Career

Job dissatisfaction kicks in at age 35

Why this is the pivotal age for people to start feeling unhappy at work.

We hate to be the bearers of bad news, but if you’re approaching 35, you might be entering the worst years of your working life. Well, if this new study is anything to go by. According to a survey of 2000 people by Happiness Works on behalf of recruitment company Robert Half, older workers are less happy than their younger colleagues.

In particular, they identified 35 as the age when things started to go downhill. They found that one in ten 18-34 year olds were unhappy at work, but when it came to over 35-year-olds, one in six were unhappy.

This is apparently because as we get older and progress up the career ladder our jobs become more stressful. It seems that the added responsibilities and pressures that come with senior positions lead us to be unhappier in the office.

It was also found that trying to balance work and family could make people in their late thirties enjoy work less when compared to their responsibility-free under 30s colleagues.

Interestingly, they also identified that older people felt less appreciated in their workplaces. When it came to the over 55 category, nearly a third said they didn’t feel valued, and a quarter said they didn’t have any friends at work.

It isn’t all doom and gloom the older you get though. The majority of people over 35 they spoke to enjoyed the freedom and creativity that came with a more senior position. Meanwhile, 68 per cent of over 35s said they could be creative at work in comparison to just 38 per cent of 18-34 year olds.

Via Grazia

According to the Robert Half survey these are the happiest groups of people:

Happiest field – marketing and creative

Happiest tenure – first year

Happiest role – senior executive

Happiest company size – 100 to 249

Happiest age – 18 to 34

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