Here’s What They Really Mean When They Say Nobody Wants To Work Anymore

Nobody wants to be treated like shit for shit wages anymore

This is what unemployed people do all day long, you know. They just lie on the floor and let the hard-working taxpayers support them. Photo by James Forbes on Unsplash

I keep hearing people tell me nobody wants to work anymore. The people who say this, however, are invariably people who have had the same good jobs for years — or are retired.

I have yet to hear this claim from anybody who has dealt with a bout of unemployment in the last few years.

The unemployment rate is under 4 percent.

This is a bit misleading, though. Plenty of people who are “not unemployed” are not in ideal situations. Not included in this figure are legions of people who settled for a part-time job or who switched to gig work or self-employment.

That would include people like me. I thought I’d work full-time until I was around 70, but it’s tough to land a job when you’re older than 40. Almost every woman my age I know is unemployed, underemployed or doing some kind of gig or freelance work.

I’m sure there are exceptions, especially people who have highly specialized skills. I imagine 50-something doctors, for example, are much better off than people in non-tech fields.

A long-retired acquaintance threw out the “nobody wants to work anymore” claim to me a few days ago, and when I pushed back, he said he could have a job in two hours if he wanted one. I’d like to see him manage it, frankly. He might be surprised how few jobs there are for elderly men.

When you can’t find a full-time job, hearing people confidently claim that nobody wants to work anymore is particularly galling.

Job searches are not what they used to be.

If you haven’t been subjected to this torture in the last few years, you can’t imagine how much things have changed. Some people, especially those who haven’t job hunted for a decade, think you can walk into a workplace, ask to see the manager and simply wow them with your can-do attitude:

“Wow, I love your positive perspective! I definitely want you on the team! Can you start Monday? And is $100,000 to start OK?”

You can’t apply in person even at most fast-food places now. You have to go online to apply. You aren’t going to impress a manager by walking in and demonstrating how incredible you are.

I think the nobody-wants-to-work-anymore folks think people without jobs are holding out for cushy executive positions and need to suck it up and accept whatever they can get.

Once you’ve had a higher-level job, though, nobody wants to hire you for something they feel you’re overqualified for. And even if they do hire you, they will likely restrict your hours to part-time so they don’t have to pay you benefits.

I remember a few years ago an executive-level woman was desperate to flee a toxic workplace. She told me she erased much of her experience in order to try to land an entry-level job as a bank teller. She didn’t get it.

And this was before the pandemic. It has not gotten better since then.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t even apply for anything entry-level.

I knew it was futile to go the over-qualified route. Besides, I worked many such jobs as a student, and I know how such workers are treated. My work ethic is stronger than that of most people I’ve worked with, but I’m not going to be told when I can use the restroom or get a drink of water. I don’t think anybody should be treated that way, actually.

When they say nobody wants to work, what they mean is nobody wants to work at shitty jobs where they know they will be treated poorly.

I didn’t hold out for top jobs. I applied for positions for which I was well qualified. It’s not that I held out for something with high pay — I just wanted to do good work at a job I enjoyed.

This is why I freelance now.

If I could land a full-time job that uses my writing, editing and communications skills, that would be great. Chasing jobs that will only go to much younger people, however, is not a good use of my time. Freelancing may not make me wealthy, but I can control it. I am not at the mercy of some HR department.

So I’m focusing my time and attention on opportunities that I have control over. I figure out what I want to do and find a way to learn the skills I need to do it. I’ve never had an employer teach me as many new skills as I’ve learned on my own in the past few years!

I’m incredibly proud of the things I’ve accomplished independent of any employer. But it makes me sad that I’ve had to go it alone.

I do work full-time.

I write books, post on Medium and Substack, perform SEO work for an agency and proofread sometimes for another agency when they need extra help for big jobs. Occasionally small PR jobs crop up from old contacts. I also write novels — the latest (and the first I’ve published under my real name) is The Trailer Park Rules.

This is the cover of my new book. You can order the ebook here. The paperback version will be out shortly!

Writing, formatting, publishing and publicizing books takes skill! I’ve had to figure it out solo. There are so many times I wish I could walk out of my office and ask a co-worker, “Hey, can you help me with this?” But there’s nobody down the hallway from my office during the workday but two very lazy mutts who refuse to help me at all.

You know who really doesn’t want to work? My dogs. They prefer to snooze most of the time, although I did force Mr. Joe to take a turn at my desk:

I outsourced most of the writing to Mr. Joe. I wonder if anyone can tell the difference? (Photo by Michelle Teheux)

But I do want to work. I’m writing this at 10 p.m. on a Saturday, because I was working on something for a client most of the day, and that work has to come first.

I don’t know what the members of the nobody-wants-to-work-anymore club are doing right now. Possibly some of them are working. But most of them are probably enjoying their Saturday nights.

Maybe they’re having a drink with a friend and bemoaning all those lazy people who don’t want to work anymore.

About Michelle Teheux:

I’m a writer in central Illinois. If you like my work, subscribe to me here or toss me some encouragement. I also write on Medium and have a new book, The Trailer Park Rules.

A version of this originally ran on Medium on Feb. 24, 2024.