Popular in Social Sciences

Political Science

V-Dem’s Conceptions of Democracy and Their Consequences

University of Notre Dame Michael Coppedge

Central Monetary Authorities

Macroeconomic modelling of CBDC: a critical review

European Central Bank Ulrich Bindseil

Social Identities and Divisions

A new explanation of antisemitism: Jew hatred as a civilisational phenomenon

Boston University Liah Greenfeld

Central Monetary Authorities

Financing Private Credit

Federal Reserve Bank of New York Nina Boyarchenko

Economics

Failing Banks

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Emil Verner

Culture and Society

The City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place

New York University Harvey Moltoch

American Politics

Work Quality Experience and Engagement among Young Workers

View more insights in Social Sciences - Political Science - Political Sociology

View more figures from Toronto Metropolitan University

View the page of Myer Siemiatycki

Read the Study

Next in Political Science

The Liberalism of Refuge

Bryan Garsten | Yale University

Do Billboard Advertisements Increase Voter Turnout?

Donald Green | Columbia University

In recent years, young people have faced difficulties in the labour market. Myer Siemiatycki discusses the quality of work for young people (age 16-29), in Ontario, through their own experiences and words.

Image courtesy of interviewee. May 21, 2024

Log-in or Sign-up to Faculti
Currently viewing this subject insight as a guest. You have insight(s) remaining for this month. Login to view 8000+ figures on the platform.

Generating Workspace...

Export as PDF

The project described aims to address the challenges faced by young workers in a rapidly changing job environment. It recognizes that young individuals are particularly vulnerable to issues like technological change, wage suppression, and poor management practices. The initiative is part of the Better Work Project at Toronto Metropolitan University, which seeks to enhance understanding and empower young workers.

The project involves two main strategies: conducting a survey and organizing in-depth interviews. They surveyed over 1,000 young people aged 16 to 29 in Ontario to gather insights about their work experiences. Key findings highlight rampant issues such as poor job quality, with 45% of respondents reporting quitting due to these conditions. Many participants also felt subjected to age discrimination, characterized by disrespectful treatment and being assigned the least desirable tasks.

Responses to these negative experiences ranged from resignation—accepting poor conditions—and quitting, to resistance, which included speaking out against mistreatment and collective actions, such as unionizing efforts within the retail and gig economy sectors. The project concludes that young workers desire greater awareness of their rights and the tools to improve their work situations.

Ultimately, the findings emphasize the importance of equipping young people with the agency to influence their work environments positively, underlining that the future of work relies on their engagement and active participation in shaping conditions that benefit both themselves and society at large.

Language:

Export as PDF

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

00:00.155 --> 00:03.125
This project, aimed to do two things.

00:03.625 --> 00:06.965
One, to generate knowledge, secondly,

00:06.985 --> 00:09.405
to build capacity among young workers.

00:09.625 --> 00:12.525
So it begins with the recognition that the, the nature

00:12.585 --> 00:16.045
of work is, transforming dramatically,

00:16.045 --> 00:18.165
with significant challenges

00:18.225 --> 00:21.485
and adversities for young people especially.

00:21.625 --> 00:24.285
So we started this with a recognition

00:24.285 --> 00:26.285
that whether it's technological change,

00:26.285 --> 00:30.805
whether it's the gig economy, whether it's attempts to,

00:31.165 --> 00:33.765
suppress and, and, and contain wages,

00:33.795 --> 00:38.685
whether it's really a shocking pattern of bad management

00:38.875 --> 00:42.525
that young people experience, that,

00:42.855 --> 00:45.085
young people are especially vulnerable

00:45.225 --> 00:48.565
to changes in the economy and the nature of work.

00:49.185 --> 00:52.325
So we wanted to understand what is the work experience like

00:52.345 --> 00:56.765
for young people, and to then use their own words,

00:56.815 --> 01:00.045
their own experiences, to try to look at, well,

01:00.045 --> 01:03.125
what could be done to try to build the capacity

01:03.185 --> 01:06.085
of young workers to have more agency and more voice

01:06.305 --> 01:09.885
and more control over the quality of their work.

