For individuals, workplace happiness goes up and down: some peak on Mondays, others can’t stand the start of the week. But on average, things stay the same, at least in an economy running at nearly full employment. In the third quarterly CNBC|SurveyMonkey Workplace Happiness index, American workers report consistent and positive scores across all five key indicators of happiness: pay, autonomy, opportunity, recognition, and meaning.
While happiness abounds—particularly in certain industries (this quarter, Construction, Real Estate, and Technology are tops)—a sizable proportion of workers feel besieged by emerging threats. More than a quarter of all workers (27%) in the new survey say they are worried that the job they have now will be eliminated within the next five years as a result of new technology, robots, or artificial intelligence.
Although technology is perceived as a threat to many, by nearly 4-to-1 more American workers are hopeful rather than fearful about the changes technology is likely to bring to their lives over the coming five years.
Despite the talk of robots and artificial intelligence, workers still value the human, value-oriented aspect that a good job can provide. More than nine in 10 employed people say it is both important to them to work for a company with clearly stated values (92%) and that they work for a company whose values are aligned with their own personal values (91%). These results vary little by age, race, gender, salary, full-time or part-time status, or job level.
Read more about our polling methodology here.
Click through all the results in the interactive toplines below:
Question text:
Which one of the following issues matters MOST to you right now?
Which of the following best describes you?
Overall, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with your current job?
How well do you think you are paid for the work you do?
How would you rate the opportunities your company provides for you to advance your career?
How much do you think your contributions at work are valued by your colleagues?
How much control do you have at work over the tasks you do, the way in which you do them, or the timing of when you do them?
How meaningful is your work to you?
Which of the following is the most important factor in your overall happiness at work?
Aside from a higher salary, what is the one change that would most improve your job satisfaction?
Thinking ahead to the changes that technology may bring over the next five years and what it will mean to you personally, are you more hopeful or more fearful?
Which comes closest to how you feel about the quest to advance the field of artificial intelligence?
Do you think computers will someday be able to tell right from wrong?
Which do you think poses a greater threat to humanity?
How worried are you that the job you have now will be eliminated within the next five years as a result of new technology, robots, or artificial intelligence?
Which of the following statements comes closest to your view, even if neither is exactly right?
If you were to apply to a new job, would you prefer for your application to be initially screened by a human or by a computer algorithm, or would it make no difference to you?
How important is it to you to work for a company with clearly stated values?
How important is it to you to work for a company whose values are aligned with your own personal values?
Have you ever left a job because the company you worked for did something that was morally unacceptable to you?
If in the future the company you work for does something that is morally unacceptable to you, how likely are you to leave because of that?
*employees *businesses
