Tech and nonprofit employees are unhappy at work, a survey by a Utah HR software company found.
The latest Employee Happiness Index report, released Thursday by the Lindon-based BambooHR, found tech and nonprofit employees’ unhappiness brought overall employee satisfaction to a four-year low at the end of December 2023 — while employees in other jobs are getting happier.
The BambooHR report found tech-sector workers were the unhappiest they’ve been since the COVID-19 pandemic. The report, which measured employee satisfaction in the fourth quarter of 2023, blamed their dissatisfaction on layoffs and the uncertainty around artificial intelligence.
Tech layoffs reached near-record highs last year, according to the report and data from layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks layoff announcements. Such Utah tech companies as Pluralsight, Lucid and Qualtrics each cut staff more than once.
As one software engineer told the report’s authors, “we’re being overworked and lacking the ability to focus on our families because we’re so focused on the code.” BambooHR did not name the study participants it interview to protect their privacy, the report said.
“I feel every day is a struggle,” the software engineer said. “I can’t even get away to go outside.”
(BambooHR) Employee satisfaction has been on a steady decline in the past four years, according to data from BambooHR.
The happiness of nonprofit employee also “leaped off a cliff” at the end of December, dropping to the lowest it’s been since 2021, the report found. Nonprofit workers are being asked to do more with fewer resources, respondents said, and are burning out.
Not everyone was unhappy with their jobs. Travel and hospitality worker were happier by the end of September than earlier in the year, and much happier compared to the previous year. It’s the only industry trending happier overall since 2020, the report found.
Teachers were also happier by the end of December, though satisfaction is still trending downward.
Construction workers are consistently the happiest in their jobs, the report found, though not quite as happy as they were before the pandemic.
BambooHR’s report is based on data collected from more than 1,600 companies nationwide, representing more than 57,000 employees. Job satisfaction is measured according to employee Net Satisfaction Scores (eNPS), which measure how likely employees are to recommend their job to others.
Shannon Sollitt is a Report for America corps member covering business accountability and sustainability for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.
