Americans Are Less Motivated to Work This Year Compared to Last, New Data Shows
Motivation among American workers is on the wane this year, and a majority of them aren’t highly engaged with their jobs — reducing their productivity — a new survey shows.
Hmm I wonder why. Could it be because we can't fucking afford anything?! Could it be because wealth inequality has been at a high that we've never seen before? Could it be because our world is slowly dying and nobody seems to care? Could it be because literal Nazis are roaming the streets and nothing is being done about it?
For me, in addition to all those other things, it’s that even most “good” companies are abusive, so there’s no escape. It’s just “how much abuse are you willing to put up with to work here?”, rather than “this place isn’t abusive”, and I can’t do that roulette anymore.
I’m taking some time off to reassess everything. Maybe in 6 months of absolutely minimal living (to coast on savings) I’ll feel better about it, but with the way things are racing downhill and picking up speed, I’m not optimistic.
It's assholes companies trying to force people in the office like cattle.
Not sure the feral nazi population has really changed from last year.
Idk... I mean sure, the price of literally everything is outpacing my stagnant income, and my benefits are increasingly shit... But there's a banner outside the parking lot I'm not allowed to use (admins only!) that says "Heroes work here!"
Ya hear that?! I'm a fuckin hero, y'all!! I can't not be motivated now!
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go shed a single tear while eating a meal of white rice. Again. With some soy sauce packets I stole from the cafeteria.
A FUCKING HERO!
Seriously. What is this propagandist bullshit? Fucking sorry excuse for "journalism", Bloomberg. Blame the prols? Is that it? Push us to judge each other, to shame our fellow replaceables until what? We roll out the guillotine again? I'm here for it.
I'll even paint mine up so it says "Heroes work here!" right up at the top, so everyone knows who's pulling the ripcord. How about that?
Why are you stealing soy sauce from the cafeteria? That’s not ok
Why in fuck would I want to go to work?
You mean you are not motivated to make rich people even richer? Shame.
Well colour me shocked. You mean nobody feels particularly motivated on a burning planet where we can't afford anything? Jeez someone order a pizza.
Hypothetically speaking: if I could afford a pizza what toppings would you want on it?
Forcing folk back into the office is pretty darn unpopular. If I was part of the group required to return to the office I would also be pretty damn unproductive and pissed as well.
Motivated employees get taken advantage of with more work with no pay raises. These workers have finally learned and reduced their production to be even with those around them.
P.S. If this is you, like it was me, learn entrepreneurship. The harder you work, the more success you have.
The world needs more than entrepreneurs though and those people deserve a living wage.
I agree with you.
Is it really "learn entrepreneurship," or is it actually "have capital"
The key is to have enough to fail. That's why you see successful house flippers or whatever who started out with money. They may have started 2 or 3 businesses before they found what worked.
If you start out with only enough money for one business or house, you will be struggling for a long time because you have to make it work to survive. You have no money to expand if it's a good idea and no money to quit and start over.
The best thing to start with is luck. Second best is enough money, so you can try several times.
Just become a landlord, idiot. :-P
When I started, I setup hosting and created 100 websites selling other people’s products. It was like $50/mo to do it. There’s ways to start a business without capital.
These days I would do TikTok videos selling other peoples products. No hosting needed
The harder you work, the more success you have.
I mean if your definition of success is being rewarded with more work with no pay raise then sure, but that's just not true anymore. People used to believe that and they got taken advantage of, and you even addressed this in the first part of your comment. The real lesson needs to come from the top down. If you want your employees to work harder, pay them more.
You missed a part of the comment you are replying to. tygr said "The harder you work, the more success you have." in relation to the previous sentence about changing from wage slave to entrepreneur.
Okay, Tom Peters.
What's great about this headline is how timeless it is.
Executives are constantly sucking up all the profits for themselves and putting more workload on everyone else. Americans are starting to wake up to the fact that corporate executives are robbing them blind.
Exactly this. I'm tired AF.
