Geoff kindly sent me Taylor's report on 2000 survey in UK about quality of
jobs (of 2466 diverse employees participated in the survey). On the question
of "Why to work?" only 16% of higher professionals and 2% of semi-skilled
workers (the other in-between) referred to "enjoyment". Other responses were
"for money", "career", "being with others" and so on. However, when asked "A
job is just means for a living?" only 21% of higher professionals and 54% of
semi-skilled workers said "yes". The picture is complex but "enjoyment" of
jobs does not seem very high.
What do you think?
Eugene
PS Thanks Geoff for the report!
PSS I wish similar survey existed in US! Does anybody know about such study?
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andy Blunden [mailto:ablunden@mira.net]
> Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 8:22 PM
> To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> Subject: RE: Jobs and motivation: Help is needed
>
> When I retired last year I had a lot of discussions with colleagues about
> whether they could do the same. The response I got was very very uniform,
> from the lowest maintenance worker up to professors running big research
> programs: "OK I'm over 55 and my superannuation entitlements are already
> much bigger than yours and yes my kids have left home but ...." where
> followed all sorts of excuses, like the need to buy a holiday house or
> something. I found that people are very very reluctant to separate
> themselves from their job even if they hate their job and even if they
> don't need the money, but the need for money was invariably 'used' as the
> reason for going on working.
>
> (doesn't count as scientific research I know, but the message was very
clear)
>
> Andy
>
>
> At 03:17 PM 11/12/2003 -0500, you wrote:
> >Dear Mark-
> >
> >Sorry for the delay - I was busy hosting my friend and colleague from
South
> >Africa...
> >
> >Thanks a lot for the reference that seems to contradict to the statement
in
> >the Russian immigrant newspaper "Despite our occasional temptation to
call
> >it quits, most Americans (70%) are saying that even if they won a large
> >enough amount of money in the lottery, they would still continue to work.
> >
> >These are the findings of a recent study conducted by Opinion Research
> >Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCI). According to the study, only 28% of Americans
> >would quit their jobs if they won the lottery."
> >http://www.orcinternational.com/caravan-053102.htm
> >
> >However, everything depends how the questions were asked which I could
not
> >find. Also, it is not clear that whether these cited 70% of respondents
want
> >to work in general or they want to stay at the work that they are
currently
> >employed. I wish I could find their full report...
> >
> >Interesting...
> >
> >Eugene
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Mark P Smith [mailto:mpsmith@UDel.Edu]
> > > Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2003 11:11 PM
> > > To: Eugene Matusov
> > > Subject: Re: Jobs and motivation: Help is needed
> > >
> > > Hi Eugene,
> > >
> > > I doubt this is the resarch you're looking for. It's conducted by a
> > > telephone sampling company. But it contradicts what you wrote, I
think.
> > >
> > > My question: who do "consumer sampling companies" ask questions to?
> > >
> > > Mark
> > >
> > > http://www.orcinternational.com/caravan-053102.htm
> > >
> > > On Wed, 3 Dec 2003, Eugene Matusov wrote:
> > >
> > > > Dear everybody-
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > When I was in California, I read in a Russian immigrant newspaper
about
> >an
> > > > US study, according to which 95% working people in US do not like
their
> >jobs
> > > > ("zanimayutsya ne lyubimym delom" in Russian). The choice of words
in
> > > > Russian indicates that these people do their job ONLY out of
necessity
> >to
> > > > earn money but if they have enough money (e.g., won lottery) they
would
> >stop
> > > > doing their jobs.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Have anybody heard about such study? If so, can you provide
reference,
> > > > please?
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Thanks,
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Eugene
> > > >
> > > >
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jan 01 2004 - 01:00:09 PST