Anyone who has rented his or her soul for a paycheck has reaped its rewards and weathered the taxes that go with it. In the boom economy, when work was steady and raises expected, for many the pluses of working for a living outweighed the minuses.
But now, as storm clouds stubbornly hover over a windless economy, happiness has waned. Job frustration for many has dramatically increased. Anyone who has grown to despise a ringing alarm clock is serving a sentence I wish upon only an anonymous few.
Math alone sketches a frustrated worker’s maze. Multiply 50 stressful weeks a year times 40 (or more) tedious hours per week, and add in the time and money of 500 commuter legs, and multiply the result by a factor for frustrations of juggling rising expenses with fixed or declining incomes. Hope’s candle, for many, burns dimly.
The myriad of reasons for worker dissatisfaction is as recitable as the Pledge of Allegiance: long or irregular hours (or both), low pay, increasing workloads, relentless pressure, unrealistic expectations, no hope for advancement, the omnipresent stress of potential job loss, negative surroundings, and ogres for bosses, many of whom lack compassion and prove it with no people skills.
CareerBliss is an online resource that uses between-the-ears satisfaction surveys to judge worker happiness. The organization researches jobs and employers and rates them from a series of angles. Among those are workplace culture, personal growth, coworkers, and the boss.
The firm recently released a 2011 report based on a survey of hundreds of thousands of employees. The objective? Stack rank the 10 jobs with the unhappiest workers.
Based on their findings, two things—limited growth opportunities and lack of reward—spiked the worker misery index more than any other factors, including money.
Their results may or may not be surprising. One in particular broke my heart, but the optimist in me says there is much to learn in a positive way from the vented frustrations expressed by those toiling in these unhappy roles.
Smart leaders will eliminate these barriers to performance and turn these important contributors into stronger, more positive organizational pillars.
Counting down from tenth to number one—the unhappiest—here we go:
10. Marketing Manager
Marketing managers oversee advertising, promotions, and strategies to enable top-line sales revenue results. They often use customer surveys and reports that deal with market behavior. According to CareerBliss, a lack of direction is quite common. Because of it, rudderless support is primarily responsible for job dissatisfaction.
9. CNC Machinist
These folks operate computer numerical control machines, which typically operate a lathe or a mill. Technology has obsoleted tradesmen, accelerating output while diminishing serious injury. Now the job involves little but pushing buttons and inspecting equipment. The job is static; there is no hope for advancement, which inspired survey takers to respond negatively.
8. Technical Support Analyst
Technical support analysts help solve computer issues, which means dealing with stressed people who lack technical savvy, frequently over the telephone. On-site client visits often result in the discovery of simple fixes, like plugging something in or turning something on.
This work blankets a wide variety of environments, and techs may have to travel at a moment’s notice, including holidays or weekends, and arrive to face high pressure situations from irritable, ungrateful, non-technical people.
Like many service businesses, tech support can be an isolated, thankless occupation.
7. Law Clerk
Law clerks assist judges, and the men and women who get these jobs are the cream of their law school crops. Long on prestige, six current U.S. Supreme Court justices were law clerks early in their careers.
While the job gloriously pedigrees a resume, the hours are long and grueling, the work is tedious and taxing, and the pay, relatively speaking, stinks. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median law clerk salary is $39,780 a year—barely half of what Harvard Law School recommends a student budget annually ($72,600) to attend.
There is no advancement; being a law clerk is a “punch your ticket and move on” job. For the chosen few, it’s a job that usually sliding boards them further into debt.
6. Electronics Technician
ETs maintain, monitor, measure, and troubleshoot data for electronic systems. They work in every sector and nearly every industry. Technicians work on-site and off-site, constantly deal with demanding customers, and must have people skills along with technical troubleshooting skills to quickly solve complex problems under pressure.
Positional dissatisfaction stems from many factors: lack of control, reactive work schedules, a strong lack of accomplishment, no real opportunity for career growth, unmotivated peer groups, and no voice in how things are done. Theirs is a world of often thankless repair.
5. Technical Specialist
CareerBliss defines this role as someone who “leads the analysis, definition, design, construction, testing, installation, and modification of medium to large infrastructures.” In other words, if a company wants to design a project, the technical specialist evaluates the idea to enable what’s possible and veto what isn’t.
The job is a lead position that demands a broad spectrum of expertise. Despite that, tech specialists usually feel disrespected by upper management.
4. Senior Web Developer
Senior web developers design, maintain, and develop applications for the Internet. With every business expected to have some kind of Internet presence these days, developers are everywhere, working in full-time, part-time, or freelance assignments.
Senior developers perceive employers as unable to clearly communicate and lacking an adequate understanding of technology. Because of that, the role scored very highly in worker frustration.
3. Product Manager
“Product manager” is a broad job title that sometimes requires evaluating which products best fit a company’s business model. Other times product managers interact with marketing, resource management, and scheduling. Often they are blamed for shortcomings in market results. Tedious work and no upward mobility stymie those in this position.
2. Director of Sales and Marketing
A director of sales and marketing promotes his or her company to generate business. Responsibilities often umbrella several different disciplines like budget management, public relations, and employee training.
Theirs is the second-highest level of dissatisfaction among all survey respondents. Reasons include a lack of direction from upper management, pressure, and an absence of room for growth.
This, to me as an executive sales coach, is sad because those frustrations are fixable. Any leadership team that decides to turn this job from an unhappy one to a top-performing contributor integrated into a winning sales culture can do so.
There are two keys: Transform the role from tactical execution to strategic integration with other top-line enablers, and trust the role to a talented leader with a skill set above that of just a manager.
Managers inspect. Leaders inspire results through others. The right person in the job, with performance shrubs removed, can move mountains. He or she can help transform a sales organization into a positive, cohesive, self-sustaining, and winning culture.
And that brings us to number one. Drum roll, please … the number one worst job for worker satisfaction is:
1. Director of Information Technology
IT Directors often hold almost as much influence over the fate of their companies as a chief executive, which begs the question: How can a well-paying job high on the corporate food chain result in so many smart people being so unhappy?
The answer: bitterness and antipathy.
How bad is their world? Bad. IT Directors scored far lower on the happiness scale than blue-collar workers like janitors, wait staff, and hotel workers.
CareerBliss shared one five-word response that summed up the collective feelings of the IT Director peer group: “Nepotism, cronyism, disrespect for workers.”
Smart leaders won’t ignore these job frustrations. They will root cause and fix them, and instill a culture that demands a more positive environment for what they know are difficult roles.
If there’s one leadership principle all smart leaders realize, it’s this: If we change nothing, nothing will change.
Each of us can all do our part to help others find more joy in their work. A steady stream of empathy and kindness goes a very long way. Co-workers who voluntarily offer daily support for those in these difficult roles can transform a life; they can make a sad man glad. And happier people do better work than sad ones.
All it takes is compassion and compassion is free. For more on the study, visit www.CareerBliss.com.