It's sort of true, but not in the way they mean it. Most people don't want to work or they would never retire. But we're also mostly willing to work. Even work really difficult and/or dangerous jobs.
The important part is why. I love tinkering with computers and I will probably do so forever. Working for someone isnt a big deal IF people can actually not piss me off for half a day so I can actually get work done.
This always works for 6-12 months until someone decides I need to become more „flexible“ now and everything goes to shit.
Thats why self employment works best for me. I do what I can do best and you stand around at the coffee machine with your buddies (you as in people, not you specifically).
Meanwhile I love doing volunteer work with no problems whatsoever (free work most of the time) and at the same time I have problems keeping my mental health stable for a longer period of time when working for a wage...
Do employers actually care about being understaffed or do they only wish that that staff would stop complaining that the company is understaffed?
After all, an understaffed company is a lean, efficient company that doesn't give out money all willy-nilly to the sort of people who have to do undesirable work and thus ensures good value for the C-level end-of-year bonus and stockholder portfolios, which ought to sound like a win from their point of view.
My SO works fast food. Corporate never allocates enough hours so they're perpetually understaffed, but the store manager has permission to call people in if needed. So there's a lot of "your scheduled 10-4, but at 3:30 I'm gonna ask if you'll stay to 6, or I'll call you 2 hours before your shift to see if you can come in early".
Its a lose lose, nobody gets the hours they want, manager can't retain workers, people hate being called in or asked to stay late, and the schedule is always shorthanded and mostly a suggestion. Of course nobody wants to work in that shitty mess of cost cutting and begging employees to pick up the slack that the MBAs at corporate have caused.
