UK Young people are rejecting work. Why?

“I’m considering living in the wild, just trotting around the globe with little money,” reads a post on a Reddit forum for Neets. “I was working [in] a retail store and the first few hours were OK, then I had to deal with customers,” reads another. “I packed my bag and just left.”

In this forum, a community of 44,000 people from around the world share advice and discuss the challenges of being a Neet — an acronym for not in education, employment or training.

It is not just an online phenomenon. “I could never go back to working a normal job again,” Morgan, who left his role in 2020 and asked to remain anonymous, told the FT. “With inflation and rents rising, the incentive to devote all of my time to an employer to barely scrape by didn’t make sense any more.”

In the third quarter of this year, official UK figures showed 13 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds were Neets, nearly 1mn people. Two-fifths of these were looking for work; the rest were “economically inactive”, neither working nor looking, opting out of the labour market completely.

This puts the number of economically inactive young people close to its highest level — a similar story in Europe and the US, where more than 1 in 10 young people are Neets.

While the term first gained traction in 1990s UK government policy, which sought to help older teenagers into work, it has since been adopted internationally and by a wider subculture of economically inactive people. Reddit’s Neet forum includes people in their 50s; recent posts depict a “self-loathing man of inaction late 20s/early 30s” or ask if “30+ NEETS [can] turn their life around?”

After starting out as a car salesman ten years ago, Morgan, now 30, was forced out of work by depression and an illness that took him in and out of hospital. When he recovered, the pandemic had shut his industry down: he opted out of work, using the time to teach himself how to repair old cars and post videos online.

“My time to develop my interests was worth more than I could make working, even if it wasn’t making me any money,” he says. But eventually the bills began to pile up. “I was put out on the street for unpaid rent. I lived in my car for a few days before a friend took me in. I’m lucky that’s where I am today.”

Josh, 24, dropped out of university after deciding it wasn’t worth the money. “I went on to have a few retail jobs but I found it tough to interact with people in the workplace because of my social anxiety,” he told the FT. I’ve moved back in with my parents now, who are able to support me. I help my mum around the house and I’m trying to teach myself programming.”

Louise Murphy, economist at the Resolution Foundation think-tank, says mental health is one driver of rising Neet numbers: in 20 years, the proportion of young people reporting a disorder such as anxiety or bipolar has increased from a quarter to a third. This makes them more likely to be out of work: an RF report found between 2018 and 2022, 21 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds with mental health problems were jobless, compared with 13 per cent of those without.

Niall O’Higgins, an International Labour Organization economist, suggests younger people are also disenchanted with the quality of jobs on offer, and are “lacking prospects for development, workplace training and the ability to build up their options”.

Employers make themselves more attractive, he says, by offering flexibility and support, including “exploring alternatives in terms of organisation of work”. In a survey of Gen Z workers by talent sourcing platform A.Team, 80 per cent said the four-day working week should be the norm, 60 per cent would like a hybrid working model, and half valued training opportunities.

Murphy says nurturing relationships can have a significant impact. “When we asked what young people would change about the world of work, they didn’t ask for big, flashy reforms. They wanted to have more human, understanding managers.” This might include additions like one-to-one catch-ups which are not the norm in all professions.

“I resent the accusation that young people don’t want to work,” Morgan says. “Everyone wants to contribute, but the reward for devoting your time to doing so is no longer worth it in many cases.”

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Financial Times
Archive (December 23 2024)

 

[neger psykolog]

I have some really capable people working for me who are fucking over their careers because they don’t seem to be able to accept that there’s a game to be played. They won’t learn the rules and are confused that they won’t get ahead.

By all rights they should be giving me orders but because they’re a decade younger they seem thunk things will just fall into their laps.

Yeah I get where you're coming from but consider the fact that asocial/autistic/NEET types are precisely the kind of people who don't want to deal with this shit and it's not because they're beneath "playing the game" it's because it's just more and more stress over dumb shit.

