Happy on the job? Your age could be why.
There’s a vast gap in how happy workers are in their jobs between the oldest and youngest generations.
While 57.4% of US workers under 25 report being satisfied with their jobs, that doesn’t hold a candle to the 72.4% of those 55 and older who do, according to a report from The Conference Board.
While the disparity between older and younger workers is notable, the sheer number of those who say "I love my job" is pretty stunning.
Across the board, job satisfaction jumped 5.7 percentage points — the largest single-year gain in the survey’s 38-year history.
“I’m surprised by the sharp jump in overall job satisfaction and maybe more surprised that we saw significant increases across the individual elements of job satisfaction,” Allan Schweyer, a principal researcher at The Conference Board, told Yahoo Finance.
The survey measures a range of factors, including compensation, retirement and pension plans, sense of belonging, engagement, mental health, performance feedback, workload, hybrid flexibility, quality of leadership, and growth opportunities.
The elements that make the most difference when it comes to loving your job are interest in work, followed closely by quality of leadership, organizational culture, workload, and workers’ relationships with their supervisors.
He said those factors mattered more to people than the value they placed on wages, bonuses, health insurance, and vacation pay.
Gains were particularly strong for women workers, increasing by more than 8 percentage points. Women, though, continue to be less satisfied than men with their wages, bonus plans, and pension and retirement plans.
Workers who earn six-figure salaries are somewhat more satisfied than those earning less. And workers in hybrid work arrangements are consistently more satisfied and likely to stay.
Older workers: 'realistic, resilient, and more satisfied'
Let’s turn back to the older vs. younger disconnect.
There are some underlying reasons for the difference in opinion. For starters — although who doesn’t value manageable workloads and meaningful work — late-career employees prioritize these elements of a job at higher levels than younger colleagues, according to the researchers.
But it goes deeper. “In general, the older workers we work with are more hopeful, more determined, less frustrated,” Gwenn Rosener, partner and co-founder of FlexProfessionals, a recruiting and staffing firm for the Boston and Washington, D.C., areas, told Yahoo Finance.
“After years of navigating good and bad bosses, jobs, and economies, they are pretty realistic, resilient, and more satisfied,” she said. “They have more tempered expectations about what a job should provide. They’re not chasing the weighty ideal of changing the world like many in the younger generations. They want to contribute, feel valued, and enjoy their work, and, after years in the workforce, they know where they fit.”
Content Original Link:
" target="_blank">
