This was the first post I saw on my feed this morning (before coffee) and it stopped me in my tracks. This is the most definitive and articulate description of generational attitudes towards work that I’ve seen.

To summarise, paraphrase and expand…

🔹 From the days of the Industrial Revolution to World War II, people worked for survival…putting up with terrible working conditions because they didn’t have a choice.

🔹 From the end of World War II to the Global Financial Crisis, people worked to increase their standard of living…to get ahead. This ushered in the era of Gordon Gekko’s “greed is good” philosophy. Organizations could still treat their people poorly and get away with it.

🔹 Since the GFC ended and ESPECIALLY with the advent of Covid, people are now working for quality of life and no longer putting up with toxic cultures or managers who don’t care or don’t know what they are doing.

I am increasingly hearing senior leaders singing various versions of the tune that says “recession will be good because people will get back in their box. They will once again realize that they should be grateful to have a job and will dance to any tune sung by the organization for which they work.”

But this is tone deaf and short lived. It fails to recognize that people today have different priorities and the structural skills shortage gives them choice.

Notice I didn’t say generations. Some of this is generational…but this cuts across generations and speaks to attitudes within the workforce.

I love, love, love this video and props to .