Can you be happy working? The most widespread business mantra agrees that job satisfaction hides the key to productivity. But workers are increasingly dissatisfied with what they do. Or at least they show it more than before. He shock The 2020 pandemic promoted a Great Resignation that had its epicenter in the United States, but that internationally disrupted the way in which people evaluate work activity within their lives. And most of them have decided to lower it several notches.
“Our nature makes us a permanently dissatisfied being,” analyzes Fernando Luján, deputy general secretary of Union Policy at UGT. “We all want more, especially when we already have a base, and now that we are seeing a certain salary recovery taking place, we all demand more,” he details.
The tool that channels worker discontent in the most obvious way is the call for a strike, and the latest data from the Ministry of Labor show that during the last decade the number of participants in ordinary strikes has been increasing. Thus, while throughout 2013 179,000 workers supported them, last year (last full year) 236,700 did so.
The reasons for the increase in work detachment are several. A review of surveys on satisfaction in the work environment portray the main complaints: salary improvements (seven out of 10 workers believe that they are not paid enough); greater conciliation (six out of 10 would be willing to resign from their position if they are not offered the conditions they need in terms of flexible hours); and mental health care (seven in 10 have suffered burnout [síndrome del trabajador quemado] in the last year).
“People, once their needs are met, consider that they must find a place to work that generates physical, emotional and social well-being, and it is the result of the sum of these three factors that determines whether a person can consider themselves happy in their job. job. Right now there are more methods and ways than ever to find a new job proposal and that makes the demand greater and the change somewhat routine,” reflects Alberto Gavilán, talent director of The Adecco Group.
Economic context
Labor demands tend to arise when the economic context allows it, which is why the job creation that has occurred in recent years has breathed air into the protests. “It is not the same to demonstrate when there is an unemployment rate of 20% than when it is 12% (currently it stands at 11.8%), nor when around you you have the possibility of finding somewhere else what you cannot. “they give you in your work,” says Adrián Todolí, professor of Labor and Social Security Law at the University of Valencia.
All the sources consulted agree that the foundations of this new work rethinking were established with the 2020 pandemic. “There was a click. The coronavirus forced us to stop the frenzy of life that many of us were leading and to question what our true priorities were,” explains Carlos Gutiérrez, secretary of Union Studies and Training of CC OO. “I think it helped us enrich our interests and pay attention to other things that we don't want to do without now,” he adds.
The implementation of new ways of working, especially those that allowed it to be done remotely, opened a horizon of possibilities that many employees are not willing to abandon once the pandemic is over and with the return to in-person work. But then, and now, many other work realities have been discovered in which a tug of war is taking place between employers and workers. This is the case of the project to reduce the working day from five to four days a week without reducing wages. According to The Adecco Group, seven out of 10 companies do not see its implementation as viable, but two out of three workers are in favor of it.
Although it must be taken into account that the demands for greater flexibility impact differently depending on the sector in which they are produced. “Look what happened and is happening with the hospitality industry. Since the pandemic, there are beginning to be problems with vacancies that did not exist before,” says Luján, from UGT. “A lot of people linked to the services sector—the one that generates the most jobs in the country—realized that social protection [en caso de baja, o despido, por ejemplo] It is very important, so they decided to leave when they realized that many of them were in an irregular situation and look for employment in other niches that did offer them,” he adds.
“When the virus endangered our own lives, we all started to think about it. Now workers demand many more things from their company: they want to have more possibilities for professional development, to have formulas for work-life balance, for there to be a good atmosphere in the center, for their talent to be valued…” says Jorge Calviño, vice president of the Association. Spanish Human Resources Directors (AEDRH) and CHRO of AllFunds Bank.
New interests
The increase in the cost of living due to the rise in energy and food prices, as well as its disconnection from the salary increases of the last two years, have come to call into question the concept of support intrinsic to salary. Many workers cannot satisfy their vital needs (accommodation, maintenance…) with the income they receive, and for them changing jobs in search of higher remuneration is not a trauma, but rather a way out that they are not afraid to take as many times as necessary. .
“The new generations need to feel that they are capable of meeting their needs and are much more aware of the importance of good mental health than their predecessors had,” says Professor Todolí. “Younger employees face a series of different demands, and many cannot conceive of working in a job that keeps them tied to the table for hours,” supports Calviño (AEDRH). “Most of them prioritize flexibility over salary. “They prefer to have more time, decide how to organize their work or schedule, be able to spend more time with their family, balance their personal life, or allocate time to their hobbies,” adds Velasco, from Adecco. “We have discovered that our life has a broader meaning and we have recovered interests that we had traditionally forgotten,” emphasizes Gutiérrez, from CC OO.
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