Copyright Inc. Magazine
The study’s data are stark: only four in 10 US workers have quality jobs, meaning six in 10 workers are being let down by their work in some way or another. Gallup’s data back this up, with the survey finding, for example, that while 71 percent of workers agreed that they could decide how to carry out their job, 62 percent of people said they didn’t have reliable work schedules — a characteristic that can drive up stress and worker disengagement, news site HRDive notes. Men are more likely than women to say they’ve got quality jobs (45 percent versus 34 percent), and while high-quality jobs are spread across the nation, they’re more common in western states than other regions. Among the other unsettling results, Gallup’s survey of over 18,000 people working in different industries and job types found that 29 percent of people say they’re “just getting by” or “finding it difficult to get by.” A sizable 43 percent say they’re doing “okay,” and just 27 percent said they’re living “comfortably.” The report notes that this backs up other data showing half of all workers earn at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty line for a family of two. On the topic of job satisfaction, 85 percent of respondents agreed they were respectfully treated by colleagues and customers. But 69 percent said they had less influence than they should over their pay and benefits, and 55 percent feel the same about technology adoption at work. Though the survey doesn’t look into this too deeply, this latter point tallies with numerous other reports about the accelerated way many workplaces are adopting AI and requiring their workers use the tech to boost efficiency, even while they’re failing to provide adequate training and usage guidelines. Another data point in the Gallup study underlines this, since only half of the respondents said they’d taken part in workplace training and education in the last year. The data on job quality are important, Gallup’s report notes, because having a quality job is linked with higher levels of job satisfaction: 58 percent of workers in quality roles have high job satisfaction compared to 23 percent of people in lower-quality jobs. Satisfaction is “consistently linked in prior research to lower turnover, higher productivity, and stronger business performance.” What’s the takeaway for your company? Essentially it’s possible that even if you think your staff are doing well, and they seem happy and secure in their jobs, there may be undercurrents of worry or dissatisfaction that don’t reach your ears, either because workers don’t want to gripe or they worry about the implications of raising a red flag. Savvy leaders may use this report as a trigger to check in with their employees and see how they rate the “quality” of their jobs — there are a few simple organizational levers you can pull that would improve their feelings.
