Blame it largely on the pandemic, which weakened the hold the workplace held on people’s psyches
By outward appearances, the labor market today looks much as it did before the pandemic. The unemployment rate is just as low, the share of adults in the labor force is just as high, and wages are growing at roughly the same pace after inflation.
But beneath the surface, the nature of labor has changed profoundly. Career and work aren’t nearly as central to the lives of Americans. They want more time for their families and themselves, and more flexibility about when, where and how they work.
The impact of this change can already be seen in both individual companies and the broader economy. It has led to a persistent shortage of workers, especially in jobs that seem less desirable because, for example, they require in-person work or fixed hours. That, in turn, has altered the bargaining position of employers and employees—forcing employers to adapt, not just by paying more but giving priority to quality of life in job offers.
To be sure, some of these changes arise from an exceptionally tight labor market. If unemployment rises, some of employees’ newfound leverage may evaporate.
Won’t somebody think of the shareholders!
Me while holding my firearm
The only thing that I get if I meet my absurd deadlines is more deadlines to meet. And so, under managers that don’t have a fucking clue what I do anyway, I bullshit my way doing probably 20% of what I used to. I even still get a glowing performance review and no real raises are coming. Its a crummy situation, but I’m certainly not gonna kill myself to enrich someone else.
What’s the point?
I make more than most of my acquaintances in the city (my friends are poor), yet it’s not enough to rent a house much less buy one. It’s not enough to save for retirement. It’s not even enough to move to a better apartment. The only reason I can think of owning a house is my inheritance - period.
My company touts their generous benefits which start on day one. But I’m about to lose access to my therapist because they want to push virtual and self-help resources instead. They publish pamphlets that exaggerate medical benefits, when you go to use them the insurance company says “Nah lol.”
We have no union and in fact the state disincentivized formation of unions with “right to work” laws.
Work leaves me feeling exhausted and hopeless. My paycheck covers the bills, buys food, and keeps a derelict roof over my head. Apparently that makes me “lucky” and I should be grateful for it.
My company touts their generous benefits which start on day one. But I’m about to lose access to my therapist because they want to push virtual and self-help resources instead.
-pure rage-
😡 😡 😡
It really sucks. We have a great dynamic and she has helped me so much over the last year, words can’t express.
I want you to remember this is a violence being done upon you by the healthcare industry and your employer.
You are a victim of violence here as sure as if someone had physically attacked you on the street, except the violence was premeditated, utterly unnecessary and hurtful in a way that doesn’t heal like bruises do.
Stay angry about that, not in a way that eats your heart away, but in a way that transmutes hopelessness into resistance.
From a logical standpoint, healthcare should see the fact that you found a therapist that works for you as a “WE FOUND THE NEEDLE IN THE HAYSTACK!” moment which is precisely not the moment you say “well we might as well throw this needle away and keep searching because we can just find another!”.
Gosh I don’t wish harm upon others easily, but it is hard not to feel like the people who make the decisions to structure society this way should be hurt very badly to the point that other people who want to commit similar atrocities would simply be too scared to try it even if they wanted to.
Work is less valuable to us because it has literally become less valuable. We get much less in terms of real purchasing power.
You want me to care more about my job? Make it more valuable to me.
Loyalty is paid in cash, want me to be loyal, then pay me what I feel keeps me loyal.
Also any job one might be passionate about pays the bare minimum it can, because not hating your job is basically a rare perk now.
Absolute bullshit.
So, that means we’ll soon have a minimum of 5 weeks vacation time like the Europeans, right? Right?
make a fourth of what made five years ago but same job
think part of why people work less now is because of no incentive
pay is way down, moral is low, and bills are higher than the income
recreational drugs are being outpriced for the first time in my lifetime by food costs
Dude. For some time in my area of Canada, I could buy a gram of weed for less than a head of lettuce ($6 vs $7)
Weed salad for dinner
Economy solved
Gen Z here. I have a house, (its small, i wouldn’t want a bigger one, because there is no need for it,) a decent car, am married, dont have any debt other than a mortgage, and i can comfortably pay everything i need to now and save a bit for the future. Why would I want to work harder for a better car? I don’t have a desire to show off or anything. Instead of working hard for someone else, I want to create things. Stories, games, art, I want to be creative, i dont want to work my ass of for someone else, doing menial labor.
