Who’s the Happiest European Nation at Work?

The Irish are happier at work than the average European, nearly one third of the Irish claim that nothing really annoys them at all about their Job.

Dublin, 14th October 2004 - The average worker spends 64,000 hours at work in his/her lifetime, a significant amount of anyone’s life, which highlights the importance of finding a fulfilling and satisfying job. However, there are factors that can make our working life less enjoyable. So, what do the Irish hate most about our jobs? Is it unnecessary form filling for that new pen? Or the tasteless 70s wallpaper in your office that reminds you of granny’s home?

When asked, What irritates you most about your job? The latest Monster Meter shows how workers in Ireland responded:

31% Nothing really irritates me
27% The bureaucracy
14% My colleagues
19% The long hours culture
9% My physical environment at work


The results of the European survey conducted by Monster show that Irish are top of the list when it comes to contentment at work. Nearly one third of the Irish claim that nothing really annoys them at all. No wonder Ireland is the country of choice by jobseekers from the recently joined EU member states!

The results of the survey also show that the Irish match the European average of 27% when it comes to complaining about bureaucracy, as the most irritating ingredient in their job.

If there are factors such as bureaucracy making an employee unhappy, its actually a great time to look for a new challenge, we have seen very positive trends in the job market throughout 2004 says Alan Townsend, Managing Director, Monster.ie

The Monster Meter asked the same question to 14,751 Europeans revealing:

27% The bureaucracy
23% My colleagues
23% The long hours culture
14% Nothing really irritates me
13% My physical environment at work

The results of the survey conducted by Monster show that Brits are top of the list when it comes to complaining about the bureaucracy, with 40% citing it as the most irritating ingredient of their job. The overall European results also pointed towards bureaucracy as the main irritation factor at the workplace.

If you are planning on working in Sweden, you’d better be nice as 64% of Swedish respondents claimed that their colleagues were the most irritating factor about their job.

Fashionable Italians seem to have a strong say about their work environment as they have about their personal looks. 22% of Italians said that their physical environment at work irritated them more than anything else.


Despite the belief that the Mediterranean culture is more family and outdoors oriented, Spaniards and Italians complained about the long working hours culture. 45% of Spanish respondents and 37% of Italians chose the long hours culture as the most irritating factor of their jobs.


The results of the current Monster Meter are based on votes cast by Monster.com visitors during September 2004. Only one vote per user is counted toward the final tabulation. The Monster Meter, a product of Monster, the leading global online careers site and flagship brand of Monster Worldwide Inc., is a series of online polls that gauge users’ opinions on a variety of topics relating to careers, the economy and the workplace. Anyone interested in voting in Monster’s current online poll may do so by logging onto