People Hate Their Jobs

Well it's official, it's not just me saying it, apparently everyone else is saying it as well.

In an MSNBC piece from February 2007 titled Americans Hate Jobs More Than Ever, it says:

Americans hate their jobs more than ever before in the past 20 years, with fewer than half saying they are satisfied. The trend is strongest among workers under the age of 25, less than 39 percent of whom are satisfied with their jobs. Workers age 45 to 54 have the second lowest level of satisfaction (less than 45 percent

Apparently 20 years ago, job satisfaction was at about 60% and now it's a lot lower.

In a seperate article from a Careerbuilder survey, it was found that 84% of US workers are not in their dream job. They defined a dream job as something that was fun (39%). Making a contribution to soceity came in second (17%) and money came in third (12%). These results don't surprise me, as money in itself is often not the problem, for me it's been doing something that was either very stressful or a work environment that was boring that led to my unhappiness.

Interesting to note that 17% of respondents said that they wanted to be a "princess" when they were kids. So assuming they were all girls, 17/50 = 34% of all women. Firefighter was #1.

I feel like I'm playing the Family Feud. =)

What's interesting about the fact that most people 20 years ago liked their jobs is that it seems like they still do. In another article they say that over 90% of people over 60 enjoy their job. I wonder if it's because they always liked their job or if they got used to it. Probably both. Also, people who don't like working have most likely retired by then.

In this article, they say that only 7% of employees enjoy being told what to do. Surprise Surprise. 93% prefer to be asked questions by their supervisor. A good leader is supposed to ask questions.

I have met supervisors who ask questions very aggressively to the point where it's not really a question, but is said more like a statement. It goes like this "Would you mind running the reports right now?" That's not really a question since you can't really say no.

A question to me is more like "what do you want to do right now...project X or task Y? Which type of things do you prefer doing?"

In a seemlingly contradictory survey, it states that 86% of Americans are satisfied with their jobs.

The article is misleading, as the title uses the word "enjoy" but the article uses the phrase "satisfied with their jobs". I think those are 2 very different things.

The most important factors contributing to more job satisfaction in descending order of importance are holding a job with high prestige, being older, being non-black, and earning more from a job

What they mean is that statistically those are the most highly correlated variables. I think it's quite sad that prestige is the #1 factor here. But it might be misleading; the answers here differ a lot from the above polls because this poll is not asking people "What is your dream job?" or "What would you love in a job?". It doesn't even say what they question was. Maybe "satisfied" in this poll was meant as in "not hating it". Statistics can be very manipulative and I don't really believe this one considering how most other polls disagree with it, and just by simply observing and talking to people, very few people I know have a job that they truly love.