Youth need to take employment opportunities more seriously
This column is motivated by the most recent unemployment figures, the need to address the severity of the problem and how our youth tend to take for granted opportunities presented to them.
According to figures released by Stats SA in February, the official unemployment rate was 32,1% in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023. Youth unemployment increased by 0,9 of a percentage point from 43,4% in Q3 to 44,3% in Q4.
Even though these stats are announced regularly, the only focus I see is on how big the number is of youth languishing at home, some with certificates but no jobs. We don’t seem to focus on the problem of youth that do get job opportunities, especially from small businesses, but take these for granted when they have them.
In most cases, when small businesses decide to give opportunities to the youth it is not because we even have the budget to afford hiring an employee. At times, it is out of a feeling of concern or a need to do the right thing.
We see these figures being announced and we want to be part of the solution. Also, we see the large numbers of youths sitting in the townships, idling, and also those that comment on traditional or social media platforms about the challenges they face from being unemployed. Some beg us for opportunities to volunteer to gain experience.
We end up feeling so sorry for them that we readjust our small budgets to try and accommodate at least one or two young people.
This is in a quest to help where we can with limited resources. I don’t know if it’s our democracy that promised jobs, free education, free housing and all sorts, that has created the sense of entitlement in youth that I have seen in the last decade or so. And don’t get me wrong, it’s not all youth that feel entitled and arrogant about the fact that they must be employed by local companies.
Because I’m passionate about mentorship, coaching and providing internship or training opportunities I’ve given ample chances to a number of youth in my business over the years.
Some of these young people have flourished into exceptional PR professionals, but some have been a huge disappointment.
Right now, I’m feeling disheartened by the way youth act at work. They always start out well, eager to please and show that they are serious about the opportunity. But give them three months or so and their true colours start to emerge.
They start arriving late at work with no regard for company time and the fact that time is actually money. They show total disregard to the quality of work they produce, abuse company resources such as data and airtime provided primarily for work purposes.
Another important one is their dress sense, arriving at work looking like they are going out to some casual outing with their friends. I’ve said this to youth before in previous columns, and I will say it again: it is very important to dress for where you are going in life not where you are; and I’d like to re-emphasise the importance of dressing for how you want to be addressed.
If our youth continue to not respect business wear or at least ‘smart casual’ then unfortunately we will address them the way they are dressed.
One cannot expect to be taken seriously when you are not dressed appropriately for a work environment. I continue to share an important sentiment with one of my previous CEO bosses, that over the years we hired for 80% attitude and 20% skill. We always looked for youth that had 80% positive attitude and 20% skill instead of vice versa. This is because when a young person comes with a positive attitude toward their work and less skill, we are more than able to teach those skills to a willing and well-behaved young person. Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to teach attitude.
Why is it so difficult to teach a young person that comes with 80% skill and 20% attitude. They cannot be taught much because they think they know everything.
Even though they have 80% skill, they have usually not worked long enough to know everything there’s still lots to learn. But in most cases, they are not willing to listen or to be taught anything. Then, there’s a third group the unmotivated ones with no skill and a bad attitude.
These two groups either come with an arrogant notion that they know it all and cannot be told anything or exhibit a just-don’t-care attitude.
These negative characteristics are very discouraging for us. I’d like to remind the youth that, as small businesses especially, we do not hire you because we owe you anything, so coming to work the opportunities that we provide with the attitude that you are doing us a favour instead of the other way round is working against you. It is discouraging us from wanting to make a difference.
To young people, I’d like to close off by saying we understand your plight when it comes to youth unemployment and we want to do something to help overcome this challenge. However, I would like to remind you that we do not have to employ you but instead, we choose to. In many cases, we do it not even being able to afford employing someone but we take our last cent and accommodate you. So please start appreciating the work opportunities given to you, before things get worse than how they currently are when it comes to youth unemployment in SA.