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.
It’s telling that the people who push this narrative are the people whose jobs pay the most money for the least amount of actual work.
Nobody should ever want to work, work should be the thing we work on minimising to maximise our living.
This comment offers such great perspective that I wish more people were aware of. The problem with the youngest generation is always there same. Maybe Gen Z will remember where the rest of us have forgotten, but historically the odds are long.
Eh, I have faith that the wide availability of knowledge will lead to a better result
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.
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.
They say blame the pandemic. I say blame the companies that bitch when people finally realize how important their time was.
Indeed. Death is approaching us all at a pretty respectable pace, so it’s not really worth toiling your life away for next to nothing
Other people in the comments are mentioning incentives, low pay, crappy management, etc. I don’t want to work, but it’s not really about any of this, or it’s about all of this a little, sort of.
I want to do good work.
I want to make software that helps people, that does what it’s supposed to do, that is fast, non-predatory, and doesn’t succumb to endless feature creep or artificially rushed scheduling. Pay me enough to live comfortably, and I’ll do this basically on my own. I don’t even need all of these things.
I’ve found that most businesses prioritize between 0-1 of these things.
This is the real crux. Nowaday, I feel I can only do good through personal and community work. Professional work mostly involves being told to cut corners, mislead people and jack prices to grow the company infinitely.
While, frankly, I think infinite growth is one of the most damaging ideas in human history
Dumb question: how does one get into “community work”? I barely even know my neighbors
I used to do IT for ‘digital advertising in healthcare’. I helped fix those accursed screens that sell you shit while you wait at the doctor or hospital.
When I did my job well, it made the world worse.
This conflicts with my basic sense of humanity, y’all. It broke me, and it was like the 17th problem on my list of shit to worry about.
Capitalism offers to sell me lame drugs and garbage to fill the hole in my soul it’s created.
Yep, you said it best. Nowadays in tech your either:
Making something that preys on the little guy
Or
Make tools for already rich and powerful, which they will use to prey on the little guy lol.
That’s why lemmy is so special, it’s like (to me at least) the only place left were people believe software should benefit everyone to be good, especially the user.
You should work in government or for a university. You’ll feel like you’re contributing to a mission and nobody is backstabbing over their bonus.
I work in IT for the health sector of my local govt (not USA). The pay is decent, but it’s a constant fight against medics’ egos, lack of programmers (there are decent systems, but not enough manpower to really keep them in top shape), political interference in the form of “great ideas”, budget constraints and private contractors wanting to charge more while offering less.
Seriously go look at a university. I manage two teams of students and about to move into a director role where I will also have a team of FTEs and a developer to manage. It never gets old and people are really nice. You will also never be the smartest person in the room since half the people have a doctorate in something.
I’ve been lucky enough to have a great job at the moment, and after being where I am for this long (without doxxing myself), I can say that I will never, for the rest of my life, work anywhere that chases profit. Unless I literally have no choice.
Look into government jobs, or NGOs/non-profits. I’ve found work to be much more fulfilling, less stressful, etc., when everything isn’t about quarterly earnings, and profit margins. That shit ruins EVERYTHING.
I don’t really care how much less my salary may be, as long as I’m making enough to survive (and have enough of a cushion that I don’t need to worry that one or two emergencies will bankrupt me), then I’m good to go.
Perhaps I’m just not an ambitious person, but I just have zero interest in pursuing monetary gain beyond what I need.
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.
