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\"No One Wants to Work Anymore.\" Wrong. They Just Don't Want to Work for You.
You've said it. Heard it. Maybe even posted about it on LinkedIn with a resigned emoji.
"No one wants to work anymore."
People don't show up. They don't go the extra mile. They clock in, clock out, and couldn't care less about the business. Not like when you started. Not like the workers you used to have.
Here's what you're not seeing: Those workers didn't disappear.
They're your competition now.
The Workers You Want Are Running Their Own Businesses
The driven ones. The obsessed ones. The ones who take ownership, work weekends, think strategically, go above and beyond.
They're not in your applicant pool anymore.
They're running Shopify stores. Building service businesses. Freelancing. Consulting. Creating content. Driving for themselves instead of someone else.
They looked at the employment deal—trade time for money, limited upside, no equity, someone else making all the decisions—and said "why would I do that when I could do it for myself?"
And then they did it for themselves.
The barrier to entry for starting a business dropped to nearly zero.
You don't need a storefront, massive capital, or a business degree anymore. You need a laptop, internet, and a skill someone will pay for.
The people with founder energy became founders.
That's where they went.
You're Not Competing with Other Employers Anymore
You think you're competing with the business down the street for the same talent pool.
Wrong fight.
You're competing with self-employment. With the gig economy. With people who'd rather make $60k working for themselves than $75k working for you.
Because it's not just about the money anymore.
It's about autonomy. Flexibility. Control. Upside. Building something that's theirs.
When you post a job, you're not just up against other employers offering better wages or benefits. You're up against the option to not have a boss at all.
And for people with drive, ambition, and skills, that option is winning.
The Disconnect You're Not Seeing
Here's what you want: Employees who think like owners.
Someone who cares about the business like it's theirs. Who takes initiative. Solves problems without being asked. Works late when it matters. Has skin in the game emotionally, mentally, strategically.
Here's what you're offering: A paycheck. Maybe some basic benefits. Zero equity. No profit sharing. No decision-making power. No upside beyond incremental raises.
You want owner-level commitment with employee-level compensation.
That math isn't mathing.
People who think like owners want the rewards that come with ownership. The equity. The profit. The control. The upside when things go well.
If you're offering none of that, you're not going to attract people who think that way.
Because people who think that way looked at your job posting and thought "I could just do this for myself."
And they did.
What Actually Changed
It's not that people got lazy. It's that the game changed and you're still playing by the old rules.
The barrier to starting a business collapsed.
Twenty years ago, starting a business required capital, inventory, physical space, complex logistics. Now it requires a website and a skill.
E-commerce platforms. Freelance marketplaces. Social media marketing. Online courses. Subscription models. Digital products.
All of it accessible. All of it scalable. All of it built for people who want to own their outcomes.
The pandemic accelerated the shift.
People got laid off and started side hustles that became full businesses. They went remote and realized they could work for themselves remotely too. They saw how quickly "loyalty" evaporated when companies needed to cut costs.
The social contract of "work hard and the company will take care of you" was already dying. COVID buried it.
Information became free.
You used to need specialized knowledge to start a business. Now it's on YouTube. Reddit. Podcasts. Online communities.
How to set up an LLC. How to find clients. How to price your services. How to scale. It's all there. Free.
The people who wanted it badly enough learned it and left.
Different generations watched and learned.
Millennials watched their parents get laid off after decades of loyalty. They watched the 2008 crash. They graduated into a recession with student debt and no jobs.
Gen Z watched Millennials burn out, break down, and realize the trade-off wasn't worth it.
Both groups looked at traditional employment and said "there has to be a better way."
For the driven ones, there was. Self-employment.
Who's Left in Your Applicant Pool
The people still looking for traditional employment.
And that's not a bad thing. It's just a different thing.
These are people who WANT to be employees. Who don't want the risk, stress, or uncertainty of running a business. Who want stability, predictability, clear boundaries between work and life.
They're not lazy. They're strategic.
They know what they want. A job that pays the bills, respects their time, and doesn't consume their entire identity.
They're not going to "go the extra mile" unpaid. They're not going to work weekends for free. They're not going to care about your business like it's theirs.
