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70% do not believe their management is open and honest. They ignore suggestions and criticism and do not provide regular feedback.
Seek (2005), “Survey of Employee Satisfaction and Motivation”.
21% are eager to change careers.
Only 20% feel very passionate about their jobs.
33% believe they have reached a dead end in their career.
Younger workers are most distressed and feel the least amount of loyalty to their employers. Harris Interactive (2004), "New Employer/Employee Equation Survey"
Bullying has been estimated to cost Australian industry in excess of A$3 billion per year and, for its victims, can have significant psychological and emotional costs. Catanzariti, Joe (2006), “Australia: Record Award for Damages Regarding Workplace Bullying”, Clayton Utz.
90% suffer from a management culture wracked by “blame, mindless conformity and indecision”.
More than 70% of Australian workers will be subject to bullying in their work lives. Workers Health Centre (2005), “Bullying at Work”.
Long working hours mean colleagues are replacing personal friends. But according to Dr Jan Yager, “Work friendships can ruin careers.” ‘Work no place for friends’, The Sunday Telegraph, June 22, 2008, p5.
70% believe their work hours are too long. Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (2004), “How do Australians feel about their work?”
Australians have some of the lowest levels of job satisfaction in the world, only Japan, Taiwan and some East European nations were lower.
Blanchflower, David and Oswald, Andrew (2005), “Happiness and the Human Index Development” The Paradox of Australia”, National Bureau of Economic Research
63% do not want to get involved in organizational politics but saw it necessary in order to understand what was going on.
1/3 say playing politics helped achieve objectives and enhance reputation.
3% saw politics as “challenging and fun” and an important motivator.
Buchanan, David, March 2008; “You Stab My Back, I’ll Stab Yours”, British Journal of Management
Employees say they often leave their managers, rather than the company. Wilson Learning (from Management Today – May 2008)
70% of Generation X employees in Australia are unhappy with work conditions.
62% of employees experience unfulfilling relationship with co-workers.
69% feel detached from the culture of their organization. Human Synergistics, Transforming Leadership and Culture: The State of the Nations
The average person with a full-time desk job will spend 60,000 hours at their desk.
Drummond, Linda and Conville, Nicola: (2008), April 20, “Fit for Work”, Body + Soul, The Sunday Telegraph, p 7.
94% of Australians believe their skills are not sufficiently valued at work. This plays a major role in job satisfaction.
22% of Australians work more than 50 hours per week, second only to Japan among high-income countries.
30% regularly work on the weekends.
Working such long hours is associated with strained family relationships and parenting marked by anger, inconsistency and ineffectiveness. Steketee, Mike, “Workloads taking big family toll”, (Online), News Limited, The Austrialian, March 2007 http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21332864-421,00.html
93% of employees are regularly looking for a new job.
69% are actively looking. They go through job vacancies at least once per week.
Only 5% say they are not looking for a new job.
22% of employees hate the stress level of their job.
21% think their managers are of poor quality.
45% of employees are unhappy in their jobs.
1 in 5 thinks they don’t receive enough feedback and appreciation.
51% would happily change jobs if offered a better salary and career development.
8% would change their jobs ‘at the drop of a hat’.
Only 5% are very happy with their employer.
Only 31% believed they would remain with their current employer for more than 1 year.
According to Dr Peter Carey from the Australian Association of Career Counsellors, the shortage of skilled labour, strong economic growth and high levels of staff turnover makes employee retention the number one issue facing Australian businesses. Management Today, June 2008, p 5.
The Australian workforce does not believe workplace bullying and discrimination against pregnancy to be a serious problem.
Management Today, June 2008, p5
The 40 hour work week is officially dead, with 67.9% of Australians saying they work more than 40 hours a week on a regular basis.
Nearly 40% of Australians say they are putting in more hours than 2 years ago. Management Today, June 2008, p5
More than 75% of Australians polled said life was becoming more stressful and they wanted to live at a slower pace.
63% said they could not afford to work few hours.
Almost 80% were not willing to work less if it meant they would earn less.
