Customer Reviews

Reviving Work Ethic: A Leader's Guide to Ending Entitlement and Restoring Pride in the Emerging Workforce

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Too many of our youth don't put enough WORK into their work. It's not simply a case that they are avoiding the OVERwork of their divorced or extremely unhappy parents. They just don't apply themselves at a level worthy of the compensation they are being paid. Eric Chester's new book on the Work Ethic (the first in nearly a century) doesn't just outline the problem...he provides solutions. What more could you want from a timely business book?

If you're fed up with the entitlement mentality of the young workers in your organization, stop bellyaching and do something about it! This book is a great place to start as it defines the mysterious term of work ethic, explains in great detail what has happened to the work ethic in America, and, most importantly, it reveals what leaders can do to inspire people to want to work harder and live up to an acceptable standard of values. Reviving Work Ethic is more than the title of a book; it's a long overdue battle cry!

Eric Chester may be the best at understanding how to manage a young workforce. He has taken his life work and put it into a book that will help you understand how to motivate and get the most out of your employees. I can't say enough great things about this book and the work Eric has done. "Reviving Work Ethic" gets my highest recommendation.

Shep Hyken, New York Times bestselling author of "The Amazement Revolution"

Length:: 7:50 Mins

Eric Chester does a magnificent job with this book on helping instill a solid work ethic. It is directed towards a younger generation but the principles apply to everyone. This is good if you work with those just getting started in the work force, but it also is great in dealing with younger people in daily life. The principles are sound and you'll read many of them just in this video preview of the book. Watch it and learn --- then apply them and benefit. If you're frustrated about working with those who "don't get it," this is a book you want to get.

All you need to do to become aware of the growing problems of a declining work ethic is to reflect on your latest shopping trip or visit to most fast food outlets. I see it daily. Workers who are poorly dressed, more concerned with socializing with their co-workers or more involved with their texting than their job seem to be on the rise.

As Eric Chester, the author of Reviving Work Ethic points out, "The decline of work ethic is not uniquely an American problem, but one that is affecting all Western nations and a growing number of those in the East." "There now exist a pandemic of young people who are disillusioned, disenfranchised, disengaged, and depressed, and who carry those attitudes with them into the workplace."

This is not a situation which will be self-correcting. This book serves two very important functions. First to make us more aware of the decline in the work ethic. Second to offer some concrete strategies for reversing this trend.

The author starts out by examining the current state of work ethic. According to the author, "Somewhere along the way, Western culture has lost sight of the virtues that comprise work ethic - the very things that helped build our country." For those who have not studied or though much about the current "entitlement mentality" or the idea that everyone expects to achieve fame and fortune, this is a very sobering discussion.

We as adults have fostered some very unrealistic expectations in the younger generation and the problems are now coming home to haunt us.

Mr. Chester sets out to define work ethic. To get a good basis, he defines what he calls "sandbox values" - the values we were all taught as kids: Smile and play nice, be prompt, look your best, do your best, obey the rules, tell the truth and say please and thank you. Then he translates the "sandbox values" into the characteristics of a good work ethic: Positive attitude, Reliability, Professionalism, Initiative, Respect, Integrity and Gratitude.

Mr. Chester has created a Valued Quadrant that charts where a person would be on the work ethic quadrant. The horizontal axis is cognizance - know or don't know. The vertical axis is Compliance - do or don't do. The job of managers is to move the workers up the compliance axis and over to the cognizance axis.

There is a chapter on each component in the work ethic model. Mr. Chester goes into penetrating and insightful detail about the current problems and attitudes and gives specific strategies for dealing with and changing them. At the end of each chapter is a section called "Additional conversational starters and tips". This gives some very specific and field tested methods for getting the message across to your workers.

The book is extremely well written and is based on Mr. Chester's extensive experience working with teenagers and young adults. It is very insightful. While you will clearly see the problems, there is hope because he offers some very sound strategies for improving the situation.

If you are in anyway involved with younger workers, then this is a very important read. We must change the work ethic or we will surely suffer the consequences.

Having worked in the quick-service restaurant industry for the past two decades, I have had the opportunity to work with many young people through the years. Some of them have been terrific hires who are completely professional and always prepared for the job, while others have accumulated a series of home, school, and previous employment experiences that have made them feel as though a strong 'work ethic' is not necessarily needed in order to succeed. They have skated by because their parents, teachers, or bosses haven't had high expectations for their performance and allowed them to strive for adequacy instead of excellence, but they have struggled in the post-2008 economy where cash-strapped business owners need ultra-productive people who can do the same amount of work that two or three people used to do.

If you've had to deal with a similar mindset with your young hires, then do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Eric Chester's new book, "Reviving Work Ethic," which provides numerous best practices for improving the seven markers of this ethic: positive attitude, reliability, professionalism, initiative, respect, integrity, and gratitude. It's a terrific resource that provides practical solutions for employers who are looking to eliminate mediocre performance in the workplace.

Eric Chester has spent the bulk of his career speaking about issues related to work ethic. He's a gifted speaker and writer who has the ear of corporate America. He has written yet another must-have book that will undoubtedly help companies in their quest to attract great talent and to develop under performing talent. Add this book to your 2012 read list. It will positively affect the ROI of your organization.

My friend George Campbell, in character as The World's Worst Motivational Speaker, once said "When I was looking for a job, I wasn't necessarily looking for work." That's a good line to get a laugh, but in real life it's become all too true. What Eric gives us in this great new book is so much more than a "woe is us - here's our problem" exercise in theory. Eric brings his insight and experience with young people in the job market to bear to give us real world solutions to the challenge of a national work ethic at risk. I highly recommend this book. This isn't fluff - this is the real deal.

Eric Chester has been the expert in dealing with the younger generations for many years and has helped thousands of people understand their "unique" attributes. Now he brings this knowledge to leaders in the workplace with specific tools and strategies to help the emerging workforce be their best..and companies too.No wonder this will be a best seller, it is desperately needed today.

In my 20 years of implementing corporate productivity-improvement programs, I continually get the question from managers, "How do I get my young employees to WORK?" It's hard, if not impossible, to be productive without a strong work ethic. Unfortunately, many employees today are very ME-centric versus Organization-centric, and managers struggle with how to get them to contribute to their highest potential. Fortunately, you only have to read Eric Chester's new important work on "Reviving Work Ethic" to learn how to guide bright, ambitious young workers in the right direction. Eric has interviewed over 1500 managers to discover the seven components of work ethic. If you're a leader with anyone ages 16 to 30 on your team, it would be a mistake not to read this book. I give it my highest recommendation.