How Happy Is Your Generation At Work?

Exploring the varying levels of workplace happiness across different generations

Generational differences are no secret. After all, every generation comes of age under different circumstances, instilling different work values in each. These divergent values can sometimes clash, affecting the overall happiness of each generation at work.

Building employee happiness not only improves company culture, but also employee engagement, retention, productivity, and performance. But improving employee happiness is clearly not a one-size-fits-all initiative. After all, each generation is different. This is why we at Cangrade recently conducted a study that uncovers how happy each generation is at work, to best understand your employees' happiness and well-being so you can address it.
 

The survey included 608 individuals from the four generations that are still actively engaged in the workforce to understand how workplace attitudes differ across generations and identify the key factors that drive workplace happiness. We asked the following generations about their workplace happiness and what influences it

• Baby Boomers
• Gen X
• Millennials
• Gen Z

Let’s take a look at how happy each of these generations really is at work.

Workplace Happiness by Generation

 

Baby Boomers

Our research found that Baby Boomers are the least unhappy generation at work, with only 9% of employees reporting that they are unhappy at work. This generation is proud of the work they do, revealing that 50% of Baby Boomers agreed with the statement “I like telling people what I do for a living.”

Gen X

This generation reported that 76% are happy at work, which means they are one of the happiest generations at work. Gen X highly values trust, with 91% agreeing that their manager trusts them, making them the most trusted generation at work.

Millennials

In line with Gen X, this generation also reported that 76% are happy at work. We learned that Millennials need to feel proud of the work they do, with the statement "I am proud of the work I do" being the most highly correlated to their workplace happiness.

Gen Z

26% of Gen Z employees are unhappy at work – the highest of any generation. Their workplace happiness is highly correlated with having a work environment that brings out the best in them. As you might expect, 17% of Gen Z answered that they think about quitting their job. This generation is the most likely to job hop.

So, Why Is This Important?

Knowing how happy your employees are at work, by generation, allows you to tailor your employee engagement and well-being programs. To do this, you may want to start by asking:

• How can we create a work environment that brings out the best in Gen Z employees to build their engagement at our organization today?
• How can we maintain Gen X and Millennial employees' happiness and continue to keep them satisfied?
• How can we ensure our Baby Boomer employees continue to be proud of their work?

Understanding what drives your teams’ happiness at work can improve your employee engagement and retention.

Download the full study for more data on employees’ happiness by generation and tactics for improving it.

Author Bio

Dr. Katherine Chia received her Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from Florida State University. She is currently a Research Scientist at Cangrade, interested in the intersection between cognitive science and artificial intelligence. During her Ph.D. program, she worked for IBM and investigated how to use speech samples to predict dementia status in older adults. As Kat neared the end of her doctoral program, she realized she wanted to continue scaling her abilities to impact the world positively.