I have noticed that even though we have unemployment like we never had before I’m seeing that people want to have a job and want to receive a paycheck but they don’t want to work.So what gives? I’ve seen so many examples of people acting and working (more like not working) in a manner that suggests that they want to have a job and want the paycheck; but simply don’t want to have to work.Well, folks, sorry but it doesn’t work like that. I was in a place of business the other day and watched as the CSRs sat chatting with each other, in full knowledge that a customer was in line waiting to be served, for four minutes, before one of them thought it appropriate to serve the customer.Yes, this did happen. I promise you that I don’t make up this stuff, I couldn’t.Then I spoke to a manger the a few days ago who said that their delivery person, who is paid from 8am until 4pm, completed their delivery assignments for the morning and figured that they were done for the day.The individual went to lunch and was not impressed to find more parcels to deliver between 2pm and 4pm. I haven’t even addressed the fact that they probably took a 90 minute to 120 minute lunch break.But it gets better. The individual wanted to know who assigned the new and recent batch of parcels to be delivered and why they were required to deliver them on that day. I kid you not.Basically, this delivery person has grown accustomed to not working a full day, not having enough work to do to cause them to have to work the eight hours per day they signed up to work when they accepted the job.Essentially, the person has been paid to do nothing for quite some time and has grown to expect to be paid to do nothing.From this we can safely conclude that in spite of the recession, there are too many people (one really is too many) who want to have and keep their job and the pay that comes with it; but they don’t want to do any work.I just can’t understand this sense of entitlement. Where I come from, you eat what you kill, you earn a living, if you don’t work, you don’t eat.We can also conclude that in order to get up each day and function with this mindset; people must either be in denial that problems exist in the Bermuda economy or these same people don’t fear losing their jobs; or they just don’t care. Either is bad.Studies of various organisations will highlight that there are many employees who are not working at 80 percent of capacity; which is the generally accepted expectation for an efficient operation.The ‘garbage’ line of ‘giving a hundred percent’ is unrealistic; 80% is what is consistently expected.So how do we fix this problem? By engineering a culture shift in the workforce. Sure, I know it’s not everybody but there are far too many who seem to exhibit this work ethic.I always point to education as one of the solutions to all of our problems. The first step in solving a problem is to acknowledge that one exists.We now know that a problem exists, now the solution. Well, we need to train, retrain and develop our workforce. In organisations where there are periods of downtime; use that time to train people, upgrade their skills, cross train them, etc.Also, there’s that adage that says, ‘he who cannot hear must feel’. There is no greater teacher of the importance of protecting your job than losing it.Unfortunately, some people will not learn the lesson until they lose their job. Therefore, some people must lose their jobs if we are to ever change the mindset and have a culture shift in the majority of the workforce.In order to make an omelette you have to break an egg. Peace…………………….DJLT.