New research debunks the ‘unhappy worker’ narrative, but finds most still believe it

• As a sociologist who studies how people think and feel about work, I’ve been struck by the unflattering cultural narrative that has intensified around work in recent years.
• A Wall Street Journal headline from November 2023 summarized the sentiment aptly: “Why is Everyone So Unhappy at Work Right Now?”

• Some interpreted the tumult in the labour market as evidence that workers were simultaneously fed up and empowered to seek better working conditions.
• But not all commentators have bought into this narrative.
• If the portrayal of the Great Resignation — especially its purported personal causes — tainted work attitudes, then widespread discontent should be apparent.

Americans’ perception of work

• The distance between the two represents the perception glitch.
• That’s a 30-point perception glitch.
• Thirty-two per cent of workers describe their own work as highly stressful, but 69 per cent believe that most Americans are in highly stressful jobs.
• Underpaid: When you think about the pay you get for your work, do you feel you are underpaid, paid about right, or overpaid?
• That’s a 39-point perception glitch.

‘Everything is terrible but I’m fine’

• They could also reflect a cognitive bias in which we pay attention to negative information about others, revealing our tendency toward individual optimism but social pessimism.
• My research with Paul Glavin, a sociologist at McMaster University, has started to measure the consequences of the “unhappy worker” narrative.
• And yet, after years of negative rhetoric, a mindset shift towards believing work isn’t a necessary evil couldn’t hurt.

Scott Schieman receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.