When people understand the wider context their work falls under they naturally give a shit. People want to give a shit, it feels good to have meaningful work an

When people understand the wider context their work falls under they naturally give a shit. People want to give a shit, it feels good to have meaningful work and do it well. They only stop giving a shit when given a reason to do so (usually because they are heaped with meaningless work and have no connection to whether the work is good or bad). That doesn't (just) mean "incentives", it literally means them simply being told "great job, no problems reported from the client" or even more preferably the client themselves telling them that. The more steps between them and the effect of their work, and the less feedback, the less possible it is to give a shit even if they try. Trying to game or make this process as low effort or box-check-y as possible is noticable and counterproductive, it needs to come from a genuine involvement. People involved in meetings tend to care more. Not "involved" as in invited to, involved as in people want to hear their opinion and care what they think. The trope of people hating/not listening in meetings comes from it literally not mattering whether they are in the room or not. I get that you might not initially care what <newhire> has to say, they're hardly bringing insights, but the best onboardings ive seen are those where seniors want to hear their experience, what they struggled with, and work with them to make it easier for them and future newhires. It's noticable how much harder people work shortly after seeing their feedback/work being put to use. Another thing ive observed a lot is its common for people who give a shit to get promoted to lead others, but by taking on a lot of the meaningful work themselves, overworking, and failing to delegate, they breed people under them that dont give a shit, due to leaving only meaningless tasks and having no time for feedback or informing their reports what is even going on. Finally, once someone has fallen into the habit of not giving a shit at a specific company, unfortunately it requires a mighty effort to bring them back again. It's usually possible with time, but much harder than just keeping them happy in the first place. I guess give a shit about people and you may well find they give a shit themselves