Problems Worth Solving

The other day I read one of the "trending" articles on Facebook about how awful it is to work in America. The article said that 70 percent of Americans have "checked out" at work and 20 percent actively hate it. People with higher levels of education are statistically more likely to be "actively disengaged." The writer suggested that the Philosophy 101 class where students are taught to ask questions like "What does it all mean?" might be part of the problem.

That stopped me in my tracks. Is there something wrong with education when it causes disengagement at work? Is there something wrong with the workers? Is there something wrong with the companies who employ over-educated, under-utilized employees?

I recently read an article in a copy of The Atlantic that I picked up at a garage sale about what we can learn from Japan's economic bust. The article is about an entire generation of young adults in Japan who embraced the failing economy of the 1990s as an opportunity to look outside the corporate world for employment and fulfillment. As the economy declined, what started out as freedom from long hours in Japanese corporations turned into poverty and long-term unemployment.

The article goes on to speculate on the long-term impact of losing an entire generation of new workers. These are young people not being trained in specific jobs as skilled workers, young people not participating in the national economy, young people not contributing creatively to the future of corporations.

I think this is a big problem. I've written about this before, but it is a very relevant issue in my life. I see a lot of young people who are not part of the mainstream workforce. Not only are they struggling financially, but I believe organizations are missing out on the opportunity for fresh and creative insight, as well as the opportunity to train young people to become competent workers in the future.

The Facebook article, however, turned my thoughts in another direction. Are young people also missing out on the opportunity to solve problems that their education has taught them are not worth solving?

I'm really writing on this topic because my dishwasher is broken. I have a lot of dishes in my sink that need to be washed, but my education suggests that things like washing dishes and clothes, cooking food, and sweeping floors are tasks not worth my time.

I wonder if both young people and corporations are missing out on important opportunities. Corporations may not be hiring young people, but young people may also consider the day-to-day work of corporations tedious and unimportant.

What problems are worth solving?

How to keep a house clean? How to effectively create and maintain documents? How to sell a product? How to create a product worth selling? How to turn labor into money?

The Facebook article represented a viewpoint that I hear constantly. It is one of injustice, of grumbling, of angst and worry over the present and the future. I know that many of my generation are unemployed or underemployed. We struggle with things like access to health care, concern over the world's food supply now and in the future, finding adequate, affordable housing, and providing care for our children.

However, I find the bitterness so common in my generation too easy to embrace. What is much more difficult is putting my education to use solving the problems in front of me. If I wash one dish every 30 seconds, and I have 25 dishes to clean, how long will it take to wash all of the dishes? The answer is: a lot longer than if the dishwasher worked, but less time than if I had no hot water. The answer is also: a lot longer than it would take to wash 5 dishes if that were all I had.

Has my generation too narrowly defined the problems we are willing to solve? Has that made us both unemployed and unemployable?

Here's a problem worth solving...