Nicki Harper: Where's the work ethic in today's young people?

Nicki Harper, Hawke's Bay Today reporter.

Recent news of a seasonal labour shortage hitting apple growers needing to harvest their crops has generated a lot of discussion online and in the community.

It's raised questions over whether there needs to be more RSE workers brought in, and why local people aren't taking up the opportunities.

Do people not want the work? Is it not well paid enough? If unemployed, is it too tricky to get back on the benefit after a short stint of work? Are people turning their noses up at it because it's boring?

Channelling my old fogey, I remember that back in the day, about 30 years ago, orchard work was a go-to for many during and after leaving school during the summer months.

My first job in an orchard was picking boysenberries, a tedious, back-breaking task for little return but it was good to be making my own money to spend as I wished.

Later I worked in an apple packhouse near Hamilton. Weeks were spent during the day at the conveyor belt grading apples, while hundreds of them invaded my dreams at night.

Again it was not much money, but it was better than going on the unemployment benefit.

Recently hanging out with a gaggle of teen and pre-teen girls, we were discussing what they wanted to do when they grow up and how they were going to make money as they approached leaving home, and once they had left the nest.

I told them about my orchard work and how I spent my first few years at university working nights in a restaurant doing dishes.

They laughed at me! "Ew, I'm not going to do that," they said.

I was appalled and launched into a lecture about how I wasn't going to be supporting them when they left home and they might have to do jobs that weren't very glamorous.

Their eyes glazed over. I continued to rant about how it was good for them to do hard work, and how it might come in useful being able to put your hand to anything when travelling overseas.

I recalled picking daffodils in Cornwall for the princely sum of 10p for a bunch of 10, day in and day out bent over rows of daffodils.

Then there was the stint working for a catering company in London, laborious kitchen work in the bowels of buildings like Alexandra Palace preparing food for hundreds of crew setting up for the MTV awards, or stabbing 200 lobsters to death in a caravan cooking for a Virgin Records Christmas party.

"It's not only about the money, it's about life experience!" I railed at them, aware I wasn't really selling it.

"What?" they asked looking up from their devices.

Is part of the problem this kind of attitude among some of our young ones? They have everything given to them on a plate - the technology, the clothes, the latest fad toys, and an expectation that they will work at only jobs they want to do.

I was lucky to have a work ethic instilled by my family - as kids we had chores to do around home, and were pulled in to help with the big jobs like docking and shearing.

Maybe a little of that is missing now? It's arguably absent in my young friends and family members - time to crack the whip I think.

*Nicki Harper is a reporter at Hawke's Bay Today.