Scroll down slightly and someone else has posted an image with quotes that go back to the 1800s.

EDIT: Not sure how to link the direct link to the reply, but you can see it on this article on Snopes too: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nobody-wants-to-work-anymo...

His Twitter version of this thread goes back to 1912, I think the Mastodon one just got cut off somehow? https://twitter.com/paulisci/status/1682459194589433857?s=20

From the 'long' in the title I was expecing this to be more like 200 years not 20 years. There's good form for this kind of literature.

https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/28169/what-is-th...

2 Thessalonians 3:10

The odd suggestion that “nobody wants to work anymore” somehow just appeared this generation.

It’s in the bible dude, and undoubtedly has sentiments dating back millennia.

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

Socrates 400BC

I was expecting lots of outraged Victorians lamenting the decline of modern work ethics

I dunno, he goes back to 1940. That seems far enough back to make the point with newspaper clippings. Definitely more than a single generation.

Kids these days.

...are great! I employ a number of teenagers and they are absolutely wonderful. The future is bright.

It's really just the late 20/early-to-mid 30-somethings who don't want to work. We have assumed it is because they are the "everyone gets a trophy" generation, but whatever it is there is a markable difference among the hires within that group as compared to those younger and older.