August/September 2010

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United States Job Satisfaction Keeps Falling

mericans are growing increasingly unhappy with their jobs, The Conference Board reports. The decline in job satisfaction is widespread among workers of all ages and across all income brackets. Half of all Americans today say they are satisfied with their jobs, down from nearly 60 percent in 1995. But among the 50 percent who say they are content, only 14 percent say they are "very satisfied."

This report, which is based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households, conducted for The Conference Board by TNS, a leading market information company (LSE: TNN), also includes information collected independently by TNS. This information reveals that approximately one-quarter of the American workforce is simply "showing up to collect a paycheck." "Rapid technological changes, rising productivity demands and changing employee expectations have all contributed to the decline in job satisfaction," said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board's Consumer Research Center. "As large numbers of baby boomers prepare to leave the workforce, they will be increasingly replaced by younger workers, who tend to be as dissatisfied with their jobs, but have different attitudes and expectations about the role of work in their lives. This transition will present a new challenge for employers."

The survey finds that job satisfaction has declined across all income brackets in the last nine years. While 55 percent of workers earning more than $50,000 are satisfied with their jobs, only 14 percent claim they are very satisfied. At the other end of the pay scale (workers earning less than $15,000), about 45 percent of workers are satisfied, but only 17 percent express a strong level of satisfaction. The survey also finds that employees are least satisfied with their companies' bonus plans, promotion policies, health plans and pensions. The majority are most satisfied with their commutes to work and their relationships with colleagues.

"Less than one-third of all supervisors and managers are perceived to be strong leaders," said Shubhra Ramchandani, North American Stakeholder Management Practice Leader at TNS. "The Enron/Worldcom era of corporate scandals and the outsourcing of jobs have increased the level of employee discontent. Shrugging off employee disengagement would be a disastrous, short-sighted view creating lasting global repercussions for American business."

The largest decline in overall job satisfaction, from 60.9% to 49.2%, occurred among workers 35-44. The second largest decline took place among workers aged 45-54, with the satisfaction level dropping from 57.3% to 47.7%. The smallest decline occurred among workers 65 and over. Overall job satisfaction declined from 60.8% to 58.0%, making this group the most satisfied with their jobs.

The largest decline in job satisfaction took place among householders earning $25,000 to $35,000, with satisfaction falling from 55.7% to 41.4%. This income group expressed the second lowest level of overall satisfaction.

The second largest decline was posted by householders earning $35,000-$50,000. This group experienced a decline from 59.7% to 46.7%. With less than 47% of householders claiming to be satisfied with their current job, workers in the Middle Atlantic and Mountain states are the least satisfied workers in the U.S.

The East South Central region has the most content workers. Close to 59% of residents in these states claim they are satisfied with their jobs. Company promotion policies and bonus plans tended to be the lowest on the satisfaction scale.

Educational and job training programs did not fare well either. Only 30% of workers claimed to be satisfied with these types of company programs. Workers also rated their wages poorly, with only 33.5% of householders expressing satisfaction with their pay. 40% of workers feel disconnected from their employers.

Two out of every three workers do not identify with or feel motivated to drive their employer's business goals and objectives. 25% of employees are just "showing up to collect a paycheck."

Shoplifting Is Soaring, Teens See It As Standard Behavior

ccording to a just-released study by the Josephson Institute of Ethics based on a national survey of 24,763 high school students, more than one in four (27%) stole from a store within the past 12 months. Additionally, 40% admit they "sometimes lie to save money."

Despite these admissions, the majority of students reported high self-appraisals of their character (74% rated their own ethics higher than those of their peers [Q5]) and stated their convictions that honesty, ethics and good character are very important (almost all, 98%, said it is important for them to be a person of good character [Q1]). What's more, most have unrealistically high self-images when it comes to ethics. Asked "If people you know were asked to list the most ethical people they know, how many would put you on their lists?" 83% said at least half the people they know would list them [Q61]. Additionally, 92% said they were satisfied with their ethics and character [Q25].

