Job "Satisfaction'

[Onward]

I've always questioned the many surveys that conclude most Americans are happy with their jobs. It contradicts just about everything I've ever witnessed.

Here's a survery that probably comes closer to the truth:

Most Americans Not Happy at Work: Yahoo! Finance/Parade Survey | Daily Ticker - Yahoo! Finance

It's not just the jobs like those at McDonald's that's upsetting America workers, says Aaron Task of The Daily Ticker. "There are also people working white collar jobs…. and feeling like they're just on a treadmill, not getting anywhere."

Gee, ya think?

You can take the poll yourself here, though I've probably biased you.

 

[Midpack]

We do need a poll to know how people at an early retirement forum feel/felt about work...

The solid middle class jobs aren't nearly as plentiful as they once were, I'm sure that hasn't helped. And individuals personal expectations are probably higher than ever, so expectations and opportunities are even further apart than even a generation ago. I worked with too many people who couldn't understand why they weren't being promoted, even though they lacked the credentials and work standards to be promotable.

Though there are certainly examples, I thought it was [-]nonsense[/-] curious that office politics was rated so highly, more emotion than fact I suspect. More often than not, initiative and hard work were still the most important when I left not long ago...

 

[MichaelB]

I don't ever recall seeing a survey where the majority of people are happy with their jobs. Most are just happy to have a job but IIRC the dislikes are the majority.

 

[brewer12345]

Though there are certainly examples, I thought it was [-]nonsense[/-] curious that office politics was rated so highly, more emotion than fact I suspect. More often than not, initiative and hard work were still the most important when I left not long ago...

Of the many places I have worked, I can think of exactly one where getting ahead was only about ability and hard work were what got you ahead. Everywhere else (including my current place of funployment) was more about politics than anything else.

 

[Donzo]

I loved my job with mega pharma for the first 20 years. But, after being bought out/merged with another even larger pharma company the last 8 years of my career were pretty miserable. I consider myself lucky. I had a great career where the majority of time was fulfilling. Most of my friends during this period of time hated their jobs all the way through. Most of them are still working also.....
It seems like most companies are less employee focused now and the bottom line is king. I worry about my kids future job experiences.

I could not be happier to be out of that mess - is today Saturday? Feels like it!

 

[73ss454]

I am finally satisfied with my job now that I don't have to go there.

 

[David1961]

The survey didn't have details about respondents' retirement savings but found that 53 percent of workers had just three months worth of savings to tide them over if they lost their jobs tomorrow. Another 15 percent had enough savings to last four to six months. Perhaps that's why more than half said they would choose a 5 percent raise over two weeks more of vacation.

Scary that over two thirds of people have six months of reserves or less.

 

[braumeister]

During 21 years with the USAF, I had high job satisfaction for about 17 (not concurrent). On the whole, I guess that gave me an 81% success rate, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at.

I may be kidding myself, but I think most of the ex-military types I know would say something similar, in hindsight.

 

[ziggy29]

People have pretty much always thought their jobs sucked, but in my experience to date (25 years in industry) it's never been worse.

People are more overworked and burned out than ever. As companies aggressively strip out any costs remotely viewed as "redundancies" it creates potential "single point failures" of a lot of employees -- a single person who is the only one who knows how to perform an important function (or who has authority and/or access rights to do it).

These people are effectively on-call 24x365. They aren't allowed to spend nights, weekends or even vacation time without their cell phones or checking their office e-mail regularly. And when they do return from vacation, they have to work twice as hard until they have caught up -- because work is no longer reassigned (there's not enough people to do that and those who are left are already overworked), it just piles up on your desk until you get back and work to catch up on all of it. In that sense it's not vacation, but an advance on future "comp time".

Employers are all too happy to exploit this terrible job market and use fear of pink slips to impose working conditions which would have been unthinkable and "sweatshop" like 20-30 years ago. More work. Longer hours. NO "lfe" in the work-life balance. And in the process, watered down benefits and frozen pay for many years.

Everything, and I mean *everything*, is "urgent" and extremely time critical. It's as if a business that has survived for decades will go under if executives don't have that shiny new TPS Report on their desk within 5 minutes. I get an obscene number of e-mails from people working late nights and weekends (and I mean late night in their time zone, like 11 PM from folks in the US or 6 PM from someone in Europe). And these people do it regularly. Please get me off this hamster wheel.

I am beyond burned out. The stress of such an business environment is slowly killing me, I can absolutely feel it. At this rate I feel like I'll be dead by 55 if I stuck with it that long.

 

[brewer12345]

Ziggy, I am staring down the barrel of the person I work hand in hand with possibly moving on for greener pastures in the next few months. I am happy for him, but if/when it happens I will be screwed because there is nobody to take his place. No real succession plan, no fat in the staffing and we don't pay well enough to really hire the right person to replace him (hence his plan to bail).

