Lawyers no longer the happiest at work

By Vicky Anderson on Jan 24, 08 07:01 AM

IN what psychologists consider to be the most depressing week of the year, international recruitment consultancy Badenoch & Clark’s latest quarterly Happiness At Work Index has revealed that one in five (21%) British office workers, which equates to 6.1 million people, are unhappy at work.

More worryingly for employers, 48% anticipate changing jobs in 2008, and 15%, or 4.4 million workers, say they will make sure this definitely happens this year.

However, professionals in Liverpool are amongst the UK’s happiest workforce compared to other UK regions. Only 14%, far below the national average of 21%, are miserable at work right now. There are also quite upbeat about their job prospects in 2008. Over a fifth (21%) have no concern over 2008’s job market.

The unhappiest professions continue to be HR (29%) and IT (25%) consultants – consistently amongst the most dissatisfied profession each quarter. For the first time in three quarterly Happiness At Work Indexes, lawyers are not the most content (one in five / 20% are currently unhappy). In contrast, only 10% of office based retail and/or catering professionals are feeling disheartened.