Why should we work anymore?
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Fortune had an article recently talking about how for five straight quarters, worker productivity has gone down. Naturally, it blamed this on working from home and as is the fad right now, demanded that everyone return to the office.
Let’s get get this clear. The only reason everyone is demanding everyone return to the office is for three reasons, none of which benefit workers:
Commercial property prices
Local tax revenues
Control over workers
Corporations and governments, which at this point are getting closer and closer to the same thing, benefit greatly from workers returning to the office while workers make it very clear where they stand.
Work from home overwhelmingly benefits workers and when it started, productivity actually increased, so I don’t think it’s very fair to say that WFH is to blame for the decrease when there are so many more recent factors at play.
Let’s start by looking at one from last year: quiet quitting.
As I see it, quiet quitting was workers finally realizing that the social contract between corporations and workers that if they put in long hours, hard work, and loyalty, they will be rewarded with raises, bonuses, and career growth had come to an end, then they were simply going to do the jobs they were paid. That’s all. I saw no issue with it. I’ve never expected an employee to do more than what I’ve paid them to do, although the way corporate America reacted to quiet quitting made it very clear they had become used to workers doing exactly that.
And what was the reaction to quiet quitting? Did corporations start rewarding top workers? Did they start being more loyal? No. They got their cronies in media to lambast everyone as lazy for just doing what they were paid to do.
At one of my jobs, my job description was very clear in that I was to just design software. I cannot begin to tell you how much larger my role eventually became and how vastly larger my responsibilities were than those defined in my offer letter and contract. Yet, was I ever rewarded with a raise for all those 60-80 hour weeks and expanded responsibilities on the dozens of times I asked? Absolutely not. So I quit and found a job that paid almost twice as much. That’s my right in capitalism just as it’s their right to deny me a raise.
And how have companies reacted to this high inflation environment where we all know cost of living has gone up more than 7%? Are they handing out raises to keep everyone’s purchasing power parity equal to when they were hired? Absolutely not! You’re lucky if you get a 2-3% raise when your rent goes up 8% and your total cost of living might go up more. Trust me, I feel it and so do my friends. Everyone feels poorer despite working harder than ever. This is why the number of Americans with two or even three jobs (many full time and skilled) is at an all time high. I myself had two full time jobs the last time I had a regular W-2 since wages in the tech sector have been so stagnant for almost a decade. When you make the same base salary in 2022 that you did in 2014, that’s actually a 27% pay cut and not only do you feel it very directly, it feels like a slap in the face.
All of this is to say, workers are not very motivated anymore. We’re certainly not motivated to go above and beyond what’s expected, which had become the normal in America for decades. Corporations spend billions a year on stock buybacks instead of giving realistic cost of living wages to their employees. Do they not think their employees see that and react accordingly? Yes, most employees are a cost center, but you can only squeeze so much before workers will rebel, and they are. Add in massive layoffs catching everyone by surprise and what you have left is a completely demotivated workforce. It’s no wonder productivity is down.
Meanwhile, worker productivity has soared since 1979 while wages have barely increased. This is the primary reason for the massive wealth inequality we see today. Workers should rightfully be angry. We fulfilled our side of that social contract and got nothing in return. I know I’m angry about the decade I spent busting my ass for little to no reward, which is precisely why I now work for myself.
So no, don’t give me this BS that worker productivity is down due to WFH. It’s down because corporations didn’t share in the massive profits they reaped from the hard work of their workforce over the last 30 years and workers have finally realized it and are done going the extra mile for nothing extra.
There used to be a strong social contract in America that workers and corporations shared in the increase in productivity, just look at the chart. Then corporations got greedy and decided to keep it all to themselves. Well, workers are wising up and deciding not to play into that game anymore. To bad corporations. Time to pay up.