I never really got into playing the game because it seemed to mostly be trying to appease people who had no idea about anything to begin with. It's easier to join a better company/whatever sometimes than it is trying to pretend you're playing some gay work roleplay LARP or to try and teach people who don't want to learn and instead would rather play mind games with you.

 

[Dante Alighieri]

The solution is to Luigi every pro-immigration (yes, ALL immigration) politician.

Make politicians afraid again, and keep going until they're American first.

 

[FedPostalService]

I get this attitude but at the same time fuck it. If I'm working at a company that I actually want to be a part of and working on something I care about and working with people who should be fucking great at what they're going then we're going to socialize and we're going to argue and sperg over shit (so long as it's friendly).

What you're describing is appropriate for when you're like a day laborer or security guard - and even then those guys are going to be having way more fun.

If I'm actually working on something that requires creativity and intelligence then I will not work with people that have had lobotomies that remove any sense of personality.

People used to meet their life partners at work at quite decent rates. They'd chat, flirt and fuck and have kids. People would make friends and acquaintances.

And seriously if I can't have a fucking chat about some random politics shit at work then what's the point? I may as well become a NEET or a laborer. And if people lose their shit over someone having a different opinion then I wouldn't want to work with them in the first place (nor would I want to contribute to a project that would make them rich also - they can fuck off somewhere else)

That’s because you’re a good person, kiwi bro, and I’m a soulless corpo.

 

[The Ugly One]

People used to meet their life partners at work at quite decent rates.

There was a brief period where 1 in 5 couples met at work. This was when women entered office life en masse in the 1980s, but before increasingly strict harassment rules made office dating a minefield. Plus women marry up, so 40 years of upward mobility means they no longer see most men in the office as even eligible.

 

[Blue Flying Leaf]

A lot of interesting discussion here but surprised no one has mentioned the total failure of the government to weild antitrust shit against Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft (among others), massive supermarket chains, Spotify, fast food restaurants and everything else.

Those companies are the government.

 

[Dante Alighieri]

Young people are rejecting work because they're brainwashed by Marxist public schooling.

 

[Mordecai "3 Finger" Brown]

whatever happened to professionalism?

I always found "professionalism" was simply a cudgel that managerial types used to appeal to your sense of honor and duty to convince you to act in ways opposite to your own self-interest.

It's like a code they shame you with by appealing to your better angels, but only ever goes one way.

 

[FedPostalService]

I always found "professionalism" was simply a cudgel that managerial types used to appeal to your sense of honor and duty to convince you to act in ways opposite to your own self-interest.

It's like a code they shame you with by appealing to your better angels, but only ever goes one way.

Just do your work, you lazy bastard.

 

[Nameless One]

Why would I want to work when I can just bang my drum all day?

This as well. I can be with my community band free, and work hard drumming and marching. Improving our skills, rising to the top of LGPE and other band events. More teamwork than any job.

 

[neger psykolog]

I always found "professionalism" was simply a cudgel that managerial types used to appeal to your sense of honor and duty to convince you to act in ways opposite to your own self-interest.

It's like a code they shame you with by appealing to your better angels, but only ever goes one way.

Yeah I mean "professionalism" is certainly an interesting topic once you learn how the sausage gets made (i.e. you figure out exactly how much everyone else makes)

It's also something that is kind of used under the assumption that you will abide by it so that you have positive work references to give people in the future. Unfortunately it falls apart once you have enough experience that references become meaningless.

If I want to dedicate my life to doing something important like many managerial types want their underlings to do then I want to see people lose their temper at failures and shit like it. If that isn't happening then those people aren't actually personally invested.

And just to add the above really depends on the specific work environment/output. There's shit that would fly in one place but wouldn't fly in a doctor or lawyers or government office.

There was a brief period where 1 in 5 couples met at work. This was when women entered office life en masse in the 1980s, but before increasingly strict harassment rules made office dating a minefield. Plus women marry up, so 40 years of upward mobility means they no longer see most men in the office as even eligible.

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It's not only couples meeting directly at work it's also the value of gaining your own social circle (ideally, it doesn't work out for everyone).
If you make a dude bro friend at work and go to their house on the weekend and meet another dude bro who's girlfriend has a single lady friend your odds are way higher than of you're using Tinder or whatever other dating hellscape app is all the rage nowadays.

