RE: [Futurework] The world of work

[Bruce Leier]

Ed,   Reminds me of a study that Lee Iacocca (sp?) once commissioned and buried.  He was the Chrysler CEO who got the Feds to bail Chrysler out.  After he got them earning money again he was thinking about running for president.  He commissioned a study (at least $1,000,000) of the US workforce to get attitudes of workers, etc.  The results were so disturbing, that those who did the work  were sworn to never write about any of the results.   At that time dissatisfaction levels were so high that a high % were ready to commit sabotage at the work place.   Bruce Leier -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Ed Weick Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 9:08 AM To: futurework Subject: [Futurework] The world of work   For a lot of people, the sad, grey world of work!   Ed Ed Weick 577 Melbourne Ave. Ottawa, ON, K2A 1W7 Canada Phone (613) 728 4630 Fax     (613)  728 9382 One-third of employees loathe their jobs, consultants find By VIRGINIA GALT, WORKPLACE REPORTER, Globe and Mail  Tuesday, January 28, 2003 – Print Edition, Page B1 TORONTO -- Hate your job? You're not alone. New research to be published today by Towers Perrin management consultants shows that one-third of employees are profoundly unhappy in their work. "It's the saddest feeling you can ever have, when you wake up in the morning and dread the thought of going to work," says graphic designer Anthony Pimenta, who felt stifled and unchallenged -- but fairly treated -- in his previous position with one of Canada's major banks. It was the monotony that drove Melissa Alvares to flee her previous job at a market research firm, where she spent most of her time closeted in a room going through stacks of forms, checking for missing postal codes. Employees were under constant pressure to process the forms faster and faster. "It was like a weird boot camp," said Ms. Alvares, who has a combined business and science degree from the University of Waterloo and who now works, happily, as a marketing co-ordinator with Toronto-based Softchoice Corp. For communications specialist Stacie Smith, it was the total lack of control over her own time that led her to quit a Toronto public relations agency and set up her own shop. The pay was good, the work was interesting, "but I couldn't even have lunch, unless I had it at my desk," Ms. Smith said in an interview yesterday. "I couldn't leave at six o'clock to watch my nephew play hockey." The Towers Perrin study found that most people have strong feelings about their jobs -- "employees are not apathetic or indifferent, as many suppose" -- and these emotions are predominantly negative. More than half of 1,100 employees polled in Canada and the United States reported negative feelings about their jobs, and one-third of employees in that sample group described their feelings as "intensely negative." Towers Perrin suggests that the mood of employees has worsened as a result of a decade of downsizings. They "have never worked as hard or as fast," said one of the firm's representatives in Toronto yesterday. Towers Perrin said in its report that "people are burned out -- doing as much or more work with fewer resources and less support." The researchers found that senior managers have an accurate sense of the current mood of the work force, "but they misjudge some of the root causes," Bruce Near, managing director of Towers Perrin in Canada, said in an interview yesterday. Employees cited boredom, overwork, concern about their future, and a lack of support and recognition from their bosses as key reasons for their unhappiness. "Where pay was an issue, it was largely about perceived unfairness, specifically insufficient pay for the level of effort or results provided, rather than absolute pay levels," Towers Perrin reported in its study, Working Today: Exploring Employees' Emotional Connections to Their Jobs. "Among our discontented group, 28 per cent are actively looking for a new job or planning to leave their company," the report said. "Equally disturbing, fully a quarter of these individuals plan to remain with their current employer -- suggesting a company could have a segment of disaffected workers just 'hanging on' to their jobs and, potentially, adversely affecting others with their negative attitudes." Mr. Near said many employees are sticking with their jobs in the current economic environment. But as the climate improves, many of the disaffected will move on. For every 1,000 employees in any large organization, he said, roughly 600 are either actively or passively looking for other work. He said the survey, conducted in partnership with a U.S. firm, Gang & Gang, found no difference in attitudes between Canadian and U.S. employees. And, after a spate of corporate scandals, the researchers were surprised to discover that the question of whether employees trusted their senior executives had less impact on their level of job satisfaction than other factors, Mr. Near said. The researchers also found "a statistically significant relationship" between employee satisfaction and strong financial results, said Mr. Near, who added that employees who feel connected to, and competent in, their work perform better. Ms. Alvares said she is thriving in her new job, where she helps develop marketing programs for computer product vendors. She said she doesn't mind hard work and long hours, if the work is challenging. Ms. Smith, who has hung out her shingle as Smith Communications, still puts in long days -- but she gets to choose her own clients and set her own hours. She can now take a break for lunch, walk the dog or watch her nephew's hockey games. She is expecting her first child in April. Mr. Pimenta was given the option of moving into a branch-banking role or taking a buyout when his position as a graphic designer was eliminated. He opted for the buyout, took career counselling, and now operates his own business, Hibryd Productions, which specializes in Web design, animation, graphics, and film and video production. It was not the bank's fault that he felt bored and out of place, Mr. Pimenta said in an interview. But he felt that his creativity was undervalued -- "They'd get more excited about someone developing a new form, a new withdrawal slip." Now, working for himself after 15 years in banking, Mr. Pimenta says he cannot wait to get out of bed in the morning to develop his new business. "It's beyond fun, it's so cool." The Towers Perrin report said employers have a lot to gain by harnessing this passion in their current work forces. "Gaining this discretionary effort from employees may be the last remaining source of increased productivity, now that so many companies have already captured the efficiencies of technology and streamlined work processes," the report said.