01:10.545 --> 01:12.725
So, you know, that's where this project,

01:12.725 --> 01:14.285
project comes from.

01:15.225 --> 01:19.205
And, we are the Better Work Project,

01:19.655 --> 01:23.805
which is, located at,

01:23.805 --> 01:27.765
Toronto Metropolitan University in downtown, Toronto.

01:28.225 --> 01:29.725
And we emerged out of,

01:29.885 --> 01:32.565
a very interesting initiative at our university,

01:32.865 --> 01:35.125
the Young Workers Rights Hub.

01:35.585 --> 01:37.805
We are a university that is urban,

01:37.955 --> 01:40.925
that is community centered, that has a sense

01:40.925 --> 01:42.685
of social mission to it,

01:43.225 --> 01:46.525
and we recognize that, our students

01:46.625 --> 01:50.565
and young workers, were, were especially

01:51.405 --> 01:55.085
challenged and, and, vulnerable in, in the workplace.

01:55.305 --> 01:58.205
And the Young Workers Rights Hub put together a variety

01:58.305 --> 02:01.485
of resources programs to, try

02:01.505 --> 02:04.205
to better understand young workers' experiences,

02:04.385 --> 02:07.925
but also to, hopefully equip them

02:08.105 --> 02:12.405
to face those challenges in a more robust,

02:12.665 --> 02:14.365
activist kind of way.

02:14.825 --> 02:18.045
And out of that, we realized we just wanted

02:18.105 --> 02:21.725
to know more about what are young people facing.

02:22.745 --> 02:24.525
And, it's not a, it's,

02:24.525 --> 02:26.645
it's not an altogether pretty picture out there

02:26.665 --> 02:28.005
for young people at work.

02:28.445 --> 02:31.245
I think what we wanted to know was, is there anything about,

02:31.785 --> 02:35.205
you know, these, you could say these challenges affect

02:35.605 --> 02:38.925
everyone in the workplace regardless of their age.

02:39.105 --> 02:41.205
So we wanted to get a sense of, is there

02:42.165 --> 02:44.685
anything distinctive about being young

02:45.225 --> 02:48.605
and that work in, in this, in this moment of

02:48.795 --> 02:51.285
what I think everyone recognizes is some pretty

02:51.285 --> 02:54.685
fundamentally trend fundamental transformations in,

02:54.785 --> 02:56.165
in the nature of work.

02:56.225 --> 02:58.885
So that was part of it, but we also wanted

02:59.145 --> 03:02.005
To, I'll put it in a, in a way, get into the heads

03:02.005 --> 03:05.245
of young people, like what is, from the interior,

03:05.595 --> 03:08.325
what is their exp, how are they experiencing this,

03:08.425 --> 03:11.805
and how are they responding to, to the experience?

03:11.905 --> 03:14.285
So that's what we were really aiming to get at.

03:14.445 --> 03:17.725
I think we rooted ourselves really in two

03:18.605 --> 03:19.605
research strategies.

03:19.905 --> 03:23.245
One was conducting a survey,

03:23.785 --> 03:28.005
and we surveyed over 1000 young,

03:28.585 --> 03:32.245
people in the province of Ontario, in Canada.

03:32.905 --> 03:36.925
Uh, and, you know, Ontario is by far the largest pop,

03:36.925 --> 03:39.765
population-wise province in the country.

03:40.305 --> 03:44.405
Uh, and, and, and our scope was, people's definition

03:44.405 --> 03:48.365
of who's young and what is young mean, can vary,

03:48.505 --> 03:50.485
in my elderly gray haired status.

03:50.845 --> 03:54.725
I think of young people being what other people might think

03:54.725 --> 03:55.725
of as rather elderly.

