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Generations United in Job Unhappiness
A recent survey finds job dissatisfaction at a record high, with the biggest jump seen among the nation's oldest and youngest workers. And it's not strictly tied to the recession, experts say, who warn HR leaders that if they have not responded to this phenomenon yet, they had better get moving.
The Conference Board's most recent study of job satisfaction in America indicates more than half of U.S. workers (55 percent) are now unhappy with their jobs -- the highest that number has been since the annual survey began in 1987. Perhaps even more troubling, the downward trend cannot be tied strictly to the recession. "While one in 10 Americans is now unemployed, their working compatriots of all ages and incomes continue to grow increasingly unhappy," says Lynn Franco, director of the Consumer Research Center of The Conference Board, based in New York. "Through both economic boom and bust during the past two decades, our job satisfaction numbers have shown a consistent downward trend." An equally troubling and surprising finding of the survey -- I Can't Get No ... Job Satisfaction, That Is: America's Unhappy Workers, covering 5,000 households and conducted for The Conference Board in July -- shows the oldest and youngest workers in U.S. companies both took the most dramatic dives in terms of job satisfaction over the two-decade period. "The youngest cohort of employees [those currently under age 25] is expressing the highest level of dissatisfaction ever recorded for that age group," the report reads. Thirty-six percent of employees in that age group expressed satisfaction, compared to 56 percent in 1987. At the same time, those 65 and over represented "the largest decline in overall job satisfaction" -- from 71 percent in 1987 to 43 percent now. All other age groups showed declines in satisfaction from two decades ago, but not as severe -- 60 percent down to 47 percent for those 25 to 34, 61 percent to 43 percent for those 35 to 44, 61 percent to 47 percent for those 45 to 54 and 59 percent to 46 percent for those 55 to 64. Linda Barrington, managing director of human capital at The Conference Board, says the findings present a "real red flag" for human resource professionals, especially in terms of managing the multi-generational workplace. "We've always had people of different ages and generations working together," says Barrington, co-author of the report. "But today, we should be -- and are -- tuning into these generational differences more because we're working differently than we used to. "There are bosses who are younger than their older reports now," says Barrington, "and this is especially important to pay attention to in light of the newest federal statistics that show baby boomers will compose a quarter of the U.S. workforce in eight years, and since 1987, we've watched them increasingly losing faith in the workplace." Older workers have also been feeling increasingly disengaged due to personal disappointments over retirement prospects, says Ilene Gochman, a senior consultant with the newly merged Towers Watson & Co., headquartered in New York. "These [Conference Board] findings don't surprise me at all," she says. "This is exactly the same trend we're seeing in our ongoing engagement studies. Interestingly, the oldest workers used to trend up in satisfaction the closer they got to retirement, but they're now losing hope and realizing they'll have to keep working indefinitely, so, of course, there's less satisfaction about that." By the same token, Gochman says, the youngest workers are just entering the workforce and seeing this disappointment play out, and thinking of themselves on "that long, hopeless road ahead." This growing dissatisfaction across and between generations is especially important for HR to address, says Barrington, "because it can directly impact the quality of multi-generational knowledge transfer -- which is increasingly critical to effective workplace functioning" and to post-recession and post-recovery survival. "When you talk about teams coming together to share knowledge," she says, "you need people who feel strongly about the legacy they're leaving behind. You need a certain kind of engagement and commitment for them to feel comfortable and good about sharing what they know. "I think the real red flag for HR here," Barrington says, "is that the older people might be saying, 'Why should I go the extra mile to come up with the information you need to know? I'll just share the information you ask for.' " Younger workers are especially disgruntled, she adds, because they're still sorting through the reality of work, the differences between work and school environments, the criticism they're picking up about their work ethic, and "where the best match is for them ... . Many might be actively looking to find a better place." "My first recommendation to HR is to go back to employee-engagement surveys," Barrington says. "Many stopped doing them because of the economy, but now is the time -- more than ever -- to do them." Also, she says, "step up communication with the managers. Make that business case for getting their people charged up so they feel committed, involved and engaged." Though the growing dissatisfaction cannot be blamed solely on the economy, says Barrington, "there is a skepticism and unease among all employees because of the recession. These current low levels of engagement and satisfaction are not going to help us get our companies back up to speed. In some of these jobs, replacements could take three to four years to get up and running. "You need to give [managers] a new reason to care about this," she adds. "And do it before the labor market opens up ... because we need to be ready at the gate of recovery." Gochman has seen many companies that opted out of spending anything on manager training or engagement surveys in order to survive the recession "are now lamenting that they've missed the boat in terms of retaining their star performers." "I think the sentiment was, 'Why bother? We're not sure they'll still be around after this is over anyway,' " she says. "But if their managers weren't very good at communicating and engaging workers before the downturn, there's every reason to believe they're even worse at it in this economy." In fact, she adds, despite the national data showing engagement going down in general, "we have found that those companies that have continued their engagement surveys and manager-training programs in a proactive way, their levels have stayed the same, for the most part. "There are cost-effective ways to make people feel better about work and know you care," Gochman says. "Communications, for one, don't cost that much. Even giving an engagement survey shows you recognize times are tough and you care. "We see a lot of employers taking the passive route -- 'Things are happening to us, we don't know what to do to retain our people,' " she says. At the same time, "we're also seeing high-potentials are getting jobs elsewhere now, and have been since the fall. "We tell our clients, 'If you have a wait-and-see attitude, it's going to be problematic. If you don't know why people are going to want to come work for you and remain engaged, then how can you expect employees to figure it out for themselves?' " January 20, 2010 Copyright 2010© LRP Publications |
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© Copyright 2010 LRP Publications. All rights reserved.
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