'Nobody wants to work anymore': How a simple phrase became the oversimplified scapegoat for every pr

[Demovictory9]

'Nobody wants to work anymore': How a simple phrase became the oversimplified scapegoat for every problem plaguing the American labor market

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/nobody-wants-to-work-anymore-how-a-simple-phrase-became-the-oversimplified-scapegoat-for-every-problem-plaguing-the-american-labor-market/ar-AAMrMEa?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531

On a recent trip to Pennsylvania, I heard the phrase "nobody wants to work anymore" over and over.
It's become common since businesses began reopening fully this spring.

As with so many memes this year, this one began on TikTok and spread quickly.

Maybe you've seen it on a sign at your local Taco Bell drive-thru, or as part of a screed on social media: "Nobody wants to work anymore."

The phrase has become strikingly common in current American society, and taken at face value, it stands to reason that everyone has collectively decided to stop working.

On a recent trip near Reading, Pennsylvania, I heard the phrase no less than three times in 24 hours from three completely different people.

---------

"Instead of no one wants to work anymore," former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich said, "Try no one wants to be exploited anymore."

[RockRaven]

1. "Nobody wants to work *under demeaning conditions* FOR POVERTY WAGES anymore"

is more like it. Although the "anymore" is rather false. Nobody has ever wanted to do that.

[Beachnutt]

2. Most companies are hiring, they just don't pay a living wage

to employees

[LakeArenal]

3. It's a bit like a people's strike.

Better wages
Better conditions
Better benefits
Better working environment
Better future
Better retirement.

[inanna]

4. K & R

[louis-t]

5. It's what the truly hypnotized repug masses repeat.

When a guy repeated to me that employers offering $15 an hour suddenly are getting hundreds of applications, he denied that was happening.

[gratuitous]

6. So much easier to blame the most vulnerable

"Nobody wants to work anymore." You stopped too soon: "Nobody wants to work anymore for heartless, cheap, mean-spirited employers who won't pay them a living wage, offer them a set schedule so they can plan their lives instead of being on call 24-7, and put up with their demeaning abuse."

[Bettie]

13. Just talked to the last friend I had from high school today

she's looking for workers for the front desk at the gym she works at.

No one there wears a mask, few are vaccinated, and they expect the workers to be available during all the hours the place is open, even though they are only offering part time work. They pay about a buck over min wage, no benefits and people yelling at them all the time.

So, they hired two young women who are students. She was angry about the fact that they aren't available during the time they are in school. So, she's angry that she's having to cover the desk now, since one of them apparently said "Fine, I don't need to work here then".

As to my friend. I don't think I can continue to associate with her at all. I've known her since we were 12 years old, but she's gone full MAGAT now and I just can't with that.

[lpbk2713]

7. Nobody wants McJobs any more.

In the not too distant past workers had to take what was available in order to survive.
The deck was stacked against the lower end of the labor spectrum. Thank god/ess
people aren't so desperate any more.

[mcar]

8. Our local rag ran an LTE from a retired couple

complaining that they couldn't get their Sunday fast-food experience because dining in at Dairy Queen and Arby's isn't possible bc there weren't enough employees. They decried teenagers who should get off their asses and go to work.

The paper then ran a page one, above the fold story about this poor, poor couple who were victimized by the "hefty" stimulus payments all these lazy layabouts had gotten.

Surprisingly for our little red corner of FL, the response was not what the couple, or the reporter, expected. Follow up letters handed them all their asses - the paper for turning that stupid letter into a front page story, the reporter for his editorializing and the couple for being selfish gits.

[rickyhall]

9. I say, "Share those billions, you greedy bastards."

But that's just me.

[czarjak]

15. "Wealth is like rainwater, all that's ever been generated is already here...

it’s just a matter of distribution”, said Rushbo. More wealth for the wealthy.
Every time.

[OhZone]

10. When did anyone really want to work to begin with? Ha

[inwiththenew]

11. The end result will be increased automation of lower end jobs

Companies would rather do that than increase wages.

You can already see it happening now. The local Kroger's by me is on of their large ones. When it opened like 7 years ago it had 6 self checkout stations. It now has 24. Those 24 stations can be watched by 2-4 people. At night the floors are cleaned by automated machines that look like giant roombas.

[Aristus]

12. Someone bring out the guillotine...

I just wrote a work restriction note for one of my patients, restricting him from working more than 50 hours a week, or more than 10 hours a day.

You get that?

He was working more than those already insane hours, and his back couldn't take it anymore.

Americans are working themselves to death, and the Ayn Rand-worshipping American employers are whining that they're not working at all…

[jmbar2]

14. I hope that todays hiring struggles drive major changes in the workplace

I studied Human Resource Management in grad school. The topics of focus for the HR field evolved over time.

-WWI: Time and motion studies, assembly lines

-WWII: Matching people to jobs, training average people to perform above average work during wartime, training, training, training.

-The 1950s. The Organization Man, hierarchies, management skills, span of control, policies

-The 60s-70s: Employee satisfaction and retention, fulfillment, Maslow's hierarchy of needs

-80-90s: Downsizing, rightsizing, M&A integration, TQM

00s: Outsourcing, performance management

010s: Automated resume scanning, preemployment testing, gig workers, managing overseas teams, automation

I'd love to be a fly on the wall in HR classes today to see how they plan to deal with massive worker defections, the rise of daytrading as an alternative to work, collapse of the gig economy, and the refusal to take low skilled, hard, and unsatisfying work.

Perhaps they need to train on "Wage Sufficiency" and "The Power of Kindness" as starting points.

[GulfCoast66]

16. I shot back hard on a dumb ass saying this in a Hotel in Tennessee

On Monday night.

He said it and I was ready. Told him the unemployment rate in TN was 4%. So pretty much everyone is working. Told him the problem these businesses are having is that during Covid service workers found different and better jobs. Where they are not treated and paid like shit. That businesses do not have a right to low paid workers. That how capitalism works. Can’t get workers? Pay more and create a better work environment. The company I work at is calling all workers that were let go. All are now working. Many do not want to come back. So the company has raised starting pay to over $15 a hour.

There were maybe 8 people in the bar area. No one said a word. I swallowed my bourbon and walked out. Would love to have seen how he tried to bluster his way out of the hole I put him in after I was gone. But I had no desire to discuss anything with him.

I’m over these shit for brains.