03:56.365 --> 03:59.485
Uh, so it's, it's a subjective kind of,

03:59.505 --> 04:00.925
kind of an assessment.

04:01.145 --> 04:06.125
But we, we settled on the age range of 16 to 29.

04:06.345 --> 04:07.885
That's, that's our, that's our cohort.

04:07.985 --> 04:09.645
So we surveyed over a thousand

04:09.645 --> 04:13.365
and got a rich, portrait back from them.

04:13.505 --> 04:17.895
And then from that, we, did

04:18.615 --> 04:23.375
in-depth interviews with close to 40, of those people

04:23.595 --> 04:25.215
who, who we had surveyed

04:26.035 --> 04:28.855
and really were able to drill down a lot deeper.

04:29.355 --> 04:30.455
And, and, and so

04:30.455 --> 04:32.975
that gave us the picture we were looking at.

04:33.155 --> 04:36.095
And then I also, because I haven't mentioned it yet,

04:36.225 --> 04:40.135
wanna introduce now, we then used our findings

04:40.955 --> 04:45.335
to create 17 social media videos

04:46.085 --> 04:49.135
that highlight the, the main issues

04:49.135 --> 04:52.335
and concerns that young people voiced for us.

04:52.955 --> 04:57.655
And we regard those videos, which begin with,

04:58.195 --> 05:01.895
snippets of what we, what young workers told us.

05:02.155 --> 05:06.535
And then move into what kind of resources, networks

05:07.355 --> 05:11.255
act, actions could young workers take to try

05:11.255 --> 05:12.895
to improve their circumstances.

05:13.715 --> 05:17.775
So that, that's the capacity building side of, of,

05:17.875 --> 05:18.975
of, of, of the project.

05:19.155 --> 05:22.255
So we knew from the beginning we wanted to learn things,

05:22.315 --> 05:25.175
and we wanted to take those learnings in an applied

05:26.835 --> 05:29.095
useful way for young people themselves.

05:29.355 --> 05:31.055
So we asked a whole bunch of questions.

05:31.315 --> 05:34.095
Uh, we asked questions like,

05:34.595 --> 05:35.895
how did they define good work?

05:35.955 --> 05:37.655
How did they define bad work?

05:38.155 --> 05:42.495
Uh, have they ever felt singled out in any way?

05:42.685 --> 05:45.135
Have they ever felt discriminated, singled out in any way

05:45.135 --> 05:47.335
because of their, their young age?

05:47.595 --> 05:49.055
How many jobs have they had?

05:49.315 --> 05:51.335
Uh, to this point?

05:51.435 --> 05:54.375
And I mean, that's one of the, you know,

05:54.395 --> 05:56.255
one should know this from one, from,

05:56.685 --> 05:59.725
from the younger people, in our lives.

05:59.985 --> 06:02.605
But it, it was pretty bracing to be reminded.

06:03.345 --> 06:07.645
Uh, it's not uncommon for people to, for young people,

06:07.705 --> 06:12.285
really young people to begin work, at a time when,

06:12.665 --> 06:16.365
people in the age of Charles Dickens were, begin,

06:16.365 --> 06:18.725
begin, were, were, we're in the midst of, of, of,

06:18.785 --> 06:20.285
of, of, of, of working.

06:20.355 --> 06:24.085
Like, people start work really young at times, even

06:24.185 --> 06:25.325
before high school.

06:25.825 --> 06:27.525
And then certainly in high school.

06:28.115 --> 06:31.325
Many of them are, if not most, are already beginning

06:31.545 --> 06:35.885
to work, and they churn through a pretty

06:37.205 --> 06:38.685
shocking number of jobs.

06:39.385 --> 06:41.285
And one of the things we found was,

06:41.285 --> 06:44.325
and maybe this, this is, if I have one statistic

06:44.385 --> 06:48.445
to pull out, 45% of all

06:48.505 --> 06:51.885
of our 1000 plus survey

06:52.415 --> 06:56.045
taker said survey, they had quit at least one job

06:56.155 --> 06:58.205
because of poor work quality.

