The work ethic is the set of norms, values and principles that govern employment relations and in the process influences workers’ behaviour, interactions and interrelationships at the workplace. It involves what is right and acceptable and above board, versus what is wrong, underhanded and under the table.

The ideal work ethic is based on the moral values that advocate the virtues of diligence and hard work. A strong work ethic is vital to the company to achieve its goals as it can form the base that keeps the company functioning at its peak.

Naturally there are cases where honesty, integrity and accountability among workers do not converge to this ideal.

This shady work ethic may have anegative impact on the interrelationships at the work place and the viability of the company.

According to Joe Farrugia, director general of the Malta Employers’ Association (MEA), there is evidence of this shady work ethic among the young workers who tend to show “no loyalty to the workplace” (September 30). As a symptom of this declining work ethic Farrugia points to the number of workers, especially young workers, who report sick on Monday morning. This blue Monday syndrome has become, according to MEA director-general, part of the culture of entitlement, the logical implications of which may result in indifference and hostility towards productivity.

Is the MEA through its spokesman implying that Maltese society is suffering from a catastrophic abandonment of the work ethic based on the values of diligence, punctuality and the primacy of the work domain in one’s life?

Although there may be reason to believe that values are not as stable as they might have been in the past there is lack of reliable evidence about how exactly work values may have been changed.

The MEA spokesman, by indicting the young workers of the blue Monday syndrome, is implying that there may be signs of the lack of core work values among the new generation of Maltese workers. Implications for work behaviour and other economic actions vary considerably from one generation to the other.

In their quest to identify the factors that are amenable to a culture which can diverge from the ideal work ethic social analysts have pointed out factors that can be found to be within the confines of the workplace as well as on the outside.

The higher the intrinsic value of work the higher the level of commitment and loyalty among workers

One of these factors is the source of dissatisfaction at the workplace. The priority given to any reward or job characteristic results mainly from two sorts of comparisons which workers habitually make.

First they compare their circumstances with those of other employee groups which seem to be doing similar sorts of work. Secondly they ask themselves whether the actual tasks they perform are those which should be performed by people having their own level of training, experience and formal education.

Such comparisons and reflective questions are more pertinent to the young generation of workers given that they tend to be much more edu-cated and have higher qualifications than their forbears.

The other factor that influences the work ethic and undermines its core values is the new hedonistic framework. Hedonism has always been with us as the human being is by nature a pleasure-seeking creature. The culture of hedonism is a consequence of relativism which has become the dominant feature of this post-industrial society.

Indeed values have become relative and subjective. The commercials in the media through their explicit or implicit appeals to raise our level of consumption have raised our expectations of life and made us less wary of the spiritual negativity of hedonism.

In other words modern society by becoming less tied to a life stressing the tacit acceptance of a kind of living characterised by weeping and sobbing in this vale of tears became much more hedonistic. This higher pitch of hedonism has imbibed a new work culture since in order to satisfy these higher expectations of life we have to earn more money.

This modern hedonistic culture may undermine the work ethic in the sense that work becomes simply an instrument for avid consumption. When work is perceived in such instrumental terms the moral values of the work ethic lose much of their weight in one’s consciousness.

This new hedonistic framework may have also transformed the family structure. Part of the rationale of the two-earner family, which is becoming the norm is the pursuit of this hedonism.  The income of two persons in the same household enables it to reach a level of affluence that make hedonistic pleasure much more within reach. This new phenomenon can have an unintended consequence on the work ethic.

When each partner in a household contributes a more or less comparable income either of them can afford to take more risks in their work career. Some of the turnover and absenteeism can be due to joint-earner household among younger people of all classes.

What are the implications for the employers? Once they are fully aware that they cannot move the mountain they have to go to it.  Empowering the workers and humanising work should no longer be defined as slogans for human resource management but should be seen as strategies that can enhance the level of job satisfaction and give a higher intrinsic value to work.

The higher the intrinsic value of work the higher the level of commitment and loyalty among workers. The reconstruction of work values is interdependent with changes in the social structure and social relationship at the place of work and in society at large.

Saviour Rizzo is a former director of the Centre for Labour Studies, University of Malta.