The lazy worker

I recently attended an intimate “chef’s table” dinner hosted by the Hyatt Regency Saipan and dinner conversation with the gentleman to my right inevitably turned to the happenings of the day, among them the workforce development summit that had just taken place at the Fiesta Resort and Spa. My dinner companion, a charming, articulate businessman, said that, as much as education and proper training have their roles in developing the local workforce, the first priority of the day should be a readjustment in the attitudes of the local workforce toward work. He said that, however much one trains a local worker and no matter how good he is at his job, if he is always absent from work for no reason at all, he will never get far in whatever work he will be engaged in. Instilling a rigorous work ethic in resident workers would pave the way for the rest, he said.

This reminded me of another such conversation I had, this time with a U.S.-educated local resident, who said essentially the same thing. My dinner companion, who seemed much too genteel to be more direct, confined himself to generalities but the local resident had no such compunction, disparaging her compatriots as incorrigibly lazy, more apt to be absent than present at work, with distant social obligations (rosaries, Masses, and fiestas) that are given more priority over one’s job.

This is, of course, nothing new. A survey conducted at the workforce development summit among several island businesses showed that 42 percent of 229 employers cited work ethic as “the biggest obstacle to employing more residents in the private sector.” Most employers decry the seeming ease with which resident workers could take the day off from work for no reason. As one employer I’ve talked with said, “If my resident worker comes in four times in a six-day workweek, I am already happy.” There seems to be a resigned acceptance within the business community that most resident workers are unreliable and could not be depended on to show up everyday for work, resulting in a reluctance to hire local workers and further driving up the unemployment figures on the islands.

There is admittedly some truth to this matter. However, one can never generalize about these things. One cannot say that ALL resident workers are like that. I’m sure there are as many resident workers who are efficient and good at their jobs as there are also many nonresident workers who are lazy and incompetent. It is also true that intensive re-training and education is necessary to imbue all resident workers with the necessary skills that would put them at par with other workers in the world.

More than anything else, though, I believe that such an attitude change requires a cultural shift that will take generations to achieve. It was only decades ago when the CNMI was still a subsistence economy, its people dependent on the land and the sea for their sustenance. The culture that develops under such condition shifts with the turning of the season. They were no lazier or more hardworking than their counterparts in other parts of the world but their time moves with the sun, the moon, and the monsoon rains. When its time to plant, they go to the fields. While waiting for the harvest season, they mingle, socialize, go to each other’s fiestas, and nurture those familial ties that have kept the community vibrant throughout the years. When harvest season comes, it is a community event, drawing people from all corners of the island to help with the harvest. This is something that developed through thousands of years and it’s not something that you could just change with the snap of a finger. For people who are used to the lickety-split pace of urban life, the laidback attitude of the people here would certainly seem like indolence but, in reality, I believe it is only because the people of the CNMI haven’t had enough time yet to absorb the hectic pace of the industrial world, much less the global economy. True, times have changed and the modern world has caught up with the CNMI but the cultural bedrock with which the local community was built took hundreds, if not thousands, of years to evolve and is not something that could be changed just like that. Modern contrivances—like 9-to-5 work shifts—will have to take that into consideration when dealing with local workers.

This is not to excuse chronic absences or incorrigible laziness. What I’m saying is to give it more time. I remember reading a book in my History class in college, written by a Spanish friar in the early 1800s. In it, he described Filipinos as an indolent race, with an intrinsic “aversion” to work. (This is, of course, nonsense. A colonial power usually degrades the natives with such epithets to reinforce the master-servant dichotomy, much in the same way that Native Americans were called barbarians by their white conquerors, the way African slaves were described as “lazy” by their masters, the way Pharaoh described the Israelites as “lazy” because they were “always praying” to their God.) Be that as it may, most Filipinos working abroad have erased this negative perception by proving ourselves to be hardworking, dependable employees. There are some rotten apples in the barrel, true, but majority have proven themselves up to the task. This took generations to achieve. The same holds true for the CNMI. Instilling a work ethic that conforms to the expectations of a capitalistic society will be more effective with the younger generations. The future of the CNMI is in its children and nowhere is this truer than in this instance. As the cliché goes, you cannot teach an old dog new tricks, so the focus must shift to the younger generation, who are more susceptible to training and are more cosmopolitan in their worldview. Given time, I’m sure the CNMI will have for itself a workforce that is of world-class caliber, with the pizzazz and the savvy to hustle it out with the rest of the world.