By Anna Patty
The freedom you have to do your job and the support you get from colleagues and bosses is more likely to make you happy than your pay packet, a new study has found.
And while working longer hours might help make you more successful, it is also more likely to make you miserable once you start clocking up more than 40 each week.
A new Curtin University analysis of national data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey also suggests you are more likely to be satisfied working for a small business instead of a larger company.
Report author Associate Professor Rebecca Cassells from the Curtin Business School says the new study reveals that Australians who work for themselves or in small businesses, in the not-for-profit or government sector and workers that can do some of their work from home each week are more likely to be satisfied in their jobs.
Associate Professor Rebecca Cassells from the Curtin Business School.
Former Apple executive Diana Ryall is 70 and works as a career coach and mentor because she loves her job. The survey found people are more likely to work past the age of 70 for the same reason.
"I always thought at 70 that I would step back from work but ... the work I do is what I am passionate about," she says.
The study: Happy Workers: How Satisfied are Australians at Work? found people working for smaller firms have higher levels of job satisfaction that those at bigger companies.
"Big corporations can learn from smaller ones when it comes to having a happier workforce," Associate Professor Cassells said.
Diana Ryall is 70 years old and is still working because she loves it.Credit: Tim Lumsdaine
The analysis of data from 17,000 people across the country, including 11,000 with jobs, found the major key to happiness was the job itself.
"We can see through our analysis it's the job itself and how you are able to go about your work and who you have beside you and management practices," Associate Professor Cassells said.
Rhonda Brighton-Hall, chief executive officer of the company and think-tank Making Work Absolutely Human, commissioned the report and said it showed "it's what you do, how you are able to go about your work and who is alongside you that matters the most when it comes to job satisfaction".
Other key findings of the report include:
- About 40 per cent of Australian workers report being 'very satisfied' with their job security and 36 per cent with their flexibility to balance work and non-work commitments.
- Generations X and Y are more likely to report being dissatisfied in their job than other generations.
- Higher levels of education levels do not necessarily result in greater satisfaction at work.
- Women are more likely to be "very satisfied" in their job than men – 31 per cent compared to 27 per cent.
- Satisfaction with job flexibility and hours of work decrease rapidly beyond 38 hours per week.
- 35 per cent of community and personal service workers report being very satisfied in their job overall, while 26 per cent of accommodation and food services workers report being dissatisfied.
- A higher proportion of employees in the private sector report being dissatisfied with their job overall (20 per cent) compared to government (14 per cent) and not-for-profit (12 per cent) sector employees.
- Australians who work for themselves or in micro-businesses are more likely to report being very satisfied with their job than those in big companies.
- People who report being 'very satisfied' with their job overall earn a lower average amount each week than those that report being 'satisfied'.