Two-thirds Enjoy Going to Work

bugslet

Most of the time in my life I've been happy. I'd like to stop work now, I've worked near enough 35 years non stop and for all but 8 months of those I've worked 55+ hours, at one time 100 hours + and I'm tired. I want to retire but expect I'd start working again.

I know of several of my staff who could retire but choose to work still.

TELLIT01

I have to say I was amazed when I read that 2/3rds of people enjoy their job. In my final job before retiring there were about 150 people in the office. I could count on the fingers of both hands the number who positively enjoyed their job. A majority put up with it because they needed the money, but there were far more who were stressed and in many cases hated the job but could see no way out.
"Be thankful you have a job" is very much the attitude senior management had when piling more and more sh*t on people.
I certainly had my share of unemployment during my 'working years', having been made redundant 4 times, but many in that final employment were actually genuinely hoping the place would close and they could take redundancy. That doesn't happen if people feel valued.

directdebiter

Maybe enjoy is the wrong word in this survey - cant believe 2/3 enjoy going to work!

iwizfranchise

Most of the people don't like their jobs. It is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus

ThemeOne

I found the work itself was rarely the issue, it was more the people and politics which got me down.

This morning I hear that 1 in 3 sick notes is now for mental health problems. There's nothing to suggest this is actually caused by work, but I can't help wondering
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/31/one-three-sick-notes-mental-health-problems-alarming-report/

TELLIT01

Until my final employment I actually did enjoy the majority of my jobs most of the time. Certainly in the final job the politics and the seemingly daily increases in workload were a major factor in just counting down to retirement. For the most part the people were fine. You get people who you don't get on with in every job.
I had definitely never been in a job where so many people went off with stress as happened in the final one. That was happening to people at all levels of seniority, and to people who would have seemed the least likely to suffer.

Sanne

I'm sure there have been surveys to say about 50% of the population would like to change jobs - though this may obviously be for other reasons than not liking it (money, better career development...).

I work in an office now where I genuinely believe pretty much everyone enjoys their job. They really look after their people (and I'm not talking about huge salaries or monetary benefits), we have autonomy in what we're doing, everyone, at every level, is empowered to get their job done the way they think it's best. There is high levels of trust, they ensure everyone can develop etc.
I have worked in other companies where 90% people hated their jobs (which then showed in high staff turnover rates). However - a lot of them went on doing similar jobs elsewhere so they didn't really hate the job but the working environment.

There are so many dimensions to this - the vacation itself, colleagues, management, financial incentive... I actually would have found it hard to answer with yes or no at many points over the last years!

bugslet

Sanne, you mentioned autonomy and I think that is a really good point.

I spend time on truck drivers forum and a main complaint is how controlled everything is and how people who have never done the job are telling them what to do . In our place, I tell the drivers they are like the pilots of a plane and they get to make decisions, I ask for their input, if we looking at a new make of truck, I get a demonstrator in and ask them if it's OK. If they were to pan it, we wouldnt get it.

That has two effects, firstly they feel valued and they stay a long time and secondly they step up. Treat people like idiots and they behave like idiots.

[Deleted User]

ThemeOne wrote: »

I found the work itself was rarely the issue, it was more the people and politics which got me down.

I totally agree, last few jobs it's been the customers that have kept me going to work.

Also years ago - there seemed to be more supervisors/team leaders involved in interviews and selecting what was the 'best fit for the team', whereas I've increasingly noticed this doesn't happen so much anymore. :cool: It's hard attending interviews with HR and heads of department knowing that isn't who you are going to spend your working day with, almost as if it's designed to cause misery before you even start.

I always strike to like jobs and thought everyone else did, wasn't until the last two in charge of me haven't with comments of I f

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hate my job and it is what it is. In such a negative way, you wonder how on earth did promotions happen. Both roughly same age as me and that's whats becoming the future.

ThemeOne

bugslet wrote: »

Sanne, you mentioned autonomy and I think that is a really good point.

I spend time on truck drivers forum and a main complaint is how controlled everything is and how people who have never done the job are telling them what to do . In our place, I tell the drivers they are like the pilots of a plane and they get to make decisions, I ask for their input, if we looking at a new make of truck, I get a demonstrator in and ask them if it's OK. If they were to pan it, we wouldnt get it.

That has two effects, firstly they feel valued and they stay a long time and secondly they step up. Treat people like idiots and they behave like idiots.

Very very true. I found in my sector, the work was often directed by people with no experience of the job themselves. The whole thing was made to feel like a check-box exercise to cover their own backs with no thought to anything else.

Fortunately I went freelance years ago, so could be a little more philosophical about it, but the idea of having to work like that on a permanent basis didn't bear thinking about.