75% would not take a lower-paying job to reduce the stress in their lives. Shoebridge, Neil: January 2008, “Eight Trends for ‘08”, Australian Financial Review BOSS Magazine, pp 28 – 32.
45% of Australians say their jobs pay too little and aren’t challenged enough by their work. 2008 Careerone.com.au
Job stress related illness costs New Zealand businesses approximately NZ$3 billion a year in sick pay, missed deadlines and poor performance. Press Release: New Zealand Government, September 2000
14% of women and 10% of men suffer from depression directly related to work stress. They had not had these conditions before.
Employees with high levels of psychological demands at work are 75% to 80% more likely to suffer from depression or anxiety. Johnston, Martin, “Now the proof: Work stress does make people mentally ill” (Online), APN Holdings NZ Limited, The New Zealand Herald, August 2007 http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10455318
The New Zealand employee works an average of 45 to 55 hours per week.
Many work long hours due to pressure exerted by employers.
Many felt that their jobs are on the line if they refuse the length or distribution of the hours asked of them.
Holding multiple jobs is fast becoming the norm for the New Zealand employee.
“Interim Report of the Thirty Families Project: The Impact of Work Hours on New Zealand Families”, (Online), New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, July 2002, http://union.org.nz/policy/thirty-families-work-hours
United Kingdom
31% of British workers are unhappy at work.
More than a third waste an average 25 minutes each day doing things other than work. 22% of people chat to friends, 15% day dreaming, 14% surf the net.
One in ten spends hours every day looking for another job.
This cost employers more than £40 million a day.
13% of people are stuck in a job they don’t like because they can’t afford to change career paths.
One third of all UK employees consider their jobs a ‘dead end’.
1 out of 5 employees suffer from insomnia due to job stress.
Younger workers’ job satisfaction is highly dependent on opportunities for advancement and salary.
On the job recognition becomes more important as workers age. “What workers want: A Worldwide study of attitudes to work and work-life balance”, (Online) FDS International, July 2007 http://www.theage.com.au/ed_docs/WhatWorkersWant(Final).pdf
More than 5 million employees in the UK feel “very” or “extremely” stressed about their job.
2.2 million workers experience work-related stress at a level they believe to be making them ill.
Work-related stress and mental health costs the UK economy approximately £5 billion every year.
This is equal to the total annual losses to theft. “The cost of work-related stress” (Online), The UK National Work-Stress Network, 2006, http://www.workstress.net/costs.htm
2,037 people died of mesothelioma in the UK. It is estimated that thousands more die yearly from other occupational cancers and lung diseases. “Health & Safety Statistics 2006/2007”, (Online), National Statistics Publication, HSChttp://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/overall/hssh0607.pdf
Job dissatisfaction and stress costs employers more than US$300 billion each year in absenteeism, tardiness, burnout, lower productivity, high turnover, worker's compensation and medical insurance costs. The American Institute of Stress, 2002 Newsletter, http://www.stress.org/job.htm
Occupational pressures and fears are the leading source of stress for American adults. “Job Stress” (Online), The American Institute for Stress, 2008 http://www.stress.org/job.htm
Job stress is more strongly associated with health complaints than family or financial problems “Is Stress Responsible for Nation's Ills? Simple Techniques May Provide Solution”, (Online), Yahoo News!, Creating Powerfully Life Coaching, April 2008 http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080421/clm005.html?.v=101
37% of American workers, an estimated 54 million people, have been bullied at work.
1 in 2 have experienced or witnessed workplace bullying.
Workplace violence, including assaults and suicides, accounted for 13% of all work-related fatal occupational injuries in 2006.
Homicides have consistently been among the top 4 causes of workplace fatalities for all workers. “Injury, Illness and fatalities”, US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006 http://www.bls.gov/iif/peoplebox.htm
14% of employees have felt like striking a co-worker in the past year, but didn't.
41% of parents’ working conditions negatively affect their children’s health. Palmer, Lindsey: (2008) “Are we a family-friendly nation?”, Redbook Magazine, pp 214-227.
Survey found that most children wished their parents would be less stressed from work. “Job stress can affect your children Working parents often bring a bad day home to their kids”, (Online), Rueters, MSNBC, January 2007, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16671368/