There's other ways that social circle is of value to people besides dating too.

 

[Melony C]

There's going to be a catastrophic power vacuum once the boomers are gone. I would even venture to say their Smaug-like lifestyle is responsible for holding off the next reset. It's hard to change anything when the biggest power bloc uses every lever to ensure the status quo continues until after they're gone. Once the first domino falls, there's no stopping the rest.

The next great mustache man will arrive in the late 30s, early 40s. A little late, but beggars can't be choosers.

The best we can hope for is a permanent end to globohomo. The least we'll get is clown world on ultra-steroids.

I'm sorry but there's no rainbow big enough to react with to this. What will happen is politicians will just simply tell people that we need another million migrants from India and doctors from the Middle East and Africa per year because the Boomers are dying off.

 

[BradeRunna]

Have seen this from different angles. In the military, had some great jobs, got a lot of responsibility much younger than my civilian counterparts. Was not just allowed but expected to use my brain.

After retiring from the military did various things. Only had one civilian job that compared with the things I did in the service, where I was allowed and expected to use my brain. The other jobs were mundane, to varying extents, but provided a paycheck. Retired for good ten years ago.

Both my kids started working as teenagers, displayed a very good work ethic. They are doing well.

These days see some of Generation Z who have the work ethic, and sadly, some who can barely make any effort but want everything handed to them for what little effort they make. No idea what they will do when those gibs run out, and don't care.

Some might say they will exchange work for room and board. Please...unless you are an attractive female willing to work those holes several times a week on demand it won't happen. You cannot do enough 'regular' work to justify the room and board.

The harder you work, the more luck you have. Stop bitching and make an effort. The world does NOT owe you a living.

Ok Boomer.

Tell that to the Chinese peasant slaves working 18 hour shifts with nets around the factories in China. Capitalists sent the jobs over there because they couldn't treat Americans that way here in the US.

As much as I hated the military, the amount of responsibility it gives you is batshit insane. Pardon the powerlevel, but I’ll say that when I was 18, months out of training we had an O3, O2 and an E2 (me) in charge of $40 million dollars worth of comm satellite jammers, and I was read into so much wild shit you’d shit bricks.

But I remember working 14 hour days then getting out of work, sitting in my car and opening my bank account to see $800 hit for 2 weeks work so that was fucking rancid.

It sets you up for so much success, I’m in my early 20s and I’m making $120k between my VA medical pension and my job and I’ll be going up to 140k once I get promoted, you just have to suffer in order to succeed.

As a Gen Zigger out of the 15 people in my workspace (entry level IT) there’s 2 of us (me included) putting their nose to the grindstone trying to grab certifications for workplace advancement, and 1 half assing their studying which is insane, because the whole point of entry level IT is to suffer while studying to get out and work a more technical job.

That's fine for you. But we are talking about regular people here. There are only so many of those well paying white collar jobs to go around. Everyone else is stuck working shitty low paying McJobs. Those people outnumber the white collar types.

 

[Pokemon Conquistador]

That's fine for you. But we are talking about regular people here. There are only so many of those well paying white collar jobs to go around. Everyone else is stuck working shitty low paying McJobs. Those people outnumber the white collar types.

The McJobs wouldn't be so bad if:

