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The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

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Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#101

Post by op00to »

constantly wrote: post #11
swayvil wrote: post #4

Modern work is weird. All your energy goes into it. But at the end of the day there's no satisfaction. Just emptiness and exhaustion. So you invest your remaining time in entertainments, drugs and shopping. Frantically groping for a scrap of joy. My friends in carpentry call it "feeding the monkey". The monkey must be fed, one way or another.

Speak for yourself, I know many people who derive a lot of joy from their work and find it energizing, myself included.

Taking too much joy in anything that can be ripped from you is hazardous to your mental well being. A well rounded individual is much more resilient than someone who lives for work.

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#103

Post by nine_zeros »

BirAdam wrote: post #92
nine_zeros wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. I don't understand why this is up for debate. Working hard does not buy a house, a convenient apartment, a promotion to higher income, equity at low prices, a lifestyle where one can find partners and settle down, kids, kids education. We are talking about the basics, not avocado toast or international vacations. The juice just ain't worth the squeeze in America any longer.

I would make two observations here. First, costs are up. Not just housing and school, but also cars. Additionally, people are required to have smart phones. Most clothing is of poor quality and will need to be repurchased. Food is of poor quality if it’s cheap and therefore health costs get higher. Second, in a low interest rate environment, any crazy idea gets funding. This squanders time and resources as many bad i…

> The major fix for this is higher interest rates… significantly higher. People would need to be willing to accept a slower growth rate in exchange for more predictable and more stable long term growth.

And the upper rungs of corporations will have to accept lower compensation.

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#104

Post by DanAtC »

lopkeny12ko wrote: post #58

As a tech lead, the big problem I see now is that people are not hungry anymore. The best engineers I've ever worked with were consistently asking for more and leveling up the team at the same time. Now, the post-covid hires, especially the junior engineers, just do the bare minimum to scrape by, and they seem totally unbothered by it. One new hire on my team spends upwards of 2 hours per day "walking her dog." I eve…

So what?

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#105

Post by BirAdam »

coldcode wrote: post #66

One of my favorite old songs: Big Rock Candy Mountain ( https://genius.com/Harry-mcclintock-big-rock-candy-mountain-... ) covers it well. The last verse ends in: There ain't no short-handle shovels No axes, saws or picks I'm a-goin' to stay where you sleep all day Where they hung the jerk that invented work In The Big Rock Candy Mountains

I really like the Restarts’ version of this song.

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#106

Post by momirlan »

usrbinbash wrote: post #53

It's pretty simple really. If the reward from working is barely enough to cover the necessities, then there is technically no difference between working as a free citizen, and being forced to work as an indentured servant, other than a vague notion of freedom, which in that case is the freedom to decide between working and living on the streets. And people don't like being indentured servants. History should have mad…

i agree 100% , but what is the solution to that ? just raising wages en masse erodes the power of money and leads to inflation.

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#107

Post by randomdata »

shapefrog wrote: post #5
quelsolaar wrote: post #3

To be called ”Long History” i think it should to extend beyond the current generation.

Kids these days.

...are great! I employ a number of teenagers and they are absolutely wonderful. The future is bright.

It's really just the late 20/early-to-mid 30-somethings who don't want to work. We have assumed it is because they are the "everyone gets a trophy" generation, but whatever it is there is a markable difference among the hires within that group as compared to those younger and older.

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#108

Post by MattPalmer1086 »

jen20 wrote: post #78
lopkeny12ko wrote: post #58

As a tech lead, the big problem I see now is that people are not hungry anymore. The best engineers I've ever worked with were consistently asking for more and leveling up the team at the same time. Now, the post-covid hires, especially the junior engineers, just do the bare minimum to scrape by, and they seem totally unbothered by it. One new hire on my team spends upwards of 2 hours per day "walking her dog." I eve…

I work for a pretty successful company (by any measure), and have had multiple startup exits before that, and I would know it was time to retire immediately if I started thinking like you. > One new hire on my team spends upwards of 2 hours per day "walking her dog." I once came up with the idea for a product which has generated several hundred million dollars in revenue on a dog walk in the middle of the day. This m…

Yeah... I used to go for walks to think. There is much evidence that it helps people in general, but I know it does for me.

I got dinged on my performance review for being away from my desk. Didn't stay long at that company.

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#109

Post by bbarn »

usrbinbash wrote: post #53

It's pretty simple really. If the reward from working is barely enough to cover the necessities, then there is technically no difference between working as a free citizen, and being forced to work as an indentured servant, other than a vague notion of freedom, which in that case is the freedom to decide between working and living on the streets. And people don't like being indentured servants. History should have mad…

I have heard the argument that a negative effect of the post WW2 "feminist" movement (by that I mean women in the work force) has had the long term effect of causing prices to simply adjust to the dual income household, to the point that now it is a necessity. It is a privileged family today that can afford to live comfortably on only one salary.

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#110

Post by mordae »

m0rissette wrote: post #76
usrbinbash wrote: post #53

It's pretty simple really. If the reward from working is barely enough to cover the necessities, then there is technically no difference between working as a free citizen, and being forced to work as an indentured servant, other than a vague notion of freedom, which in that case is the freedom to decide between working and living on the streets. And people don't like being indentured servants. History should have mad…

I mean maybe I have work ethic or am lucky. But I don’t struggle to pay mortgage, buy cars, or go on vacations and I am the sole breadwinner for my family… but I also started programming in 3rd grade in the 90s, didn’t go to college so have no debt, and live a pretty non materialistic punk rock life.

Take care of yourself. One burnout because of an unreasonable boss compounded with illness and good luck.
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