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
> > >
> > >
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