Corporations are starved for people who are go-getters at the entry levels. Lot of opportunity out there. But I see so many people starting at entry level that never really want to move up the ladder. They just want to punch in, punch out, and never want to take on responsibility or challenges.
Then you got the college kids who move right into corporate positions without having much of a clue how the company works at the customer-facing levels. That's not always a good thing either.
Not only do they not know the customer level things, too many have never had ANY kind of job or responsibility. Mom and dad provided for them even through college.
All they have is the knowledge gained from books that were written by people who read books that were written by people who studied what others had done.
Too far removed from the actual “work of things” for any practical smarts.
Henry Ford II did it right.
Ford scoured the colleges for the best graduating engineers. On their first day at Ford they were handed brooms or shovels and assigned to the plant floor. They didn’t get near a design team until they had mastered every job in the factory.
As for the time card punchers, too many are content to show up, collect their pay and go home. Those types have always been around but seem to be a majority these days. Too many don’t want to take responsibility.
One of my sons works in a plant that makes industrial conveyor equipment. He has worked in every department in the company. By request of the supervisors. He has also learned the basics of the plant foremans job, job scheduling, material ordering, shipping requirements, etc.
I expect he’ll be running the plant someday. So does he.