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QSkills and cultural fit are important. But if people are not coming into jobs
with a work ethic, they probably aren’t
going to be the kind of employees you want
them to be.
A I know it is very Horatio Alger and old school, but I still say it. I
don’t care if you are at a McDonald’s.
I don’t care what warehouse you are
in. Show up early. Find your boss
and say, “What do you need?” I mean
every couple of hours. Not like a total
suck-up, but make your presence
known. Volunteer for a hard thing.
Within six months, you will be elevated. Within a year, you are going
to be “The Guy,” and if you want to
run the joint in a couple of years …
I have seen it happen so many times.
Attitude, work ethic—those are the
things we wind up bemoaning after the
fact and try to instill after we have made the
hire. It is entirely backward.
QI think that is a gene that you’re either born with or you’re not.
AMaybe so, but I would also argue that it is a choice. I have seen a lot of people
who have looked around and just concluded that, all things considered, it’s easier to
sit home and play video games. Somebody
else is going to take care of me. I don’t want
to sound like a scold because honestly, in
my life, there was a time when if you said
“I’ll give you this much for doing nothing,
and this much or maybe a little less for
working 50, 60 hours a week,” I might
have hesitated too. We just have to set the
table differently, and we have to encourage
the kind of behavior that we truly want to
reward.
QWhere can people find out more about he foundation?
AAt mikerowe.com. It is still a lot about PR, but you will see our partners that
are involved in work-force recruitment.
You can apply for a scholarship there. You
can ask me questions there. I try and stay
available, and we try and keep the conversation lively.
Editor’s note: To watch a video of the
complete interview with Mike Rowe, go to
www.dcvelocity.com/MikeRowe.
my really turned in ’08, ’09, and ’ 10,
the things I noticed more than anything were “Help Wanted” signs.
The headlines in the papers were
about 12- to 15-percent unemployment, but everybody I saw
was struggling to find talent.
It just seemed like two different narratives were going
on at the same time in the
country, and the unemployment narrative was getting
all the press.
The skills gap wasn’t (being
recognized), so my foundation started as a PR campaign
to shine a light on good jobs
that actually existed. It then
morphed into an attempt to
reward people who wanted to learn
a skill that was actually in demand.
So we award Work Ethic schol-
arships today. It is interesting to
me that we have scholarships that
reward academic achievement, ath-
letic achievement, talent, and, of
course, need. What we don’t have
are scholarships that reward work
ethic. Who is affirmatively looking
for the kid who wakes up early, stays
late, is willing to relocate, is will-
ing to volunteer for the scut work?
Those are the people I have met day
in and day out on the show, and
those are the people and that is the
behavior I choose to reward.
t
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