People not working anymore

[Buelligan]

" I find most people who moan about the unemployed being lazy and feckless have relatively well-paid jobs they mostly enjoy, "

You think? In my experience the most bitter accusers are those in poorly paid soul destroying jobs they really hate.

Pensioners and politicians.  By a thousand miles.

[Alberon]

I've got an okay job I don't actively hate, though, of course, I'm out of there the second I win the lottery.

I'm in the process of applying for compressed working hours that would give me a day off every fortnight for putting in an extra 45 minutes on the other days.

But apart from that I just want it to last another ten years or so until I can retire.

[jamiefairlie]

A business can 'grow' by doing more with less through squeezing workers or more efficient automation, or it can exploit cheaper labour elsewhere, this'll both show up as economic growth but add to unemployment stats.

Growth doesn't even mean growth any more. That was a major domino falling for me about how fucked it all is. Originally growth was good on that it meant greater employment opportunities but now growth simply means shares becoming more valuable. There is no real growth at all and the short term perspective it demands is actively detriment to long term value and actual growth.

[bgmnts]

Growth doesn't even mean growth any more. That was a major domino falling for me about how fucked it all is. Originally growth was good on that it meant greater employment opportunities but now growth simply means shares becoming more valuable. There is no real growth at all and the short term perspective it demands is actively detriment to long term value and actual growth.

When did growth ever not mean maximum profit for shareholders?

[Lemming]

I've been sticking with rather low-paid part-time work for years now. Just can't be arsed with anything else, and can't really be arsed with this either.

Speaking from personal experience and the experiences of my friends (bar one who is a university lecturer now), it really is just a case of not being fucking arsed. I dunno when this generational shift came about, but I do remember being asked what I wanted to "do" when I was older in about year 3 and thinking "nothing", and the girl sat next to me writing down the exact same thought, so must be something in the water.

The international nature of this feeling is very interesting; China's "lie flat"/"let it rot" stuff, the Japanese hikikomori, the American "quiet quitting", etc.

[The Culture Bunker]

When I was about 14 or 15, I got shunted off on a "work experience" week at the local council - they found out I could use a computer to some degree so I spent the time updating records. That was enough to tell me this "work" lark was a load of old bollocks.

In my 20 years of full-time employment, I struggle to remember one moment of satisfaction from any work I've done. I would have done more for my sense of well-being by staying in bed. I feel the same way about my education - all those years and nobody ever  asked me to prove my qualifications. My entire life has largely been this sense that I'd have been better asleep.

I know it could have been worse - my granddad spent 40 years down the mines and he hated every moment, but obviously had a family to feed. He told me his happiest times were being retired, lying on the sofa with a bottle of mild enjoying the horse racing on C4 while my nana recited the form guide to him. 

[Alberon]

Things have changed. With my grandparents they really did have relatively little and they didn't own their homes.

With my parents generation home ownership came within their grasp, but still leaving room for other things. My Dad was the only one in full time employment while me and my sister were growing up and thinking back we didn't have that much money. No foreign holidays for us. But we were comfortable and Mum got a full time job after we left school.

I think I got on the housing ladder twenty five years ago just as it was pulled up. These days for many couples both have to work and they still can't get a place of their own. So why bother working yourself to death? Quiet quit and enjoy what you can. Makes total sense really.

[Buelligan]

In my 20 years of full-time employment, I struggle to remember one moment of satisfaction from any work I've done.

My greatest moments of happiness, without question, in the many and extremely varied roles I have inhabited have been my rebellions.  Answering back, sticking it up 'em.  No question whatsoever and I would do it again. 

And again.

Also leaving.

[Vodkafone]

I think the idea that you work and then enjoy your retirement is almost dead. Shareholders can't afford for you to have a nice retirement, so you may as well just enjoy life as much as possible when you're of working age and hope for / opt for a sudden death before it all gets too grim and debilitating near the end. Which I think is fine actually - I couldn't stand to be one of those people whose lives are an ante room for retirement, something very depressing about that.

[Buelligan]

Is the best thing to commit sam kind of painless bankman-fraud, then just go and live on an island and keep a low profe?  Shouldn't think that's depressing.  Something to aspire to.

