DR. WALLACE: One of the girls in our group is always trying to get us other girls to join her with various volunteer endeavors. I've attended a few of them, and some were all right, but others were not so much. Of course, the girl who organizes these outings always makes sure to have a lot of pictures taken, and they definitely end up on her social media posts immediately. There is one girl in our group who has never attended any of these events, and now some of the other girls are talking behind her back about why she never helps out. I'm actually pretty close to her, so when we were alone one day at school, I brought this topic up to her and asked why she always would rush away whenever the topic of volunteer work came around.

Her reply surprised me, as she told me that these events were a travesty, and the girl who organizes them is only doing it for her ulterior motives. She also went on to say that she does more than enough volunteer work that no one knows about and that she doesn't feel the need to boast about publicly. Now I feel caught in the middle, because I really came out of that discussion with new respect for this girl who's never attended a group event. I kind of wanted to tell what I'd learned to the other girls, but I'm not sure if I should. What's your opinion? — Her Answer Surprised Me, via email

HER ANSWER SURPRISED ME: I feel it's best to say nothing further to anyone at this point. You now know and understand where this particular friend is coming from, and if she wanted her own volunteer work to be public, she has had plenty of time to make it known. Therefore, it's more respectful to her to follow along with her wishes and her mindset, and to simply not engage anyone on her behalf.

And if the chirping about her continues, you could simply mention that as a group you girls don't know what volunteer work she does or does not do on her own. Leave it at that.

IS MY GENERATION'S WORK ETHIC DOOMED?

DR. WALLACE: I'm a guy who's a junior in high school, and I'm called "Brinks" because I always have some money in my pocket. Do I come from a wealthy family? No, I do not, but I'm always willing to work to earn some money in our neighborhood.

Every spring, I print up some flyers and put them in every mailbox for several blocks around the epicenter of our family home. I put my phone number and email address on them and tell people to feel free to call, text or email me if they need any household chores, cleaning, moving, yardwork or basically anything that I could do within reason to help around their family home, yard and garden. I do get a few calls and emails from the original flyers, but over two-thirds of my overall jobs originate when I go around the neighborhood streets and start knocking on doors on a Saturday morning about 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. I introduce myself in person and ask the homeowners if they received my flyer the previous week. Several of them brighten up instantly and mention that they were thinking of getting in touch with me. Once I'm there in person, those that show any interest at all convert into customers at almost a 90% rate!

Sometimes I get rather big jobs, so I've asked four of my friends at school to come work with me on various Saturdays (one at a time). Out of the four, only one showed any interest at all in earning some money, and it's actually very good money for the amount of time involved. And even though I put up the money to print the flyers and used my time and hustle to get the ball rolling, I always split each job equally with whoever works with me if I have a helper.

The three guys who have shown no interest in working along with me always seem to have enough money to hang out and do whatever they want to do socially, but I know for a fact they don't work anywhere. It's likely that their parents give them plenty of cash to use as they wish.

This experience got me thinking, do you believe that my generation will have a much poorer work ethic overall than the generations that came before us? — Most Don't Want to Work, via email

MOST DON'T WANT TO WORK: Even though you had direct experience with only one out of four friends showing any interest in earning some extra money on the weekends, I don't think that's a big enough sample size to make broad proclamations about an entire generation. Having said that, I tend to look more at the positives than the negatives. Instead of me focusing on your friends' reasons for not wanting to work, I do know that you and the friend who was interested are great examples of not only a good work ethic but entrepreneurial tendencies to go out and make something on your own.

Each generation needs to sort things out in an increasingly complex and always faster-changing world, but I have great faith in young people, and I'm confident that when the time comes to get to work and earn a living, a huge percentage of your generation will not only do that but do it quite successfully. Congratulations on your abilities to not only create opportunities but share them with a good friend of yours.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected]. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Austin Kehmeier at Unsplash