'Nowadays It Just Feels Like A Slap In The Face'

‘Nowadays It Just Feels Like A Slap In The Face’

Does it feel like nobody wants to work anymore? It’s a generalization that stems from the “Great Resignation,” when many people voluntarily left their jobs during the pandemic.

Financial guru Vincent Chan dove deeper into this topic and discussed three reasons why nobody wants to work anymore. He used historical data to validate his points while presenting a grim picture of the modern working experience.

“Nowadays, it just feels like a slap in the face,” he said.

How did things get to this point? These are the three reasons Chan highlights in his video.

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Chan starts his video by exposing the big lie that hard work pays off. Although hard work has paid off in various cases, people don’t always see that in the workplace. Chan explains how an unproductive coworker got promoted because he was an old family friend of the boss. These types of promotions can cause the hard workers to feel discouraged and unrecognized for their efforts.

While these types of office politics have always been present, Chan also presented a graph that showed the growing gap between worker productivity and pay growth. Both of these metrics moved in tandem until 1979. Since that year, people have been working harder than before, but have stopped being rewarded for it.

Boomers worked during an era that Chan dubbed the “Workers’ Golden Age,” where people got paid for their effort. There wasn’t a gap between productivity and wage growth that exists today. This rising gap and promotions depending more on who you know instead of what you can do have disincentivized putting in the extra effort in many workplaces.

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Chan also cited toxic work environments as a key reason why most people don’t want to work anymore. These environments can lead to mental health problems and burnout that make you question why you are working in the first place.

Chan leans into this discussion with a quote from Squarespace’s CMO, who said that Gen Z job seekers should be willing to work for free, long hours. Nothing is healthy about working long hours and not getting paid for them.

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While most people get paid for the hours that they work, it’s still tempting to work well beyond the minimum. Chan cited the fear of losing your job and the desire for a promotion as two reasons why people work more hours. We also have our smartphones, desktops, and tablets wherever we go, making it more difficult to disconnect from work.

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Money is one of the strongest motivators. It can inspire people to work harder and begrudgingly embrace jobs that they do not enjoy. However, this motivating force has been a disappointment for younger workers.

Even though they make more money on paper than their parents, many of them are struggling to pay off student loans or buy a house. Meanwhile, Chan claims that older generations were able to make those major purchases on a minimum wage.

He proceeds to explain that things are getting more expensive, and you aren’t getting paid more. The Cost of Thriving Index highlights Chan’s point. He mentions that in 1985, the typical male worker’s wage would have covered the average major expenses in 30 weeks.

However, the Cost of Thriving Index shows that the typical male worker has to work 53 weeks per year to cover the average major expenses. There aren’t 53 weeks in a year, and many people have to work overtime or pick up a side hustle just to make ends meet.

Chan mentions that the 53-week figure is from 2018 and assumes that the Cost of Thriving Index has gotten even worse since then. If people continue to work but see basic expenses becoming unreasonable, it’s no wonder some of them are throwing in the towel.