That can be good advice for OP (I suspect it is), but also OP can have a point: things can largely be getting worse, not staying the same or getting better.
> General worker apathy is endemic everywhere I go
I have noticed a major increase in this in my day-to-day interactions
Most workers I've hung out around recently, at least in the service industry, seem cheerful and friendly as ever. Most of my remote coworkers in the current gig are some of the friendliest, most intelligent working people I have had the pleasure of working with.
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.
Workers in the service industry are cheerful and friendly to each other, but not to me...
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.
> General worker apathy is endemic everywhere I go
I have noticed a major increase in this in my day-to-day interactions