06:59.185 --> 07:03.885
Uh, so you know, that that's implying it's a pretty

07:04.635 --> 07:06.045
recurring and, and,

07:06.145 --> 07:10.485
and almost inescapable, sort of, experience for,

07:10.945 --> 07:12.685
for, for, for young people.

07:13.105 --> 07:14.965
And they're juggling lots of different jobs.

07:15.305 --> 07:19.165
And, I wanna hone in on,

07:19.345 --> 07:22.285
on a finding that,

07:22.635 --> 07:25.925
they felt age discrimination was significant.

07:26.275 --> 07:31.045
They talked about being disrespected, being talked down

07:31.105 --> 07:34.845
to being abusively treated, not having,

07:35.035 --> 07:38.605
promotion opportunities, getting the worst job assignments,

07:38.975 --> 07:41.125
which they attributed rightly or wrongly.

07:41.125 --> 07:42.445
But this was their experience

07:42.555 --> 07:43.845
because they were the youngest

07:43.845 --> 07:45.725
around the easiest to pick on.

07:46.465 --> 07:50.605
Um, so, you know, that emerged from, from the project

07:51.585 --> 07:55.765
and, the, the,

07:56.745 --> 08:00.965
the most distressing things we heard were the examples,

08:01.065 --> 08:03.645
and they were multiple of just

08:04.475 --> 08:09.245
what young people were subjected to by bad managers.

08:09.605 --> 08:12.205
I mean, I mean, really abusive,

08:12.235 --> 08:14.285
abusive kind kind of treatment.

08:14.305 --> 08:17.925
So it was, it was, you know, it, it was, you know,

08:17.925 --> 08:20.125
certainly not a universal experience,

08:20.305 --> 08:24.025
but distressingly frequent an occurrence,

08:24.445 --> 08:25.505
for young people.

08:25.885 --> 08:27.545
We really probed into that.

08:27.805 --> 08:31.905
And, and, and, and it kind of turned into a kind

08:31.905 --> 08:36.505
of bifurcated, set of responses,

08:36.675 --> 08:41.505
which, relying on alliteration, we describe

08:41.765 --> 08:45.025
as a response that ranged from

08:45.655 --> 08:47.745
resignation to resistance.

08:48.365 --> 08:52.705
So the resignation piece of it was a number

08:52.885 --> 08:57.245
of respondents who said, you know,

08:57.435 --> 08:59.245
this is, you know, they just had

08:59.245 --> 09:02.205
to take it l like there was nothing they could do about it.

09:02.435 --> 09:03.925
This is the way the world is.

09:04.635 --> 09:07.325
Some of them, you know, k kind of were,

09:07.555 --> 09:09.925
were really astute in saying, you know,

09:09.975 --> 09:13.365
we've been raised all our lives to kind of accept things

09:13.585 --> 09:17.205
as they are, follow instructions, do what you're told.

09:17.745 --> 09:21.205
And so, you know, whether it's family or schooling.

09:21.425 --> 09:22.765
And, and so that's a mindset

09:23.155 --> 09:25.965
that there I almost kind of conditioned to.

09:26.545 --> 09:30.565
So, so certainly some of it was, was resignation.

09:31.045 --> 09:35.725
I can't resist remembering one person who said, okay,

09:36.025 --> 09:37.645
if they're paying me the minimum,

09:38.145 --> 09:39.805
I'm giving them the minimum effort.

09:40.635 --> 09:42.645
Like, let's, let's have a fair trade here.

09:42.905 --> 09:47.245
You wanna pay me a kind of lousy, I'll work as lousy

09:47.245 --> 09:48.285
as I can get away with.