I’ve noticed this trend at several of my businesses. It’s impossible to find good help, I even offer all sorts of fun perks like themed thursdays where everybody has to dress up to match whatever theme I pick and whoever does it best gets a Starbucks gift card. Whenever it’s somebody’s birthday that person brings in pizza for everybody to share.
I think the pandemic and government hand outs have made people extra lazy, even more than they were before.
Have you considered pressuring your employees into donating to a charity of your choice with part of their paycheck? My job does that. It’s wonderful to add another charitable contribution to the list of things I spend my meager paycheck on, really helps me feel fulfilled. Maybe this is what your workplace is missing.
And, it’s like you’re crowdfunding your own corporate PR! Win-win for everyone!
Wtf, that sounds horrible, most of people want to be paid more for their work so they can live fulfilling lives, not have part of their paycheck taken away from them. Just pay your employees more, whether through capital or shares of the company. That's what motivates people.
It’s wonderful to add another charitable contribution to the list of things I spend my meager paycheck on
AH, united Jeans-day-for-donators strikes again.
Not sure if this is sarcasm but I'm pretty sure I'm only motivated by a good raise and not cheesy "company culture". Especially since the price everything is up so much, a 25$ gift card which pays for maybe 1.94 cups of coffee is not going to make a difference
Right. Only squeaky wheels get greased. If you don't actively removed and moan or threaten to leave, your company will never give you more because they assume you're happy.
Mine gave me what appeared to be a fairly sizeable performance bump, percentage-wise, at the beginning of the calendar year.
But when I calculated it out in comparison to all the other increases they'd given me, accounted for inflation as measured by CPI, and excluded the amounts given in "class-wide" salary adjustments, the dollar amount was really put into perspective.
Per their own HR policy, an individuals position within their defined salary band is determined by their skill/merit achievements relative to the job position. Because a class wide salary adjustment also redefines the salary band, and I have a habit of snapshotting the salary bands every few months, I was able to prove with numbers that A) they'd only ever actually given me one "merit increase" that matched the words they use in my review to an actual, measurable, "skill increase" as measured by an individual's position in the salary band.
And because the others had been so poor, using their own HR policy, they were effectively stating that I was only 2-3% better at my job than when they hired me 4+ years ago. Which was impossible, because if it were true, why would they have me actively mentoring individuals more highly paid but in the same band as myself?
It was compelling enough that they offered me an in-department "promotion" to the next grade and it came with one of two new roles, which I was allowed to trial and choose between. HR had previously squashed the grade increase two times over the previous two years, saying I didn't have enough experience, despite pushback from the three levels of management over me. (Our HR is like comic book villain levels of sanctimonious overpowered karens left to their own devices, and are actively holding the whole company back.)
Because I was able to use their own language to state, "either I'm good enough to do the X,Y,Z you currently have me doing and therefore deserve more; or I'm not and therefore should not be responsible for the things I do for the team and will essentially 'behave my class' and stop doing them," I forced their hand.
Good chuckle at the "Starbucks gift card". I haven't had a good manager that gave those out. Almost a perfect signal for bad management. "oh thanks... You paid Starbucks for me. How special"
The whole gift card market probably consists of: scammers ; bad management; lazy parents.
I like to pick my own shitty clothes and dinner, at least then it isn't rubbed in my face.
I implore you to look into the benefits of paying people more for their work, not only does it improve the lives of your workers to be able to not just have a living wage, but a wage they can thrive on. Even the US department of Economy points to raising of wages as a benefit not just to the workers but also to the companies in increased productivity and satisfaction from workers.
Shitty gimmick accounts should remain on Reddit.
I kind of agree
Waaaah people are putting content on a website waaaaaaaaah
Leave it to the “BuisnessMan” to only understand what the business needs and not its people lmao.
“I make enough money to do the things that make me happy but when I offer fun dress up day instead for people they don’t wanna work for me”
People don’t want to work… for you
It feels like we’re just a dot in a complex scatterplot, the way statistics can measure and index an employee’s motivation. Maybe they can even use the same math to measure your own motivation. Imagine getting fired because you “lacked motivation” according to a computer. Maybe that’s not how we should cooperate as a species.
