Frontline staff unhappiest at work – Personal Group

More than half (56%) of frontline employees are ‘rarely’ or ‘almost never’ keen to get to work in the morning, according to research from employee benefits provider, Personal Group.

• Young workers (those between the ages of 18 and 29) are the unhappiest group of employees by age; 52% are rarely or almost never happy at work, a significant increase on the 20% who felt this way in the comparable 2017 survey.
• Employees over the age of 50 are the happiest, but even their happiness levels have dropped since last year – only 64% say they are happy at work most of the time, down from 84% in 2017.
• The enthusiasm of senior managers and department heads for their jobs fell the most in the past year. Perhaps as a consequence, the number of these employees reporting never or rarely working as efficiently as possible has almost doubled since 2017, up from 16% to 30% in 2018.
• Almost 60% of managers and team leaders were able to recall incidents in the month preceding the survey which made them feel less positive about working life.

Mark Scanlon, CEO at Personal Group, said:

‘Much more must be done to tackle unhappiness in the workplace and to ensure employees feel valued, appreciated and safe in the workplace. There is significant proof that employees of businesses which have employee engagement initiatives implemented are more motivated and enthused in the workplace.’