09:49.025 --> 09:52.605
Uh, but the other part of resignation, of course,

09:53.585 --> 09:56.165
is quitting, which I had mentioned, and, and,

09:56.225 --> 09:59.845
and such a frequent occurrence of, of,

10:00.465 --> 10:05.125
of young people just fed up not, not believing

10:05.125 --> 10:08.205
that the, that the experience can be improved upon.

10:08.305 --> 10:09.765
And so quitting that job

10:09.905 --> 10:13.565
and going on to another, hopefully, better for them,

10:14.305 --> 10:18.885
the resistance side of the equation had two kind

10:18.885 --> 10:19.925
of sides to it.

10:20.385 --> 10:25.135
One was, an individual stance of,

10:25.595 --> 10:27.375
this is unacceptable.

10:28.035 --> 10:29.175
I'm not taking this,

10:29.315 --> 10:32.935
and I'm speaking out typically to my immediate

10:33.395 --> 10:37.975
or next above supervisor to say, you know, this kind

10:37.975 --> 10:40.855
of treatment, you know, I'm not taking this, this kind

10:40.855 --> 10:42.495
of treatment towards me has to stop.

10:43.515 --> 10:47.815
The second was a more collective form of,

10:48.475 --> 10:49.575
of resistance.

10:49.755 --> 10:53.665
And that could take the form of,

10:54.345 --> 10:59.245
collectively pushing back on their immediate management.

10:59.385 --> 11:02.915
And there's not just one person raising concerns,

11:02.935 --> 11:06.795
but a group of, of, of, of workers, it could take the form

11:07.815 --> 11:11.635
of, expressing interest in,

11:12.815 --> 11:16.395
in, exerting legal rights

11:16.395 --> 11:18.915
that they had at work together, whether it was

11:19.015 --> 11:22.155
for minimum wage, statutory holidays, et cetera,

11:22.335 --> 11:27.035
or for, attempting to unionize a workplace.

11:27.295 --> 11:29.435
And, and, you know,

11:29.755 --> 11:31.755
I think it's very interesting that I,

11:31.875 --> 11:33.355
I I would hazard the guess.

11:33.425 --> 11:35.035
It's certainly the case in North America.

11:35.255 --> 11:38.555
I'd hazard the guess. It's across, across continents

11:38.945 --> 11:42.155
that we are in the midst of a wave of young workers

11:43.365 --> 11:45.505
taking collective action to try

11:45.505 --> 11:47.145
to improve their working conditions.

11:47.325 --> 11:50.985
Uh, and you see it, especially I think, in sectors

11:50.985 --> 11:54.605
where young people are predominantly employed,

11:54.955 --> 11:58.405
like the retail sector, like the gig economy.

11:58.665 --> 12:02.965
So attempts to unionize,

12:03.225 --> 12:05.005
retail establishments.

12:05.015 --> 12:07.365
We've seen that, you know, whether it's Starbucks in the,

12:07.505 --> 12:10.405
in North America and probably in Europe

12:10.585 --> 12:14.805
and elsewhere, whether it's attempts to unionize,

12:15.505 --> 12:20.445
delivery workers through a gig platform,

12:20.705 --> 12:24.645
operations, there is this sort of percolating

12:25.235 --> 12:29.765
attempt to act together to improve working conditions.

12:30.105 --> 12:34.565
So, you know, it, it, it's, it's almost like you can

12:35.215 --> 12:39.645
track successive waves of collective action

12:39.705 --> 12:41.885
and unionization historically.

12:42.105 --> 12:45.525
You know, it, it, it sort of starts with artisans

12:45.585 --> 12:50.525
and craft workers from 17th, 18th, 19th century.

12:50.705 --> 12:53.805
It goes to mass production workers on assembly lines.

12:53.945 --> 12:55.645
It goes to public sector workers.

