According to an Opinion Way poll for Anact, 4 out of 10 working people plan to change jobs for a job that would be more meaningful, published on the occasion of the opening of the Week for the quality of life at work, which takes place from June 20 to 24, 2022.
To find out more about the perceptions and expectations of working people in terms of meaning at work, Anact asked Opinion Way to carry out a survey on this subject. The results show that:
- More than 8 out of 10 working people now believe that their work makes sense (39% absolutely, 45% rather).
- 2 out of 10 question the meaning of their work more than before the health crisis (with a higher proportion of young people, public sector workers and managers).
- 4 out of 10 would consider leaving their job for a more meaningful job in the next two years (with a higher proportion of young people, managers and women).
Discrepancies between representations of “meaningful work” and reality
For those interviewed, 3 dimensions contribute to giving meaning to work:
- the feeling of usefulness of a job (whether it is to feel useful to society, to the population, to beneficiaries/customers, or to the company),
- the concordance between personal and professional values,
- the capacity of work to contribute to everyone’s development (possibility to express oneself at work, to learn, to progress, and to evolve professionally, etc.).
However, a number of working people express a gap between what they would expect from a job “that makes sense” and their current job.
- In particular, they deplore insufficient remuneration (34%) and a lack of recognition (32% of workers).
- They would like to be able to develop more and progress in their career (31%) but also to express themselves and make proposals about their work (23%)
- They aspire to managerial practices more in line with their values (32%), work carried out in better conditions (24%) but also a positive impact of their work in terms of ecology (36%).
“The proportion of working people considering having a meaningful job is remarkably high in the spring of 2022 (84%). Yet 4 out of 10 plan to leave their job within two years with the prospect of a job that would make more sense to them. These data – which may at first appear contradictory – only underline the widely shared aspiration to be able to do one’s job well” stresses Richard Abadie, general manager of Anact. “The survey also shows that far from representing an essentially individual quest for meaning at work, responding to these inspirations involves collective approaches to better recognize the work, to carry it out in good conditions, to build career paths for all etc QVCT approaches (quality of life and working conditions) are levers for progress in these directions. The Week for the quality of life at work 2022 will be an opportunity to share benchmarks and testimonials to deploy them. »
Survey: From May 13 to 20, 2022, a sample of 1,034 working people was interviewed by self-administered online questionnaire. The sample was drawn up using the quota method, taking into account the criteria of sex, age, professional situation and region of residence.
>> Find all the results of the survey
The program of events for the Week for the quality of life at work is available on the website semaineqvt.anact.fr.
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