Would you believe that 93% of working Americans like their jobs? What’s more, 90% say they are proud to tell people about their employer and a near-universal 98% believe they are successful at what they do.
I find these numbers jaw-dropping, especially after reporting last June on a respected annual survey from The Conference Board that said that 52.3% of Americans were not satisfied with their jobs. But this new poll, conducted for Allstate Insurance and National Journal by FTI Consulting, a Baltimore-based management consulting outfit, came up with a series of startlingly positive statistics. FTI ran the telephone poll of 1,000 working Americans in late September.
The headline of the poll is about work over the holidays. This I find surprising too: One in four employed Americans will be required to work on either Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s Day. Though stores like Walmart, Target and Best Buy have announced that they plan to open in the late afternoon or early evening of Thanksgiving , the vast majority of businesses are shuttered that day. But if you take into account health care workers and service employees of all sorts, the numbers add up.
The Allstate/National Journal poll is bursting with more positive statistics. Some 82% of respondents say they think their employer makes a positive impact on the community and 87% say they would recommend their workplace to others.
Poll results inevitably reflect the questions that pollsters put to recipients, which partly explains the high employee satisfaction rating in the Allstate poll, as compared with the Conference Board’s. Allstate respondents were given the choice of saying they were either “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” with their jobs. Only 54% said they were “very satisfied,” which is closer to the Conference Board’s number. If you feel fair to middling about your job, instead of thrilled, then you’ll likely say “yes” to feeling “somewhat satisfied,” as did 34% of respondents. The other choices were “not very satisfied” and “not at all satisfied.”
Where are all those workers who like their jobs? People who work in firms with 10 or fewer employees are the happiest; 69% say they are very satisfied with their jobs, while only 52% of people in companies with 11-100 employees saying they are very happy, and roughly half of workers at companies with more than 100 workers say they are very satisfied.
The survey also underlines the satisfactions of entrepreneurship. Some 68% of business owners say they are very satisfied with their work. Executives are also happy, with 64% saying they are very satisfied.
While the majority of workers say they are at least somewhat satisfied at work, when asked whether they “work to live” or “live to work,” 76% say they work in order to make a living, while only 22% are so passionate about their jobs that they live for their work. Given that most people don’t have the luxury of forgoing a paycheck, those numbers make sense. Another striking finding, given all the positive responses to the survey: Only 31% of respondents say they are very satisfied with their pay and only 43% are very satisfied with their benefits. Only slightly more, 45%, say they are very satisfied with the amount of paid vacation and sick leave they get and only 38% say they are very satisfied with opportunities for advancement.
While fewer than a third of workers are satisfied with their compensation, they were asked if, given the choice, they would choose “more pay…but less flexibility and long hours.” Only 26% say yes. The vast majority, 67%, say they would choose “more flexibility and shorter hours…but less pay.”
The survey also reflects the shift away from jobs with regular hours and benefits. Only 53% of respondents say they have jobs with traditional Monday through Friday hours. People with nontraditional hours are not happy about their required work hours. Only 42% say they are “very satisfied” with their hours and 40% say they have a tough time balancing work with the rest of their lives. Nine-to-fivers are much more satisfied, with 64% expressing satisfaction about their hours and 54% liking their work-life balance.
As we all know, our personal time is tougher and tougher to protect. Some 81% of workers say they are required to be in touch with the office outside of working hours. More than half, 56%, checked in with work during their last vacation.
Still, the takeaway from this survey is upbeat. Even if the survey led respondents to say they like their work, and a quarter of workers will be toiling at least one day over the holidays, the great majority of people polled are at least somewhat happy in their jobs. That’s am impressive gift.