12:56.305 --> 13:00.525
And we seem to be in a new way, potentially in a new wave

13:00.865 --> 13:05.165
of unionization where young workers in, in,

13:05.705 --> 13:09.325
in, I'll call it traditional retail sectors,

13:09.385 --> 13:13.445
but also in new wave gig economy, sectors

13:14.065 --> 13:16.205
are turning to unionization.

13:16.465 --> 13:21.005
So just like the assembly line, as a new mode of production

13:21.005 --> 13:24.205
and work relation gives rise to collective action.

13:24.625 --> 13:27.365
And the public sector did that in the sixties

13:27.545 --> 13:29.125
and seventies and eighties.

13:30.145 --> 13:31.885
The geek economy is now

13:32.415 --> 13:36.725
generating its own collective response from its own distinct

13:36.725 --> 13:38.965
workforce, so many of whom are young.

13:39.505 --> 13:42.885
So there's, there's this very interesting kind of both

13:43.615 --> 13:48.485
connecting tissue and historical, thread here.

13:48.585 --> 13:53.205
But with the new spin of, it's in a new mode of work

13:53.465 --> 13:55.245
and, and, and work relationships,

13:55.905 --> 13:59.365
and especially anchored in young people, conclusions are,

13:59.825 --> 14:01.645
a takeaway from young workers.

14:02.035 --> 14:06.045
They want and need to know more about,

14:06.385 --> 14:09.645
rights at work, how they can make work better.

14:09.985 --> 14:14.965
And so I think right across the board from, governments

14:15.105 --> 14:19.605
to schools, to, social organizations, we need

14:19.605 --> 14:24.525
to do a much, much better job of, kind

14:24.525 --> 14:27.845
of signaling to young people expect better at work.

14:28.395 --> 14:30.925
It's not only in the interest of young people

14:31.145 --> 14:32.925
to be better treated at work,

14:33.115 --> 14:34.685
it's in the interest of the employer.

14:34.835 --> 14:39.085
It's in the interest of society at large to have, a kind

14:39.365 --> 14:40.725
of engaged,

14:41.555 --> 14:45.925
dedicated rather than churned over and, and, and, and, and,

14:46.065 --> 14:49.685
and demoralized, young labor force.

14:49.925 --> 14:52.605
I mean, important to recall that

14:53.505 --> 14:55.975
young people are the future of work.

14:56.195 --> 14:58.535
We talk a lot about the future of work, the future of work,

14:58.535 --> 15:01.335
and we think of entrepreneurialism, we think of technology.

15:01.875 --> 15:04.255
The, the future of work is in the hands of young,

15:04.315 --> 15:07.175
of young people, and they should have more ownership of

15:07.175 --> 15:10.975
that, of, of, of, of the direction that that work takes.

15:11.675 --> 15:15.175
And we're hoping that, you know, a whole set

15:15.175 --> 15:19.575
of stakeholders will kind of recognize that,

15:19.765 --> 15:24.335
it's important to better equip young people to

15:25.515 --> 15:26.805
have agency

15:27.065 --> 15:31.005
and some voice in the direction of work, rather than

15:31.105 --> 15:35.845
to be kind of passive objects of whether it's employers,

15:35.865 --> 15:39.125
desires or, or, or, or the,

15:39.185 --> 15:41.885
or the, impact of technology.

