Job satisfaction thread

Recently, I completed an online job satisfaction survey. Ain't no happy camper here and being totally honest I slammed the negatives pretty berkeleying hard. .... and my results came back... 'normal'. Uh, WTF. So miserable is the new normal?

GRMers are a diverse and talented group. There always seems to be job related posts... from rants to new job scores.

How would you rate your job satisfaction, say on a scale of 1-10?

Break it down further w/ what factors into your job satisfaction or lack of it... sense of accomplishment, location, working conditions, challenge, advancement, prestige, the people, security, wages, bennies, hours etc.

Should be interesting.

btw, no search turned up a similar thread.

btw, I rate my job satisfaction a 2/10... and I'm 'normal'?

You're not normal.

My job satisfaction is probably 7/10, as in, if I could do this exact job, but someplace else (like Hawaii, or California, or Santa Fe, or Puerto Rico, or Spain) I'd probably be pretty damn happy.

Position satisfaction? Probably a 2/10. Happy with the level, hate the job itself. Company satisfaction? 8/10. Great company, would work for it for my entire career if it was located closer to family.

Right now I'd rate it overall at 4/10, and don't see it going any lower than that. I do see it going higher. So that is nice.

Previous job. 3-4 Current job. 7-8 so far but only 3 weeks in.

Mechanical engineer here.

Maybe normal for that outfit. Our company has done a bunch of comparisons. On the big picture satisfaction with some of the best known companies is significantly better than a 2/10, but nothing special (averaging something like a 6/10). I work for a well-run healthcare joint. Our patient satisfaction is top 1%. Employee satisfaction is around 8/10. I'm probably around 7/10 - I don't fit the sr. mgmt profile, so I'm pretty much maxed out for career growth - I'll probably either work for myself or trade more money for a crappier run place in the not-too-distant future.

Overall: 2/10, but this is one of those things where the sum doesn't equal the parts.

Sense of accomplishment: 1/10
Location: 4/10
Working conditions: 8/10
Challenge: 2/10
Advancement: 1/10
Prestige: 0/10
The people: 4/10 (only because my boss is pretty awesome. Everyone else sucks.)
Security: 7/10
Wages: 4/10
Bennies: 5/10 (If you had asked me last year, i would have said 8/10)
Hours: Depends on the mood. When i want money, i'm happy with the hours. When i don't need it, i hate the hours. We'll split at a 5/10.

Probably a 3-4/10 Underpaid a good 20-30% Commute over an hour each way.

Basically, money, and commute are killing me. Realistically, I probably need to get the hell out of the city (DC).

I would give myself a 4.

My sense of accomplishment varies wildly. I am in inventory accuracy with a huge company. (CAT) Some days I really can save the facility thousands of dollars and keep the line moving through my actions and other days I just count parts and make spreadsheets.

Location is good. About a 15 min drive from home and within a mile of my wife's work.

Working conditions are ok. I have a cube, but it is on the factory floor so I have to live in PPE a high noise/traffic environment.

Challenge. Does resisting the urge to knock dumb people in the head count? The job itself isn't hard. Coming up with new processes and ways to make it more efficient is more difficult.

Advancement. There is tons of room to grow. In the 3 years that I have been there, I have moved from being an assembler to a "Premium Job" in logistics. I have a couple more steps I can take before my 2 year degree will not cut it.

Prestige. I guess not much. Until you reach the Section Manager position.

Pay/Benefits. Pretty good. Its kinda sad, but I am in the very few people that take advantage of certain benefits like 401k, ect.

People. I work with some real characters. From ex-cons to masters level education. Another sad thing, is sometimes you would wouldn't guess who has what background. Not trying to stereotype, but some of the higher ed people have no background in the field and no common sense when it comes to the job. As with any work environment, there is drama everywhere. It seems to be a daily challenge to get adults to act like adults. Also, every new guy tries to make a name for themselves by throwing people under the bus. It hasn't really happened to me, but Ive seen it happen dozens of times and backfire 99% of the time. The bosses seem to keep their best interests in mind have little to no concern about employee satisfaction. They are nice people tho.

Hope this helps. 2/10 seems low and unhappy, but I can see this more weighted towards the low end and not like a traditional bell-curve.

Sense of accomplishment: 4/10
Location: 9/10 6 Miles away
Working conditions: 8/10 Brand new building, but needs more space.
Challenge: 4/10 The politics suck.
Advancement: 1/10 I will never get promoted but I will get raises.
Prestige: -2/10
The people: -2/10 Worst in the world.
Security: 10/10 Basically I can be there till I am dead.
Wages: 7/10 I am 15% under market right now but no risks. Benefits: 8/10

Which job?
Scurrity? 2
Radio? 9
Sales? 7

The security company did the regular survey as usual. Scores had significantly dropped and the "why" lines were put to good use. The company started poking around, but it seems to be forgotten quickly.

