Although the UK has now officially limped out of the worst and longest recession since records began in 1948, job satisfaction levels have hit an all-time low, with younger workers particularly unhappy at work.
News that the economy grew a mere 0.1% in the final three months of 2009 alarmed financial experts, who were predicting figures of more like 0.4%. Concern centres on the apparently fragile nature of the recovery and the spectre of a so-called double dip recession later in the year.
The official figures are only provisional and are typically revised by between 0.1 and 0.2 percentage points, meaning that the UK could still actually be in recession.
New forecasts from the International Monetary Fund were equally gloomy. It predicted that the UK economy was likely to expand by only 1.3% over the year ahead compared with growth of 2.7% in the US and 1.4% in Germany.
To make matters worse, however, a survey undertaken by YouGov for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) among 2,000 workers found that even those people who are still in a job following the financial crisis are experiencing “simmering discontent” due to its effects.
Job satisfaction has dropped from an average net rating of +48 last summer to +35 now, but the situation is even worse among staff aged between 18 and 24. Their rating plummeted from +44 last year to a mere +5 today. The happiest age group is 55 to 64 year olds, who remained at +55.
The CIPD’s Claire McCartney said: “Employers are going to have to continue to work hard to re-build motivation and commitment among employees bruised by job insecurity, lack of consultation over change, pay freezes or cuts as well as increases in stress and conflict.”
The findings indicated that one in five workers believed they were still likely to be laid off, with such fears particularly rampant among public sector staff. But the majority worried that they would find it difficult to find another job if they were made redundant.
About 14% of respondents also said that bullying by managers had become worse, while two out of five stated that the pressure was excessive.
One fifth likewise reported an increase in conflict with colleagues. As a result, half of those questioned said that they were suffering from increased levels of stress, while a fifth pointed to rises in sick leave.
But job satisfaction was particularly low among younger workers, McCartney said. This was because this age group had grown up in “an era of plenty”, had not experienced difficult times before and so found them hard to cope with.
They were also being ground down by a lack of opportunities to learn new skills or progress up the career ladder as older staff were no longer moving onwards and upwards, leaving them “stranded in entry-level jobs”.
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Falling job satisfaction and growing staff fraud
I’m pleased that Cath Everett highlights such a big issue with falling job satisfaction.
Just this week, KPMG’s Fraud Barometer revealed the highest number of cases of serious staff fraud on record. That’s bound to rise further if employees are already, as The CIPD’s Claire McCartney puts it: “bruised by job insecurity, lack of consultation over change, pay freezes or cuts as well as increases in stress and conflict.”
I hope that more employers find their way to the wide range of help on improving controls. There are lots of ways to remove opportunities to commit crime at work. And better controls also deter otherwise honest staff who might harbour a misguided rationalization that justifies dishonesty. Here‘s a list of useful links from PREFIT.