Is anyone else finding works changed and no one does anything anymore?

[JKDcot]

I am a hard worker. I really care about what I do and try to deliver for my team. I work in an office job but WFH since the pandemic, I don’t think it’s due to being remote. I’ve noticed people just don’t care as much? They don’t reply? I get a lot of “I’m busy sorry I can’t help”. It’s so frustrating and I can’t figure out why everyone seems to have lost their care factor? Anyone else?

because its just a job

No, but plenty lie on their deathbed wishing they'd had more/better holidays, had a bigger house, had a bigger family, etc., but didn't achieve it because they were in low paid jobs, worked fewer hours than they could have, and didn't take extra training, qualifications & promotions that could have given them a higher wage to pay for more holidays, a bigger house or a bigger family!!

"My career ambition now is to be in a job where I earn the most money with the least effort."

This, 100%.

Why's that a shit attitude?

The only "entitlement" I can see is the entitlement to be paid for one's labour.

@JKDcot I have noticed the non-responsiveness of others. I have not got to the stage where I am ignoring people's emails but I have others do it to me, which is frustrating. There is also a lot of month's leave going on. 4 people in one section are off leaving a mailbox unmanned. That would never have happened before. I have been asked to man it (it's not my area) as well as do my own work. In olden days I would have said yes. This time I said no. They said you are the only one available - I have kicked back and said don't let 4 people go off on leave at the same time then, 2 of them for a month, the other two for 2 weeks. Normally I would have seen it as an opportunity to show how marvellous I was at juggling, now I just think, no chance.

I give zero fucks about my current wfh job but that's because they have put me at redundancy risk twice since May and I had to interview for my own job once (would have been twice if I hadn't declined and taken 'voluntary' redundancy second time around). I think a company reaps what it sows in terms of employee productivity and contentment and mine are an absolute shit show.

I've worked myself to the bone for the past 13 years at my employer. Working on my non-working day, weekends, evening calls etc. I thought it would get me ahead. Instead they arbitrarily put my entire department at risk of redundancy last year. It was awful. 35% of department were made redundant and due to the unsettling environment we also lost several others who found better roles and decided to jump ship. The company has consistently had better results than ever and is performing amazingly financially- the redundancy stuff was just arbitrary number crunching by management consultants with no idea what we do. Needless to say they've replaced no one and I "inherited" 3 full time roles from folks who left during the redundancy... on top of my own role that was already a lot of work.

That was a year ago and I recently had to take leave from work due to burn out. I'm back at work now but am certainly not doing as much as I used to. It got me no where.... I simply got dumped on and left to suffer mentally. I'll still work my hours and do a decent job, but am done putting my work ahead of my life, family, mental and physical health.

No, but plenty lie on their deathbed wishing they'd had more/better holidays, had a bigger house, had a bigger family, etc., but didn't achieve it because they were in low paid jobs, worked fewer hours than they could have, and didn't take extra training, qualifications & promotions that could have given them a higher wage to pay for more holidays, a bigger house or a bigger family!!
and really there is no way to achieve this without hard work , even generational wealth dies at some point if everyone stops working,

No, but plenty lie on their deathbed wishing they'd had more/better holidays, had a bigger house, had a bigger family

Really? Have you genuinely ever known anyone on their deathbed that wished they’d lived in a bigger house? I think when people die they just want the people they love around them!

Very true. But don't you think the old adage of 'the more you put in, the more you get out' still holds true? Being busy and productive all day is far better for morale than doing the bare minimum. I get sent tasks all day, and most of these need to be started (and hopefully, completed) the same day. If I was watching Love Island, my lack of productivity would be picked up quite quickly.

@MeetMyCat not for me
If I put more in it means I do everyone else's work. It doesn't gain me a promotion or more pay, just more stress and then frustration at why I'm doing more work

That's why I stopped, and now I'm less stressed because I know I've done my bit and I can relax because it's not my issue if nobody else is doing their work

@MeetMyCat I agree during working hours, it's the expectation of unpaid overtime such as working through lunch and an extra half an hour every evening and a couple of hours at the weekend that grates.