Because it's not theirs. It's yours.
They're trading time for money. That's the deal. That's what employment is.
If you want more than that, you need to offer more than that.
Stop Expecting Founder Energy from Employees
You can't have it both ways.
You can't offer an employee-level deal and expect founder-level output.
If you want people who care like owners, give them ownership. Equity. Profit sharing. Decision-making power. Real upside.
If you're not willing to do that, adjust your expectations.
Employees who show up, do the work, and go home aren't underperforming. They're doing exactly what the employment contract specifies: trading time for money.
You want more? Pay more. Offer more. Share more.
Or stop complaining that people aren't giving you what you're not paying for.
Your Actual Options
You're not getting the 1995 labor market back. That's gone. Stop wishing for it.
Here's what you can do instead:
→ Option One: Compete for the employee pool that exists.
Offer competitive wages. Real benefits. Flexibility. Work-life balance. Clear expectations. Respectful management.
The people who want traditional employment will work for you. They're reliable, skilled, and perfectly capable. They just won't work for free or sacrifice their mental health for your bottom line.
That's not unreasonable. That's the market.
→ Option Two: Adjust your expectations.
Stop expecting owner energy from people who have zero ownership.
Employees will care about your business to the extent that it benefits them. Fair wages, good environment, growth opportunities—that earns effort.
"You should just be grateful to have a job" earns the minimum required to not get fired.
→ Option Three: Offer ownership.
Profit sharing. Equity. Performance bonuses tied to company success.
If you want people to care like it's their business, make it actually their business. Even a small piece changes the game.
This isn't “sharing is caring". It's strategy. Align incentives and watch behavior change.
→ Option Four: Hire differently.
Stop looking for employees. Start looking for partners, contractors, freelancers.
People who want the upside of ownership without you carrying all the risk of employment.
They cost more per hour. They require less management. They care because they have skin in the game.
You're paying for outcomes, not time. That's a better deal anyway.
→ Option Five: Automate and outsource.
If you can't find people to do repetitive, process-driven work at the wage you want to pay, the market is telling you something.
Automate it. Outsource it. Eliminate it.
Technology replaced workers who wouldn't work for poverty wages before. It'll do it again.
The Real Problem Isn't Work Ethic
It's that you're fishing in the wrong pond and blaming the fish.
The workers you're nostalgic for evolved. They learned. They adapted. They saw a better option and took it.
They didn't get lazy. They got smart.
Now they're running businesses, building client rosters, creating freedom for themselves. They're working harder than they ever did for someone else—just not for you.
The labor pool that remains wants something different than you're offering. Not worse. Not too much. Different.
They want stability over upside. Boundaries over hustle. Predictability over chaos.
That's not a flaw. That's a preference.
You can work with it or fight it.
Fighting it means constant turnover, empty roles, mediocre hires, and endless complaints about "no one wanting to work."
Working with it means adapting your offers, your expectations, and your strategy to match the market you're actually operating in.
Stop Blaming Generations
"Gen Z is entitled." "Millennials are soft." "No one has work ethic anymore."
Useless. Completely useless.
Every generation complains about the next one. Every generation thinks they had it harder, worked more, sacrificed more.
None of that matters.
The market shifted. Priorities shifted. Options expanded.
Blaming a generation for making rational economic decisions based on the options available to them is just yelling at reality.
Reality doesn't care.
The workers with founder energy didn't disappear. They became founders
.
The workers who remain want to be employees—on terms that make sense for them.
Meet them where they are or keep struggling to fill roles.
Those are your options.
The Bottom Line
"No one wants to work anymore" is code for "the deal I'm offering doesn't make sense in this market."
The labor pool didn't get worse. Your offer just became less competitive.
People want to work. They just don't want to work for outdated wages, chaotic environments, toxic management, and zero upside while being told they should be grateful for the opportunity.
The ones who would've tolerated that? They're running their own businesses now.
They're the competition you didn't see coming.
Stop fighting reality. Start competing in it.
Update your offers. Adjust your expectations. Pay for what you want.
Or keep complaining and keep losing.
The choice is yours.
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