Back in the days of Uncle Mac’s family favourites on the BBC Light Programme (that’ll date you if you remember it), one of the big hits was Happiness, Happiness by Ken Dodd. Anyway, according to the lyrics, happiness is “the greatest gift that you possess”. But when it comes to being at work, you’d be better off being a Scandinavian. For, according to a study from Kelly Services, more than two thirds of our Nordic cousins profess to be happy in their work.
Next up, with 61% of them blissful in their travails, are (and I hope you’re sitting down for this) the French. That’s right, we may think of them as strike-prone misery guts, but how wrong we can be - although you can’t help wondering if part of the reason is that (a) they’re grateful to have a job at all (11% unemployment and rising) and (b) even if they do go to work, they’re not there long enough to get brassed off with it.
Unlike us Brits. We might work long and hard, but only 47% of us skip gleefully to work - in fact, only the Spanish and Belgians are more dejected in their toil. We do come top of one league though, with nearly a quarter of us Gallicly shrugging our shoulders in complete indifference because, quite simply, we couldn’t care less about our work.
Of course, some of us are happier than others. Not surprisingly, those of us of advancing years (the over-45s) are much more likely to be happy than our younger brethren (66% vs 44%) - probably not unconnected with the fact that, as we get older, we know how to get the youth to run around for us.
However, the better educated do seem to suffer (knowledge is clearly a dangerous thing), as 34% of graduates are unhappy at their job, while for those with no post-school qualifications that figure drops to 24% - clearly ignorance can be bliss.
Remarkably, the happiest industries are engineering and utilities, with 64% of their employees professing enduring bliss and happy with their lot, while at the other end of the scale, 43% of those in transport and distribution are distinctly despondent and unhappy with their lot (clearly not helped by all those gleeful utility people digging up the roads the whole time).
The happiest department is one stuffed with researchers (59%), followed by those smiling engineers (53%). If you want a dose of unmitigated gloom, just pop down to your HR department, where you’ll find the unhappiest souls (39%), or sales and customer service (where 36% suffer in anything but silence).
So what of retail? Well, as I already said, our friends in transport and distribution are a pretty despondent lot, with 43% of them unhappy in their work, but at least this is mitigated by 36% who are happy - giving them an overall minus 7% happiness coefficient. Sadly, in retail only 31% are happy in their work. This is the lowest in the survey and is counterbalanced with 40% distinctly unhappy. So, with a minus 9% coefficient, retail is definitely planted at the bottom of the happiness league.
Ah, but does any of this matter? It’s only a survey, after all. Well, I think it probably does, because not only is retail pretty unpopular with the people within it, it’s also not that attractive to people outside.
I have mentioned in the past retail’s lowly ranking in graduate surveys, but last week I witnessed an example closer to home. My daughters are both now of employable age and have part-time jobs. Both have been working as waitresses during term time and are now going to work more shifts as exams are over.
When I asked why they didn’t get some retail work that would encroach less on their social lives, they looked at me aghast. “Shop work?” And I suppose they have a point. They earn good money, receive good training, compete to get assessed by the mystery diner (and so have a chance to earn an additional bonus) and get good tips. What’s more, if you’re 18 and think yourself pretty cool, there’s more of a cachet working at the local Zizzi than there is at Tesco - well, in the Home Counties at least.
Coolness might not be happiness, but you can’t help feeling the two are connected. With so few people happy in their retail careers, it is obviously rubbing off - not least on the ambitious younger people the industry needs to attract.
n Simon Howard is a founder of Work Communications and writes the Jobfile column for the Sunday Times.
Next up, with 61% of them blissful in their travails, are (and I hope you’re sitting down for this) the French. That’s right, we may think of them as strike-prone misery guts, but how wrong we can be - although you can’t help wondering if part of the reason is that (a) they’re grateful to have a job at all (11% unemployment and rising) and (b) even if they do go to work, they’re not there long enough to get brassed off with it.
Unlike us Brits. We might work long and hard, but only 47% of us skip gleefully to work - in fact, only the Spanish and Belgians are more dejected in their toil. We do come top of one league though, with nearly a quarter of us Gallicly shrugging our shoulders in complete indifference because, quite simply, we couldn’t care less about our work.
Of course, some of us are happier than others. Not surprisingly, those of us of advancing years (the over-45s) are much more likely to be happy than our younger brethren (66% vs 44%) - probably not unconnected with the fact that, as we get older, we know how to get the youth to run around for us.
However, the better educated do seem to suffer (knowledge is clearly a dangerous thing), as 34% of graduates are unhappy at their job, while for those with no post-school qualifications that figure drops to 24% - clearly ignorance can be bliss.
Remarkably, the happiest industries are engineering and utilities, with 64% of their employees professing enduring bliss and happy with their lot, while at the other end of the scale, 43% of those in transport and distribution are distinctly despondent and unhappy with their lot (clearly not helped by all those gleeful utility people digging up the roads the whole time).
The happiest department is one stuffed with researchers (59%), followed by those smiling engineers (53%). If you want a dose of unmitigated gloom, just pop down to your HR department, where you’ll find the unhappiest souls (39%), or sales and customer service (where 36% suffer in anything but silence).
So what of retail? Well, as I already said, our friends in transport and distribution are a pretty despondent lot, with 43% of them unhappy in their work, but at least this is mitigated by 36% who are happy - giving them an overall minus 7% happiness coefficient. Sadly, in retail only 31% are happy in their work. This is the lowest in the survey and is counterbalanced with 40% distinctly unhappy. So, with a minus 9% coefficient, retail is definitely planted at the bottom of the happiness league.
Ah, but does any of this matter? It’s only a survey, after all. Well, I think it probably does, because not only is retail pretty unpopular with the people within it, it’s also not that attractive to people outside.
I have mentioned in the past retail’s lowly ranking in graduate surveys, but last week I witnessed an example closer to home. My daughters are both now of employable age and have part-time jobs. Both have been working as waitresses during term time and are now going to work more shifts as exams are over.
When I asked why they didn’t get some retail work that would encroach less on their social lives, they looked at me aghast. “Shop work?” And I suppose they have a point. They earn good money, receive good training, compete to get assessed by the mystery diner (and so have a chance to earn an additional bonus) and get good tips. What’s more, if you’re 18 and think yourself pretty cool, there’s more of a cachet working at the local Zizzi than there is at Tesco - well, in the Home Counties at least.
Coolness might not be happiness, but you can’t help feeling the two are connected. With so few people happy in their retail careers, it is obviously rubbing off - not least on the ambitious younger people the industry needs to attract.
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