Gallup: Most People Hate Their Jobs or Have Checked Out

[ER Eddie]

We needed a poll to determine this?

I like seeing these sorts of polls. Makes me feel less alone.

 

[Powor]

Most of the time my attitude is I do what I need to do to get by. Sometimes this is enough to move be through a pay period, but a lot of time I am lucky enough to find things that encourage me to keep going.

 

[ER Eddie]

I like how most of the blame is focused on the bosses, who are actually the ones instilling the disengagement by not engaging. Administrative level superiors have never asked me how things are going, whether I like my job, the good parts and the bad parts, what I need to do it better, etc. They rearrange things and give directions, but they seem disinterested in what the people who actually produce the goods/services do, whether they are satisfied or not, etc. They have no interest in me; it's not surprising that most people have no interest (engagement) in the work/company.

p.s. I like the ideas in Flow, though, and I try to enjoy my work for intrinsic reasons.

 

[kyounge1956]

Ever since I heard the news stories about this poll, I've thought there needed to be another category in between, because that's were I spent most of my time as an employee. I worked, and worked diligently, but it was because I needed the money, not because I was "enthusiastic" or "committed".

Maybe I misunderstand what the author means by the description of the disengaged employee. To me, "going through the motions" means pretending to work while making little or no effort to perform the task for which one is being paid--stuff like playing computer games or surfing the net when you're on the clock or spending a lot of time making personal phone calls during office hours. I think many, maybe most, employees fall in between the above-described goof-offs and the gung-ho 30%, and ISTM the article completely ignores their existence.