Why Nobody Wants to Work and What You Can Do About It By Chris Jarvis, Entrepreneur & International Speaker

People are quitting their jobs at an alarming rate.  Psychologist and business professor Anthony Klotz (of Texas A&M University) coined the phrase, “The Great Resignation” after 4 million people quit their jobs in April of 2021.  That 20-year high was neither a blip nor an adjustment – it was the beginning of a movement.  Despite massive wage inflation and unheard-of signing bonuses for even lower paying jobs, the trend isn’t slowing.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, February 2022 was the ninth consecutive month with over 4 million people quitting their jobs.  

Maybe you run a business and you’re at your wit’s end scrambling to find a way to hire or retain staff.  Perhaps you’re unhappy and wondering if you should quit as well.  In my new book, Go Wild: Follow Your Inner Animal to Health, Wealth and Happiness, we explore the four reasons people are uninspired, unhealthy, unfulfilled or unsuccessful.  

Four Reasons for Our Unhappiness

• Problems start at the top – in our own minds
• We care too much what other people think 
• We chased the wrong thing in life
• We took more math than psychology

As an individual, understanding how each us these impacts our decisions will help you find a better path to success and happiness.  As an employer, your elevated perspective will help you create an environment that will inspire and encourage others.  It’s a simple concept, but like most big things in your company, it must start with you.   

It’s Lonely at the Top – in Our Crazy Heads

Have you ever heard people tell you, “It’s all in your head?” They were right.  Despite our best efforts, we have all been influenced by our upbringing.  Growing up poor may make it difficult for us to spend carelessly.  Difficult relationships with a parent may have made us acutely aware of how our actions impact other people.  A traumatic experience may cause us to search for the meaning of life or a higher purpose in our actions.  Each of us has a unique upbringing that has crafted the dominant voice in our head.  

This dominant voice does not always win out, but it is never ignored.  When we understand what our loudest inner voices are, we will become more aware of how often we concede other areas of our life – to satisfy our harshest and most vocal inner critics.  This awareness will help us consider the areas of our life that are important to our long-term happiness – but too often overlooked or sacrificed.  

Nearly any form of self-reflection is beneficial, but my entrepreneur and executive coaches realize that their time is worth even more than their money.  For that reason, I created the Find Your Wild Factor assessment. In just four minutes, you will receive scores in the five areas of your life: health, finances, career, relationships and fun.  Based on your high score, you may be an eagle, dolphin, elephant, penguin or monkey.  What do you think your inner animal is?

A customized 15-page PDF will be created to help you make immediate behavioral changes that will leverage your strengths and help you improve other areas.  To help you remember the tips, each area of your life is connected to one of the animals. The animals provide strong visuals to help remind us of our natural tendencies – reinforcing the valuable lessons in your customized report. 

Get Out of Your Head and Take Your Company “On Safari”

Once you better understand yourself, you are ready to explore the people who work with you. This could be direct reports, all employees, vendors, customers or prospects.  

By offering the Find Your Wild Factor assessment or Go Wild book, you will not only be giving your people a quick and valuable tool to help them make better decisions for their own lives.  You will also be learning three invaluable things that will help you better lead your organization.  

Benefits of Sharing the Wild Factor Assessment with Your People

• Learn what each employee needs to know to make decisions.
• Find out what each employee will not do for him/herself. 
• Measure the dominant voice of the collective organization. 

You will no longer have to guess what messages and incentives will motivate your people. You can meet your people where you know they are – and offer to take them where you know they want to go.  This unique approach to leadership is what today’s workforce is looking to you to create.  

You can be two steps ahead of your competitors who think the only solution to their employment issues is to pay higher wages.  They will spend more money and continue to see record turnover. With your seemingly customized culture, you have a chance to spend less and get more out of your staff.  

The combination of the Find Your Wild Factor assessment and Go Wild book are designed to help you get people excited to work with you, not for you.  Whether you implement this, or some other innovative strategy, you have to do something… different.  

Chris Jarvis is an executive coach, creator of Find Your Wild Factor and author of 17 books. His TEDx Talk was the most watched in the world in April 2022.  Follow Chris on Instagram.  Go WILD will be released in June 2002. Pre-order at www.ChrisJarvis.me today.