I’m just a sponge being squeezed of every ounce of productivity when I’m at work. It’s never a case of “you’re good enough” but always “aim higher, be better”. I’m over it. The veil has been lifted. None of these businesses see me as a human, and I’m dedicating my world to them I’m exchange for the bare minimum. If everyone was fighting together I’d want to rally, but I don’t get a better slice of the pie if I make it bigger. So… fuck em.
I watched “engineers” spend 14 hours attempting to make a new process work. Caused 8 hours of down time. So a total of 22 hours total for a process. They counted only the active time and high fived each other getting the process down from 12 hours to 8 hours. Operators are now expected to do 14-24 hours worth of work in 8 for 22.50 an hour.
I feel terrible for them.
I actually enjoy my job. I like the people and I like the environment and I get paid decently as well. From what I’ve observed personally, everybody wants a job but it seems like the general work ethic of the younger generation is very poor. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not blaming them. I actually do not think it’s their fault, I think it’s just the way that they’ve been raised. So many iPad babies.
Everyone has said this about the younger generations for as long as humans have been around.
I understand that and I used to say the same thing. That’s ridiculous, old people just don’t like the younger generation BUT I’ve seen it. I currently work at the same place that I worked at almost 20 years ago. I did the same job then that they are doing now. It is almost frightening how many kids lack common sense and basic skills. Maybe it’s always been that way but it’s something I’ve observed personally. Don’t get me wrong, I work with some extremely smart and talented teens but they are few and far between.
Examples?
I’m still youngish (29) but there’s been a definite shift in new hires at our tech company. I know “everyone always complains about the young generation” anecdotally so I’ll give some concrete examples (I used to work with the internal reporting people so I’ve seen the data):
-5x+ increase on cheating in onboarding tests (not hr bs but like actual stuff for the job). Everyone’s cheating. And talking to people who were in school in the pandemic with virtual classes, everyone there was cheating too so if you didn’t cheat you were falling behind
-people coming in at 10 and leaving at 2. Our company had been around for 50+ years and has a generally laid back tech vibe where you get your work done and you’re good. It’s never been an issue. So many new hires this past year were doing it that we had to institute a mandatory 9-5 which really pissed off everyone else who was getting shit done
-customer feedback. Objective ratings of the support from newer hires is lower than we’ve ever had for the tenure cohort
Each of these backs up the anecdotal feeling we have that newer hires aren’t as independent or resilient. That being said, this is a generalization and the majority of them are doing good work. Just less than before
I’m 45 and you’re literally describing what i have seen so, so many times across my career any time a new bunch of fresh-outta-uni hires rolled in.
It’s this total lack of self awareness that has defined the older generations forever, as well.
No appreciation for how the world has changed for young people and the new challenges they face, overweighting the things older people have seen and done.
Don’t be part of the problem with the world.
how many kids lack common sense and basic skills
Because the common sense and basic skills that they use every day are different, they exist in an entirely different world.
Yes they are different but they are still COMMON and BASIC. As in, they should be something that everyone possesses regardless of the world they live in. The sad thing is that so many of these kids don’t have them. It’s not their fault, I understand that. I try to share my knowledge with anyone that wants to listen
I think the issue is with slave wages and not being able to survive on one job. I understand that this is a rampant problem.
But I’m so glad for you that this serious problem does not apply to you.
I don’t understand why this is the prevailing sentiment here. Almost everyone here is computer savvy and more than likely most people here either work in high tech high paying industries, or at least decent paying and probably use computers somehow. So why is everyone saying you need two jobs? That might be true for the population on average but it would seem not to apply to people here.
That might be true for the population on average but it would seem not to apply to people here
I hear you, and thank you for that point.
I was thinking about the average, however, and trying to speak on their behalf.
You’re right, it doesn’t apply to me. I pay my employees decent wages.
