It’s Not You: Work IS Getting Worse

If you watch sitcoms from the 1950s, you’ll note that Ward Cleaver and the rest of the gang always seemed so pleased with themselves when they came home from work. Does that mean that being at work is less fun than it used to be? Answer: yes.

A new study shows that modern business practices for professional employees are, in fact, raising stress levels, increasing distrust of employers and making people less likely to help out their co-workers.

Researchers from NC State University, Florida State University and Ohio State University pored through 80 years worth of workplace and employee data and found that businesses have increasingly been putting measures in place to boost productivity that are also (unintentionally) making their employees more miserable. These measures range from layoffs and outsourcing jobs to putting people onto teams that work together on only short-term projects.

But it’s not just bad news for employees, the employers may be hurting themselves as well. A drop in employee loyalty can make it harder to retain talented staff, and people are less likely to put forth their best effort for a company they distrust. For that matter, co-workers are less likely to help each other out when they are primarily concerned with saving their own jobs – and that hurts both workplace efficiency and the quality of the work itself.

A paper describing the research will be published in the August issue of Social Problems. In the meantime, welcome to the working week!