A full-time working adult spends about half their life at their place of employment, so loving the career path you chose as your own is paramount to feeling satisfied and happy with your life. Everyone is different, and some people are content sitting in a cubicle for 8 hours of the day, toiling over data, spreadsheets, and paper, and some people are happy working with their hands, being a part of something greater than themselves, and seeing the fruits of their labour first hand.
But who is truly the happiest at their job? If you were to ask most people, we doubt that their first impulse would be to pick construction. But according to a recent survey by TINYpulse, who surveyed more than 500 organizations, 300K employees, and 12 distinct industries, that’s exactly what came out on top.
Here’s the full list:
What were the two major factors that led to employees self-reporting themselves as the happiest industry?
They found two major drivers:
1. Satisfaction with colleagues
2. Satisfaction with the nature of one’s job and projects
Let’s start with #1. As we’ve mentioned in the past we work with a fantastic group of people at First Call Energy, because we believe that our employees are our #1 resource. If our employees are happy, our clients are happy, and everyone wins.
But beyond that, the men and women in construction are generally very supportive of one another. They are known for their after work, bonding activities. When you kick back for a beer (or 5) with you co-workers, you’ll find you enjoy being around them more on a day-to-day basis.
Jay Walter, who was featured in the report and is a General Manager of an Australian home-building company, reflected on what makes the construction industry unique: “This is an industry that has many walks of life with people working in an office to people out on site. One thing that unites everybody at the end of the day is kicking back for a little bit with a few beers and talking stuff out—the good and the bad. If people have an issue, they will come see a manager during office hours, but sometimes the best environment is when people can relax a bit and just have a drink alongside a manager.”
For number two, we’ve all known employees like this. A new hire, who seemed great for the job, came on and realized that they hate the day-to-day activities that go on. They’re too new to know what they love to do and what they hate, so they’re surprised when they actually get on the job site.
With construction, the respondents revealed that hidden surprises in the construction industry were rare. That you, generally, knew what type of job you were signing up for.
All in all, this is good news, since Alberta’s construction industry is the #1 employer of Albertans, which may translate into being one of the happiest provinces in Canada.
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