Happiness@Work - Stress Peaks As Millennials Age

Happiness is dear to everyone. In earlier times when jobs were scarce, happiness at work was not an important consideration. Things have changed dramatically now-a days. Here are the highlights of a survey and study on this critical issue among employees in the BFSI sector:

We had 300 participants, of which 27% were women and 73% were men. Age wise, 29% were in the 20-30 age group, 25% in the 30-40 age group, 25% in the 40-50 age group and 21% were in the above 50 age group. Mumbai, Bhopal and Surat were the top 3 cities from where participants joined the study. IT, HR and Marketing were the top 3 departments. Employees from approximately 40 organizations participated in the study.

WORKING WITH COLLEAGUES

Nearly half (47%) of the respondents say that they get more happiness from colleagues in their own age group, compared to older and younger people. But, when it comes to people in other age groups, youngsters are twice as likely to generate feelings of happiness than older people (32% vs 15%). Younger people are clearly better at radiating happiness than older people.

Is there any exception? We found two. IT professionals who participated in the study say something different. Among them, 41% say they derive more happiness from younger colleagues compared to 38% from colleagues of the same age. The other exception is that as you climb the age ladder, people are increasingly deriving happiness from youngsters. Half of the people above 40 derive happiness from youngsters, compared to 30% in the 30-40 age bracket.

We also found differences between males and females. Females had a much more pronounced differences in whom they got happiness from compared to men, implying that men probably found it easier to get along with people in other age groups, compared to women.

Does the coming in of a new CEO impact employee happiness? Our survey says that the people who are happier and the people who felt no change were nearly equal (both ~40%). Among men, this ratio remained the same. But among women, only a quarter (27%) felt happier, indicating that this change is not very positive for women. Mumbai residents too showed the same trend, ie a lower enthusiasm for new a CEO coming in.