Nobody wants to work…..

“Nobody wants to work anymore” is a headline that legacy media cycles through about once every 6 months. All across the country, senior managers complain to their HR departments. Your elderly grandparents will probably say it around the dinner table this Christmas. We’re all familiar with the saying. We’ve heard it time and time again but where is the idea that young people don’t want to work coming from?

Is it a lack of work ethic? Hardly, Millennials work more hours per week than the previous 3 generations before them. For most, the 38-hour work week is dead with many pulling hours north of 45 per week. Is it their participation in the labour force? Nearly half of Gen Z that are currently in the workforce have taken a second job to make ends meet. Nearly forty per cent of Millennials have done the same. If anything, they work more hours and more jobs.

So why do people keep saying that nobody wants to work anymore? More accurately put, and essentially what people mean, is that there is a widespread lack of loyalty to employers. The national average for job life is roughly 3.3 years. This means that on average, Aussies will have 3 or so jobs within a decade. This is a stark contrast to 40 years ago when job mobility was far lower. In Australia, the idea of having one single job for life is dead. The data shows it died with the generation who entered the workforce in the 1990’s. 

Loyalty to the employer has been on the decline ever since. People talk about this decline as if they are mourning its loss. As if it is somehow a bad thing to be disloyal to your job. 

Let’s be realistic. In 1970, many employers were small Mum and Dad operations. In modern times, those shops are few and far between. Most employers are huge multinational companies where the CEO is completely unaware you even work there, yet for some reason they deserve your loyalty?

In the past, if you worked hard and made yourself invaluable to your employer you would be rewarded. Now, people are retiring later and later meaning those tope tier jobs aren’t being vacated as quickly. This has created little upward momentum for younger workers to receive promotions as the older generations hold their well paying jobs for longer. Workers looking to climb the corporate ladder are only met with a traffic jam.

What’s even more disheartening for young workers is facing a daily nine-to-five routine, commuting for up to an hour each way, all for a pay check that falls short. From late 2010 until mid early 2021 wage growth was shrinking each year. In fact for almost a decade in our country, wage growth failed to keep pace with basic inflation. 

The reality is, even with a slew of statistics, if you started working in the last ten years your pay check probably doesn’t cover all your expenses. Why would employees have any loyalty after giving up 40+ hours of their week, not to mention travel time, for a wage that falls short of covering their bills. Again, to put that into perspective from 1988 until 2001 wage growth increased year on year. 

Are you going to be loyal after giving up most of your waking hours each week to a wage that will barely let you feed your children? I highly doubt it. If something better comes along, you would jump at the chance for better pay and conditions.

On top of this, younger workers are being pushed to the outer suburbs. In 2002 workers averaged only a total of 3 hours spent commuting to work each week. In 2017, both Melbourne and Sydney workers reported over an hour commute to work, per day. That’s considerably more of a commute time when compared to 2002. What’s more is 2017 is half a decade ago. No doubt that time has blown out further. This makes things harder for workers, as they now have to travel much longer for jobs that provide a significantly worse lifestyle.

The decline in job loyalty is not a reflection of laziness or lack of work ethic. Instead it is a response to changing dynamics. The landscape of work has shifted dramatically from the days of lifelong employment with a single company. Nowadays, multinational corporations dominate, and the connection between employees and employers feels increasingly distant. Younger generations face challenges, from limited promotion opportunities due to the prolonged careers of older generations to the struggle of making ends meet despite working longer hours and multiple jobs. The once-promised upward mobility and rewards for hard work seem elusive in the current job market. With stagnant wage growth and increased commuting times, it’s no wonder that loyalty to employers has waned.

Perhaps it’s time for a shift in perspective—a recognition of the evolving workforce landscape and a collective effort to address the factors that contribute to this apparent lack of loyalty.