Too little work leads to low job satisfaction

Contrary to what some people believe, employees who have too little work are actually less satisfied with their jobs than those who are burdened with too much work, according to a study by Sirota Consulting ñ specialists in attitude research.

The most satisfied employees of all in the survey were those who say they have just the right amount of work. They rated their overall satisfaction with their jobs at a 73 on a 100-point scale. Those with the second highest satisfaction were those who have ëtoo much workí.

The least satisfied were those who say they have ëmuch too little work.í They rated their job satisfaction only a 32 on a 100-point scale.

The study included over 800,000 employees at 61 organisations worldwide. In descending order, employeesí overall satisfaction with their job as it relates to their workload on a 100-point scale are:

ä Workload is ëabout rightí ñ overall job satisfaction rating of 73 ä ëToo much workí ñ overall job satisfaction rating of 57 ä ëToo little workí ñ overall job satisfaction rating of 49 ä ëMuch too much workí ñ overall job satisfaction rating of 42 ä ëMuch too little workí ñ overall job satisfaction rating of 32

Employees in Europe and Asia are about three times less satisfied with having ëmuch too little workí than North American workers, according to the survey. Europeans gave being excessively under-worked a satisfaction rating of only a 12 in comparison to North American employees who gave a satisfaction rating of 36.

Employees in Europe and Asia are also less satisfied than North American workers with having ëmuch too much workí, although the differences are not as great. European and Asian employees with ëmuch too much workí rated their overall job satisfaction at 34 and 25 respectively, while similar North American employees had a job satisfaction rating of 44.

Although there is a cost to employers when their employees are over-worked, there may be an even bigger cost due to boredom from being under worked, said Nick Staritt, managing director ñ Europe, Sirota Consulting Europe. Companies need to consider employeesí expectations for having the proper amount of work in order to achieve the best productivity, morale and employee retention. Itís a balancing act to get this formula right for all types of workers in different settings.