Bait questions, impossible requirements, canceled interviews, 6-day work weeks, and “remote on Sunday” jobs – This is why nobody wants to work anymore

Corporate world YouTuber Joshua Fluke opens his latest commentary with a line people have been hearing for generations: “Nobody wants to work anymore.” Then he does something useful with it. He drags it out of the realm of lazy complaint and drops it next to what job seekers are actually dealing with right now.

His point is not that work has become easy, or that everyone is trying as hard as they can all the time. It is much simpler than that. According to Fluke, the hiring process itself has become so bloated, weird, dishonest, and exhausting that blaming workers alone no longer makes much sense.

He backs that up with examples that are hard to shrug off. Not one or two bad stories, but a whole pattern: hundreds of job applications, almost no response, interview rounds that lead nowhere, application questions that feel like traps, and job postings that sound less like employment and more like a dare.

That is what gives the video its bite. Fluke is not just ranting about corporate nonsense in the abstract. He is walking through the little humiliations people keep running into while trying to get a job.

And by the end, his argument lands pretty clearly: maybe the problem is not that people do not want to work. Maybe the problem is that too many employers have turned applying for work into a gauntlet of nonsense.

Joshua Fluke Starts With The Numbers

Early in the video, Fluke shows just how much effort some people are putting in before they ever get an offer. One example he cites is a person who sent out 92 applications, got ghosted by 48 companies, received 31 rejections, made it through 13 first interviews, nine second interviews, three third interviews, and three fourth interviews, and ended up with just two offers.

That is not laziness. That is a part-time job on top of trying to get a full-time job.

Then he points to an even harsher example: 986 applications, 850 with no answer at all, 130 rejections, six interviews, five that led nowhere, and one offer. Fluke does the math out loud. Eighty-six percent of those applications got no answer.

That kind of silence matters. It wears people down.

When people hear “nobody wants to work,” they tend to picture someone refusing to try. What Fluke shows instead is a market full of people trying over and over, sometimes nearly a thousand times, just to get one real opening.

And honestly, that alone should end half the conversation. A system that forces people into that kind of volume has already stopped being normal.

The Questions Are Weird, Personal, And Sometimes Pointless

Fluke then turns to job application questions, and this is where his frustration really starts to show. He reads one prompt asking a hotel cleaner what they would do if they noticed a half-finished book on the nightstand or a pair of running shoes by the door and wanted to make the guest’s stay feel more personal.

His reaction is basically disbelief. Mine too.

There is something exhausting about questions like that because they often have no real answer, only the answer some recruiter happens to like that day. They are not measuring skill so much as testing whether the applicant can guess the corporate mood board.

Another question he reads asks what someone would do if they were cleaning a room and a guest returned unexpectedly and seemed embarrassed. Fluke’s answer is simple: leave.

That response is funny, but it also gets at the absurdity of the setup. Too many hiring questions are written like personality traps, not practical scenarios.

Then there are the bait questions. Fluke highlights one asking, “May we contact your current employer?” and points out the obvious problem: if you say yes, you risk trouble at your current job. If you say no, the new employer may see that as suspicious.

That is not a real choice. It is a pressure point disguised as a checkbox.

He says the same thing about questions asking whether someone is more introverted or extroverted. In his view, these are often less about the job and more about whether the company is quietly filtering for a certain office personality type. It becomes less about competence and more about whether you fit somebody’s vague idea of “culture.”

Some Applications Go Way Too Far

Fluke also points to application questions that feel deeply personal in ways that have little to do with the work. One example asks applicants what local church they attend, including city and state.

His reaction is immediate: why are you telling them that?

It is a fair question. Unless someone is applying directly to a church or a role where that information is clearly relevant, it feels invasive. It also gives away far more than many applicants may realize, including routines, location, and private beliefs.

He also zeroes in on the classic question about whether an applicant has ever been terminated or asked to resign. His advice there is blunt and a little cynical: do not hand them an easy reason to assume the worst before they even know you.

That part of the video is one of the more revealing ones because it shows how little trust exists on either side now. Applicants assume questions are loaded. Employers assume every answer needs decoding.

Once the process reaches that point, it stops feeling like a serious attempt to find the best fit. It starts feeling like a bluffing contest.