In the past 10-12 years the guys at my site have seen one 35c raise. No wonder turn-over is high.

I don't have the time to break it down in detail, but in general I'm pretty satisified with my job - nothing is perfect but I'd say it's probably an 8/10.

I woke up at 10am. I'd put my job satisfaction at pretty high :D. Not currently employed and I am on winter break before college starts up again.

But I do think many people slog through theirs jobs and arent terribly happy.

The older I get, the more I find my identity and self-worth in the things ~outside~ of my work. There are good parts of my job, and there are bad parts of my job. Some years are fun, some years suck. In the end, it's a steady gig and the paycheques don't bounce.

In the mean-time, I purpose to spend more time and more quality time with my wife and kids. The job is just a job.

8/10. If I got paid more, I'd never want to leave. 'tis a glorious job slinging E36 M3ters at Lowe's.

I'll give it 8-9/10. The boss is an ass and independently wealthy is always better.

I'm going with 5. I have to work to survive, and this is a pretty good place to do that. I would prefer not to have to work but that's not realistic.

Location is poor, but I chose to live in a place I like. So the drawback is a longer commute.

Benefits seem to be dropping every year, which seems to be standard.

Pay could be better but it could also be a lot worse.

I'm paid a lot for what I actually do. I have super bennies. I like the people I work with. the hours (3-11pm) suit me well. the commute is 10 miles each way.

If my job isn't at least a 9/10, something is wrong with me, not the job.

I’d give it an eight.

Pay and benefits are very good. Advancement is very good (four real promotions and well more than a doubling of salary in nine years). It’s difficult to quantify prestige but I have a somewhat fancy title and I’m on an engineering management team that’s known for cherry picking the best and brightest and I’m in a highly competitive field (medical devices). Growth and challenge is excellent as I’m constantly redefining myself and my colleagues are among the smartest people there are (Stanford, MIT, etc. is the norm). Satisfaction is very high as my career is dedicated to maximizing the duration and quality of human life (what could be better than that).

What I don’t like is the flip side of the above…the only constant is change so you’re rarely familiar enough with what you’re doing to be able to settle in. Failure, should it occur, is guaranteed to be spectacular as you’re always under the watchful eye of the FDA along with the sharpest people around. Job security is poor as layoffs are a common occurrence and it isn’t just dead wood that gets wacked, super good people get killed off all the time.

Sense of accomplishment: 4/10
Location: 2/10 48 Miles away
Working conditions: 7/10 location sucks for me, but is close to our clients and I get to park in a garage.
Challenge: 5/10 It varies. Sometimes I'm going through the motions, sometimes I get problems to solve. Fortunately, our company and especially this sattelite office are pretty good 'politics' -wise.
Advancement: 4/10 If I wanted to take on a lot more aggravation, I could probably work towards becoming a project manager here and get a decent pay bump if I could make it happen. But in all honesty, the additional money isn't worth it to me.
Prestige: 4/10 I'm reasonably proud of the work I do, although few people will ever see it.
The people: 7/10 For the most part I like the people I work with and my boss is easy to deal with.
Security: 8/10 I've been here for 13 years and don't plan to move. I've survived a number of lay-offs; for a couple of years I was the only electrical designer in this office.
Wages: 10/10 I feel like I'm probably overpaid for my education level (technically supposed to have an engineering degree to do what I do). I just got my 2014 pay increase. No complaints.
Benefits: 7/10 HD/HSA Medical, dental, vision, etc. Seems to be OK for our industry.

Overall: 6/10 - The '2' for location really drags the average down.

before I retired I would have scored my job satisfaction as a 5/10 - 6/10

sense of accomplishment: 7/10 .. I was (for the most part) totally responsible for the output of the parts I made … the only time someone was assigned to help was when piece parts were unavailable and I was behind … so when they were made available I had to get the product out RIGHT THEN

location: 10/10 … plant was 2 mi. from my house

working conditions: 5/10 … ok …nothing to write home about

challenge: 5/10 … not much challenge most of the time, but then something would happen and the E36 M3 would hit the fan … then the challenge went up

advancement: 0/10 .. I assembled parts … no upward movement available

prestige: n/a … really none either way …good or bad

the people: 7/10 … that's for the co-workers … 1/10 for the management/owners …

security: 8/10 … in my case it was pretty high, after I left they have had to assign 3 people to produce less product than I did by myself

wages: 4/10 .. below avg. for manufacturing jobs in our county

bennies: 5/10 that's about all that can be said for them … just avg.

hours: 7/10 … normal work day=6:30am to 3pm … I usually was there around 5:15am (was able to get my OT in in the morning … only occasionally had to work past 3pm

Sense of accomplishment: 3/10 I often have to develop things which get mothballed or neglected. Sometimes I think I'm the subject of a government experiment in finding the limits of human willpower.

