Have you ever been at work with your tasks basically done, waiting on further instruction from whoever is in charge at that time?, taking a few minutes just to recoup and reflect? You do your job and do it to the best of your ability for the money you are paid per hour, all for your management to breathe down your neck and give you the age-old motto of “If there's time to lean, there's time to clean!“
Total bullshit, I could think of a novel's worth of things more productive than wiping down a counter for the 20th time. It's not my work ethic, its not that I'm “young”, its because you are HORRIBLE at your leadership role, it couldn't be stated any simpler. If you took a few steps back and understood the truth behind your idea of “busy work”, you'd understand its less productive than me not doing my job at all. Busy work is your excuse for not being a good enough leader in your work environment, so you have to come up with on-the-spot tasks just to make sure your employees aren't getting “paid to stand around”. Take a look at your employees day to day life. You sit inside with the air conditioning on full blast, taking an hour lunch and sitting down all day while your true workers are on the verge of heatstroke in the July heat. Understand that maybe spending 2 hours in the humidity all for a bullshit “we need the dumpsters to be cleaned out, we gotta stay busy” from your boss should be the deciding factor of just up and quitting. Employees absolutely do not need to stay busy. Their job is their job, when its busy then its busy, and when its not busy… its not busy. Throw them a bone or two and honestly mind your own business. Clearly our actual work has nothing to do with you at all, you're just the dude who sits in the big comfy-spinny chair. You popped in during a time where your employees were taking 5 minutes to catch their breath and your feeble mind automatically assumed that they were doing that all day. Bullshit. Of course, there are TONS of things employees must do. Kitchen staff could always be prepping, retail staff could always be resetting and facing product. EMPLOYEES KNOW THIS. This is why work ethics seem to drop, because you are clueless. The lack of knowledge of your own employees intelligence is appalling, no wonder why they actually hate you and don't want to work for you/listen to you.
It's time for a change, it's time for bosses and leaders to do so much better. Employees work within their parameters. If you're payed $2.63 an hour as a server, your job duties at a MAXIMUM are to serve people food and smile. Staying later than usual to do side work that is ILLEGAL (unless paid at a full minimum wage if they even have the mental capacity to think of paying you) surprises me how many will allow it to happen to them.
All in all, the point of the story is that employees, the hard workers, the ones who are the “shop bitch”, those who work because they have to and not because they want to, and the people who do their best should have a higher standard. We are humans first and employees last, humanize the labor force and rid yourself of the negativity.
Note: I don't condone pure laziness in the workplace, I understand you may not like your job or the people you work with, but its kind of what you need to do. This post isn't made to glorify job laziness or horrible work ethics. This post was made to example, showcase, and explain how leadership works nowadays and how it needs to be stopped. Leadership is from the front, not the rear.
Edit: A few points I've missed.