Take this job and shove it

I thought country music singer Johnny Paycheck, known for his one hit wonder, “Take this job and shove it” was going to OD on my watch. At 19 years old, I was the manager on duty of the newly reopened - and very posh - Hermitage Hotel in Nashville and there was Mr. Paycheck having a bad reaction to something on the stairs leading from the lobby to the mezzanine bar.

Greasy hair, dirty clothes, the quintessential look of a dropout from the 1980s, “Take this job and shove it” was the anthem of the counter culture in the early days of Gordon Gecko’s “Greed is good” and the hustle culture.

We were all expected to hustle and hustle we did, especially in the US. 80, 90, 100 hour work weeks were a badge of honor. 

I remember falling asleep getting my hair cut one day while working for @KPMG because I hadn’t had a day off in 6 weeks. Telling that story to my friends on the weekend (at the pub after working a full Saturday) made me a hero.

The only people who were dropping out of work back then were people who looked like Johnny Paycheck - the counter culture.

Today? People dropping out or scaling back from work look like you and me, our sisters, sons, neighbors and friends who come to our weekend barbeques. Everyday people have decided they’ve had enough. 

Enter the real and growing anti-work revolution.

According to the article below, “The US labor force participation rate — the proportion of working-age citizens either working or actively looking for work — has declined from a high of 67.5 percent at the turn of the century to 62.3 percent.”

In 2016 (pre Covid), 11% of men in the US aged 35 - 54 have fallen off the radar where work is concerned. 

This movement has been growing for some time but Covid brought it into the mainstream with Quiet Quitting, the Great Resignation and the new #workyourwage.

It’s tempted to think that it’s Gen Zs fault. After all, they are lazy slackers right? But all older generations think that the younger ones are lazy slackers. Going back to Boomers who were considered the original “Me Generation.”

This revolution has nothing to do with anyone being lazy or being a slacker. It has to do with a seismic shift in priorities and the fact that the power balance has changed between organization and individual.

It is hitting different generations for different reasons. Gen Zs and younger Millennials are not interested in work as a means to get by…they’ve got their side hustles and investment properties for that. They are looking for work for a sense of meaning and contribution to help this challenging world of ours. 

Baby Boomers, on the other hand, are opting for early retirement - breaking the cycle of decades of hustle…but this isn’t their dad’s retirement. They still want to work - they just want to do it on their own terms.

The demand from every generation for more humane and sustainable working practices is gathering momentum quickly. 

Unless we figure out how to stop this revolution - or embrace it and capitalize on it - it could cause a severe downturn in our GDP. 

So how do we do this? The author of this article suggests, and I agree, that ”The easiest way to start addressing the work ethic problem is to start making work itself more attractive.”

The author goes on to say that we can embrace this revolution if we, “Treat workers as responsible adults rather than errant children, intent on skiving off, or giddy adolescents, wowed by free beer and pizza. 

Use Zoom to reduce the need for work-related travel as well as trips to the office. Cut down on the proliferation of meetings. Stop bombarding employees with unnecessary emails, particularly from HR. Embrace part-time jobs so that older workers don’t have to choose between working and retiring.”

The world of work is changing, and how people want to work is evolving. Leaders who desperately cling to the old ways and point to new practices like hybrid work as the root cause of the evils of “the anti work revolution” will find themselves on the fast track to nowhere while braver leaders begin to figure it out. 

And some are.

But as long as there are more jobs than people to fill them (and don’t expect that to turn around anytime soon - even in a recession) this seismic shift in peoples’ relationship to work will continue to push boundaries. 

This provides us with real challenges in the workplace, to be sure. I’m a firm believer that we can solve these problems - and I’m seeing companies do it real time. Companies that use new thinking to solve these challenges will be the clear winners in this War for Talent. 

Leaders who embrace this will pass those who don’t by in a flash on the career track - if that’s what they want. 

In this new world it seems we have choices. 

Link to original article https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/the-anti-work-revolution-driving-a-huge-cultural-change-20230201-p5chxz.html

Thank you Phil Sylvester for bringing this to my attention!

#futureofwork #embracethefuture