Employees happy but overworked, survey finds

Most worker are satisfied with their jobs, but also feel that they are overworked, according to a new survey.

The recruitireland.com survey of 1,200 workers shows 61% of workers are overworked in their job.

And while 74% of respondents expect that they will change jobs within the next 12 months, it seems that money is no longer the key factor. Only 18% would change for an increase in pay as opposed to 48% who would change for a career enhancing opportunity.

One third of workers stated that they would take a cut in salary in order to work for an organisation which helped make a difference to society.

Aoife Curtin of RecruitIreland.com said: "A key result is that job satisfaction was high among the majority of workers with 60% saying they derive satisfaction from their job and 55% feeling challenged by their work.

"However, with 58% of respondents stating that they would consider retraining for a completely new career path and a further 26% who have done so already, there are challenges for employers in attracting and retaining staff. The results indicate that employers need to be more creative in terms of the tasks, roles and responsibilities they offer potential employees in order to attract the best candidates."

While 65% of workers rely on private transport, namely their car, to get to work, commuting does not seem to be a major problem. Only 17% of respondents stated that they would change job to a more convenient location in order to reduce commuting time.

Asked what they would change about their jobs to improve their happiness, just 36% of workers said they would change their salary.

When asked how the Government had assisted workers over the last number of years the result was a very mixed response. 76% felt they had not done enough to build up a sufficient transport network and an overwhelming 80% felt they had not performed in the area of supporting a work life balance for workers in a stressful, frenetic, constantly changing working environment. However 56% thought that the Government had achieved success in generating new jobs.

Eliminating future financial worries does not seem to be a priority. When it came to pensions 44% stated they had not yet started a pension scheme or retirement savings plan. However, starting a pension scheme may be difficult for some workers as 46% of respondents stated that they spend over 30% or more of their take home pay on either rent or mortgage repayments. A further 20% said that they spend over 30% of their take home pay on childcare costs.

On the subject of respondents' views on Lotto wins, Aoife Curtin said: "Surprisingly, only one in five respondents said they would leave work straight away following a significant lotto win. A further 25% would stay in work while they considered how to spend their Lotto win. The largest group, 40%, would stay working knowing they now had no financial worries."