You should strongly consider seeing a therapist, in all honesty. Read some books on mindfulness, consider putting the phone down and staying away from news headlines for a while.
> General worker apathy is endemic everywhere I go
I have noticed a major increase in this in my day-to-day interactions
But again, I've stopped looking LinkedIn, disabled or deleted and stopped engaging on the majority of social media platforms (HN remains as a final crutch), and have taken up meditation, therapy, and art as well, so it's not just empty words.
The only thing I have really noticed that's different on a multi-year scale is some companies went fully remote that weren't prepared for it or didn't really want to, which made 2021-2022 my own personal hell with career stability.
e.g. in Best Buy the other day I walked up to a group of 4 workers chatting together about 10 meters from the checkout counter to ask if any of them could open another till so I could purchase the microwave I was holding.
They told me in an ultra-polite passive aggressive way to wait in line at the single checkout that was open.
Obviously no big deal: hourly workers in their teens and 20s have always been less than stellar. Except the worsening trend has been noticeable.
I do understand how this might help the observer, but it also feels a bit like just look away and act like the problems aren't there.
Like we call could meditate for 30 mins a day and feel better about a shitty existence. Or we could spend 30 minutes a day (billions of man hours) doing something about it?
Whether work related, or just figuring out how to find a way to volunteer in the community more in a way that you are passionate about. You might not be able to stop global warming, but maybe you can donate a book on the legal system to an organization that sends books to prisoners so they can better understand and navigate it.
Honestly this is going to be my last comment on here. It’s time to break the habit once and for all.