The Myth of Workers

It’s the beginning of a new year, and that means that Governors around the country will be presenting their annual “State of the State” assessments to their legislatures and anyone else who bothers to listen.

These ‘top-down’ motivational speeches are usually more aspirational than practical. They include pointed recommendations of the kinds of actions that the targeted governing body should take during the coming year.

As we know, our political leaders don’t agree on much at all. But there’s one topic that’s sure to be included in every single “State of the State” speech this year: we need more workers.

The issue of who’s going to do the jobs that we need done now and in the future is so common these days, you can even hear people talking about it in the line at the grocery store. Everyone, it seems, is understaffed, managers complain about the work ethic of some group or another, and consumers whine that we shouldn’t have to spend time waiting in long lines.  

And who’s to blame for this situation? Naturally it’s the workers themselves. Nobody wants to work anymore, they say. Especially those young people and all those who are taking some kind of over-generous Government handouts. They’re the problem!

Well, guess what Governor, Elected official, big business leader, and anyone else spewing vitriol against workers, I’m going to call you out on your BS.

It’s not the workers, bub.

In fact, it’s time for us to explode the myth of the existence of ‘workers.’ There’s no such thing. There are only ‘people who work.’ And you’ll be shocked to realize that they are people who live lives, have families, need to eat, and have access to healthcare. They want to have a safe place to live, have reliable transportation, and have enough time and money to even go on vacation once in a while. And most of all, they want to have some skin in the game so there is an incentive for them to do better, save some money and be able to aspire to more than just a job that doesn’t pay them enough.

What the people who complain are noticing is the wonderful new trend: Increasingly, the people who work are looking at their lives and determining that working a shitty and thankless job that doesn’t pay enough to be able to afford the bare minimum of needs just isn’t worth it.

Ask anyone in the service industry about their working conditions and they’ll share a story of how the work is difficult, and the treatment from managers and customers makes it even worse.

The suggestion that workers are to blame for the situation is fraught with hypocrisy.

If workers are truly the problem, then we’d be hearing about incentives to encourage people to work.  We’d invest in effective welfare to work programs to help those experiencing hard times. We’d invest in mental and physical health programs to assist those who fall through the cracks of our broken healthcare system. And most of all, we’d go to our borders and welcome with open arms all those ‘huddled masses yearning to breathe free” and let them work all these jobs that no one seems to want.

Instead, we insist that workers, especially young people, don’t care about doing a good job. We shun and look down on people with mental and physical health problems. We see the homeless as lazy, and we dehumanize immigrants and clamor to close our borders.   

The problem isn’t the people who are or aren’t working, it’s the economics of costs verses profit.

Don’t believe me? Our own Government Accountability Office presented a report recently that put the spotlight on Federal Social Safety Net Programs.

Their study found that about 70% of social welfare recipients work full time. Fully 90% of those individuals worked for private sector employers in places like restaurants, department stores, and grocery stores. Others worked for state governments, public universities, or, of course, nonprofit organizations.

We’ve all read the exited reports that Corporate Profits are way up (34% in the last three years according to the Economic Policy Institute). Shareholders are rejoicing and the stock market is getting fired up again.

However, over the same period, with inflation, employee pay has decreased. Despite the record profits only around half of workers received a raise last year.

What’s more, the rate of inflation is dropping, supply chains that were clogged during the pandemic are opening up again, but as I’m sure you’ve noticed, prices aren’t following the same pattern. They’re just as high, if not higher than they were before the pandemic.

People who work, especially lower wage jobs, are taking the brunt of the challenges. That’s not new. It’s how things have worked for hundreds of years. Really since the middle ages.

So, what’s changed?

It’s pretty simple, actually. The people doing the work have decided they don’t want to put up with it any longer. They’re finding other ways to get by. It’s the 21^st century version of Take This Job and Shove It, the novelty Johnny Paycheck song from the 1970s.

For many millennials who are saddled with student loan debt, and, unlike their parents, don’t ever expect to be able to afford a home of their own, they’ve decided to step off the corporate ladder and go it alone – or in teams. Small businesses are booming, without the large corporate hierarchy and their ‘profit is the only bottom line’ approach.

Change is afoot, and you should ignore it at your peril. The ‘you’re lucky to have this job’ days are over.

What, then, is a non-profit to do? We can’t really increase our wages. We’ve managed on starvation budgets and deferred capital investments for years now and are barely scraping by.

There is a lot to do.

Here are a few suggestions:

• See your employees as the people they are and make sure that you’re giving them what they need to the best of your ability.

• Change your view of compensation. You can’t pay more, but you can adjust your attitudes about work hours, vacation, and personal time.

• Why not consider the four-day work week? It’s a legitimate world-wide movement and for some is way better than money.

• Lean into your organization’s care and empathy for the staff. Employees with kids or parents in need of extra care are really struggling. Your flexibility will do wonders for them.

• If you’re a board member of a non-profit, make sure you recognize the vast difference between your corporate environment, where pay and benefits, including retirement and perhaps even profit sharing, are part of the culture, and the environment of a non-profit, where employees are working from passion and little else.

Many political leaders espouse a free market approach to just about everything. Well, for the first time in our lifetimes, the free market of working people is speaking loud and clear, and record corporate profits look to be more than the market can bear. The corporate business model is no longer working, and the big market solution appears to be self-checkouts. It’s not a solution for the long run. Fewer people making a living wage will eventually mean fewer customers for your high overhead big box store. It’s the little guys who are going to succeed here, and it’s time to get creative. Luckily, that’s what non-profits do better than just about anyone in the business community. Center and engage in the well-being of your staff and you will almost instantly be ahead of the curve.