I’ve watched my share of entitled, whiny brats complaining about having to work a job. It’s rough to see, and it implies some less than great parenting, and some HORRID schooling. I don’t think that it’s the majority of kids/young adults, though. But there is definitely a question as to whether people WANT to work anymore.
So the bottom line is that no, no one wants to work 60 hours for 40 hours of pay, or be at work more than home, or spend home time doing work stuff. No one wants to be laid off or fired via an email, or even worse, a text. That’s correct. But the reality is that sometimes, we do HAVE to work 60 hours, regardless of the pay. Sometimes we see the office more than home, because it’s the right thing to do either for your company or your family.
I recently saw an ad on FaceBook asking for people to go to work at a local company. They were desperate for people, they said. The offered $12/hour for skilled employees. Skilled. They had a laundry list of tasks (not standard stuff, either) that each employee would have to be able to do.
If I can get work at McDonald’s for $19/hour, why in heaven’s name would I want to do a SKILLED job for $12/hour?
That’s a bit part of a real problem. The idea that companies want to hire people with university degrees (real ones, not glamorized participation trophy ones) who owe thousands of dollars in school loans, for less than they could make working retail, is just awful. That’s not how companies get employees.
They’ve taken away the perks. I have watched the teacher in my life go from having what we all referred to as “Cadillac insurance” to taking the best insurance offered and still having a $8000 out of pocket pay and not even half of prescriptions. That’s what’s now being called Cadillac insurance. It’s ridiculous.
I’m seeing companies take away paid lunches, paid holidays, paid anything. There are no more Christmas parties or even something as pitiful as a card on your birthday. In fact, a lot of companies are choosing not to have any full time employees at all. After all, why should they? Full time employees have to be given insurance if the company has more than 50 employees. There’s no incentive at all for them to hire full time folks. That leaves people, honest and hardworking people, scrambling to find second or third jobs to be able to afford basic stuff.
I don’t know how we fix this. We could mandate that any company that has full time hours (Walmart, McDonald’s, etc) must hire full time employees to a certain percentage, but I hate mandates. I don’t want to force them to do it because otherwise they fold. I want them to know that doing the right thing means their business gets better. How do we do that? I have no idea.
On the left, of course, mandates are all the rage. They want to make companies do certain things, without taking into account that what works for one company may not work for another. They also lose sight of the fact that companies forced to do things they don’t want to will eventually figure out legal ways around it. They have people for that.
America has also outsourced so much of its work! I have friends who run one of the largest historic tent making companies in the world. They had to email all their customers last week to explain that they can’t get canvas, and therefore can’t take anymore orders for 2026, and maybe not for 2027 either. They have the WORK. People want tents, they’re willing to pay for them, and they’re eager. But if you have no canvas, you can’t make tents.
They used to get their canvas from the Ukraine, because it was cheaper and frankly better made. Slowly, stuff in America became crappy. Why buy crap when you can get better abroad? Well, now we have tariffs, which I still agree with in general, so that canvas out of country is no longer cheaper. That SHOULD mean we get someone here to make canvas, but that’s not happening. And if it was, it would just be spinning up right now, and quality product would not be shipping in time for customers who want tents NOW.
This is, of course, the downside to tariffs. Yes, it can encourage Americans to make and use American goods, and I believe that should be happening. But during this transition period? We’re killing small American companies, the companies Trump wanted to save. At this rate, by the time we’re able to make our own stuff again, we won’t HAVE any small companies left. We’ll be relegated to Wallyworld and its ilk, which bothers me.
There are so many problems with work right now, even in places where folks WANT to work, and badly.