And people can sense that.

Even Getting The Interview Does Not Mean Much

Fluke is especially sharp when he gets into interview cancellations and sudden hiring reversals. He shows one example of a scheduled event being canceled because the company realized it was not hiring from that person’s time zone after all.

That is the sort of mistake that sounds small to the company and huge to the applicant. The applicant may have spent time preparing, rearranging a work schedule, calming nerves, and getting mentally ready, only to find out the company did not even know its own rules.

He reads another message saying the business had an “unforeseen change in direction” and had to scale back hiring, meaning the position no longer existed. The language is polished and apologetic, but Fluke cuts through that quickly.

His point is that many job seekers are not losing out after one quick screen anymore. They are being drawn through multiple rounds, told they look strong, and then dropped because the company changed its mind, froze a role, or moved on in another direction.

He also shares a cancellation notice where the hiring manager had already moved forward with other candidates, but the interview was never actually canceled on the calendar. So the applicant was left hanging for something that had already been decided.

That kind of sloppiness sends a message, even when companies do not mean it to. It tells people their time is cheap.

And after enough of that, people do not feel discouraged because they hate work. They feel discouraged because they are being treated like disposable entries in a spreadsheet.

The Jobs Themselves Sometimes Sound Ridiculous

Fluke also mocks the actual roles being pitched to people, and some of the examples deserve it. One recruiter reached out to someone with a biomedical sciences degree about a job with Smokey Mo’s BBQ.

That is the kind of mismatch that makes job boards feel automated to the point of parody.

Then he highlights an on-site startup role in San Francisco that demands six days a week, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., on a six-month contract that may or may not be extended. Fluke’s reaction is basically: do you really want to work 72 hours a week for someone else?

That is one of the stronger parts of the video because it exposes the dishonesty in how some companies frame these jobs. They want near-total control over a person’s time, but still market the role like a fun opportunity with “ownership” and “market rate.”

His sarcasm gets even sharper when he reads a posting that says the role is five days a week on site and “remote on Sundays.” He immediately translates that into plain English: that is six days a week.

Exactly.

Calling Sunday “remote” does not make it freedom. It makes it work that followed you home.

Nepotism, Fake Perks, And Endless Hoops

Fluke does not stop with interviews and hours. He also points to the way some hiring processes seem to run on insider access. He shows a review where someone says their interview was simple because their father knew a company executive and they basically knew they were getting the job.

That kind of thing is not new, but it stings more in a market where strangers are being asked to complete four interviews, personality games, and unpaid performance theater just to be ignored.

He also laughs at postings that offer one day of PTO earned monthly, nine paid holidays, access to a company café, Starbucks on site, or a hybrid arrangement that only begins after 90 days and only if a manager-approved assessment is passed.

Those are the kinds of “benefits” companies sometimes present as generous while quietly demanding availability from 8:45 a.m. to 9 p.m.

There is a pattern here, and Fluke sees it clearly. Employers keep dressing up basic dignity as a perk while asking people to accept more surveillance, more hoops, and more uncertainty.

Then he closes with one of the most ridiculous examples: an application requiring a TikTok-style video showing what makes the applicant different, with the warning that no video means no consideration.

Fluke’s take is that applicants are being told to dance, perform, and keep jumping through hoops, all while being expected to act grateful for the opportunity.

That may be the best summary of the whole mess.

People Still Want To Work – Just Not Like This

By the end of the video, Joshua Fluke returns to the old phrase he started with, and it sounds even weaker than it did at the beginning. “Nobody wants to work anymore” has been around for more than a century, he notes, which alone should make people suspicious of it.

His real point is not that everyone loves working. In fact, he says most people would rather spend their time doing things they actually enjoy. That is not a revelation. That is just being human.

The issue is that plenty of people do want jobs, income, stability, and a fair shot. What they do not want is a hiring process built on ghosting, fake urgency, trap questions, canceled interviews, personality tests, six-day schedules, and fake-flexible jobs that still own all their time.

That distinction matters.

Because once you hear the actual stories Fluke is walking through, the old complaint starts sounding less like wisdom and more like an excuse. Not an explanation for why people have checked out, but a way for employers to avoid admitting how broken the whole process has become.