The inconsistency seems to be explained by high levels of cynicism about the ethics of successful people and the prevalence of cheating in the "real world" creating a justification for dishonest conduct. Cynicism is especially strong in young males. Two-thirds indicated a belief that "in the real world, successful people do what they have to do to win, even if others consider it cheating" - and more than half (52%) of the females agreed with this cynical assessment [Q8]. In addition, half (51%) of the males agreed with: "A person has to lie or cheat sometimes in order to succeed." About one-third (32%) of the female students expressed a similar view [Q9].

When asked to prioritize their values, most high schoolers expressed commitment to positive views. Thus, 91% said it is very important to have trusting personal relationships [Q34], 88% said it is very important to treat others with respect [Q35], and 84% said it is very important to have good moral character [Q28].

Analyzing the survey results, Michael Josephson, prominent radio commentator and president of the Josephson Institute of Ethics, said, "Though the Report Card on the Integrity of American Youth continues to contain failing grades, there is reason for hope. For the first time in 12 years the cheating and theft rates have actually dipped downward and the stated devotion to ethics is the strongest we've seen. While this results in a troubling inconsistency between words and actions, character education efforts should be able to build on the fundamental appreciation of ethics, character and trust to achieve continuing improvements in conduct. Still, it can't be comforting to know that the majority of the next generation of police officers, politicians, accountants, lawyers, doctors, nuclear inspectors and journalists are entering the workforce as unrepentant cheaters."

The Joseph & Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics is a nonprofit corporation based in Los Angeles. This report, released during National Character Counts! Week, is based on the largest sample ever used by the Josephson Institute, whose studies on the ethics of American youth are often cited as the benchmark of youth attitudes and behavior. Students in 85 schools throughout nation were surveyed (45% public schools, 40% private religious schools and 15% private nonreligious schools). The survey was answered by an equal number of males and females.

Young people are almost unanimous in saying that ethics and character are important on both a personal level and in business, but they express very cynical attitudes about whether a person can be ethical and succeed.

Virtually all high school students (98%) agreed with the statement: "It's important for me to be a person with good character" [Q1])

