“The future’s not ours to see, que sera, sera,” is a lyric from a song by Doris Day.

While the future may be unknown, there are definitely knowns in life. For students happily tossing their mortar boards in the air following graduation from high school or college, one known will be the need to find gainful employment, otherwise known as work.

This group of recent graduates is referred to as belonging to Gen Z, which is defined by the Oxford dictionary as people born between the late 1990s and the early 2010s or between the ages of 18 and 28. These students grew up during the age of computers and social media.

Fewer teenagers today have actual work experience or have had a chance to develop a genuine work ethic as a daily habit.

Jeffrey Tucker wrote in “America and the Spirit of Work,” published in the April Epoch Times, “Since 1936, there have been severe legal restrictions on teenage work, such as teenagers cannot have a full-time job until they are 18.”

He noted that often work is treated as regrettable, resulting in “this crazy mentality of lazy entitlement that has seized so many.”

Work is defined as physical or intellectual effort to produce a desired outcome. From “The Happiness Blog” on July 12, 2021, author AMARVANI posited that “work is the most important thing about our lives.” His reasoning was that family is important, but one cannot raise a family if it were not for the work that they do.

Stephen Hawking, an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author who revolutionized scientific thought about the universe, said, “Work gives you meaning and purpose, and life is empty without it.”

A quick search of the Internet reveals the benefits of work: a sense of purpose; a source of self-respect; confidence in our abilities; financial security; personal identity; and a productive way of life.

The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion website summarizes data, saying, “Those who are unemployed report feelings of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, demoralization, worry and physical pain.”

Unemployed individuals tend to suffer more from stress-related illnesses.

Securing employment is important for the graduates, yet are they ready to work?

Mary Prenon, writing in the Epoch Times on March 25, answers the question with a resounding, “NO,” as she summarizes in “New Survey Shows Many Gen Z Candidates Not Prepared for Workforce.”

She said that in a recent survey of 765 human resources managers across the U.S., Resume.Org found that some Gen Z candidates arrived for the interview late and inappropriately dressed, were unprepared, lacked professionalism, used their cell phone to text or answer calls and acted disinterested.

Resume.Org surveyed hiring managers who had interviewed at least three Gen Z applicants in the past year, and it related the following: “More than half of survey respondents (51 percent) indicated that Gen Z candidates had exhibited poor communication skills, 47 percent said they were dressed too casually, 23 percent said the candidates had inflated their qualifications or used artificial intelligence in their applications, and 44 percent said they showed a sense of entitlement.”

Irina Pichura, founder of Resumeology and a career coach working with Fortune 500 companies, said, “Growing up in an era of texting and social media, some come off as too casual.”

Younger people seem to not know how to dress appropriately or how to communicate face to face. Pichura went on to say, “I’ve also heard stories of those Gen Z applicants who were hired just disappearing from the job if they didn’t like it, without even telling anyone.”

The Intelligent.com website reports the summary findings of an August 2024 survey of 966 business leaders involved in hiring decisions at their company. The survey found that 75 percent of companies reported a significant number of the recent college graduates they hired in 2024 were unsatisfactory. The most frequently cited reasons why these hires did not work out were a lack of motivation or initiative, poor communication skills and a lack of professionalism.

A disconnect appears to exist between academic preparation and preparation for success in the workplace. The cited surveys indicate a failure to prepare the graduates in interviewing skills, workplace etiquette or work ethic.

Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, said, “Your work will fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.”

The future may not be ours to see, but work is a known. Embrace it.