Why Aren't People Working? (Personal anecdotes only)

In My Humble Opinion
41

I don’t buy that this is all becaxuse of crap jobs at crap wages. Sometimes it is, but other times its not. One of my wife’s direct reports earns close to $100,000, has a cushy desk job, and yet she’s still constantly calling in sick with ‘stress’, or if someone says something sharp to her at work she’ll take a week off to ‘recover’. When asked to do tasks she often pushes back and asks if someone else can do it, and she’s constantly demanding ‘accomodations’ of various sorts.

I did a project at an aviation factory that was digitizing because they were terrified of losing all their worker’s tacit knowledge because their work force was aging badly (average age was mid-50’s) and they couldn’t hire replacements. This was in the mid-2000’s). The job paid $26/hr starting, as I recall, with full benefits. The work was indoors in a modern factory. Not assembly line work, but skilled work they trained you for. Not even a high school diploma required.

They got plenty of applications, but every time someone would show up and get the factory tour, get a job offer, and simply ghost them. One of the sticking points might have been that no phones are allowed on the floor, so people have to be away from them for hours at a time. For some people these days, that’s a non-starter.

42

This, and also corporate decisions being made by people who have never worked in the trenches. Health care and education have always been notorious for this.

43

I believe you! All I ask is that if you are talking about your grandkids, avoid adding the adjective “adopted” unless it is directly relevant to the conversation (which it can be, of course).

44

I don’t know anybody who is just not working. A lot of my neighbors are my age or older, so there are a lot of retirees. But the younger cohort are all working … even here in snerk LalaLand.

45

So far we’ve had: early retirement, crap jobs, and diversity as reasons not to work.

Any others I’m missing?

46

It depends on the company. My company does an annual wage survey and anyone who isn’t making the minimum for their position in our area is given a raise to match the going rate. This helps us avoid wage compression, when new hires make more than people who have been on the job for years, and avoid turnover. The compensation manager didn’t do this for some areas a few years back and it caused a lot of problems. Employees who had been with us for years noticed that new hires were making significantly more than they were, and as you might reasonably expect, they complained. Our compensation manager essentially blew them off by telling them that’s just the way it is and they can take it or leave it. A lot of them decided to leave the company at that point which ended up costing us more than it would to have just given them raises to begin with. I hope someone chewed out the comp manager.

47

I think you’re seeing this kind of behavior across industries and salaries. I like my job and I’m being groomed for a supervisory position. But after working with my supervisor the last few years and seeing her late hours and responsibilites, I don’t think it’s worth the additional 10K I’d get. I’ll just stay an individual contributor, thank you very much.

For the hospitality industry and retail, I think it’s because a lot of people have come to the conclusion those jobs aren’t worth the aggravation. For waitstaff, the stress from never knowing how much money you’ll make or even how many hours you’ll work combined with dealing with asshole customers and managers just doesn’t make sense to them. Even if they find another job that doesn’t pay as much, so long as it’s less stressful its a win for them.

48

From my side, the people I know not actively working or looking for work are retired.

49

I know OP didn’t ask for numbers, but employment is at record highs. Both as a percentage and in absolute terms, more people are working than at any point in history, so there’s absolutely no support to say “people don’t want to work anymore.”

When you hear this, it’s secondhand smoke from employers who are upset that people in the year 2024 don’t want to queue up for 2014 wages. The got accustomed to cheap labor during the Great Recession and now that’s all gone away.

To answer the OP: work sucks. I don’t want to work anymore but I can’t afford to quit.

50

Childcare.

I think I missed the “diversity” post.

51

Prior to COVID, my sister was working for herself, as a massage therapist. She rented a small space for a massage studio, and had built up a fairly regular clientele.

She has some learning disabilities, and some long-term emotional issues, and as a result, she had never really been fully financially independent from our parents. But, by 2019, she was probably doing as well, from the standpoint of having an actual career, as she ever had (by that point, she was 51).

She lives with our parents, and when COVID hit, she had to shut down her practice indefinitely. Even when the vaccines came along, and treatments for COVID got better, she was reluctant to return to her practice, because she was fearful of bringing home an infection that would spread to our parents (both of whom are over 80, and both of whom are lifelong smokers).

But, even now, she still hasn’t returned to working as a massage therapist; a lot of it is that our parents are getting even older, and she’s stepped into a caretaker role for them. They aren’t in bad shape, but dad is 90, mom is 83, and they appreciate having her help with things like meal prep, laundry, and grocery shopping.

My sister is now 55, and at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if she doesn’t rejoin the work force while our parents are still alive.

52

Of course, that’s a big one especially if you expand it to adult and senior care as well.

53

Diversity? I think I missed that too. Or did you mean disability?

54

I made a comment about a co-worker having to sign a diversity statement at his new job. He took the job. I pointed out that I wouldn’t have taken it, but then I’m retired with a pension. I said I wouldn’t take a job that required signing one, but then I have an FU pension and don’t need to. If I had to feed my family, I’d take whatever legal job I had to take.

55

This seems to heavily imply that diversity is somehow preventing your colleagues from getting work. Why else would you mention their race and gender?

56

Not going on with this hijack.

57

Fair enough, probably a good idea.

58

Some states are more equal than others.

59

Well, that is well in line with the demographics of this board in 2023 :slight_smile:. We have folks from all (or many) walks of life. But I suspect most people would agree that the demography here leans middle-aged or older, white, liberal, financially solvent to well-off and American. In particular there aren’t many younger millennials and very few Gen Z (under 27). This is retiree country.

I’ll be joining the under-60 retiree community myself sometime in the next year. Although it is reasonably common for folks in my industry who retire at a younger age to “double dip” by pulling a pension while getting another full-time gig for a few years, I have no intention of doing that myself. I should make enough to avoid it and unlike some folks, I am not the type who gets stir-crazy if they aren’t busy or maximizing their earning potential. Or, if you prefer, I’m lazy.

It’s interesting to me, because despite having the same stable employer for ~33 years, I have ALWAYS had that opinion. I find a lot of older folks (say my age and above) regard that as kind of mercenary. Not wanting to work hard is regarded as a bit of moral failing. Indeed I have met a surprising number of people (and I’d find any number over zero to be surprising) that considered it even a moral failing to work smarter rather than harder.

Not me. Work is an unfortunate necessity in my life as a functional cog in society. The sooner I can get out of the rat race and be more or less financially solvent, the happier I’ll be.

60

I have to ask: what’s the big deal? “I won’t be mean to people different than me” doesn’t seem political. I’m very close to calling bullshit on this, but let’s hear your side.