It’s not really a cause for concern if you yourself are ambitious and hard-working, OP. If people want to coast, let them, it means fewer people to compete with as you rise to the top.

I think the stress for me comes with the fact I’m constantly waiting for other people to complete their tasks so my list just grows and grows. I can’t finish or complete anything! Then I feel I’m in trouble cause things haven’t been finished but it’s not my fault. All I say is”I’m waiting for xxx and xxx” and it’s annoying?

We've been lied to with the whole "if you work hard, you'll be rewarded" thing and we've woke up and smelled the coffee.

In every workplace, there's that one employee who runs herself ragged (yes, usually a woman aged 40-50 in my experience in various different jobs, it may be different elsewhere). We've all seen Janet with the high blood pressure telling us all about how she's "had" to stay in work 2 hours beyond her contracted hours each day "because there's so much work to do". We've seen her martyr herself for years, we've seen her having to take time off each year for stress. We've seen her allow herself to be walked all over by our employers and never get a sniff of a pay rise beyond the basic amount everyone gets each year. Janet gets glowing appraisals but no financial recompense or promotion.

We refuse to be like Janet. We do our job to a reasonably good standard during contracted hours only. We help colleagues when we can but we don't sacrifice lunch breaks or getting our own work done. We have boundaries.

The difference now is there is a cost of living crisis, house prices have gone up, everything has gone up except wages. We can barely afford to live and we're angry. We feel angry and unmotivated because we know we won't be rewarded even if we work extra hard - just look at Janet 10 years down the line earning the same as our inexperienced new hire. Our quality of life is continuing to reduce and it's affecting our mental health as we worry about how we'll manage.

We see the big bosses talking about their new house or their recent holiday abroad and we're bloody pissed off. We significantly reduce the work we do and now just do the bare minimum. What's the point?

I use to care deeply about my job, both when onsite and wfh. Then the HR Business Partner for my dept told me to ‘stay in my lane’ and not get involved in anything that doesn’t specifically come under my JD (despite the term ‘going above & beyond’ constantly being thrown around during recruitment & performance Mgment).

Now I just do the minimum and try not to care too much.
It’s depressing how management can suck all enthusiasm out of people and then complain about the results.

Wise words indeed.

i saw my productivity (personal productivity, not referring to the economic concept of productivity) reduce a lot this year because 1. i got burnout 2. my very close family member became seriously ill. the combination of the two things meant that my former conscientiousness and overachieving dropped away very fast. i am still trying to recover from it and it takes quite a long time. now i make to-do lists and ration my time very carefully to ensure i still finish everything i commit to. i dont usually take on anything extra at this time. hopefully given some time i can start overachieving again. the point is that you never know the full circumstances

I recently realised that I'm @Eudaimonia5's Janet. I KNOW there is no prospect of promotion where I work, thanks to an extremely flat management structure. I have an interview elsewhere soon, but if I don't get that job I will certainly not continue to Janet with no additional reward other than the occasional letter of thanks from senior leaders.

Jesus Christ. And this is why we're fucked, what a shit attitude.

I hear you OP, many people have become bone idle and entitled, see above.

Wanting a decent wage isn’t entitled 😵‍💫

My pay hasn’t kept up with inflation for about 15 years. This year management made a big change that is going to make some aspects of the job much harder for a great many people. I’m still working unpaid overtime for now, but planning to scale that back in September and just work my contracted hours. I have no more fucks to give.

I don’t think it’s to do with wfh. I think a lot of people just no longer care for many reasons, including the cost of living and reevaluating priorities after the pandemic.

I bet you're bloody lovely as well, Janets always are, it's why it's so horrible to see them being treated like shit for years.

Best of luck with the new job, if you don't get it don't let it put you off applying elsewhere.

I’m a teacher - so no. But I’d hate to work from home, hated online teaching and was thrilled to get back to the classroom.

I work my arse off and so does everyone else in my school. It’s a ruthless and thankless job. We can’t do wrong for doing right.
I won’t do anything extra anymore and that includes putting my hand in my pocket for classroom resources and organising and going on school trips.