Bosses Adapt to the Decreased Ambition of Coworkers

It seems like the days of the ambitious and determined are gone. Where have all the go-getters gone?

At Nixon Peabody LLP, associates have begun to refuse to work on weekends, causing partners to request additional assistance to finish urgent tasks. TGS Insurance in Texas has had difficulty filling positions, and managers have to persuade employees to apply. Additionally, Pulp+Wire, a marketing firm based in Maine, is planning to close for two weeks in the upcoming year due to employees taking more holidays than before.

Sumithra Jagannath, president of ZED Digital, which produces digital ticket scanners, has noticed a decrease in the enthusiasm for work in the last two years. The company, located in Columbus, Ohio, has relocated around 20 remote engineering and marketing positions to Canada and India, where it is simpler to find personnel who are willing to go the extra mile.

Since the start of the pandemic, some employees have requested higher wages when their managers requested that they do more work, according to her. She also noted that this was not the case prior to the coronavirus outbreak.

The past three years have caused many white-collar workers to reevaluate their priorities and recognize what they were missing out on while they were so focused on their jobs. As life begins to return to normal, some of these individuals who were once always working and striving for more are now looking at the clock as the day ends, declining overtime and even taking pay cuts in order to achieve a better work-life balance.

The decreased ambition of companies could lead to a need for more personnel to complete the same amount of work, which could have a negative effect on American economic productivity. Business leaders are taking this into account and discussing the implications. Bernie Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot Inc., made a comment to the Financial Times that "nobody works, nobody gives a damn," which sparked a lot of attention this week. A spokesperson for the retailer clarified that Marcus has not been affiliated with the company for over two decades.

A survey conducted by software firm Qualtrics in November of over 3,000 workers and managers revealed that 36% of respondents reported a decrease in their overall career ambitions over the past three years, while 22% said their ambition had increased. Additionally, 40% of those surveyed said that work had become less important to them in the past three years, while 25% said it had become more important. The survey was conducted by Qualtrics, a company that provides software to businesses to evaluate customer and employee experiences.

Professionals in high-pressure fields such as law and finance are beginning to push back against the long hours and demanding workloads. Last year, a group of first-year analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. reported to bank leaders that they were working an average of 95 hours a week, and that the job stress was taking a toll on their physical and mental health. In response, Goldman said it would hire additional bankers and more strictly enforce limits on working hours. A survey conducted by the American Bar Association this year revealed that 44% of young lawyers would leave their jobs for the opportunity to work remotely.

Stephen Zubiago, chief executive and managing partner of Nixon Peabody, recalls his time as an associate fondly. He states, “When I was an associate, if someone called me on vacation, I was just happy people were still reaching out. I'm not sure if that was the best attitude to have.”

Mr. Zubiago, aged 56, has noticed that his colleagues are more likely to decline requests to work on weekends or take on additional tasks. This means that it can take multiple attempts to find someone who is willing to put in the extra effort. He states that this can be a major issue when it comes to time-sensitive work, such as researching case law or reviewing documents by a certain date.

The change in attitude is not limited to industries where long hours have been the standard. It is also seen in different parts of the world and among different age groups. At the start of the pandemic, corporate executives accused younger employees of not being as hardworking as their older colleagues, according to Brian Balonick, the regional managing partner of the Pittsburgh office of the law firm Fisher Phillips LLP, which specializes in labor. Now, he states, there is an understanding that the way Americans want to work has changed significantly.

Mary Waisanen, a 43-year-old structural engineering technician in Virginia Beach, VA, has been saying yes to overtime for much of her career, as it provided her with a pay bump. However, after watching TikToks about how to achieve a healthy work-life balance, she realized that she shouldn't have to work extra hours to make ends meet. She recently asked her manager to review her salary and see if she was due a raise, as well as for a performance review, which would be her first in three years.

She declared that she would be more mindful of "acting her wage," a phrase that has become popular on social media and encourages people to only do what they are paid for. Ms. Waisanen then received a letter informing her that she would receive a 12.5% raise in 2023.

Motivating employees to be productive can be a challenge for business leaders, as evidenced by Elon Musk's experience at Twitter Inc. After he declared that only exceptional performance would be accepted, hundreds of employees chose to take his offer of three months' salary in severance.

What could be the cause of a resurgence in professional ambition? A severe economic downturn that leads to a rise in unemployment could be the catalyst for workers to demonstrate their worth. Although some major companies, such as Amazon.com Inc., Walt Disney Co. and Meta Platforms Inc., have reported job cuts in the last few months, federal data indicates that there were still nearly two job openings for each unemployed person in October.

Employers are beginning to recognize the potential advantages of providing more flexible working conditions and clearer boundaries. This shift in attitude is leading to changes in the workplace, from vacation policies to the way new employees are trained.