Empowering Young Workers in a Changing Economy

00:00:00 - This project, aimed to do two things. One, to generate knowledge, secondly, to build capacity among young workers. So it begins with the recognition that the, the nature of work is, transforming dramatically, with significant challenges and adversities for young people especially. So we started this with a recognition that whether it's technological change, whether it's the gig economy, whether it's attempts to,
00:00:33 - whether it's really a shocking pattern of bad management that young people experience, that, young people are especially vulnerable to changes in the economy and the nature of work. So we wanted to understand what is the work experience like for young people, and to then use their own words, their own experiences, to try to look at, well, what could be done to try to build the capacity
00:01:06 - and more control over the quality of their work. So, you know, that's where this project, project comes from. And, we are the Better Work Project, which is, located at, Toronto Metropolitan University in downtown, Toronto. And we emerged out of, a very interesting initiative at our university, the Young Workers Rights Hub.
00:01:37 - that is community centered, that has a sense of social mission to it, and we recognize that, our students and young workers, were, were especially challenged and, and, vulnerable in, in the workplace. And the Young Workers Rights Hub put together a variety of resources programs to, try to better understand young workers' experiences, but also to, hopefully equip them
00:02:12 - activist kind of way. And out of that, we realized we just wanted to know more about what are young people facing. And, it's not a, it's, it's not an altogether pretty picture out there for young people at work. I think what we wanted to know was, is there anything about, you know, these, you could say these challenges affect everyone in the workplace regardless of their age.
00:02:42 - anything distinctive about being young and that work in, in this, in this moment of what I think everyone recognizes is some pretty fundamentally trend fundamental transformations in, in the nature of work. So that was part of it, but we also wanted To, I'll put it in a, in a way, get into the heads of young people, like what is, from the interior, what is their exp, how are they experiencing this, and how are they responding to, to the experience?

Surveying Young Workers' Experiences and Needs

00:03:14 - I think we rooted ourselves really in two research strategies. One was conducting a survey, and we surveyed over 1000 young, people in the province of Ontario, in Canada. and, you know, Ontario is by far the largest pop, population-wise province in the country. and, and, and our scope was, people's definition
00:03:48 - in my elderly gray haired status. I think of young people being what other people might think of as rather elderly. so it's, it's a subjective kind of, kind of an assessment. But we, we settled on the age range of 16 to 29. That's, that's our, that's our cohort. So we surveyed over a thousand and got a rich, portrait back from them. And then from that, we, did
00:04:23 - who, who we had surveyed and really were able to drill down a lot deeper. And, and, and so that gave us the picture we were looking at. And then I also, because I haven't mentioned it yet, wanna introduce now, we then used our findings to create 17 social media videos that highlight the, the main issues
00:04:52 - And we regard those videos, which begin with, snippets of what we, what young workers told us. And then move into what kind of resources, networks act, actions could young workers take to try to improve their circumstances. So that, that's the capacity building side of, of, of, of, of the project.
00:05:22 - and we wanted to take those learnings in an applied useful way for young people themselves. So we asked a whole bunch of questions. we asked questions like, how did they define good work? How did they define bad work? have they ever felt singled out in any way? Have they ever felt discriminated, singled out in any way because of their, their young age? How many jobs have they had?
00:05:51 - And I mean, that's one of the, you know, one should know this from one, from, from the younger people, in our lives. But it, it was pretty bracing to be reminded. it's not uncommon for people to, for young people, really young people to begin work, at a time when, people in the age of Charles Dickens were, begin, begin, were, were, we're in the midst of, of, of, of, of, of, of working.

Challenges Young Workers Face in Employment

00:06:24 - before high school. And then certainly in high school. Many of them are, if not most, are already beginning to work, and they churn through a pretty shocking number of jobs. And one of the things we found was, and maybe this, this is, if I have one statistic to pull out, 45% of all of our 1000 plus survey
00:06:56 - because of poor work quality. so you know, that that's implying it's a pretty recurring and, and, and almost inescapable, sort of, experience for, for, for, for young people. And they're juggling lots of different jobs. And, I wanna hone in on, on a finding that,
00:07:26 - They talked about being disrespected, being talked down to being abusively treated, not having, promotion opportunities, getting the worst job assignments, which they attributed rightly or wrongly. But this was their experience because they were the youngest around the easiest to pick on. so, you know, that emerged from, from the project and, the, the,
00:08:01 - and they were multiple of just what young people were subjected to by bad managers. I mean, I mean, really abusive, abusive kind kind of treatment. So it was, it was, you know, it, it was, you know, certainly not a universal experience, but distressingly frequent an occurrence, for young people. We really probed into that.
00:08:31 - of bifurcated, set of responses, which, relying on alliteration, we describe as a response that ranged from resignation to resistance. So the resignation piece of it was a number of respondents who said, you know, this is, you know, they just had
00:09:02 - This is the way the world is. Some of them, you know, k kind of were, were really astute in saying, you know, we've been raised all our lives to kind of accept things as they are, follow instructions, do what you're told. And so, you know, whether it's family or schooling. And, and so that's a mindset that there I almost kind of conditioned to. So, so certainly some of it was, was resignation.

