UK Working Nation finds over 50s are happiest workers

Employees over the age of 50 are a lot more happy in their working lives than their younger counterparts according to research which shows that 30-45 year olds are prone to mid-career depression. The survey interviewed 3,800 people across the generations.

The Vodafone UK Working Nation report found that the age group most depressed about their job prospects were the 31-35 year olds.  This group topped the poll for feeling undervalued (59%), unfulfilled (49%) and de-motivated (43%).

Generation ‘Y’, the under 30s, were much more optimistic about changing jobs with 45% saying they’d be doing a different job for a different organisation in the next 5 years and some 50% saying that their jobs were rewarding.

Most startling of all perhaps was the over 65s 97% of whom felt ‘enabled’ in their work and who said they were more relaxed and satisfied with their work than at any other time in their lives.

The survey concludes that the stresses of family life are the key reasons why 30 and 40 year olds go through a phase of career depression.  Sonia Abrahams, senior research consultant at Opinion Leader, the agency who undertook the research, says that the more optimistic Generation Y need to temper their predictions about future happiness in the workplace:

The findings from our cross-generational workshops demonstrate clearly that these predictions do not take account of a feeling of mid-career depression brought on by the pressures of the family-life stage. This consensus did not come only from those currently in their early thirties, but also from those more contented workers in their forties, fifties and sixties who have emerged on the other side. By most, it is seen as inevitable.