Well, it is true. Most people don’t want to work. I certainly wouldn’t if I could help it.
Yeah. Me too. You would literally have to give me money, for me to sacrifice a part of my chilling out time.
And that should be the goal of a society. Currently we work because as individuals we're forced to. As humanity we're already past the forced need. Enabling people to choose would be more beneficial and we have the innate quality of finding meaningful ways to spend our time.
The problem is that we suck at allocating productivity. For example, we produce enough food for everyone but don't distribute it half as well as we should, so people still starve while food rots somewhere else. We waste resources propping up a whole host of parasites that add no value to society, such as famous-for-being-famous celebrities, advertisers, speculators and redundant managers, while underpaying the people who actually produce wealth. And we want a brand new iPhone every year, a brand new car every two years, etc, and by and large don't recycle. We're wasteful.
Most of the actually important and time-consuming work is automated already. If we were smart about what work we do, an 8-hour work week for everyone would be more than possible. But we are so inefficient with our productivity due to warped priorities that most of us barely scrape by as it is.
Can't say I've been missing it, Bob!
This just in: humans do not enjoy any degree of enslavement.
Check back next year to see if we've managed to break the spirit of the human race.
In other news, water has been confirmed to be wet.
This is true. It's because we evolved over many hundreds of thousands of years as egalitarian hunter-gatherers and only relatively recently invented things like agriculture, big stratified societies, the bulk accumulation of wealth and property and work.
This reminds me of a recent meme pushing back against the "greed is human nature" narrative. Was something like:
"If you see a bear riding a bicycle at the circus, do you assume it is the nature of bears to ride bicycles?"
no one has ever wanted to work, you're supposed to pay them enough that they're willing to work anyway
In case anyone is interested in the sauces https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nobody-wants-to-work-anymore/
True hero right here
Here's the thing - I want to work. I love it - I create solutions to problems. It's who I am, and when I have nothing else to do I wander around turning scraps into something useful. I became a programmer because I could create without worries about wasting materials.
What I hate is being exploited like a resource - 40 hours a week is a lot. It's enough I use every free moment just getting my energy back. I have no time to work on my own projects or properly socialize - I just get worn down until I burn out and can't wake up in the morning.
I'm also very aware of the impact of my actions, and nearly every possible job involves draining the world of something to make money for someone who has plenty.
I don't care if other people get to coast because of my work, I just want to solve hard problems in a way that adds to the world.
I do care when I'm used as a pawn in the game of capitalism - But meet my basic and I'd spend my time creating
Cause 40hrs a week is a schedule for workers on a production line with machine tools doing monotonous work. It's hard, but it doesn't require you to think much. Thinking, changing contexts is hard.
Ah, also you really are a resource, only your employer is a resource for you too, to get money which you then use for your own purposes. You are mutually resources for each other, that's the point.
Well, also it seems that in the olden days, when we didn't have internet etc, it was a bit more normal to do your own hobbies etc at work, unofficial tea breaks, and in general many things other than work. Though I'm from Russia, and the Soviet joke says "they imitate pay, we imitate work".
There's a reason why it's called "work" and "free time." Most prefer free time to do whatever they actually want to do.
I do workforce planning/management. No one wants to work by default. It is up to the organisation to do enough for their employees to compensate their employees so that they don't mind having to work. Whether culture, financial, work-life balance, etc.
Employers need workers but employees just need money. It is up to the employer to make a convincing argument that what they offer in exchange for finite portions of a person's life is reasonable, especially if they want to reduce costs with retention.
I work in permitting and I get to see a lot of businesses in a lot of industry types. Everything from small mom and pop places to places that have hundreds of employees, small contract jobs shops all the way up to massive chemical manufacturers. One common question I ask is about staffing, typically if a business doesn't have enough staff to run the business appropriately it's a good indicator of whether they will be able to meet their permit requirements.
