Disliking your job is wildly common. But according to new research, feelings about work vary greatly from generation to generation. And when it comes to being the least content with their chosen profession, members of one age group stand out from the rest as the most unhappy.
The newly released findings come from the AI-based résumé-building company KickResume, which asked more than 1,000 anonymous respondents how they feel about their jobs. The survey found that, while not everyone is thrilled about their career, most people fall somewhere between loving it and hating it.
The largest portion of workers (38%) feel fairly neutral about their jobs. It’s not exactly a flex, but it’s better than actively disliking it, which 15% do. Another 12% say they hate their jobs.
Meanwhile, 19% say they like their jobs and 16% say they love them.
Generationally speaking, the survey found some major variations. That’s because one generation was the clear winner when it came to being the most unhappy at work, which was true across categories.
Stereotypes have always abounded about the youngest generation being lazy and anti-work, so it could be easy to assume Gen Z is the most unhappy. But the least happy in this survey? That was Gen X: 34% of those ages 46 to 61 said they dislike their jobs, compared with 26% of millennials and just 22% of Gen Zers.
Likewise, 53% of Gen Xers said they would quit if they didn’t have to work, compared with 46% of millennials and 36% of Gen Zers. And 29% stay only because they can’t find anything better. Just 19% of millennials and 18% of Gen Zers felt similarly.
This might not be so surprising, though, given Gen X’s cynical vibe and being called “the original quiet quitters.”
The research was also able to classify respondents into six different groups based upon not just their feelings about their jobs, but also on how those feelings showed up at work. And the findings revealed that most people are faking enthusiasm.
Leading the pack were the 37% classified as “The Performer,” or folks who act like everything is great almost all of the time, yet actively dread work a few times a week. In second place came “The Undercover Job Hunter,” which represented 26% of the respondents. This group seems to like their jobs enough, but they’re also using work time to quietly job-hunt. Another 20% were “The Stuck” workers, who were only staying put because they couldn’t find another job, followed by “The Daily Dreaders,” a group representing the 16% who actively dread each and every day of their working lives.
Plenty of workers are putting on a show. But 13% aren’t faking anything at all. That’s because they’re in what the survey calls the “Genuinely Happy” group. They like their jobs and don’t need to fake a smile around their coworkers. Then there are “The Silent Sufferers,” the 10% who are quietly miserable but haven’t told a soul.
Regardless of the fact that not everyone is a “Performer,” performing does seem to be a normalized part of the workweek: 86% of respondents said that in the past week alone, they acted more enthusiastic about work than they actually felt—with 39% doing so a few times and 25% on most days. And 11% said they were faking enthusiasm constantly. Only 14% were always being real.
In other words, some workers genuinely hate their jobs (looking at you, Gen X). However, there are a whole lot of workers who are well-versed in faking it at least some of the time, a whole lot who are just muddling through, and only a few who are showing up as themselves most of the time.
Modern workers may not be skilled in finding jobs they like. But they are downright experts at feigning enthusiasm.