• 98% believe that "honesty and trust are essential in personal relationships" [Q6].
• 97% said, "It's important to me that people trust me." [Q13].
• 84% said, "It's not worth it to lie or cheat because it hurts your character." [Q14].
• Though their cynical attitudes about real world ethics have undoubtedly been influenced by highly publicized business scandals in the past few years, young people still believe ethics is important in the workplace. 94% said that "in business and the workplace, trust and honesty are essential." [Q7].
• Ninety percent (90%) agree that "being a good person is more important than being rich." (though twice as many males disagree with this statement as females (15% v. 5%) [Q4].
• Despite a growing concern that young people lack positive role models, 84% say that "most adults in my life consistently set a good example of ethics and character." [Q2].
• Though one justification for the rampant cheating is the pressure put on youngsters by parents, the overwhelming majority (91%) say that their parents or guardians "always want me to do the right thing, no matter the cost." [Q3].
• Only 6% say that their parents "would rather they cheat than get bad grades." [Q12].
• The vast majority rejected cynical statements about the propriety of cheating to win.
• Only 13% agreed that "it's not cheating if everyone is doing it." [Q21].
• Only 8% agreed that "in sports, if you are not cheating, you're not trying hard enough." [Q22].
• Only 8% disagreed with the statement: "People should play by the rules even if they lose." [Q24].
• Despite admissions of high levels of lying, cheating and theft, high school students maintain a high self-image of their character and ethics both in relative and absolute terms.
• 92% say they are "satisfied with my own ethics and character." [Q25].
• 83% expected that half or more of all the people who knew them would list them as one of the most ethical people they know. [Q61].
• 74% say, "When it comes to doing what is right, I am better than most people I know." [Q5].
• When asked to express their values and priorities and rate the importance of various factors including wealth, looks, and popularity, the vast majority of adolescents rated virtuous qualities and behavior more highly than materialistic and pragmatic ones. Thus,
• 91% said it is very important to have trusting personal relationships.[Q34].
• 87% said it is very important to treat others with respect.[Q35].
• 84% said it is very important to have good moral character. [Q28].
• 73% said it is very important to "help others." [Q33].
• 70% said it is very important to be thought of as ethical and honorable. [Q31].
• 63% said that religion is very important to their lives [Q32], but less, 55%, said it was very important that they live up to the standards of their religion. [Q39].
• 54% said it is very important to be charitable. [Q30].
• Though it is not clear that their conduct is consistent with their stated priorities, with the exception of getting into college (87% listed this as very important, [Q37]), only a minority of high school students said that non-character attributes were very important.
• 42% said it is very important to be physically attractive. [Q26].
• 28% said it is very important to be wealthy. [Q29].
• 19% said it is very important to be popular. [Q27].
• 16% said it is very important to be famous [Q38].
• Despite consistently expressing positive and ideals-based attitudes about the importance of ethics and character and the role their parents and teachers play in encouraging them to do the right thing, a very high proportion of young people reveal corrosive cynical attitudes about what works and doesn't in the real world.
• 59% agreed that "in the real world, successful people do what they have to do to win, even if others consider it cheating." (66% males, 52% females) [Q8].
• 42% believe that "a person has to lie or cheat sometimes in order to succeed." (52% males, 32% females) [Q9]. More than one in five (22%) believe that "people who are willing to lie, cheat or break the rules are more likely to succeed than people who do not." [Q11].
• Widespread and deep youth cynicism often reflects itself in a rationalization process that nullifies ethical judgment and condones conduct that is contrary to stated moral convictions. Thus, the same youngsters who speak of the importance of ethics, character and trust frequently lie, cheat and even steal without much guilt or hesitation.
• The good news is that while students continue to lie, cheat and steal at alarmingly high rates, it appears that the tide has been stemmed and for the first time in 12 years of surveying, the amount of dishonesty in each category actually went down. We have no solid explanation for this improvement, though we know that the spread of character education programs and a new level of attentiveness to values and integrity after 9/11 and in response to massive corporate frauds at Enron, WorldCom, Arthur Andersen, and other firms may well have had an effect.
• There is also the possibility that, given all the publicity on cheating, students may not be willing to be as honest on surveys as before. In fact, we know the admitted cheating rate understates actual behavior as 29% admitted they lied on one or two questions on the survey (12% said they lied on three or more.) [Q82].
• In any event, the amount of confessed dishonesty demonstrates that schools have a very long way to go to better instill attitudes and habits of integrity.
• 82% admit they lied to parent within the past 12 months about something significant - and 57% said they lied two or more times [Q41]. In 2002, 93% said they lied to parents.
• 62% admit they lied to teacher within the past 12 months about something significant - and 35% said they lied two or more times [Q42]. In 2002, 83% said they lied to teachers.
• 35% copied an Internet document within the past 12 months - and 18% did so two or more times. [Q43]. This question was not asked in 2002.
• 62% cheated during a test at school within the past 12 months - and 38% did so two or more times. [Q44]. This is a major decrease from the 74% who admitted cheating on an exam in 2002.
• 83% copied another's homework within the past 12 months - and 64% did so two or more times [Q45]. This question was not asked in 2002.
• 22% stole something from a parent or other relative within the past 12 months -- and 11% did so two or more times [Q46]. In 2002, 28% admitted stealing from a parent or other relative.
• 18% stole something from a friend within the past 12 months - and 7% did so two or more times [Q47]. In 2002, 22% admitted stealing from a friend.
• 27% stole something from a store within the past 12 months - and 13% did so two or more times [Q48]. This is a huge drop from 2002 when 38% admitted stealing from a store.
• 23% cheated or bent the rules to win in sports within the past 12 months - and 12% did so two or more times [Q58]. This question was not asked in 2002.