Americans Growing Increasingly Unhappy at Work, Survey Finds
Americans Growing Increasingly Unhappy at Work, Survey Finds
Jan. 6, 2010 — Americans of all ages and income brackets continue to grow increasingly unhappy at work — a long-term trend that should be a red flag to employers, according to a report released today by The Conference Board.
The report, based on a survey of 5,000 U.S. households conducted for The Conference Board by TNS, found that only 45% of those surveyed said they are satisfied with their jobs, down from 61.1% in 1987, the first year in which the survey was conducted.
“While one in 10 Americans is now unemployed, their working compatriots of all ages and incomes continue to grow increasingly unhappy,” says Lynn Franco, director of the Consumer Research Center of The Conference Board. “Through both economic boom and bust during the past two decades, our job satisfaction numbers have shown a consistent downward trend.”
The survey found that the youngest employees (those under age 25) had the highest level of dissatisfaction ever recorded by the survey for that age group.
“The downward trend in job satisfaction could spell trouble for the overall engagement of U.S. employees and ultimately employee productivity,” Franco said.
Linda Barrington, managing director of human capital for The Conference Board, said, “These numbers do not bode well given the multi-generational dynamics of the labor force. The newest federal statistics show that Baby Boomers will compose one-quarter of the U.S. workforce in eight years, and since 1987 we’ve watched them increasingly losing faith in the workplace.”
Twenty years ago, 60% of that generation was satisfied with their jobs. Today, that figure is roughly 46%, according to The Conference Board. “The growing dissatisfaction across and between generations is important to address because it can directly impact the quality of multi-generational knowledge transfer — which is increasingly critical to effective workplace functioning,” Barrington said.
The drop in job satisfaction between 1987 and 2009 covers all categories in the survey, from interest in work (down 18.9 percentage points) to job security (down 17.5 percentage points) and crosses all four of the key drivers of employee engagement: job design, organizational health, managerial quality and extrinsic rewards.
“Challenging and meaningful work is vitally important to engaging American workers,” said John Gibbons, program director of employee engagement research and services at The Conference Board. “Widespread job dissatisfaction negatively affects employee behavior and retention, which can impact enterprise-level success.”
In fact, 22% of respondents said they don’t expect to be in their current job in a year, according to the survey. “These data throw up a big, red flag because the increasing dissatisfaction is not just a ‘survivor syndrome’ artifact of having co-workers and neighbors laid off in the recession,” Gibbons said.
Last August, Deloitte kicked-off a debate on employee retention:
"In a tough economy, voluntary turnover isn’t considered much of a problem. In fact, companies struggling to reduce costs any way they can might even welcome the idea of people leaving voluntarily. At the same time, most employees are hunkering down and not even bothering to look for other jobs.
Of course, when the economy starts to turn around, it could be a whole new ball game. As companies scramble to find qualified talent, workers who suffered through years of anxiety and belt-tightening may defect in droves for better opportunities. Is this a real problem that business leaders should worry about now? Or should they wait and see what happens?"
Clearly, employees are growing less satisfied in their work, which lays to rest that ridiculous claim that people should be grateful to just HAVE jobs. While that is in some part true, leadership has worked diligently in the last couple of years to ruthlessly kill off that gratitude by working remaining employees harder with no additional appreciation or recognition of effort. I do not necessarily mean an increase in pay, but it takes nothing but a few moments of time to sincerely, specifically and authentically appreciate someone for what they're doing. (more on specific, actionable, authentic praise here: http://globoforce.blogspot.com/2009/11/specific-actionable-and-authentic.html)
If you want people to engage in their work and be genuinely happy about doing it, then give them a reason to be (again, I don't necessarily mean monetarily). Tell them how and why their efforts are important to the success of the company. Tell them you appreciate their efforts. Let people do this for their peers at any level as well as managers to employees. And do this frequently.
Nothing like simple but specific acknowledgment of your hard work to encourage satisfaction and engagement on the job.
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Clearly, employees are growing less satisfied in their work, which lays to rest that ridiculous claim that people should be grateful to just HAVE jobs. While that is in some part true, leadership has worked diligently in the last couple of years to ruthlessly kill off that gratitude by working remaining employees harder with no additional appreciation or recognition of effort. I do not necessarily mean an increase in pay, but it takes nothing but a few moments of time to sincerely, specifically and authentically appreciate someone for what they're doing. (more on specific, actionable, authentic praise here: http://globoforce.blogspot.com/2009/11/specific-actionable-and-authentic.html)
If you want people to engage in their work and be genuinely happy about doing it, then give them a reason to be (again, I don't necessarily mean monetarily). Tell them how and why their efforts are important to the success of the company. Tell them you appreciate their efforts. Let people do this for their peers at any level as well as managers to employees. And do this frequently.
Nothing like simple but specific acknowledgment of your hard work to encourage satisfaction and engagement on the job.