Young Workers: Minimum Effort for Minimum Pay

00:09:36 - if they're paying me the minimum, I'm giving them the minimum effort. Like, let's, let's have a fair trade here. You wanna pay me a kind of lousy, I'll work as lousy as I can get away with. but the other part of resignation, of course, is quitting, which I had mentioned, and, and, and such a frequent occurrence of, of, of young people just fed up not, not believing
00:10:08 - And so quitting that job and going on to another, hopefully, better for them, the resistance side of the equation had two kind of sides to it. One was, an individual stance of, this is unacceptable. I'm not taking this, and I'm speaking out typically to my immediate or next above supervisor to say, you know, this kind
00:10:40 - of treatment towards me has to stop. The second was a more collective form of, of resistance. And that could take the form of, collectively pushing back on their immediate management. And there's not just one person raising concerns, but a group of, of, of, of workers, it could take the form of, expressing interest in,
00:11:16 - that they had at work together, whether it was for minimum wage, statutory holidays, et cetera, or for, attempting to unionize a workplace. And, and, you know, I think it's very interesting that I, I I would hazard the guess. It's certainly the case in North America. I'd hazard the guess. It's across, across continents that we are in the midst of a wave of young workers
00:11:45 - to improve their working conditions. and you see it, especially I think, in sectors where young people are predominantly employed, like the retail sector, like the gig economy. So attempts to unionize, retail establishments. We've seen that, you know, whether it's Starbucks in the, in North America and probably in Europe and elsewhere, whether it's attempts to unionize,
00:12:20 - operations, there is this sort of percolating attempt to act together to improve working conditions. So, you know, it, it, it's, it's almost like you can track successive waves of collective action and unionization historically. You know, it, it, it sort of starts with artisans

Emerging Unionization among Young Workers

00:12:50 - It goes to mass production workers on assembly lines. It goes to public sector workers. And we seem to be in a new way, potentially in a new wave of unionization where young workers in, in, in, I'll call it traditional retail sectors, but also in new wave gig economy, sectors are turning to unionization.
00:13:21 - and work relation gives rise to collective action. And the public sector did that in the sixties and seventies and eighties. The geek economy is now generating its own collective response from its own distinct workforce, so many of whom are young. So there's, there's this very interesting kind of both connecting tissue and historical, thread here.
00:13:53 - and, and, and work relationships, and especially anchored in young people, conclusions are, a takeaway from young workers. They want and need to know more about, rights at work, how they can make work better. And so I think right across the board from, governments to schools, to, social organizations, we need
00:14:24 - of signaling to young people expect better at work. It's not only in the interest of young people to be better treated at work, it's in the interest of the employer. It's in the interest of society at large to have, a kind of engaged, dedicated rather than churned over and, and, and, and, and, and demoralized, young labor force.
00:14:53 - young people are the future of work. We talk a lot about the future of work, the future of work, and we think of entrepreneurialism, we think of technology. The, the future of work is in the hands of young, of young people, and they should have more ownership of that, of, of, of, of the direction that that work takes. And we're hoping that, you know, a whole set of stakeholders will kind of recognize that, it's important to better equip young people to
00:15:39 - and some voice in the direction of work, rather than to be kind of passive objects of whether it's employers, desires or, or, or, or the, or the, impact of technology.

Faculti AI can make mistakes

Research

Policy

Analysis