By and large the only businesses who say, "Nobody wants to work anymore," are places that don't pay enough. Every single time it's a pay issue, maybe rarely it's a personality problem. I had one new business (that's particularly dirty and hard to hire for) come in and they wanted to start up fast, rather than hiring and training new employees they literally went to their 3 competitors in town and hired their staff directly. An extra $2.5 an hour, 17 people left which nearly crippled the competition, and they had fully trained staff that were more than happy to work in that type of business.
My employer struggled to hire a meat guy for three years, as they only wanted to offer minimum wage without benefits. They'd score the occasional hire, but that hire would inevitably quit after a few weeks when they realized it wasn't worth the pay. Both the store owner and the meat manager would continue to grumble about how "Nobody wants to work anymore", rather than facing the reality that nobody wants to work for shit pay and no benefits, as evident by the multiple hires who said "Fuck this job" and took their services elsewhere. Eventually they coughed up more and wound up landing a certified meat cutter with experience. Crazy how nature do that.
I don't know what the nobody wants to work crowd thinks the average non-contributer is doing to afford food and shelter. It's as though they imagine these people just declare that they don't want to work and receive government subsidies via the "I don't want to work anymore" check-box.
Those people still working harder than executives ever will. Priviliged bs.
According to a new survey ... 1 in 5 executive leaders agree with this statement: "No one wants to work".
So, 4 in 5 executive leaders DO NOT agree with this statement, yet the message in the media is that "dammit, no one wants to work!".
Peak journalism.
I wrote a blog article about this a while back with references to what this meme is actually quoting.
https://netmonkey.net/2023/06/03/nobody-wants-to-work-anymore/
Also, the point isn’t whether people want to work or not, but rather that the moral panic keeps coming up.
I fucking hate capitalists
Some people want to work. They usually have no hobbies, family, or interests.
Or they have a job they love. I have heard legends of such things existing.
I have a job I love 99% of the time. And I have hobbies. I worked really fucking hard to get to where I am. 80+ hour weeks for months at a time for years.
We also have other younger guys come in, and some of them want to learn, and they go right on up the chain. Then, we have people that want things handed to them, don't wanna do anything, and wonder why they're not getting promotions. I've even given them incentives, raises, and tried to coach them on what they should do to meet a goal we both set. Some just want to point fingers and blame everyone else, and never take responsibility for their actions
But we have more success stories than "failures." It's good company to work for.
I see you in the OP’s pic
Programmer here. The hobby became my job and it's pretty great when there isn't a layer of corporate bullshit on top and I can just be creative to satisfy that itch.
Works out most of the time but I'm also able to contribute to open source when in at work so that helps.
I want to Do. I like Doing. I like getting good at Doing.
I don’t like work. I only work so I can Do what I want.
If no one wants to work then who the fuck are all these people on the highway at rush hour?
Most people that say “people don’t want to work anymore” typically don’t themselves do any work
Many of us are only working because we can't afford not to work. This bullshit world is designed in that way.
Works as well with "Kids these days..."
My boss has been looking for new technicians since I joined but has had no luck. His excuse is the classic "Nobody wants to work", but then I saw what he's paying for entry level for the positions. It's so low you're better off working at McDonalds or slinging Amazon packages bad.
Change My View: Its not the business owner's fault that they can't pay enough wages to hire enough people. It is the landowners and land speculators fault for raising the rent / price of land to the point where the businessowers don't have enough money to pay.people because all their revenue is going to the landowners. I believe we need a land value tax to fix this issue.
A very Georgist view, but a lot of companies are just scummy and want to make the most profit possible.
I understand very well that nobody wants to work anymore. The problem is, that despite all the technological advancements we still have to work. It's outrageous!
nobody ever wanted to work, we're forced to in order to fricken survive
Duh. Most people want money, the work itself is just a means to an end. And even many of the people that do enjoy their work would do something different with their life if money wasn't an issue.
My work ethic is a dlc the boss needs to pay extra for it
nO oNe wAnTs tO wOrK aNyMoRe
The 1979 disgusted businessman lmao
I like the the 2014 quote from the person as a teenager. Makes me think they and their peers worked hard, went up the ladder, and saw the people on the same rung don’t work hard OR that you see others in the hierarchy as less hardworking no matter where you are.
Memes
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