Being fulfilled in your job, having a sense of purpose and enjoyment when it comes to professional challenges seems to be at the top of millennials agenda, with many young employees moving away from the highest paying jobs in traditional corporate structures, looking for professional happiness.
However, according to Emolument.com’s survey of 826 professionals, it seems that ideal is still far off for many, with 57 percent of respondents responding negatively to our question ‘Do you love your job?’ The ‘Gender-Happiness’ gap: 7 percent fewer women love their job compared to men. With a pay gap of around 19 percent in the UK, it is worth wondering if frustration about salary levels are partly to blame. Or could it be the pressures of juggling work and raising a family, or hitting a glass ceiling and not seeing perspective for professional development.
Don’t underestimate social contact: Human Resources professionals enjoy their jobs substantially more than others. Is it the focus on helping others grow and mature in their profession, lower stress levels involved in an activity which is not assessed based on its revenue generation? At the bottom of the rankings, jobs which entail constant troubleshooting and problem-solving in a stressful context are showing deep dissatisfaction and frustration amongst staff, which matches the universal perception of these sectors as high-turnover.
Each unhappy employee is unhappy in its own way : In Spain the catastrophic economic situation has forced many graduates into low-skilled and low-paying jobs and created resentment for many. In the UAE and Hong Kong, however, discontent may well come not from pay or outlook issues but stress levels caused by the intensity of working in these countries. While expatriate pay packages tend to be particularly attractive, fierce competition and highly committed work ethics cause dissatisfaction.
Depressingly, our survey shows that the most enjoyable years in a career are in the very early days. Stepping up from being an impoverished student to earning some disposable income (perhaps even putting down a deposit on a first home) is a fantastic feeling, as well as looking to the future and envisaging all the options. All the while, as the most junior in the workplace, pressure to deliver on targets or be dragged into office politics might still be just a dot on the horizon.
A small team is more likely to be flexible, let your work shine through and reward employees accordingly. Employees at this stage are all pulling in the same direction without much red tape, feeling the satisfaction of solving problems quickly. Alice Leguay, Co-Founder & COO at Emolument.com said: ‘Happiness at work is in no way correlated to absolute pay levels. The happiest employees are either very junior, in support functions, or working for small businesses, not necessarily where clichés would have us believe happiness lies, i.e., high-flying corporate careers.’
