​What has happened post-covid that has made it SO difficult to get people to complete work

I see it across the board, but I’m talking about b2b. I swear to god it takes a miracle for someone to come out and do good work. 5 years ago, you could request a proposal, they would follow up, they would schedule a start date. Get the job done get paid.

Now, just getting people to respond to an RFP is frustrating as fuck. They will give a number, I accept it. Then I have to remind them half a dozen times they have a job and when can we start. Most of the time they no show and have to reschedule. I’m sitting on a project now where I need like a half hour of work from someone to release their $25k payment. I have to practically threaten them to come do a trivial amount of work for $25,000.

What is the deal??? Something has changed, I dont know if everyone is burned out or what, but it takes an INSANE amount of effort to get anything from anyone right now. I am not at all a “low bidder” and these are high-end high-cost services and products primarily from 5-50 employee companies.