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?

@KleineDracheKokosnuss No it was - apply for my own job again or leave. My point was there's nothing voluntary about it, I just took myself out of the equation as it seems like a sinking ship!

Which employers? Who are you talking about?

@Eudaimonia5 and @spitefulandbadgrammar 👏👏👏👏

I'd also add that as a previous Janet, I've seen all the mediocre white men soar, as all the women of any age - equally or more capable- get pushed aside, out or marginalised. The old equation of effort = reward doesn't work anymore, and it's like the emperor's new clothes, once you've seen it, you can't unsee what happens.

I’d have to agree!

Yes, I go in the office one day a week so have mastered the art of doing most of my work that day. The other days I do the minimum, check emails regularly for anything urgent and have my personal laptop logged on next to my work one so I can go on the Internet without them knowing. Works for me!

The trick is to create an impression of being super busy and keen, and not let anything slide, so they never suspect

To Janet

This may be my new favourite verb

Come and work for the NHS. In our hospital we can't slack and we don't want to either..
Sometimes I wish i'd gone for an easier job but in truth I'm happiest working when A and E is manic!
I am thinking of leaving though because the pay is shite!

I would send an email around 'if we don't improve I am going to suggest we all go back to the office to management'

Wonder if that would work

If I’d been doing the job I’m doing now in the 1980’s, I would have been on the equivalent of twice the salary I am currently, so I agree that employees are being hard done by.

Over 40 years of working has taught me that many (not all) people who work over their hours do so because they want to look good for management, not because they are going above and beyond - they merely “stretch” their work to fill the extra hours.

I work hard, but won’t do unpaid overtime: instead, I work very efficiently to maximise my time. I know that some managers would judge me negatively for that - comparing me with others who are putting in extra hours, but luckily my efforts result in good KPI’s for the team.

Ps. The type of managers that equate “above and beyond” to “worked extra hours” are also the type that throw around labels like “lazy” and “entitled”, when they should really be observing what their workers are actually doing!

It would work to alienate your colleagues and mark you out as an insufferable prick who was probably the one to put their hand up in lessons going “Miss! Miss! You’ve forgotten to give us any homework!”

My workplace is massively understaffed and underresourced. It's burnout, or leave, or grow a thick skin and learn to accept that you can't do your job as well as you would like to.

Management know but are not coming up with the right solutions and won't talk to the staff directly.

Yes, I go in the office one day a week so have mastered the art of doing most of my work that day. The other days I do the minimum, check emails regularly for anything urgent and have my personal laptop logged on next to my work one so I can go on the Internet without them knowing. Works for me!

The trick is to create an impression of being super busy and keen, and not let anything slide, so they never suspect

@PurpleGreenandWhiteAreTheNewPrimaryColours but don't you get bored?

My pay has been so eroded over the last decade. I barely earn more than my starting salary yet I'm many years in. There's no way I'm half killing myself in this role, why should I? Management have made their feelings clear enough.

I took early retirement from the civil service as I could no longer face managing a bunch of people who spent most of their time avoiding work. I managed 10 people who did wfh. Of these about 3 put in a full days work. The productivity of the majority was poor .When I tried to ring them there would often be no answer as ‘ they had popped to the toilet’. The effort involved in ‘performance managing’ this ‘inefficiency ‘ to make it disciplinary was phenomenal. On top of this if someone told occupational health they had a bad back/ mental health issues/ vertigo etc then ‘reasonable adjustments’ had to be made despite there being no requirement for medical evidence to support these claims and the adjustments being far from ‘reasonable’. I was a manager for 25 years but the last five or so were awful. A lot of good managers have left the civil service as HR have become more and more spineless. Staff are demotivated and there seems no Will to remedy it.

Staff being demotivated across a whole team is a management issue...

Well my job is boring so if I'm going to be bored anyway I'd rather be doing my own thing.

Its a temporary job anyway so I'll be looking for something better in the autumn which will keep me busy as jobhunting always takes up loads of time

It's crucial to determine if we're talking about;

-people no longer going above and beyond (ie staying late, checking work emails at the weekend etc)

-people not doing their contracted hours/tasks with basic professionalism

These are two quite different situations.

We work our bits off in my office. The fabulous helpful colleagues are the best part of the job.

Indeed. My general observations that the quality of management has got worse since I started working and senior management quality in the public sector is dreadful. Sadly I have to work for people who have no idea how to motivate and engage staff and just make a bad situation worse by their toxic and clueless behaviour.

Lack of training, poor pay and not selecting for the right traits are key issues where I currently work in terms of getting good senior managers. As is the sheer difficulty in try to improve anything.

I think part of the problem is simply less bandwidth. During the pandemic we got a new CEX who got rid of half my department, all good, dedicated staff, as part of a restructure. The work hadn’t dwindled at all and those that survived the cut now had to do double. I ended up working 60-70 hour weeks, writing materials on Sunday night that I would be delivering at 9am on Monday morning. Doing that, coupled with the fact that they had clearly demonstrated they didn’t give a shit and would quite easily get rid of you regardless of how hard you worked, really made me think hard about going above and beyond, particularly as I could barely cope with the workload as it was. They had broken trust and the psychological contract and that destroyed any loyalty I felt. After about 6 months I decided that I could continue to be angry or I could move on, so I moved on.

Having been both an employer and an employee, I think the problem is that the social contract has been broken, so now people can see work for what it is. Trading your time for an increasingly reduced reward. Years ago a "normal" job provided enough income to buy a home, support a family and live a relatively good life. Now that co tract has been broken, the rewards for working are not enough to provide the means to have a good life. So why should people bother?

It's not an issue that's going to go away either, so calling people lazy or entitled won't help.

Working for a living doesn't pay anymore. That's a BIG problem for society because our monetary system relies on debt to function. If people are not paid enough, they won't borrow money, this means the banks don't make any and there's less money overall circulating within the economy. Its like a swimming pool with a leak, eventually there won't be enough money to sustain the economy because there won't be sufficient levels of debt to sustain it. The pool will be empty.

It's going to get alot worse in the coming years with the advent of AGI.

I think it's a mixture of most people now having more leverage over employers than they used to and the way in which we've broken the link between working and being able to afford a reasonably stable life. The social contract having been broken, or at least fraying, is a good way of putting it.

I/my colleagues haven't had a pay rise in 4 years. If our employer doesn't value us why should we go above and beyond?
I do my job but that's it. You get no better thought of/rewarded for doing more.
In real terms due to inflation we have all taken a paycut.

Great post. This is exactly it. Where is the motivation anymore?

I've noticed this too. Been told my dog has to go in every 3 months for a 'check up' in order to get his prescription medication. So £86 very 12 weeks for nothing. Also been told on the quiet that this is not strictly necessary but the large corporates who own the vet practices (which seems to be most of them now), insist on this practice be iSe it makes them money. I hate how money is the driver of absolutely everything now. No compassion, just £££. Corporates should not be allowed to own care homes or veterinary practices at all.