The terms “quiet quitting," “act your wage” “disconnected workers,” and “lazy girl jobs” are everywhere this summer. There are reasons to be skeptical of the new workplace clichés.
Foremost, these hackneyed phrases ignore mountains of data that provide a generally positive picture of workers’ views of their jobs. Let’s start with Gallup’s data on worker satisfaction. Beginning in 1993, and yearly since 1999, Gallup has asked people working full or part time about more than a dozen aspects of their jobs.
Workers are most satisfied with the physical safety of their workplace and their relationships with colleagues, both areas where more than 70% in Gallup’s most recent poll call themselves completely satisfied. Six in ten or more are completely satisfied with their boss or supervisor, their job security, their vacation time, and the flexibility of their hours. Around half express complete satisfaction with the recognition they receive at work, the work required of them, and their chances for promotion.
If you combine the completely and somewhat satisfied responses, more than three-quarters of workers in recent years have been satisfied with 10 of the 13 specific Gallup indicators. In 2022, 78% even expressed overall satisfaction with the amount of money they earned. Three areas fell below the 70% threshold: 69% overall were satisfied with their job stress, 68% with health insurance benefits, and 66% with retirement benefits. The highest “completely dissatisfied” responses for any category were 17% for health benefits and 14% for retirement benefits. These responses hardly suggest widespread unhappiness.
A February 2023 survey from Pew uses a question with five response options (extremely, very, somewhat, not too, and not at all satisfied) compared to Gallup’s four. Gallup’s responses show higher overall satisfaction, while Pew’s cluster in the “somewhat satisfied” category. Of the nine categories in Pew’s survey, only one – opportunities for promotion – showed more than 10% of employed people saying they were not at all satisfied. A June 2023 Ipsos Consumer Tracker poll echoes the Gallup and Pew findings: 82% were satisfied with the work they do, 78% with their company, and even 75% with their commutes!
Given these generally positive survey findings, why do we hear so much about job dissatisfaction? First, some people are more dissatisfied than others, and we hear a lot about them. In Pew’s 2023 survey, for example, two-thirds of older workers said they were satisfied with their jobs. That dropped to 44% for those ages 18-29 years. But young people’s attitudes are in part a function of where they are in the life cycle. They are just starting out, and polls routinely show that they are most dissatisfied with their employment. Pew shows that they are more likely than any other age group to feel “overwhelmed” by their jobs. Nearly a quarter, 23%, said they felt this way at work all or most of the time. But they are generally optimistic about where they will be in their jobs in the future.
Another reason job dissatisfaction may appear to be widespread is because the overall public mood is sour. Poll after poll shows people believe the country is seriously on the wrong track these days, that democracy is in danger, and that inflation is hurting them and their families. Work is a big part of our identity so it is not surprising that general pessimism seeps into views about the workplace. The economy’s performance is especially important as Gallup’s trend data shows. During the Great Recession, for example, said they were completely satisfied with their job security. “Take this job and love it” was a popular cliché at the time.
Pollsters themselves bear some responsibility for the dissatisfaction narrative. Measuring workplace happiness has become big business for them. Many organizations smartly use pollsters to understand the specific strengths and weaknesses of their own workplaces. But pollsters themselves are selling broadly negative sentiments to reel in customers and improve their bottom lines.
A careful reading of the data suggests that for most workers, job satisfaction is one of the bright spots in 2023. Happy Labor Day.