1. Rent hadn't gone up 40 percent since 2020, meaning a cockroach-ridden shoebox apartment costs what a luxury apartment used to cost.
2. The money often isn't decent. Some places can't afford to offer more than ten dollars an hour because they're small, niche businesses that barely hang on in the best of times, but that's going to greatly limit who can work for them.
3. Even if they do offer a decent wage, they may not offer enough steady work. Thanks to overhiring, you have to jockey for hours with the go-getting twentysomethings with the full ride college scholarships who are just earning spending money and the wealthy dowagers who are rich enough to buy the business three times over, but like working "just to keep her mind active." God forbid, anyone actually need to pay their bills with a Mcjob. Most corporations offering service jobs just assume their workers will be living on someone else's dime and can afford to take a random week off because "the manager's niece needs to pick up a few extra hours this week to pay for her band trip." Fuck her! I need those hours to stay off the fucking street!
4. Getting any kind of job, even a McJob, is a stressful exercise in Kafkaesque futility. Do you like taking online psychological tests that make you feel like a criminal? Like getting called in to interview at awesome places to work only to be told "you don't look like you'd fit in here?" Are you totally regretting all of your life choices up to this point? Good. That's normal. Now pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get back to pounding the pavement, bucko!
5. It's hard on a body. Have fun keeping up a healthy cooking and exercise regimen when you crawl in through the front door after work, your body feeling like it's just had a shiatsu massage from the Incredible Hulk. You've only got to keep this up for another 20 years, when they shovel your gnarled, arthritic body into the Nursing Home room that you share with Lester the Molester.


In other words: stay in school kids, and suck whatever dick you have to suck in order to get a decent high paying desk/ trade job.

 

[FedPostalService]

Guys, this thread is for white collar wagies, take your Latino arses elsewhere with the McJob shit you’re crying about.

 

[SirCliveSinclairdabbing]

Yeah I get where you're coming from but consider the fact that asocial/autistic/NEET types are precisely the kind of people who don't want to deal with this shit and it's not because they're beneath "playing the game" it's because it's just more and more stress over dumb shit.

I never really got into playing the game because it seemed to mostly be trying to appease people who had no idea about anything to begin with. It's easier to join a better company/whatever sometimes than it is trying to pretend you're playing some gay work roleplay LARP or to try and teach people who don't want to learn and instead would rather play mind games with you.

Grey man it. Talk about the football, mildly support current cause, bring in milk for the coffee when it's your turn and all politicians are liars not worth my time.

 

[FedPostalService]

Grey man it. Talk about the football, mildly support current cause, bring in milk for the coffee when it's your turn and all politicians are liars not worth my time.

This man has cracked the code! He has pierced the veil of reality and seen through to the other side!

 

[-Jack-]

Guys, this thread is for white collar wagies, take your Latino arses elsewhere with the McJob shit you’re crying about.

This attitude is the issue with UK society regarding work, education, and training, with a small dash of classism.

 

[FedPostalService]

This attitude is the issue with UK society regarding work, education, and training, with a small dash of classism.

I’ve got the foreman‘s job at last, the working class can kiss my ass.

 

[My cravat doesn't flutter]

“I’m considering living in the wild, just trotting around the globe with little money,” reads a post on a Reddit forum for Neets.

Somehow, I doubt this person has the skills and knowhow to survive in the wild. Also, where does this "little money" come from? Pickpocketing? Pilfering tip jars? E-begging?

“I was working [in] a retail store and the first few hours were OK, then I had to deal with customers,”

A few hours. This person couldn't handle working for a few hours. There is no way in hell they'd survive in the wild.

Also, they gave up on work entirely after a few hours in one line of work. They didn't try broadening their horizons with other job types. My resume is all over the place (I've PLed plenty of it over the years). If I didn't like a particular job, I tried something else. It took a few years, but I found something I like and I've been there for more than 5 years now.

This puts the number of economically inactive young people

"Economically inactive" is an interesting way to put it. These people aren't a net zero on economic input/output. Someone's paying for their food, clothes, utilities, etc. and that, shockingly, has an impact on the economy.

“Everyone wants to contribute, but the reward for devoting your time to doing so is no longer worth it in many cases.”

I read an article years ago about why millennial work ethic is so shitty. The TLR of it is that millennials wanted to be "a part of something bigger". They don't want an entry level job that they can work their way up from. They want to skip the ladder entirely and start at the top.

I'm in that weird spot where I'm not quite millennial and not quite gen z. That shitty work ethic both generations are know for precedes you when you're job searching. People are hesitant to hire younger people because of this bullshit.