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Talk to some older folks.
As late as 1980, $20.00 made you feel like a big shot. You could buy yourself something fancy, or go out for a nice night on the town, or throw a great party.
You can have $20,000.00 in your hand today and feel like a chump. It won’t get you a new car, or make a downpayment on a house, Might let you rent a tiny room for a year, but you’ll be eating a lot of ramen.
That’s because people already had cars and houses then. So the $20 was extra. You could spend it on a nice meal, or some gas to go on a road trip. You could have seen the Rolling Stones in San Francisco for $15.50 in 1981:
Life is “better” now, because communications are essentially free. But basic things cost way more.
It sounds like you’re making the same point I am.
Back in the day a front row ticket was the best seat in the house. Now if a regular person spends the money for the front row they know that the really rich folks are having a real party in the sky box.
It’s funny you say this, but so many of the shows I go to have the cheap seats up in the stands, but the real expensive tickets are gen ad on the floor in/near the pit.
About 90% of all jobs produce useless nonsense like enterprise software, cars and all sorts of clothes. We could’ve lived in a paradise wearing togas to spaceports by now if not for all the vanity.
The pandemic showed that a huge percentage of our work is literately bullshit used to keep us grinding away and not actually living life. And to keep us from dealing with the huge and glaring problems in our society.
The Puritan idea that we must slave away in order to be worthy is a lie.
One of the greatest economists, Keynes, expected us to be working 15-20 hours a week at this point because of productivity increases.
But instead of sharing in the blessing of productivity, we were forced to do an increasing amount of meaningless work and spend less time actually living, all while being shackled with debt rather than even increasing our pay.
A pretty garbage system if you ask me.
I work 9 hours a day either sitting at my desk doing nothing or sitting in meetings doing nothing. My only reprieve is that it pays decently well for the area I live in.
My time at my job could be cut in half and I’d still get just as much work done as before. So much of my life and and everyone else’s lives are being wasted doing such meaningless work.
This is why I don’t trust people who claim the jobs AI takes will be replaced, because that’s how it was in the past. It wasn’t, we never replaced those jobs, only created meaningless work. David Graeber is right.
It’s just incredibly apparent now that not all of us need to work anymore, by a longshot, but how can they keep the working class in its place without scarcity?
We didn’t replace jobs with productivity gains. We absorbed them into our jobs. Consider expense reports. Used to be that you would send all your receipts to an administrative assistant and they would send you a report to approve. Now that work gets pushed down to an individual responsibility. Company thinks if we let each worker do a little more, we can get rid of this position.
It’s not that AI is good enough to take our jobs. It’s that AI is good enough to fool hiring managers into thinking it can take our jobs.
The employers care about neither the employee nor the quality of work. Some People learn to meet expectations and compensation. This is nothing to do with the workers and everything to do with changes in the employers.
That’s because work only exists to serve the ruling class at this point.
I’m fine with working for regular people, not for overlords.
Peter Gibbons: The thing is, Bob, it’s not that I’m lazy, it’s that I just don’t care.
Bob Porter: Don’t… don’t care?
Peter Gibbons: It’s a problem of motivation, all right? Now if I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don’t see another dime; so where’s the motivation? And here’s something else, Bob: I have eight different bosses right now.
Bob Slydell: I beg your pardon?
Peter Gibbons: Eight bosses.
Bob Slydell: Eight?
Peter Gibbons: Eight, Bob. So that means that when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That’s my only real motivation is not to be hassled; that, and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.
Plus ça change…
This movie has defined my working life.
The fact that nothing much has changed about this in 25 years is an indictment of both our economy and society.
Oh it’s definitely changed. For the worse.
Compared to an open office the cubicles in Office Space look amazing.
They saw it and said, “how can we do this, exploit it, and pay them less?”
“How much more can we steal from them without getting our building burned down?”
I don’t have a Swingline…
“Just make sure they don’t have enough money to buy gas or matches and we’re golden!”
It was Marxisim 101 stuff that goes back well over a century. Peter was basically reinventing the premises on the spot.
