The former boss of Waitrose, Lord Price, has blamed lockdowns for annihilating the will of many Britons to go to work. Not surprising really, because lockdowns effectively gave workers a taste of what it’s like to be retired. But for those of working age the favoured option is to go on a permanent sickie, with the main concern being to maximise sick pay. The Telegraph has the story.
Many workers are now more worried about sick pay than other in-work benefits, Lord Price said, as he highlighted research from his think tank WorkL showing that almost a fifth of people who said health was a major issue in their workplace were most concerned about sick pay.
“It’s a reflection of attitudes,” he said. “We picked up lots of comments about ‘we want sick pay to be increased’ or ‘we want sick pay time to be extended’. And so there is something about ‘I want to be paid better for being off sick’.
Lord Price, who also served as Trade Minister, said lockdowns during the pandemic had “undoubtedly played a part” in the rise in economic inactivity since 2020, with close to 2.8 million people now neither in work nor looking for a job due to long-term illness.
He added that lockdown, which saw millions of people receive Government-funded furlough payments, had paved the way for a sick-note culture.
Lord Price told the Telegraph: “I just think that those Covid years found people being paid to be at home. And as a consequence of that and not working, I think there is a mindset switch about: well, the state will pay for us to be at home or not to work.
Not only is this chronic problem helping to prevent economic growth, but it’s also a reflection of unhappiness at work.
The study also found that British workers were among the unhappiest in the world. Just 74% of Britons believed their job meant they were doing something “worthwhile”, which was the joint lowest score with Ireland.
No surprises there for readers of this website. Back in 2020 it was already obvious that lockdowns were going to leave a devastating and long-lasting legacy far worse than the problem they were supposed to solve.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
I would put the beginning of this tendency at the rear end of 2019. A global crash was coming. Increasing prices, growing worker insecurity, general demoralisation. My impression is that people don’t get out of the habit of going to work because generally speaking people are happier when they have a work life and a home life. They simply made it less and less appealing. And they have cut back considerably on the number of trains running and those that are still running are less reliable. If you are earning the average UK income then you can’t buy dick with it once you’ve paid for everything else. No sense of future or posterity. This is enough to destroy anyone’s morale.
I wonder if this woman’s on benefits. She certainly comes across as ‘well-heeled’. She’s definitely not British either. Probably her race card/migration status will exempt her from any punishment;
https://x.com/BFirstParty/status/1864006855514616102
Kemi Badenoch’s got a temper on her
Jiggers. Lazy Africans. Send them back. By force
Not only did it show people it was nice to do nothing, it also showed them that their job wasn’t necessary or needed. The world went on. Not much incentive to go and do a job you know doesn’t matter.
Well, surely the jobs did/do matter otherwise how would they exist. Jobs are only sustainable if someone is willing to pay for the goods or services they provide.
Or if the job is funded by extorting money from the people in the form of taxes.
Yes
Yes. They even named workers in certain jobs ‘key’ workers. Which means everyone else isn’t.
It is a fundamental oversight to think that human beings are driven by pleasure alone. This was the orthodoxy of people like Bernays, Lippmann etc. You can’t spend a century attempting to rob the world of meaning in the hope that no one will notice its absence. Meaning requires real hard work. Those who brushed it aside are the real slackers and they have led to this malaise. You have no chance of getting them started again until you offer them real meaning but your Ahrimanic system doesn’t allow it.
Below is the comment I made on a similar article a few weeks ago. While I agree with the points raised here it doesn’t mention the huge money printing and the associated inflation (particularly in housing) which enabled us to pay these people to stay home.
There’s now a clear divide in the country between the “haves” and the “have nots” (largely reflected in age as well).
A huge section of the country have nothing to “work for,” so why are we surprised they no longer see any point in working?
I’ve posted this on similar posts on FB (and possibly here, I can’t remember) but what are we asking the young to work for?
It was bad before COVID but the huge inflation during and since mean other than those with wealthy parents most will never own their own home and the rental markets such a mess even a secure rented home is rare.
Blair’s ridiculous plan for 50% to attend university has led to huge numbers attending who are taking unsuitable or unnecessary degrees.
However because that’s become the norm job’s that don’t “need” a degree (police is an obvious example but there’s plenty more) advertise for them so it becomes a self fulfilling loop.
The employment market has changed and is continuing to do so and with improvements in AI and automation long term employment prospects are bleak for the young.
