Management Toolkit

Techies less happy than hairdressers

Andy McCue silicon.com

Published: 06 Aug 2007 16:58 BST

Techies have lower levels of job satisfaction than hairdressers, librarians and lorry drivers, despite earning higher salaries than are paid by many other professions.

IT workers came 66th out of 81 professions ranked for job satisfaction in research carried out by the University of Bath, despite one in 10 techies earning more than £45,000 a year.

The research was based on a Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform survey of 22,500 employees concerning their work experiences. The research ranks the employees on how satisfied they feel in their job.

High-earning tech workers appear to be unhappy in their jobs despite the fact that the research found that earning more than £40,000 a year usually has a strong positive effect on job satisfaction.

The University of Bath's Professor Michael Rose, who carried out the research, said the most important factor in job satisfaction is the managerial skill of creating a sense of involvement for employees.

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He said in the study: "ICT professionals emerge from the survey less satisfied with involvement, sense of achievement, job security and training provided."

Rose said individual job satisfaction is down to a range of factors, including pay, conditions of employment and "symbolic rewards", such as prestige.

Hairdressers ranked second in the overall job-satisfaction league table behind corporate managers, but some of the other professions with happier workers than the IT industry included cleaners, librarians, secretaries and transport drivers.

The professions listed in the research, which was sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council, are based on the UK standard occupational classification index.