Permanent staffing and temp staffing company, Adecco wanted to find out how many people love their jobs and more importantly, why?
“Modern-day employees are balancing hefty to-do lists – in and outside of the workplace,” said Lauren Griffin, senior vice president at Adecco Staffing, in a statement. “As the lines between work and life continue to blur, it’s key that we recognize why we work and that we feel good about how we spend our time.”
After surveying over 500 people, here is what the survey results found:
- 65% of people love their jobs
- 71% of women love their job, compared to 59% of men
- 22% of women said they find their jobs emotionally fulfilling, while only 14% of men said the same
- Millennials love their jobs less compared to other age groups
DIVERGE spoke to Sam Holland, VP of Content Strategy at Adecco Staffing USA, to find out more:
Why did you decide on conducting this survey?
We specialize in workforce trends—topics with a lot of layers and complexities to consider. It’s easy to get too deep in the weeds, so it’s important to know when to take a simplistic approach to sharing insight. That’s what we did here. There’s so much interesting discussion around the workplace, employee productivity and the impact your job can have on your day-to-day happiness, but we realized there wasn’t a quick answer for people who wanted the big picture. This survey was meant to get to the core of how people are feeling about work by asking a very simple question: do you love your job?
As for our launch timing around Valentine’s Day, jobs are a lot like relationships—some are good, some bad and some really complicated. When you spend as much time working each day as most Americans do, you should make an conscious effort to love what you do.
What stats caught you by surprise/ were significant?
We were surprised to see such a big gap between men (59%) and women (71%) loving their job. Now more than ever, women have such a big impact on the workforce, and as a company with strong female leadership, we love to see that a majority of women are feeling good about what they do for a living. We plan to do this survey year-over-year and hope the percentage will continue to soar.
Why are millennials not as satisfied?
In fairness, a lot of Millennial’s are still graduating from school and are early-on in their careers. Some of their dissatisfaction could be due to a learning curve and coming to grips with what it’s like to be a working professional. Also, it’s likely that many of them aren’t in their dream jobs yet, so they may be still searching for that right opportunity, and that’s OK! It’s just as important to learn what you don’t want as what you do. Gaining more experience will help young people grow and make better decisions until they figure out what they really love to do.
Did diversity play a role in any of these?
We were very curious to see any differences in how men and women view their jobs. No one guessed that such an impressive percentage of women would say they love their job, as there are still gains to be made in overcoming gender disparities at work.
In addition, at Adecco Staffing, we are always in tune to generational preferences since understanding them is key to attracting and retaining a diverse and talented workforce. The survey found a correlation between age and people’s reason for working. Not completely surprising but a good gut check, Generation X respondents said they worked to provide a better life for their kids (41%), while Millennials’ biggest motivator was being able to afford activities they love – like dining out, traveling and pursing hobbies (29%).
The company also offers tips on how you can love your job.
