The Pursuit Of Happiness: What Determines Whether You Are Happy With Your Job?

A couple weeks ago, I decided that I would create a LinkedIn poll. I have voted and commented on a couple of polls in the past, so I thought I would give it a shot. Never did I imagine that the poll I was creating would generate over 2000 votes, get over 100 comments, and land on the front page of LinkedIn Today. Thank you to everyone that took the time to put in their vote, comment, and help my poll go viral!

When I started thinking about what topic I wanted to poll people on, I knew I didn’t want to target one particular profession or demographic; I wanted everyone to be able to vote and share their thoughts. I finally decided on a poll question asking, what determines whether you are happy with your job?

LinkedIn only gives you 5 option slots to feature in your poll, so I had to be selective about the responses I chose. The five choices I  listed were:

• A high salary/performance based bonuses
• Flexible work hours/location
• Opportunity for career advancement
• The people you work with
• Opportunity to learn on the job/training

The Results So Far

The great thing about LinkedIn polls is that they give you insight on the voters, with Age, Seniority and Gender demographic information provided. In my poll, the majority of the voters were males, between the ages of 18-29 years old. So far, each option has at least 200 votes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The most popular answer is currently, “The people you work with,” which has a whopping 784 votes and makes up 38% of all votes. Many of the comments on the poll were also about this subject. In my own personal opinion, I agree with the other 783 people that voted for, “The people you work with.” Over your lifetime, you spend more time with coworkers than friends and family, so it is very important that you are happy with the people you work with everyday.

If you read the comments section of my poll, many of the commenters seem to agree with this logic. It’s evident that people really value having good relationships with co-workers, and many of them think it’s the deciding factor in determining whether you are happy at your job. One voter, Sherif Ebeid also suggested that even if you aren’t thrilled with the job you have, the people you work with can make it bearable:

 

 

 

 

 

“Opportunity for career advancement” came in as the second most popular answer so far, with 577 votes (28% of the votes). If the results of my poll are any indication, employees really appreciate and value the chance to work their way up in a company. Perhaps more companies should consider broadcasting their jobs internally to it’s current employees before they start looking outside the company for better employee retention.

The most surprising thing my survey revealed was how few people regard  “A high salary/performance based bonuses,” as a deciding factor in what makes them happy with their job. This option only received 272 votes out of 2055 (14% of all votes). I also found it really interesting that out of the 272 votes, only 26 of them were from females. At the end of the day, apparently, people value more than just their salaries in the workplace.

Overall the poll was very successful. I did not expect it to get anywhere close to the amount of votes and comments received from people all around the world. I think this poll revealed some really interesting facts about what makes people happy in there careers, and surprisingly, it’s not always about the money!

If you’d like to have your say, there are still 29 days left to vote!