Prior to the pandemic, employees at Pulp+Wire, a marketing and advertising firm based in Portland, Maine, were given three weeks of vacation, but founder Taja Dockendorf noticed that they rarely took as much as they should have. This year, the firm, which has worked with clients such as Petco and Allagash Brewing Co., decided to switch to an unlimited vacation policy. The goal was to motivate workers to take more time off and to avoid a situation where everyone would take their vacation days at the same time in December before they expired.

Ms. Dockendorf has noticed that many individuals are interested in taking time off during the summer and winter holidays. As a result, she is thinking about closing the office for a week twice a year. This would necessitate informing clients ahead of time that there will be periods of inactivity.

Damon Diamantaras, CEO of the Houston-based TGS Insurance, has noticed a shift in the way promotion opportunities are handled at the 200-employee independent insurance agency. In the past, new hires would often inquire about what it took to be promoted to manager within weeks of being hired. Now, however, managers must be proactive in identifying and seeking out potential candidates for higher positions, rather than waiting for employees to express interest. At company meetings, Diamantaras encourages staff to think about their futures at the firm and believes many are capable of more than they realize.

Nowadays, a lot of employees are satisfied with their current job, according to Mr. Diamantaras. The salary is satisfactory, the company is reliable and many workers want to have time for their friends and hobbies: "That's alright, but we are always looking for people who have ambition and that we can promote to higher-paying positions within the organization."

TGS recently posted a job listing for a property-and-casualty insurance agent and made it clear that they are looking for someone who is driven and ambitious. They stated that those who are content with mediocrity or are prone to giving up easily will not be able to keep up with the fast-paced environment. The company is searching for someone who is determined to achieve success and reach their goals, such as owning a Mercedes.

A survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management in August of 1,234 HR employees revealed that 45% of them reported their organization having difficulty motivating employees to work beyond the scope of their job in the past six months.

In the first quarter of 2022, the U.S. labor productivity rate, which is determined by the amount of work a typical worker can complete in an hour, experienced its most significant decrease in over a decade, dropping at a 5.9% annual rate.

The second quarter saw a 4.1% decrease, followed by a 0.8% increase in the third quarter. Some economists believe that worker disengagement is a contributing factor to the recent declines in productivity. Additionally, productivity can be impacted by the hiring trends and the overall state of the economy.

A survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal and NORC at the University of Chicago in May revealed that many workers feel that their hard work is not being rewarded. Out of the 1,071 respondents, only 27% felt that they had a good chance of improving their standard of living, which is a 20 percentage-point decrease from the previous year. Additionally, 60% of those surveyed expressed pessimism about the ability of most people to achieve the American dream.

Austin Wiggins was raised with a father who worked long hours as a manager at a regional grocery chain, but never achieved the store-director level. Daniel Wiggins explains that this would have meant potentially relocating to a store that was further away from the family, which he was not willing to do.

In May, prior to beginning a new accounting position, the younger Mr. Wiggins requested his father to co-sign a loan to purchase a 2020 Toyota Camry. He states he was surprised when he saw his dad's salary, which was necessary for the loan, as it was under six figures and not much higher than what he was going to make as a 23-year-old recent graduate.

Mr. Wiggins expressed that he was aware of the amount of effort and dedication that had been put into the company, but he did not feel that it was necessary for him to go beyond what was required of him.

He is currently in an entry-level accounting program and is committed to producing quality work. He does not seek out extra assignments and does not have ambitions to reach the C-suite. His goal is to become a professor by the time he is 40 and has informed his managers that he is willing to work a 60-hour week if there is work to be done. He does not wait around for his boss to leave the office if there is nothing to do.

In November 2021, the ADP Research Institute conducted a survey which revealed that U.S. workers reported doing 8.4 hours of unpaid overtime work each week, a decrease from the nine hours reported the year before. Additionally, more than half of the respondents stated that they would be willing to accept a pay cut in exchange for more work-life balance or the ability to have more control over their working hours.

Alex Spearman, aged 39, made a bold move last year. He had been steadily advancing in the field of broadcast journalism, and eventually became an executive producer at a television station in Washington, D.C.. His shift was from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m., but he claims he often worked for 12 hours without any extra pay.

During the Memorial Day weekend of 2021, his mother-in-law was admitted to the hospital. Despite the stress of the situation, he felt obligated to continue working.

He was able to secure a new job by the end of August last year, which took him to a smaller market in Albany, New York. He then relocated to Columbus, Ohio in June of this year. Though his new executive-producer job pays 30% less, he is now only three hours away from his hometown of Detroit. During a recent weekend, he was able to visit his mother and sister and also attend a Lizzo concert.

He has now changed his mind and no longer desires the position of news director, which had once been his ambition.

He states that he has spent the first 15 years of his career striving for success, but he does not want that to be the legacy he leaves behind. Additionally, he does not want the stress of his career to be the cause of his death.