[Kankurette]

the thing about taking all your economics from the 1970s is that in the 1970s ravioli was aspirational

And now you can get it in tins. TINS.

[Butchers Blind]

I hate work. It gives me a headache and makes me tired.

[dex]

I think the whole covid thing fucked most people up work wise. I've been lucky where my jobs have been safety critical so have had to carry on as normal going in, doing the work and coming home.

But others being furloughed, written off or employers folding and other employers wanting all sorts of experience and not willing to take risks on new hires compounds things. People are disenfranchised and think what's the point?

[FeederFan500]

The people who can decide not to work are those who own their property outright or live in someone else's so that would suggest a large proportion of these people are comfortable and don't see much value in working. Which is sort of interesting because I would say Western employment is typically framed as precarious, low paid work which people do to keep a roof over their heads or better-paid, rewarding work that people like. This would suggest there are lots of people who have done the latter and would rather give it up before retirement age. I found it telling recently that Hunt (or possibly some other Tory) was saying there was some sort of moral imperative that if one is able to and of working age one should be working, which shows up as a lie the notion you can do what you want as long as you can support yourself. On the plus side a corollary of that is that rentier capitalism is a bad thing so I eagerly await a condemnation of landlords...

I do wonder whether things like 'Quiet quitting' or 'antiwork' are now more popular or have just been given a name with the advent of the internet, where fairly niche things are jumped on by the media as 'trends'. Possibly as a way of adding a sense of purpose to doing the bare minimum required which isn't new.

[shiftwork2]

I have a job that's very important to me.  It is a source of stimulation and provides a tangible sense of making a difference.  I realise this will go down like a lead bag of spanners.

I've done plenty of work in the past which invited grim contemplation of our existence on this plane through its sheer tedium.  At one point in an office in the basement of a building off Great Portland St I thought I had actually died and was stuck in some kind of loop.  Actually quite nostalgic for that now.  The sandwich bar nearby was great and Tyres out of Spaced used to get his baguettes there.

[Zetetic]

Things have changed. With my grandparents they really did have relatively little and they didn't own their homes.

With my parents generation home ownership came within their grasp, but still leaving room for other things. My Dad was the only one in full time employment while me and my sister were growing up and thinking back we didn't have that much money. No foreign holidays for us. But we were comfortable and Mum got a full time job after we left school.

I think I got on the housing ladder twenty five years ago just as it was pulled up. These days for many couples both have to work and they still can't get a place of their own. So why bother working yourself to death? Quiet quit and enjoy what you can. Makes total sense really.

Closely associated with the physical and emotional situation in which boys and girls in their teens find themselves is the economic and social background to their lives. Virtual full employment means not only full-time work for fathers and for many mothers but for the school-leaver the easy acquisition of a job, the ability to move from post to post at will, and the acquisition of comparatively high wages at an early age.

Parents, both of whom are frequently wage earning, do not expect to be given their children's earnings in full, and the young are frequently left with a considerable amount of money to spend on themselves. ... They have money for cash payment and for hire-purchase and they embark on marriage confident - perhaps overconfident - that means will always be available to pay for their commitments. State medical and dental services abolish the need to save for periods of sickness, and state pensions and government aid provide for old age.

This is the atmosphere of the adult world all around them, an atmosphere that reveals not only a greater facility for acquiring and spending money, but a greater permissiveness in moral attitudes. The breakdown of taboos and organised religion has leader to greater freedom of behaviour. ... Young people are aware of their value to the national economy.

It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that they take certain things for granted. They expect to have money to buy the things they want ; they no longer look for parental control ; they reject many of the scruples and taboos that acted as restraints on the behaviour of their parents and elders. In short they see no reason why they cannot cope with life on their own terms.

A Handbook for Health Education (1968)

[madhair60]

I have a job that's very important to me.  It is a source of stimulation and provides a tangible sense of making a difference.  I realise this will go down like a lead bag of spanners.

your job is to oversee the production of lead bags of spanners.

[Alberon]

I was only furloughed for three months, but I really enjoyed the mini-retirement.

[Zetetic]

I have a job that's very important to me.  It is a source of stimulation and provides a tangible sense of making a difference.  I realise this will go down like a lead bag of spanners.

