If you want happiness at work, your best bet is to be a Baby Boomer working in banking and finance.
That’s according to new research from recruitment website Seek, which has surveyed employment happiness.
It found six out of 10 New Zealanders were happy at work. But among the Boomer generation (born between 1946 and 1954) , it was more like seven to eight out of 10.
Generation Z (1997-2012) and Millennials (1981-1996) were the least happy.
The top reasons people were happy at work were related to having a purpose, their day-to-day responsibilities, company culture, salary and stress levels.
Seek country manager Rob Clark said Generation Z’s drivers of happiness were salary and the company’s commitment to environmental, social and governance factors (ESG). That was followed by purpose, workload and work-life balance.
“ESG ranks number two in terms of what would make them happy but it’s one of the factors they’re least happy with currently. We see a disconnect between what makes them happy and what’s happening in work.”
Clark said workers in banking and finance were 80 percent happy, and accounting seven out of 10. But healthcare and medical workers and hospitality and tourism recorded the lowest levels of happiness, at five out of 10.
Clark said it was probably a fair assumption that both of those industries were going through “tough times” and change that could be driving the results.
He said he would like to think that young people’s happiness would improve over time.
“The youngest generation is probably paid the lowest overall, they’re in the workforce at a time when there is a very high cost of living, housing and all the inflationary pressures. The unemployment rate is highest in that cohort, too. There are a lot of factors driving where they’re at.”
It was probably not surprising that older workers were the happiest, he said.
“The end line is in sight, they have more disposable income, they are probably able to weather some of the changes a bit better than the others.”
Salary was always ranked among the top items driving happiness even though not everyone was necessarily happy with theirs.
Employers could help by doing things such as communicating a policy with regards to salary reviews and letting people have an opportunity to discuss that, to improve transparency, he said.
