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Our feeling about work: Uninspired, uncertain, and not very optimistic

Here’s the good news: Employees feel a little bit more optimistic about work this year than they did last year.Here’s the bad news: They’re still mostly down in the dumps.The consulting firm RogenSi has been surveying workers all over the world for the past three years about their attitudes toward work. Their findings, based on 1,200 workers worldwide, are pretty bleak.Take worker optimism.
Uninspired, unmotivated? You're not alone, according to a worldwide study.
Uninspired, unmotivated? You're not alone, according to a worldwide study.Getty Images stock / Today

Here’s the good news: Employees feel a little bit more optimistic about work this year than they did last year.

Here’s the bad news: They’re still mostly down in the dumps.

The consulting firm RogenSi has been surveying workers all over the world for the past three years about their attitudes toward work. Their findings, based on 1,200 workers worldwide, are pretty bleak.

Take worker optimism. Although it’s up a bit from last year, the report finds that just 12 percent of employees worldwide feel optimistic.

That could be because they don’t feel very inspired by their bosses. Only 14 percent said their leaders were inspirational. Very few said they felt like the bosses were creating a work environment they found motivational.

In general, people’s feelings about work seem to start with the prefix “un.”

From RogenSi's report:

“Workers, it appears, are still relatively uninspired by their workplaces: while they are knuckling down and getting on with the job, the payback for them, judging by their responses, has been a lack of clarity and communication in where their organisations are heading and a profound sense of feeling undervalued by their leaders, leading to a lack of respect for those above them. These are sour ingredients for a fruitful workplace.”

Ouch.

Tip of the hat to The Wall Street Journal, which first wrote about the study.

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