 

[OtherLastTrainHome]

I only blame the general population's rejection of the most sacred and holy of divine virtues, racism. God gave us racism to keep outsiders from ruining our civilizations. What did God tell the Jews upon reaching the holy land? Kill every Canaanite 'lest they become a torment to you in the future. Jesus has a whole dismissive screed to a Samaritan woman begging him for help. Blame every single NGO, charity, church, and bleeding heart who welcomed foreigners into their communities and helped them get established for the destruction of the first world. Nothing but harsh, universal, and constant racism can protect a nation from a traitorous ruling class. See also bigotry as the means through which God shows us his love of natural relations between a man and a woman, and a hatred of homosexuality, pedophilia, and zoophilia. Have you seen what happens to churches that hang the lgbt-welcome flag? Hell, the catholic church is in a tragic state for not lynching its own pedo priests in public executions held on St. Peters square.

TLDR: Boomers, and especially millennials, are atheists who defy the good word of racism and bigotry as clearly stated in both the NT and OT as the prescribed way to protect one's nation.

i agree with you in spirit, but i have to contest your take on Jesus' interaction with the samaritan woman. if it is the one i believe you're referencing, he was testing her; though, Jesus also was obligated to come to the Jews first. that was already promised by God. no going back on it. God always rewards faith, and she responded in faith. secondly, even though you might be posting facetiously, we did not reject the virtue of 'racism'. we rejected God, and lost all that comes with His favor for it. once you decide you don't need God anymore, all faith becomes lip service. Sin is, after all, genetic; it is inherited by our ancestors who rejected God and failed to teach His word to their children.

you are right about everything else, however. one big way that you are right is thus: God uses foreigners taking over a land as punishment in the OT. this is very explicit.

to add on to your post, i have some Deep Autism Thoughts of my own. what is racism or bigotry other than harsher words for 'discrimination'? and let's keep well in mind that "discrimination" has been refined and spiritualized into a boogeyman all on its own. Discrimination means to have good taste - if i were to say that you have discrimination, i am giving you a compliment by saying that you have good standards and expectations that everyone around you with a right mind should also want to maintain.

racism is really just preference for one's own herd. if you're not part of the group, then you either must leave or must learn to become like that group. this is a process that would be called converting in religion. you have to leave behind your roots if you want to join that group - that herd. you have to adopt all the practices of that group, like language. sure, while the Old Covenant had different standards for non-Jews, they did exist. and you, if you wanted to convert and worship God, had to obey. there was no doing it your way. on that, note, the old covenant had standards for inviting outsiders and the Jews were supposed to convert. they just never did.

to be honest, i'm not sure where the line on hanging people in a public square versus mercy is. as if we want mercy, we should show it: judge not, lest ye be judged. however, i can't contest we've gone too far. the results speak for themselves. we let murderers wander the street because we freed them even after they are proven guilty in a court of law. people are lighting others on fire for no reason. Islamic Cultural Enrichment occurs rather frequently in western Europe. foreigners live in our lands instead of us, enjoying the wealth and beauty instead of us. every generation is born sicker and more unhealthier and they're getting even worse. people are aging faster and dying sooner; infertility is a rapidly growing concern; growing rates of errors in childbirth of all kinds.

i don't know if i intend for this to be whitepilling or blackpilling, but here's some food for thought. never question if things can get worse, because the answer is always yes. as bad as things look, God's mercy is still at play. it can be worse. humanity can always do worse and will eagerly do so. if God lets it get too bad we will all simply die, so there's only so far the charade can go. any nation that has forsaken its own people in favor of foreigners is not practicing compassion or doing right or good. that is never compassion, it is only and ever pure malice. there is no defending people's penchant for utterly despising the people they know in favor of people they never met. people abuse the notion of compassion enough as it is. who are you if you can't even love the person you see every day? what about love your neighbor? what about your literal neighbor? how much do any of us even care about someone a mere few yards from us constantly?

the average Tom, Dick, or Harry can adore the supposed downtrodden in some forsaken, backwater third-world shithole of a country because they don't know them. to the average person, they aren't human. they are an ideal that is worshiped. if the downtrodden were real, and next to those people, they'd hate them too.