 

[Midpack]

Though there are certainly examples, I thought it was [-]nonsense[/-] curious that office politics was rated so highly, more emotion than fact I suspect. More often than not, initiative and hard work were still the most important when I left not long ago...

Of the many places I have worked, I can think of exactly one where getting ahead was only about ability and hard work were what got you ahead. Everywhere else (including my current place of funployment) was more about politics than anything else.

I don't doubt your experience or any other poster here, I guess I was lucky in my career. While politics were certainly a factor, indeed central at times, initiative and hard work prevailed more often than not.

And while I won't pretend all my (still working) friends love their jobs, none of them hate their jobs either. None of them harp on retiring, and some are FI or close. They all have bad days/moments but most of them take satisfaction in their work and work relationships, beyond being grateful to have a job. I know I have to keep in mind that's not going to be the norm on an early retirement forum, 'hating work' will be reinforced here more often than not by definition. I wish those here who have/had a bad work experience, could experience a more rewarding work environment...

 

[Onward]

It's as if a business that has survived for decades will go under if executives don't have that shiny new TPS Report on their desk within 5 minutes.

Trying ... to be ... positive ... but can't ... help ... myself ...

 

[FIREd]

People have pretty much always thought their jobs sucked, but in my experience to date (25 years in industry) it's never been worse.

People are more overworked and burned out than ever. As companies aggressively strip out any costs remotely viewed as "redundancies" it creates potential "single point failures" of a lot of employees -- a single person who is the only one who knows how to perform an important function (or who has authority and/or access rights to do it).

These people are effectively on-call 24x365. They aren't allowed to spend nights, weekends or even vacation time without their cell phones or checking their office e-mail regularly. And when they do return from vacation, they have to work twice as hard until they have caught up -- because work is no longer reassigned (there's not enough people to do that and those who are left are already overworked), it just piles up on your desk until you get back and work to catch up on all of it. In that sense it's not vacation, but an advance on future "comp time".

Employers are all too happy to exploit this terrible job market and use fear of pink slips to impose working conditions which would have been unthinkable and "sweatshop" like 20-30 years ago. More work. Longer hours. NO "lfe" in the work-life balance. And in the process, watered down benefits and frozen pay for many years.

Everything, and I mean *everything*, is "urgent" and extremely time critical. It's as if a business that has survived for decades will go under if executives don't have that shiny new TPS Report on their desk within 5 minutes. I get an obscene number of e-mails from people working late nights and weekends (and I mean late night in their time zone, like 11 PM from folks in the US or 6 PM from someone in Europe). And these people do it regularly. Please get me off this hamster wheel.

I am beyond burned out. The stress of such an business environment is slowly killing me, I can absolutely feel it. At this rate I feel like I'll be dead by 55 if I stuck with it that long.

Excellent description of today's corporate working environment.

 

[brewer12345]

I don't doubt your experience or any other poster here, I guess I was lucky in my career. While politics were certainly a factor, indeed central at times, initiative and hard work prevailed more often than not.

And while I won't pretend all my (still working) friends love their jobs, none of them hate their jobs either. None of them harp on retiring, and some are FI or close. They all have bad days/moments but most of them take satisfaction in their work and work relationships, beyond being grateful to have a job. I know I have to keep in mind that's not going to be the norm on an early retirement forum, 'hating work' will be reinforced here more often than not by definition. I wish those here who have/had a bad work experience, could experience a more rewarding work environment...

You were either very lucky or remarkably well politically connected in your workplace (or both).

 

[M Paquette]

Could be worse...

We all know business has not been great these last few years. After a careful review, we have decided to make some strategic changes in the next few months. To ensure we have the right people and skills in place to execute on these new strategies, all staff who wish to continue working here at ACME will be required to re-apply and interview for current and new positions that will be created. Additional details on this process will be forthcoming, but in the interim, please send a current resume to Corporate Human Resources by the close of business tomorrow.

Have a nice day.

 

[Midpack]

You were either very lucky or remarkably well politically connected in your workplace (or both).

Like those are the only two possibilities...more nonsense.

 

[Purron]

I am finally satisfied with my job now that I don't have to go there.

This! I just *know* this is you're favorite version of Satisfaction....

(PS: 60s girl band appreciation night has ended )

Devo - [I Can't Get No] Satisfaction (Video) - YouTube

 

[brewer12345]

Like those are the only two possibilities...more nonsense.

Well, there are other possibilities, of course. Please credit me with some imagination, at least. For example, you could have slept your way up the chain. Or oerhaps you had incriminating pictures of your superiors with farm animals. Or...

I'm sorry it offends you that some of us don't have as much fun working as you seem to have.

 

[ziggy29]

I'm sorry it offends you that some of us don't have as much fun working as you seem to have.