I think I remember what your job is. Do you feel there's a trade-off with pay-and-conditions being basically dreadful (versus, rightly or wrongly, what you could get elsewhere with your skillset and experience)?

[Zetetic]

I note that I've seen a bunch of adverts, apparently specifically outside NHS hospitals and the like, of which the gist was "You shouldn't have to be burning yourself out into an early grave - why not move to British Columbia?".

[Pink Gregory]

don't mind my job, all things considered, but it's using a fraction of what my skills could be and the travel time involved is monumental (commute and driving about)

used to be the case that I would be perfectly happy doing something during the day for money and use the free time for hobbies etc, but god it just saps you, no matter what you do.

Genuinely, I parked the work van up, came in the house, realised I'd left something in there and went to retrieve it, the walk back felt so completely different to the walk to the house.  That last beat of energy for your own life.

[Mrs Wogans lemon drizzle]

I enjoy my job but understand why alot of people hate thier jobs, and seemingly have very little (if any) motivation when there seems like there is no progression. 

[shiftwork2]

I think I remember what your job is. Do you feel there's a trade-off with pay-and-conditions being basically dreadful (versus, rightly or wrongly, what you could get elsewhere with your skillset and experience)?

You probably remember correctly.  I'm basically a company man at this point and I don't know if I could even get out of it.  But I would never want to.  It nearly killed me a few years ago but the core idea of it is so beautiful.

I note that I've seen a bunch of adverts, apparently specifically outside NHS hospitals and the like, of which the gist was "You shouldn't have to be burning yourself out into an early grave - why not move to British Columbia?".

I haven't seen that.  In the mid 2010s Dublin Airport arrivals did proudly display posters along the lines of 'it's time to come back, you can get an easy parking space at work here in Eire's hospitals'.  The emotive issue of English hospital parking.

[Buelligan]

The sandwich bar nearby was great and Tyres out of Spaced used to get his baguettes there.

I love him.

Also love the way we have to take away the legal ceiling on banker's bonuses because we must attract the best ones.  No one will do that job unless their bonuses are in the millions. 

Well, no one wants to do any of the other shitty jobs you cunts've dreamt up for us either.  Try offering million pound bonuses and see if it helps.  The Market is always right.

[Sebastian Cobb]

In order to get what we've got, Anita, we have, in effect, traded these people out of what was the most important thing on earth to them — the feeling of being needed and useful, the foundation of self-respect.

I think about this quote a lot and I think the fact is a lot of work doesn't do this, even 5 decades ago work was a lot more gruelling and dangerous for many people but I think the outputs of it were clear whereas shoving numbers around or creating paperwork can make you feel like a small cog in a big machine whose overall purpose is unclear.

[Kankurette]

It did. I had to laugh at my HR reviews in the NHS where I got asked about areas for improvement and targets and so on. I'm a fucking Band 2 typist, mate, all I do is type letters, there is not much room for growth there.

[Memorex MP3]

Regarding my last job and I suspect a lot of jobs in IT it seemed like the work was either adding in absurd amounts of tracking or continuously adding bullshit new features while the core functionality is either falling apart or being placed behind paywalls.

I get that a lot of those bullshit new features and neglect of the main operations is ultimately the source of a lot of jobs but it doesn't make any of it feel remotely fulfilling.
The thing I'm most proud of doing in my last role was pretending we couldn't do some Google analytics stuff and actively doing a couple of things to make it harder to do so in the future.

[PlanktonSideburns]

When I was 6 years old, I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, and apparently I answered 'a cowpat'

[shoulders]

I've been sticking with rather low-paid part-time work for years now. Just can't be arsed with anything else, and can't really be arsed with this either.

Speaking from personal experience and the experiences of my friends (bar one who is a university lecturer now), it really is just a case of not being fucking arsed. I dunno when this generational shift came about, but I do remember being asked what I wanted to "do" when I was older in about year 3 and thinking "nothing", and the girl sat next to me writing down the exact same thought, so must be something in the water.

The international nature of this feeling is very interesting; China's "lie flat"/"let it rot" stuff, the Japanese hikikomori, the American "quiet quitting", etc.

Perhaps some reaction to the feeling of powerlessness and lack of representation.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Fucking love my low status job that I don't have to think about at home, good to hear I'm not the only one