My workplace recently showed us the results from our yearly survey..
If it wasn’t anonymous (which frankly it might not be) they literally have that information for us, but from self report. They called out that company wide (under 200 total employees) there are 10 people actively disengaged (I’m one of them) and a third of the company is barely engaged.
The sad thing is everyone spent the rest of that day talking about how much it sucks that so many people are disengaged, and how those people must not understand how great it is, like it was scandalous to not love working here.
Funny I know of a survey like that but for a company of only about 50 and it was 55% of the company was disengaged and they had an emergency meeting to cover the sadness facing their employees. Bragged about management until one of them said they were in the disengaged group
Since then an entire location was shut down and all employees fired there and 3 aupervisors have quit.
Still plenty of conversation on the sadness of company work but in whispers and private conversation
"Our systems noticed you only smiled 35% of your time at this job over the last month. Your pay will be docked accordingly."
"I literally smiled all day!"
"Yes, but the computer felt it was forced."
No fucking shit. Maybe if they were to bring back the lube when they fuck our asses we might be less bitter
Businesses that are projecting growth, but are in cost saving mode, had layoffs, sub inflation raises, and hiring freezes aren't exactly doing much to drive morale.
Plus requiring people to come back to the office to justify their real estate leases.
And micromanagement positions
Why aren't the peasants working themselves to death for scraps anymore!?!?
Why doesn't anyone see how much the CEO needs his second yatch, and won't you think of the poor investors? NoBoDy WaNtS tO wOrK
Id be more motivated if i could see a doctor.
you should see an optometrist about that
They could, but they need to see a podiatrist before they can go anywhere, and insurance doesn’t cover house calls.
yeah, because they're working harder for less.. the fuck do you expect..
"Charlie Brown is less motivated to try and kick the football"
The work cultures of yore.. christmas bonuses, work functions, retirement plans, affordable housing, and employer loyalty is no more.
And they're surprised?
They pretend to pay me, and I pretend to work.
I came here to post the same thing that everyone else already posted.
Me too... sigh
Got a ton of education, qualifications and experience to work my way up through various jobs. Finally took a job a few years back with a significant pay raise... That is, until inflation offset the wage gains.
So yeah I'm 10-15% less motivated than I was previously. Every year in this economy that one doesn't get a 10% raise, it is functionally the same as taking a pay cut.
As someone who just got the first raise in 3 years (the last one was 2% as well) and it was 2% because they felt bad and said it's for cost of living, I just laughed and said this is insulting more than useful...
...says Bloomberg the billionaire.
I'm so demotivated I quit today.
Go on, story time.
Wait! Me too!
Really not much to the story low pay and work conditions.
I quit my job in January. Fuck being a wage slave. Fuck making other people rich. I'm done with all that. I'll live a simple life with little money rather than go back to that self destructive misery.
What is your life like now?
I live in an off-grid RV doing freelance work. It's a financial struggle sometimes but I would say my overall quality of life has improved dramatically.
Paywall article :/
Still notable that the article is paywalled lmao
Underrated comment.
so far the comments are true reasons to be demotivated in 2022 and 2023, but not about what makes 23 different, if data is correct
I think the difference is burnout. Shit has been getting worse at a quicker pace, and we are absolutely showered with worse and worse bad news every day.
That builds, man. And its hard to keep going when it does.
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It's a mystery why they don't
I'd like to add that I am less motived to work then a minute ago.
I waited a minute, and I have a new, lower data point...
I'm an early adopter
I'm about to look for a job for (basically) the first time at 26 because I lost my parents health coverage. Feedback welcome.
You're going to be really lucky if you get a job with health insurance at 26 with no previous work history.
What are you even going to put on a resume?
No sympathy, we've been sweating our asses off waiting for you to help. :P
Teehee :3 True!
Shotgun applications to everyone in the field you want to go into, you might end up with your dream job, and know you can find something else should you not like the job you're in, but give it a fair shot before you decide to jump ship.
Apply at a temp agency and you will have a job tomorrow
Fill out applications after work to find a real job