The tax burden is the highest since the war and will keep rising. Along with the overall cost of living.
The young are taxed to pay the (increasing) pensions of the old while at the same time being told they won’t get one when they get there.
I’m 42, work hard/long hours (including in the past warehouse, factories and cutting caulis) and I own my own home (2 years left on mortgage). If I didn’t have that I seriously doubt I’d work the way I do/have previously…
To be clear I’m in favour of (and expect) people to work. However as I said at the start, what are they working for? I’m realistic enough to understand people need an incentive to work for.
As I’ve said to my dad (67) on several occasions when we discuss this matter, the world he grew up in and raised me for has gone.
I agree with you.
I don’t have the statistics to contradict you. I think it’s pretty certain that there’s less job security now which can be disturbing though it should also give more opportunities for changing jobs. I don’t think AI and automation will have a significant impact in our lifetimes.
I think with the right government (one that largely gets out of the way and lets people be productive) things could be a lot better for everyone.
I also don’t have statistics but I completely disagree with you…
Less job security (the one thing I agree you have right) only gives more opportunities for moving jobs if there’s jobs to move in to…
Self scan checkouts are replacing staffed tills
New warehouses are more and more being built for automated unloading and picking of orders
Felixstowe port (among others) has started using driverless tugs to shunt round the site.
All of which would be the sort of job the “unskilled” would go into…
Regards AI my neighbours are teachers, their school’s secretary has had to go part time as the teachers now do their own letters…
My partner works in a college (non teaching) but the materials for courses are now created by AI and just tweaked, rather than created from scratch by humans, reducing the number needed.
This is already having an impact on the job market and it’s only going to increase. As the “entry level” jobs go it won’t be long before there’s a whole group of people who are effectively unemployable and even those above it will be looking over their shoulders…
Add into that the low chance of a secure home (the biggest reason to work) what are we expecting these people to work for?
Is unemployment at record highs? Is workforce participation at record lows?
It has been a while since I regularly looked at global employment statistics but when I did quite a few rich world countries looked like they effectively had full employment
I am concerned about the type of jobs we have – I think making things is innately satisfying to many and we don’t have enough of those jobs
I hope things get better
Absolute zero immigration would help
It is hard to imagine that in the very long term we won’t have to work out a sustainable solution to an awful lot being done by magic machines and the people who design and build them, but the issue would have seemed the same to people during the industrial revolution and here we are (does not mean this fear won’t eventually be justified)
How are you defining unemployment? The big issue currently is those of working age on long term sickness benefits, particularly around mental health. We “look close” to full employment because there’s millions not being counted as “unemployed”…
You also have to factor in the falling birthrate to unemployment. the only reason the population is “increasing” is increasing life expectancy. Most of the developed world has a below replacement birthrate so the “working age” population is falling.
Zero immigration “would help” but also expose other issues. Remember in the pandemic the farm jobs that it was a REQUIREMENT to live on site (and pay for) in the provided accommodation. Why would a local with their own home lose a third of their wages for somewhere they wouldn’t need? It’s ideal for out of country workers to come in and out earning good money (for them) but not for locals.
I notice that you’re still not addressing the actual point I made, what are we asking them to work for?
I believe we’ve spoken before and you have your own business? If so that’s what you’re working for. I’ll also assume you’re “older” ( no offence intended) so probably have other assets to work to keep, maybe even old enough that you stand a chance of getting a pension/retirement…
It’s been made clear to the young they won’t have that. So as I said what are we asking them to work for?
Do you remember an 80’s film wargames (I think) about a computer program almost nuclear war? When they thought it how to avoid it via noughts and crosses the line was something like “it’s a funny game, the only way to win is not to play” that’s always stuck with me.
I think many have realised they won’t “win by playing the game” so why bother?
Well I did also mention workforce participation rates, which seem a better measure. The UK is not in this one but I think it’s illustrative nonetheless: Labour force participation rate | OECD There’s a slider bar on the left that allows you to look at different years. It doesn’t appear wildly different over time.
I work in an employee-owned business so yes the relationship between our work and our rewards is more easily understood and we control it. I think it’s a good model.