I guess I'd say I used to have an experience that was something different, something that more closely resembled a meritocracy. Having said that, I don't think my current work environment is particularly political, either. It's just that the new definition of "merit" now includes not only basic competence and production, but a willingness to show you are willing to throw your family and your personal life under the bus for the benefit of the almighty corporation. "Merit" in today's world means being a mediocre performer for 70 hours a week is more highly valued than being a very highly productive performer for 40. "Merit" in today's world means anyone on salary thinking they can get away with only 40 hours a week is a slacker who is stealing from the company -- even if they are exceptional for the 40 hours they are on the job.

It only get political where I am if you want to be management. And I have less than no desire to be a manager, so I don't have to play those games at least.

My beef isn't politics, it's the combination of increasingly unreasonable expectations and shrinking real pay -- work harder and harder for less and less real compensation. I'll bet if you factored in inflation AND hours worked, my inflation-adjusted cash compensation per hour is probably about 25% less than it was in 2006. It's mostly a situation of a few higher-ups expecting more and more hours from fewer and fewer people with lower and lower inflation-adjusted pay -- all under the guise of "feel lucky you have a job at all".

No, I will feel truly lucky when I no longer need it.

 

[Purron]

I guess I'd say I used to have an experience that was something different, something that more closely resembled a meritocracy. Having said that, I don't think my current work environment is particularly political, either. It's just that the new definition of "merit" now includes not only basic competence and production, but a willingness to show you are willing to throw your family and your personal life under the bus for the benefit of the almighty corporation. "Merit" in today's world means being a mediocre performer for 70 hours a week is more highly valued than a highly productive performer for 40. "Merit" in today's world means anyone on salary thinking they can get away with only 40 hours a week is a slacker who is stealing from the company.

My beef isn't politics, it's the combination of increasingly unreasonable expectations and shrinking real pay -- work harder and harder for less and less real compensation. It's mostly a situation of a few higher-ups expecting more and more hours from fewer and fewer people with lower and lower inflation-adjusted pay -- all under the guise of "feel lucky you have a job at all".

No, I will feel truly lucky when I no longer need it.

This stuck a chord with me Zig. Particulary the part about being willing to throw your personal life and family under the bus. That was exactly what I struggled so hard to get away from. I hope you get there soon.

 

[rodi]

I think Ziggy has described the shift of late to the new corporate normal. I've got 17+ years with the various flavors of my megacorp (mergers/sales/spinoffs/etc... but I'm in the same business just under a new corporate heading.) It started out very much a meritocracy. We had teams that would work hard - more experienced folks would mentor those coming up through the ranks... we all worked hard to meet our deadlines. But we worked together. Then they implemented various performance management systems to generate lists for layoffs. The bottom 10% would be in the next layoff. If your group didn't have any slackers, then they cut good people. It was an arbitrary number... but it was maintained. After a few years of dropping the bottom 10-20% per year we're down to the bone. Slackers were culled a long time ago. Now they still rank us against each other. Which sounds great unless you actually need to work as a team. In many groups - people are actively pitted against each other in cage match type work environment.... whoever can work the longest hours, or steal the most credit for other work, wins and gets to keep their job. Help out the new guy - NO WAY... they might get a better ranking than you then. This is the new normal. I'm fortunate to be in a group that avoided this for a long time. But we just lost a few people in the latest round of layoffs. And the people were good... not slackers. It sucks.

 

[boatfishandnature]

Excellent description of today's corporate working environment.

Unfortunately it is becoming more true... but I see signs of young people rebelling against this and valuing their quality of life more... although this trend was obscured by the current recession

 

[Letj]

Of the many places I have worked, I can think of exactly one where getting ahead was only about ability and hard work were what got you ahead. Everywhere else (including my current place of funployment) was more about politics than anything else.

That's been my exact observation as well. I've have seen really hardworking and brilliant people be denied opportunities for upward mobility because they rubbed someone the wrong way; could be umpteen years ago but they still remember. I've also seen perfectly fine people and great employees kept out from deserving positions because of one person at the top.

 

[FIREd]

Unfortunately it is becoming more true... but I see signs of young people rebelling against this and valuing their quality of life more... although this trend was obscured by the current recession

True, the Millennial generation is apparently shaking things up:

How millennials are transforming the workplace - The Week

Millennials want more flexible work hours, feeling that it's pointless to adhere to a rigid 9-to-5 schedule if they can still get their work done without being tethered to a desk. They want companies to take advantage of technology and embrace Skype and other forms of telecommuting. They want the freedom to use social media; some have even quit jobs that bar Facebook at the office. They want big responsibilities as soon as they arrive, and they want to be promoted quickly. Above all, they expect their jobs to be fulfilling: According to a recent MTV survey, 90 percent of millennials believe they deserve their "dream job."

 

[Retch The Grate]

Pretty much every job I've worked at has been happy and fun initially. Over time changes occur that make them not where I want to be, but that's why we move on to new ones every few years. But the game industry is very project oriented, so that's normal, I'm always impressed by the folks on this board who have worked at the same place for 30+ years, I've never been at a company a full 4 years (I think 3 years, 10 months at WotC is my record) in my 18 years of career so far.