Many employers complain that "people don't want to work anymore," but the reality is much more complex. The job market has radically transformed in recent years, and candidates' attitudes reflect these changes.
Priorities have changed
First, employees' priorities have changed. Current generations place greater emphasis on the balance between professional and personal life, mental health, and working conditions. They no longer accept underpaid, stressful jobs without growth prospects.
Today, alternatives are more diverse than ever. Remote work, freelancing and the digital economy offer opportunities more attractive than traditional jobs.
Salaries and inflation
In many industries, salaries haven't grown proportionally with inflation and the cost of living, and many companies still don't get that. If a job doesn't offer a competitive package, people choose to keep looking or reorient professionally.
Rejection of toxic culture
Another reason, perhaps the most relevant, is the rejection of toxic culture. Employees no longer accept being overloaded, psychologically abused, or treated as mere resources. Companies that don't create a healthy, respectful work environment face an acute shortage of staff.
Quiet Quitting
We are living through a kind of candidate revolt, captured in recent years in a very modern term: quiet quitting. It's a kind of note that employees have begun to pay to employers. A smarter, less vocal way to react: "As much as I receive, that's what I give."
Today, people give the minimum, as much as they consider they receive. It's a kind of silent strike by employees, through which they hope employers will realize how good things were when they were engaged, proactive, and doing more than their job description required.
The need for change
Unfortunately, the first step will have to be taken by employers, each in their own company. Mediation between management/owners and employees is needed, and someone must facilitate it — ideally an external, objective consultant without interests in internal battles or politics.
Why must employers take the first step?
Because the employer is the "authority" figure and the greater must take the first step — just like in the parent-child relationship. If a child has a "crisis," it is the parent's duty to calm them. If a teenager is rebellious, a responsible parent who understands their role talks with them, listens, understands what is bothering them.
Employees are now like rebellious teenagers, no longer accepting authority if there isn't meaning in what's asked of them.
Conclusion
People want to work, but not under any conditions!
Employers who don't adapt to the new realities of the job market will increasingly struggle to attract truly valuable, competent people.
Change starts with each person's decisions. Renouncing ego is the first step, renouncing judgment of the other party is the next. Understanding a new attitude from people, accepting changes, adapting and communicating are the necessary steps.
The greatest proof of intelligence is adaptation to change!
Alina Conu — Psychologist, Coach, Managing Partner Kapital HR
