I’ve written about this before, but even though we have unemployment, a depressed economy, fewer jobs and other indicators of a recession, people are still acting like all is well.News flash people: All is not well.People are still taking sick days like it doesn’t matter, the work ethic hasn’t changed one iota, people still have a sense of entitlement and in many cases it is being enabled by people and organisations which could have the effect of arresting these mindsets.Some of my brothers and sisters are acting like there’s no problem, absenteeism continues to be a problem. You would think that people would know that now is the time to play by the rules.But oh no, not my people. My people, well some of them (to be fair), are acting like it is business as usual, like there is nobody else who would love to have their job.There was a story in this paper the other day about a Bermudian construction worker looking for work. This individual may be a great worker but it strikes me that he is a victim of a wider phenomenon. The economic equation and the inherent difficulties that many people are experiencing show how interconnected the whole scenario is.Having seen the problem first-hand from both sides, I can confirm that this is a tough nut to crack.Back in the day when David Burch was the Minister responsible for Immigration, he implemented a programme that forced construction companies to first check with housing (then responsible for Government’s hustle truck programme), the BIU and the Department of Labour and Training to confirm that there were no Bermudians available before Immigration would sign off on a work permit. This was a good programme.The other side of this is the attitude of many Bermudians in the construction business. There have been reports from construction companies that some refuse to work extra hours at straight time. The contract/collective bargaining agreement with the union states that if the management and employee agree overtime can be paid at straight time.Companies want to do this because it makes for greater profit and the last time I checked, companies are in business to make a profit not lose money. Guest workers will work overtime at straight time. Bermudians generally will not. So to whom do you think companies would give the extra work?This has been happening for a few years and now that the construction industry and the economy in general, has fewer jobs we are finding out that our previous attitudes toward work, whereby employees took a hard line against employers, no longer works and has negatively affected the employees.Then there’s work ethic and work habits. I know of an individual who developed a property and hired a Bermudian construction firm. The workers showed up around 8.15am, scheduled start time was 8am.The boss would show up around 9am, maybe, on some days, and wasn’t managing his crew effectively. Shoddy work was done. Slow work was done. The crew’s finish time was 4pm but by 3pm or 3.30pm they’d start cleaning tools.If there was a batch of mortar they would trash it, put it in the block, etc instead of continuing to plaster or lay block. Long story short, this individual lost a lot of money both during the project and later by having to hire people to come behind the first company to fix the shoddy work.This developer later began another project and hired another Bermudian company staffed mostly by guest workers. When the masons turned up at 6.45am for a 7am start, the labourer had already mixed the mortar. The masons started their work by 7am, in some cases earlier. If a batch of mortar was unfinished at 4pm they didn’t pack up their tools and waste the mortar but kept laying block, plastering, working, until 7pm or 8pm until the mortar was all used up and not wasted, at straight time as well.Back in the day Bermudian construction workers used to work hard. I know because I was one of them. I paid my way through college by working construction during the 1980s. But something changed sometime between then and now.Some Bermudian construction workers still work hard and produce quality, but there are not enough of us with the work ethic of our forefathers and these days we generally don’t measure up against workers from other places. The reasons are somewhat irrelevant. Business owners really don’t care, the days of charity cases are over. Businesses don’t have the luxury of excess profits these days and cannot afford inefficiencies.If anyone wants to know how business owners feel about the situation, I will share yet another story. A business owner was directed by the authorities to hire a Bermudian mason and to pay him a particular hourly rate. The next day, the individual closed down his business, basically saying: “Like hell you’re gonna tell me how to run my company.”The moral of this story is that Government can do its part but the only way companies are going to want to hire Bermudian workers, not only in construction but in all industries, is if we step up our work ethic.Peace …. DJLT.