Why Do So Many People Not Want To Work Anymore?
I've heard this said many times now and I think it's a gross oversimplification of what's going on right now. It's usually coming from employers who are having a hard time hiring. So let's back up like two and a half years is back to the first lockdowns. We had a situation where businesses had to close for a while. The government stepped in with subsidies but ultimately a lot of people lost their jobs. When that happened, they had to make adjustments. And the way they did that was by downsizing, by getting rid of extra vehicles, by eliminating expenses that were extraneous.
And then they had to start doing something for work. So they started participating in the gig economy. They started to do side hustles. They were doing whatever they could to make ends meet. They also started to spend more time outside. They started to spend more time with their families and their friends and their pets just hanging out. And what they found, they liked it. They needed less now, they could work on their own terms, which means they have autonomy. And autonomy is a powerful intrinsic motivator.
They have more free time for friends and family. This gave them a renewed sense of purpose, which is another powerful intrinsic motivator. People started spending more time outside, out in nature. This has a restorative quality to it. All of the stress and the anxiety that they were feeling from their toxic work environments were gone. So now this has created a problem for employers.
Employers are fighting against autonomy and purpose. Two powerful intrinsic motivators. If you haven't read it, read Dan Pink's book "Drive". It talks about autonomy, mastery and purpose being three powerful intrinsic motivators.
People don't want to give up their freedom. They're spending quality time with their family. They're getting things done when they're at home. When they take a break, they want to go play with their dog or start a load of laundry or unload the dishwasher.
You can't do all of that if you're sitting at a cubicle under fluorescent lights all day. So if you're having struggles trying to hire some people here are some things that you can do.
Embrace a work life integration.
We used to say work life balance where life and work were really separate things that you tried to even out so that you were spending equal time or relatively equal time doing those things. That's not what people want now. People really want work life integration where your personal time and your work time kind of overlap. My wife has worked like this for years. So this is where work doesn't necessarily take place. Between the hours of eight and five people who work from home with a work life integration they tend to work longer days but they also have times in their days that are dedicated to what they need to do at home. You set standards where people have to be on calls at certain times. That hasn't changed. Scheduling is just as important as it has ever been, but people have more individual control over their schedule, so that speaks to their autonomy. They don't have to give everything up to come and work with you.
2. Talk more about your values and your mission.
You're trying to attract missionaries and not mercenaries, people who believe in your cause and what you're trying to do. You must build a community of, likeminded, people. And the best way to do that is to repeat what you stand for and hold people accountable to your values. This speaks to the purpose that people have found outside of work. People want to work, but they want to invest their work time into something that they believe in.
So if you're hearing people say "People don't want to work", I mean, they're partially right. They don't want to work the way they used to work. So if you haven't changed your approach to how you work, and you expect people to flock to your organization the way they used to before the pandemic, then you're falling right into the definition of insanity.
You're doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
