Tech workers report declining job happiness
Feb 26, 2024, 1:00 PM | Updated: Feb 28, 2024, 1:06 pm
FILE: Tech workers are feeling a decline in on-the-job happiness according to a new survey. (Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the company name from Bamboo to BambooHR, and to fix the misspelled versions of BambooHR CEO’s name, Brad Rencher.
SALT LAKE CITY — If the tech workers in your life aren’t feeling so great about their job, they’re not alone. A study found that for the fourth year in a row, on-the-job happiness among tech employees is declining.
It’s budget cuts and layoffs that are concerning this segment of workers. That’s been the case since the COVID-19 pandemic, reports the Wall Street Journal.
“They tightened their purse strings,” BambooHR CEO Brad Rencher told KSL NewsRadio, “and as that’s happened you’ve had many technology companies locally that their businesses have suffered.”
And there’s another possible reason for disgruntled tech employees, Rencher said.
“They may have grown too quickly.”
What that has meant for some employees is increasing layoffs.
The BambooHR survey
Each quarter, BambooHR offers an “employee happiness index” that takes the pulse of nearly 60,000 workers in eight industries.
In its latest survey, construction workers reported the greatest level of happiness. Those in finance reported “steadily declining happiness.”
The happiest group of employees, as reported by the BambooHR survey, work in non-profit.
The plus side for Utah tech workers
Rencher thinks that feelings of unhappiness in the tech center can turn around.
“We continue to punch way above our weight in terms of innovation that’s happening in the state,” Rencher said, “growth in the state, venture capital dollars that are being attracted.”
He said companies should actively and frequently survey their employees to find out how they are doing and then follow up on employee concerns.
Finding a common purpose that matters, Rencher said, is something employees want from their jobs and which can add to happy and engaged employees.
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