Some of these people are probably pondering whether they want to work anymore. (123rf)

Every few months, I’ll be minding my own business, and whether I’m on social media, patronizing an understaffed business or, heck, talking to a relative on the phone, I’ll encounter that strange claim, “No one wants to work anymore.” 

I mean, think for a second about what that phrase is positing. Better yet, why don’t I write a whole column about it?

Of all the tropes, sayings and shenanigans that I didn’t expect to outlast COVID-19, it was hearing people say no one wants to work anymore. It’s like its own permutation of long COVID. I naively presumed masking up during cold and flu season would be the thing that hung around.

A statement such as “No one wants to work anymore” uttered out loud to utter strangers really demonstrates what the experts call False Consensus Effect, which is basically overestimating the extent to which anyone around you agrees with your sentiments. But people sure as heck feel comfortable saying it to relative strangers.

“No one wants to work anymore” is no more fact-based than when my friend says, “Who wants to work? Weirdos, that’s who.” And yet my friend’s statement rings more true to me. 

You don’t have to hunt very far to see that people have been saying permutations of “No one wants to work anymore” since as far back as the 1890s, which is freaking HILARIOUS. 

In 1916, the Binghamton Press quoted a New York man who said, “nobody wants to work as hard as they used to.” In 1937, The Gazette and Daily newspaper in York, Pennsylvania, quoted peach orchardists as saying, “Nobody wants to work anymore.”

There are lots of other 20th century examples out there. More recently, the phrase got tossed around a lot after businesses began reopening during the pandemic, and according to Forbes and NBC, Kim Kardashian infamously said on TV in March 2022: “It seems like nobody wants to work these days.” 

Now, the Kardashians catch a lot of flack for their fame, vainglory, plasticity and, most deservedly, hard-work claims, to wit Kim also said, “We work our asses off.”

Based on photographs I have seen of the Kardashians, I don’t think that phrase means what she thinks it means. 

On second thought, maybe it doesn’t mean what I think it means.

At any rate, remember when “Question your own hypothesis” was a thing wise professors used to go on about? As in so many facets of life, it would be better if people just brought curiosity,  stopped to ask themselves whether or not it’s remotely accurate to say no one wants to work anymore. Instead, people make assumptions and just run with them, or so I assume.

Anyway, let’s bring some curiosity to the claim “No one wants to work anymore.”

Firstly, “no one” is a LOT of people. I mean, when I go out of my house, to businesses and to sit in traffic on my way to businesses, where I frequently see people working, it sure seems like a lot of people are working every day. (And even if they’re not, you can rest assured that the Kardashians are working their assets off.)

From the cheap seats, which are all I can afford, it seems like baked into the statement that “No one wants to work anymore” is the belief that, “Everyone should want to work, preferably all the time.”

I feel like when someone says “No one wants to work anymore,” they should have to elaborate: How much money are we talking? Are there wage increases, vacation time and a solid work-life balance?

And by “no one,” do they really mean nobody? Surely they don’t mean the wealthy engines of our economy working hard to automate things humans traditionally were paid to do. Or do they really mean that the worker bees don’t want to wash dishes, ring up groceries, stock shelves despite the difficulty of getting by, and the impossibility of getting ahead, on minimum wage? Where does the shrinking middle class land in this supposition? 

I always try to conceal the quizzical expression on my face when I hear “No one wants to work anymore,” because I wonder why they phrase it like somehow working or not comes down to a choice. I’m fortunate that I love my line of work, because since reluctantly becoming an adult with bills and passwords to forget and phishing scams to ignore, whether or not I want to work has never seemed like a choice. 

My friend who said, “Who wants to work? Weirdos, that’s who” has a point. Those who have hobbies, passions, avocations they will never get paid for — that would be skateboarding for me — would absolutely love to at least work a little less, maybe not at all.

Ultimately, “what separates me from the people who say, “No one wants to work anymore,” besides rolling my eyes every time someone says it, is that they think a high number of people have a choice to not work, and I don’t think that for a second, at least not most of us. In a recent MarketWatch Guides survey, 57% of our fellow Americans said they’re living paycheck to paycheck. Other studies land on different numbers, and of course, your mileage will vary when defining paycheck to paycheck.

What have we learned? I guess that no one has wanted to work since the late 19th century, or some people would like to work as little as possible, and others would jump at the chance not to. 

But most all of us have to work — and having to do something can take at least some of the joy out of wanting to.