19% of us are miserable at work — here’s the solution

Jobbio’s Kirstie McDermott explores why so many people are unhappy at work and offers a solution.

Image source: Pexels.

Eyebrow-raising figures emerged from Gallup in its 2022 State of the Global Workplace Report recently. The analytics and advisory company reported that 60 per cent of people are emotionally detached at work and 19 per cent of those “are miserable”. Considering that work occupies more of our time than everything else – except for sleep – and that the working week in the UK is 40 hours, this is a lot of time for a lot of people to be unhappy.

Stress is making things worse, and it is an escalating problem. Unsurprisingly, workplace stress, worry, anger and sadness increased in 2020, but these emotions didn’t decrease to pre-pandemic levels in 2021, and instead continued to climb. That year, 44 per cent of employees reported having experienced stress “during a lot of the previous day”.

Burnout too, is a big contributor towards people’s workplace unhappiness. Those experiencing it are 2.6 times more likely to be looking for a new role. While there are many ways in which organisations can tackle the root causes of their employees’ malaise, root and branch change takes time.

For those who are struggling in a 9-5 which is making them miserable, something needs to change. Often, the quickest and simplest solution isn’t to hang on and wait for things to get better, but it can simply be to switch to a new job. If you’re at that point, then we have three roles to consider below, and there are plenty more opportunities on the AltFi Job Board too.

Senior Frontend Engineer, Crowdcube

Location: Cardiff.

The Job: Crowdcube is looking for a Senior Frontend Engineer with experience of modern JavaScript frameworks to join its talented engineering team. You will have the opportunity to help define how it does front-end, and deliver the best possible experience for customers.

The Responsibilities: You will be influencing discussions around architecture and will play a key part in conversations about the evolution of the platform.

The Benefits: Tangible benefits include 25 days holiday, bank holidays plus extra holiday for tenure, a pension scheme at 4% matched, private medical scheme with AXA including dental and optical cash plans, as well as access to Sunlight, a learning and development platform with a £1,000 training and wellness budget per year.

Find out more about the Senior Frontend Engineer role or discover more opportunities at Crowdcube.

Product Designer (Investments), Moneybox

Location: London.

The Job: A mid-level role, the Product Designer will join Moneybox’s Savings and Investing team. You’ll be accountable for every feature you design from conception to implementation, launching features which touch every customer. You will work alongside other designers at a range of levels and collaboratively with product managers and developers in a lean environment.

The Responsibilities: Working directly with the product, insights and engineering team to understand the user base, business needs, related requirements and technical constraints, you’ll do full stack product design, taking responsibility for all aspects of the features you design.

The Benefits: Flexible working, company share options, enhanced parental pay and leave, a learning and development allowance and full access to Udemy are on offer.

More on the Product Designer role is available as are more opportunities at Moneybox.

Incident Manager, Yapily

Location: London.

The Job: Yapily is growing quickly, and its Incident Management program requires an experienced Incident Manager to develop, implement and manage processes and operations, to ensure the best possible customer experience with Yapily.

The Responsibilities: You will continuously improve and document the major incident management processes in line with feedback from key stakeholders such as engineering, customer support, legal and compliance, and business leadership. You’ll be responsible for creation, progress and communication of agreed action plans.

The Benefits: You’ll get share options (issued within a year of joining, after successfully completing probation), enhanced family leave, a pension contribution and a learning and development budget.

Find out about the Incident Manager job and discover other openings at Yapily too.

If you’re miserable in your 9-5 then it could be time for a change. Make the AltFi Job Board your first port of call: there are thousands of job opportunities to discover every week