I ran a successful business for more than 40 years before I was forced to shut it down… here’s why Gen Z are to blame
A motorbike mechanic has blamed young workers for their sense of entitlement claiming he was forced to close down his business because of them.
Dave Lawson opened The Bike Doctor Perth in December 1981, but 43 years later he has blamed Gen Z – those born from 1997 to 2012 – for having to shut up shop.
‘They’ve been spoilt by my generation,’ he told the West Australian.
‘We’ve tried to give our kids a better life than we had. We haven’t let them tough it out and make their own mistakes.’
Mr Lawson said Gen Z are turning their noses up at becoming apprentices due to the low starting pay, but somehow find the money for expensive lifestyle choices.
‘A lot of young people say they don’t have money but if you have a look at their bank statements and they pay $50 to get a hamburger delivered and all this sort of stuff,’ he said.
‘That’s where your money’s going. You just can’t save money when you blow it like that.’
In his decades in business, Mr Rawson reckons he’s had just a dozen apprentices, and while some had stayed for years, others lasted just a few weeks.
Dave Lawson (pictured right) ran a successful business for more than four decades, but has had to shut it down because he couldn’t find anyone to work there
They did have one thing in common over the years, though – none of them stayed in motorbike mechanic work.
While they’re all happy to get the work in the first place, Mr Rawson said ‘within three to six months, they’re dragging their lip around the workshop’.
‘Some people expect too much,’ he said.
Though money is often a major factor in their dwindling interest, Mr Rawson said the problems start in schools where becoming an apprentice is not valued enough.
He said pupils are encouraged to go to university, but they come out with $100,000 in debt, no job and no experience.
He said the problem in Western Australia is made worse by the state’s huge mining sector.
Mr Rawson explained mining was a ‘very attractive job for young people because they can go straight into the big bucks’.
Heavy diesel mechanic apprentice Connor Gale, 21, said a lot of people in the sector drop out before they qualify, and said it’s mostly down to money and the likelihood of earning more elsewhere in the short term.
‘The customer service advisers make more than the mechanics on bonuses,’ he said.
‘So, the way they look at it is, why would you sacrifice four years on c**p pay when you could go straight into a service adviser role.’
Mr Lawson said Gen Z are turning their nose up at becoming an apprentice due to the low starting pay, but somehow find the money for expensive lifestyle choices (pictured, young Aussies walking at St Kilda Beach in Melbourne)
Though Mr Lawson is based in Perth, the lack of apprentices is a problem across Australia.
Last week a Brisbane construction boss was left gobsmacked when his apprentice sent a casual text to announce he had quit.
Scott Challen, who heads Brisbane-based home renovator The QHI group, said he was stunned to receive a short text announcing the apprentice wouldn’t be showing up to work anymore.
The text message was along the lines of: ‘Thanks for the opportunity. Sorry I let you down, see you later.’
‘We put this young kid on. He was fantastic,’ Mr Challen told Yahoo.
‘And then all of a sudden… He just pulled the pin overnight with no notice and decided he was moving interstate.
‘That flippancy about his own career… he seemed committed, and then suddenly wasn’t committed.’
