Aug 10, 2010 11:02 pm US/Central
It's not just flight attendant's opening up the emergency exit and sliding down the chute, tossing away their jobs for good. Fewer people are satisfied with their jobs than in the 20-year history of one survey. But which fields have workers who are most likely to snap?
According to the Conference Board, just 45 percent of us say we're actually satisfied with our jobs. We've never been crabbier at work.
"People are not happy," said Tom Bodine, Managing Partner at OI Partners/Organizational Innovations, Inc., a St. Louis Park workforce coaching and consulting firm.
"We found that 55 percent of the people who are working today, when the economy turns, are going to look for another job," said Bodine.
According to Bodine, the negativity isn't solely focused in certain fields, rather, it's focused in areas with certain types of workplace environments.
"Money used to be one of the primary motivators. But now it goes back to value, trust, relationships," he said, adding "the workplace today isn't providing that."
High-stress positions aren't necessarily equated with high dissatisfaction at work.
"People are willing to work hard, they can be happy, but if they don't feel appreciated in what they're doing, it's over," said Leonard Lang, owner of Beard Avenue, a Minneapolis career coaching firm.
According to PayScale.com, the top stressful jobs are in healing professions -- 100 percent of emergency room physicians say their job stress is high, 89 percent of anesthesiologists, 88 percent of general surgeons and 87 percent of nursing home directors.
But when you survey people about being unhappy at work, those professions do not show up.
"If there's a social connection, if there's altruistic connection … that's gonna go a long way to reducing that stress," said Bodine.
"Customer service industry ranks among the lowest in happiness and the healing/caring professions are ranked highest," said Lang.
According to the University of Chicago's 2006 General Social Survey, the jobs with the lowest amount of satisfaction are focused in the customer service area. Non-construction day laborers had the lowest satisfaction rate, followed by clothing salespeople, food preparers, roofers, cashiers and bartenders.
At wcco.com/jasonblog", Dyani wrote: "I'm sure I speak for many people when I say that working in retail is enough to make someone snap. I work in a high-end computer facility and you'd be surprised at how people treat workers just because they're spending $1000. I can't wait until my health insurance kicks in so my employer can pay for my blood pressure medicine."
"Frustration with boss, lack of communication, lack of trust, coworkers who don't care" are all factors in that low job satisfaction rating, said Bodine.
But Bodine said he worries that the tight economy and bursting workloads will lead to even more workers, ready to snap. He talks about the perception of unrealistic demands.
"I could make a case that people don't leave jobs today, they leave bosses," said Bodine.
From WCCO published on Aug 10, 2010 11:02 pm US/Central