I ran a small business and found the opposite to be true (particularly with people straight out of college) if given training and support, respected and incorporated their ideas, and provided transparency into the running of and health of the business. My take away isn't that people don't want to work, it's that they want to be valued.
I agree. Unfortunately many companies "value" their employees in the same way they "value" the privacy of their customers.
"Transparency would make it obvious that our business model is based on your exploitation (e.g. DoorDash) and our goal is not fair compensation, but maximum profits for our shareholders... so instead of transparency we provide fruit baskets."
Oh but the fruit baskets are for our customers. You'll be making them, not receiving them. And you'll be expected to put them all together today, including going out and buying the baskets and fruit, on top of your existing assigned tasks, in the same amount of time since we won't approve OT for this.
We paid as much as the market would allow (living wage with health insurance and retirement, but not extravagant by any means), so even wages appears to be flexible if you treat people like humans. The big take-away is that some business leaders just suck.