So I work in a mentally draining industry/department of industry. We've seen at least 5 people resign in the past year and a half that I've been working for this company.
We've gone from 8 full time employees down to 5. They keep piling on the clients to their current employees because they can't find replacement employees.
I was one of these full time employees. But the stress of the job got to me so I went down to 3 days a week working as a “fill in” where needed.
A person recently resigned. They've been trying to find a replacement. They interviewed someone who was qualified, but they chose not to hire them because this person had contingencies. They wanted to work from home for part of the day due to having an autistic son. Working from home is entirely possible in this industry, but they don't like it because it doesn't “fit in with their office culture”.
I stepped in and said I would work 5 days covering the work that was needed after this person resigned, but only until the end of the year. So 2023 they have no one to cover this work.
I offered to go back to 5 days but with contingencies like being able to work from home 1 day a week and requested a salary that is above their asking. They haven't gotten back to me. I don't care if they say no. I'm happy to go back to 3 days a week. In fact my partner wants me to because it takes some home duty stress off his shoulders.
It's not that people don't want to work. It's that employers don't want to be flexible to suit their employers needs and wants. They want to pay as little as possible with no flexibility and expect us to be grateful that they employed us.