Why “Nobody Wants to Work Anymore” Is the Biggest Lie in Business

Best seat in the house. Steel tracks, dirt under my boots, and a view you can’t buy.

If your office door spins faster than a carnival ride, maybe stop oiling it with bad management.

You can tell a lot about a company by the way people walk through the door. Not customers, employees.

Let’s set the record straight: people still want to work. They just don’t want to work for free, for jerks, or for jobs that drain the life out of them. The phrase “nobody wants to work anymore” has become the laziest scapegoat in business. Leaders toss it around like it’s a universal truth, when in reality it’s nothing more than a shield to deflect accountability.

Truth is that people are working harder than ever. Side hustles, gig jobs, long hours, multiple income streams, if anything, the workforce is hustling in more ways than past generations ever had to. What they don't want is exploitation. When wages stay flat while profits climb, when benefits shrink while workloads expand, when loyalty is demanded but never reciprocated, people walk. Not because they’re lazy, but because they’re smart enough to know better.

Work has changed. Leadership? Not so much. Workers have adapted to new realities (technology, remote work, flexible schedules). Too many leaders are still managing like it’s 1982. When the workplace feels stuck in the past, the modern workforce will move on. People don't just want a paycheck. Respect matters. They want to be seen, valued, and heard. If leadership can’t deliver that, employees will find a place that will.

So, if the vibe in the shop or breakroom feels heavy, guess what? It’s not because “people don’t want to work anymore.” It’s because leadership created an environment where work feels like punishment. And here’s the part executives can’t seem to swallow, employee experience is the canary in the coal mine. If your people are miserable, your customers will feel it next.

Your top talent doesn’t walk away because the work is hard. Hell, they’re the ones who usually like the hard stuff. They walk away because you made their future too small. You didn’t give them a path forward, so they paved one themselves, leading straight to your competitor’s office.

Growth isn’t optional. It’s not a bonus. It’s the fuel that keeps people engaged. Kill the fuel, and you kill the fire. You can't starve people of growth.

And when they leave, that's on you. Let’s just rip the Band-Aid off: if your best people are leaving, that’s not an employee problem. It’s a leadership problem.

Stop blaming “the younger generation,” the industry, or “work ethic.” If you lose your top operators, your sharpest drivers, your most dedicated leaders, it’s on you. You didn’t invest. You didn’t notice the warning signs. You didn’t give them a reason to stay.

And when they walk, they don’t just take their skillset. They take morale, trust, and a chunk of your reputation with them. The whole operation takes the hit.

Promoting Without Training = Setting Fire to Your Future

And here’s where companies double down on stupid: they patch the hole by promoting someone else into leadership, without training them. When you hand someone a leadership role without giving them the tools to succeed, you’re not just leaving them stranded, you’re lighting a match to your own organization’s future.

You don’t magically get a leader because you handed someone a new title and a bigger paycheck. What you get is a burned-out employee playing boss, making all the same mistakes, faster. They stumble through decision-making, mismanage teams, and erode trust. Instead of guiding the ship, they poke holes in the hull. The cycle continues.

You want to keep good people? Train your managers. Train your managers. Train your managers. If you don’t, don’t cry when the revolving door keeps spinning.

If your employees hate coming in, your customers will hate coming back. If your best people are leaving, that’s on you. And if your managers don’t know how to lead, it’s because you never taught them.

This isn’t complicated. It’s leadership 101. But if you keep pretending not to see it, don’t be surprised when your culture collapses, your reputation tanks, and your future goes up in smoke.

Turnover isn’t the disease, it’s the symptom. Leadership is the cause. Because when leadership fails, everything else follows...