As for what you’re working for and whether it’s worth “playing the game”, I know plenty of young people who are doing OK though to be fair they tend to be people with reasonably well paid jobs. House and rental prices in London and the South East do seem pretty mad and this graph illustrates that: UK House Price to income ratio and affordability – Economics Help – not sure what the answer is. In theory it should right itself over time. I was expecting a mass exodus and rebalancing with the advent of working from home but firms insisting on a return to the office and people having put down roots in the area seem to prevent that – only two of my team of 30ish took the chance to move away from London when we gave everyone the option to work remotely all the time, though we do also have a few others who work remotely from cheaper parts of the world.
I’ve only just got up so I’ll just give a reply but I’m not sure that chart makes the point you’re trying to.
We know the numbers of working age not looking for work due to ill health is rising massively (I haven’t seen it yet but Frazer Nelson has also just done a dispatches on it this week).
We also know the population increase is being partly driven by increased life expectancy as well as immigration so it’s likely the native working age population is steady/falling “hiding” some of these job losses.
How is immigration being counted? If at all? I live in south Lincolnshire and we have a huge issue with seasonal workers coming in and out for peak periods needing doctors, hospitals, police etc but because they’re not “resident” they’re not counted for funding.
That also has a huge issue on the local housing market as we’ve been previously been hit by people relocating from London (40 minutes to Peterborough and an hour on the train) meant many sold up and brought locally for cash but more recently many houses have been converted (officially and unofficially) to HMOs. This means locals cannot complete to buy a house (we’re a low wage area generally) when you’re going against a landlord wanting to buy to rent 3/4 rooms at £100-140 per WEEK.
You know plenty of doing ok, but they’re generally well paid. Is that your “environment”?
Being a south Lincolnshire “farm boy” (who thankfully took my father’s advice not follow him into it) I know plenty of young people who have no clue what they’re going to do and friends with children in/approaching their teens with the same concerns.
I know very few young people doing ok. My neighbours son is in his mid 20’s with a decent job in the NHS as a physio. He admits he has no hope of buying a house locally.
Sorry that wasn’t so quick after all…
I think workforce participation is a pretty good way of measuring employment. Yes as a proportion of the population the working age group is shrinking but that’s just reality and something we need to come to terms with. My pension will be fully funded – by my contributions over the years (at least my private one). The state pension is paid for by those working. Had we been more prudent, that would not be the case, but the solution is to do things to let the economy work as well as it can possibly do – not something that recent governments seem interested in.
Yes my views are coloured by what I know, but surely so are yours.
I hope you thrive in the future, despite the best efforts of the government.
Uptick for classic film reference (and the comment wasn’t bad as well)
Perhaps an experience of massive shared suffering where everyone is pushed to the limits of what they thought they were capable of – in such times a spirit of genuine humility and quietness and chastisement can be brought about. It does mean being very strict with people. I would adivse that even now whether it is with friends and family or strangers. Total strictness. In most cases they seem to want it. It isn’t very pleasant having to be that way when you just want to be friendly but there is a time for it. Of course it is much more difficult now because our numbers have been intentionally diluted but I would still push for it. See what happens. If they can’t cope with the discipline then consign them to the ashes and move on.
Remind them that there are two stages that you have to go through. The first is the long dark night of the soul. Basically becoming aware of the falseness of what you have learned thus far and the shattering of your belief system. There is a second stage called the long dark night of the spirit. This is when everything about you is dismantled you really are in a rudderless state and only through this emptiness can a strength develop. If you want more detail then read St John of the Cross. Many in the last few years have experienced the long dark night of the soul and that is something to feel positive about. If you read the lives of the Christian mystics they talk about periiods of great awakening followed by years of depression then other great awakenings. This is the nature of that journey but who gives welcome and important advice to weary travellers?
The “don’t want to work culture” and its twin the “don’t want to go to the Office” is most obvious in the Public Sector laptop class.
There are going to have to be sanctions; redundancies and dismissals …. so the rest of the lazy, cosseted parasites get the message.
The Beveridge Report aimed to reform social welfare around Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor & Idleness. I don’t see how Starmer’s plan to tackle the latter can be effective unless he simply stops benefits for the idle. We need a stick not carrot approach.
Lord Price is absolutely right. There is another factor that must also be considered:
Question: What do LBGT people, cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, recreational drug users, alcoholics, depressives, people who commit suicide, Long Covid, post-Covid vaccine “brain fog”, Covid Nasal Swabs and loss of smell have in common?
Answer: They are all associated with BRAIN DAMAGE to the HIPPOCAMPUS.