Location: 1/10 commute times vary wildly and are usually long, touristy area so buying lunch is expensive.

Working conditions: 5/10 recently I was relocated into a much smaller cubicle with no sunlight or vents. They don't have the budget to give me vents. It gets toasty. I've seen a lot worse though, and even experienced it first-hand.

Challenge: 2/10 not much.

Advancement: 0/10 only one position I could advance to, I'd never be put in it but I don't want it anyway.

Prestige: 5/10 a lot of people have the misconception that I have a decent job.

The people:8/10 Nice people...mostly boring wealthy people I can't relate to easily, but nice.

Security: 0/10 regular waves of layoffs, I could take some security for myself by being a horrible E36 M3sack but I decide not to.

Wages: 0/10 underpaid even by local standards. At first I got some enjoyment from making a mockery of capitalism but that pleasure has worn off now.

Bennies: 2/10 group medical insurance, new car loan (not that I'd ever use it), and that's about it.

Hours: 4/10 rigid regular hours that start early.

I average that out and get 2.9 which sounds about right.

I run my own show, other than being a professional race car driver, I like my gig.

The hours are comprehensive but the compensation is good.

6/10,maybe 7/10

Sense of accomplishment: 5/10 I do a fair amount more than I need to because the day drags otherwise. No matter how much you do or don't do here there is no longer any sort of reward for being competent.

Location: 0/10 This is more my doing then the company as I chose to live 80 miles away rather than in a E36 M3 hole apartment or hand over all my money to property taxes.

Working conditions: 8/10 I do enjoy being outside in one of the greatest cities in the world. The sights and people I get to see during the day are often the job's only redeeming factor. Aside from the pitfalls that come with spending 8 hours a day out in the winter weather I can't complain much here.

Challenge: 3/10 Most days there is nothing here that requires much thought. The only times that I really have to work at it are when something really serious goes wrong. Some blizzards and hurricanes take a lot of work to maintain service and accommodate any additional needs like evacuations, emergency shelters ect, but these times are thankfully rare.

Advancement: 4/10 There was a time it was tough to get promoted They would take resumes every 3-4 years and take maybe 15-20 people from the dozens of applicants. They have made the job so awful that pretty much none of us want it. They posted it 3 times this year, and many of the people that did apply returned to their previous job shortly. Most of the people taking it now are doing it because they need the little bit of power that the bigger badge has. It leads to some poor management which is probably my biggest complaint with the company now. We have so many managers that have little time and experience here and really don't know how to prioritize. Many lose sight of the fact that our main purpose is to move people.

Prestige: If you are impressed meeting a supervisor for a hated government agency, then I has oodles of prestige.

The people: 8/10 … Most of my co-workers are good people who work long hours to keep everyone moving with little thanks, and most managers a good people hamstrung by an organization that is increasingly run by people that don't know what they are doing and are focused more on arbitrary performance goals then serving the public. For the most part our customers are also very good to deal with and put up with a quite a bit of nonsense brought on by some idiotic policies that no sane person could understand.

Security: 8/10 For the time being I am going nowhere, through if the people in charge had any brains at all the tracking system we are working on implementing could eliminate many of our positions but for now incompetence works to my advantage.

Wages: 10/10 While not the highest in the country it is certainly more than I would have imagined making for this

Benefits: 10/10 Not the cheapest I've heard of but far and away the best insurance company I've ever dealt with

Hours: 7/10 8 hour shifts 5 days a week. Most are 6-2, 7-3, 2-10, or 3-11. My biggest complaint is the lack of weekends off.

my satisfaction changes by where I am working.

If I am at the Borgata, my only peeve is that they will not hire me full time. I am at the top of their list of people to hire, but they cannot get the go ahead to actually do it. Meanwhile my department is down 4 people and the full timers are getting worked to death.

They get a worthy 8 in my book

At any of the Ceasars Entertainment properties.. I give it a good solid 2. We have a new Middle Manager there that actively undermines the workers, spys on them, and basically, because he is salary, never goes home. He is there from 8 in the morning till midnight because he lives apart from his family and has no where else to go..

i like my job. i like the people here- except for the bosses. they are just clueless and don't like being "leaders". i like my hourly wage.

i hate that there is no work and that we haven't been working full weeks for about the last 6 months- which means that i will have to start looking for a new job that i may or may not like with people that i also may or may not like... but it's all about the Benjamins, and ya gots ta do what y gots ta do...