​‘No one wants to work anymore.’ Why?

By Sabrina Hornung

sabrina@hpr1.com

I’m really sick of the “Nobody wants to work anymore” narrative. Like, really sick. I can’t hide the eye rolls and I don’t even try to hide them anymore. In fact, I feel like they’ll get stuck in the back of my head if I stifle them.

Instead, when folks bring this up, they need to be challenged with questions about what we’re offering our workforce and ask the tough questions about housing, childcare and the average age of folks around town.

Then again, when you live in a small town you see a microcosm of America.

In some areas, it’s more and more difficult for migrant workers to obtain work visas and oddly enough, folks aren’t necessarily knocking the doors down and picking up the workload — which is topical, but an editorial in itself. Damn, then we wonder why the cost of produce is up.

That really debunks the whole “immigrants trying to take our jobs” narrative. To be honest, I’m more mad about the self-checkouts, and much more worried about AI taking my job – and the folks perpetuating these narratives should be too.

That all makes about as much sense as perpetuating fear-based narratives about immigrants eating the cats in the neighborhood, especially after JD Vance managed to offend the bulk of cat ladies in America, further proof that his party will stop at nothing to hold the things you love hostage through fear-based tactics. There’s that eye roll again…Let’s stay on topic.

Our working population is aging, our Baby Boomers are retiring. (Some took early retirement or were forced into retirement due to “the plague years.”) As the Baby Boom generation ages, more medical staff is needed to accommodate more healthcare needs and there’s no place to house these much-needed workers. Sure, some hospitals do provide housing for their workers and that’s wonderful.

There are some schools that do that as well. From what I’ve been told, the high school in Selfridge, North Dakota, is being expanded to accommodate the elementary school kids and the former elementary school will be used as housing for educators.

Living in a small community, one can see the ripple effects of a very real housing shortage firsthand. It’s not just an urban issue. You see folks purchasing properties in rural areas so they can have a vacation home that will more than likely remain empty for the majority of the year. Some fall into a state of disrepair; repaired or not the housing values go up in town because houses are selling for more than their tax-assessed worth, which I suppose works if you’re selling but not necessarily good for those looking to buy or live with limited means. In a town full of empty homes, businesses can’t thrive in that small community without members of the community to support them. Oftentimes, beer and groceries are brought in, one major lack of support for local business.

Then again, on a larger scale, that speaks volumes about the importance of neighborhoods, accessibility and buying local. That is just part of our social fabric. Plus, those empty houses do about as much good as the empty luxury condos in downtown Fargo– and don’t tell me those million-dollar condos haven’t affected monthly rents downtown.

No one wants to work anymore? Or is it that no one wants to work in a community that can’t house them? Where’s the incentive here? If we can’t afford to live there, how can we work there?

Look at the schools as teachers zone in and out of retirement. They hate to see that there’s no one to lead the band, so they put in a few extra hours, then a few more hours. You hear horror stories of how teachers are treated by parents and students post-2020. Kids are expected to treat sportsball practice like a full time job. I hear more and more stories about coaches quitting because of parental behavior. There was one incident in West Fargo that even made the news.

No one wants to work where they aren’t respected or adequately compensated for their work. This can be said in restaurants and cafes, too. You can’t live on a minimum wage salary with a pocket full of quarters while getting an earful about factors you can’t control, such as menu prices, understaffing, and, god forbid, having a lunch break. Hot (or even lukewarm) food when you work in the service industry is a luxury — or at least it was in my days of slinging drinks and serving.

The price of bacon is going up, the wages are not. And it’s getting tougher and tougher to bring home that bacon.

Lack of (and the cost of child care) is another issue. According to a report from Child Care Aware, the cost of child care outpaced inflation in 2019 and 2020. According to North Dakota KIDS COUNT, the annual average cost of child care in our state is between $7,800-$9,800, the price of in-state tuition at a public four-year university.

Sorry kid, your college fund went toward your daycare fund. And that’s not even counting the diapers.

Are you better off taking care of your kids or are you better off working so someone else can? I don’t have kids (not sorry Roxane Salonen), but I would be more inclined to work from home if I did. I still work from home and I must say, if my cat appreciates it this much, I imagine a kid probably would, too.

It can’t be all bleak, though, can it? The system might be broken but it can’t be broken beyond repair…Can it? I mean, we’re all trying to get ahead, but a lot of us are really just treading water. Identifying the problem is one step in the equation. Now how can we work together to solve it? Until then, can we at least be kind to each other?