Job Satisfaction

If you're lucky enough to have a job in this economy, chances are that you dislike it. Just 45% of employees are happy in their positions, the lowest level in 22 years, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Conference Board. In 1987, when the New York nonprofit group first began collecting the data, more than 61% said they were satisfied. The recession, and the extra work that many employees who survived layoffs have been saddled with, play a role in the decline -- but not as much as some might think.

If you're lucky enough to have a job in this economy, chances are that you dislike it. Just 45% of employees are happy in their positions, the lowest level in 22 years, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Conference Board. In 1987, when the New York nonprofit group first began collecting the data, more than 61% said they were satisfied. The recession, and the extra work that many employees who survived layoffs have been saddled with, play a role in the decline -- but not as much as some might think.

In the latest entry in the great debate over quantity time vs. quality time, a team of Boston researchers has found that the quality of father-child relationships seems linked to a man's job satisfaction while the amount of time he spends depends on his wife's independence and self-worth. Boston University psychologist Frances K.

When her Irvine office began laying off workers in a lousy economy, Deborah Haas did what every employee fearful of being the next one booted is doing these days: She got busy. An executive assistant to the head of a furniture company, she became the receptionist, event planner, marketing assistant and office manager. When the catering budget got whacked, she threw on an apron and started whipping up chile lime crab cocktails and carne asada skewers for sales events. Workers like her are fueling a surge of productivity in the U.S. economy.

Hate your job? Love your job? Part of the reason may be your genes, a study suggests. By studying identical twins who grew up in different families, researchers found evidence that genes influence a worker's satisfaction with his job. That may be part of the reason some people seem happy no matter what they do, while others have trouble finding a satisfying job, said industrial psychologist Richard Arvey. The findings do not suggest that people who dislike their jobs are genetically doomed to unhappiness at work.

Patricia G. Walter was an audiologist, helping rehabilitate the hearing impaired, before she became a vice president and financial consultant at Shearson Lehman Hutton in Chicago. Robert L. Bowker was an accountant in the oil business before he started a fast-food restaurant in Hermosa Beach. Darryl A. McDuel is an engineer at Southern California Gas Co. who is going to law school to pursue a new career as a lawyer.

Why do most of the 6.3 million people who hold jobs in the Los Angeles Basin rise near dawn five days a week, pack into polluting automobiles and fight through nerve-wracking commuter traffic to reach what they call work ? Because they enjoy eating three meals a day. Or because they want to feed, clothe, house and educate their families. And also, in the vast majority of cases, because they like what they do, according to Dr. Jerald Jellison, a USC social psychologist.

With seven children to care for and a caseload that quadrupled this past year, U.S. District Judge Stephen G. Larson says he can no longer afford his prestigious lifetime appointment. The 44-year-old, named to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California less than four years ago, is the latest defection in an accelerating nationwide trend toward leaving the federal bench long before retirement age to earn more money in private practice. Vacancies in the federal judiciary are mounting, and too few of the best legal minds are stepping forward to replace them, judicial analysts say. They attribute what they see as a troubling phenomenon to Congress' failure for nearly two decades to pass a significant pay increase for federal judges or to expand their numbers to handle a soaring caseload.

Most Americans grow up with the idea that they will have a satisfying career, yet for many the reality is that work is anything but fulfilling. Experts say, however, that anyone, whether they work on a loading dock or in a corner office, can find satisfaction in their job--or at least find another job that is satisfying. The key is not expecting the job to make you happy.

Employers take heed: It's love--not money--that workers want. Love of work, also known as job satisfaction, is the No. 1 worker concern today, ranking ahead of job security, money, challenge and promotion, according to a national survey of 100 companies undertaken by the Costa Mesa-based Personnel Journal. "The No. 1 ranking of job satisfaction represents a significant change in worker attitudes in the past six months," said Margaret Magnus, editor and associate publisher of the journal.

It used to be a dream job -- making law in the nation's most populous state. But California voters aren't the only ones who've grown frustrated with the Legislature. Increasingly, lawmakers themselves are giving up on the statehouse. Some are dropping reelection bids. Others are leaving for what was once viewed as a step down: local government. And finding top-flight candidates to run for legislative seats has become a challenge. "It's not as much fun as it used to be," said Kevin Spillane, a GOP strategist who recruits Republican candidates for the state Assembly.

With seven children to care for and a caseload that quadrupled this past year, U.S. District Judge Stephen G. Larson says he can no longer afford his prestigious lifetime appointment. The 44-year-old, named to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California less than four years ago, is the latest defection in an accelerating nationwide trend toward leaving the federal bench long before retirement age to earn more money in private practice. Vacancies in the federal judiciary are mounting, and too few of the best legal minds are stepping forward to replace them, judicial analysts say. They attribute what they see as a troubling phenomenon to Congress' failure for nearly two decades to pass a significant pay increase for federal judges or to expand their numbers to handle a soaring caseload.

I've seen my colleagues plunge into rioting mobs, drive into the hills as they exploded with fire and -- on days when the earth shook -- leave their anxious families to rush to crumpled buildings. You think a little bankruptcy scares this crew? You think Chapter 11 has us down? You think we fear the future? Well, yes. Yes. And hell yes. In the ragtag old Los Angeles Times newsroom, emotions run as threadbare as the quarter-century-old carpet. Editors quip about whether their company credit cards will work.

Google Inc. was the top-ranked employer for the second straight year, beating Internet home lender Quicken Loans Inc. and grocery chain Wegmans Food Markets Inc., according to a Fortune magazine poll of employees at 446 companies. The estimated 15,900 employees of the Internet-search company based in Mountain View, Calif., are drawn to the "flexibility, financial security, of course, and the opportunity to get things done," Fortune said.

Rich Gonzalez has everything he needs to fulfill his dream of becoming a major league umpire. He has the skills, the character, the intelligence, the passion. "It's what I want to do with my life," he says. What he may never get, however, is the opportunity. That's because the big league umpire roster has only slightly more turnover than the U.S. Supreme Court. In fact, between 2004 and last season the Supreme Court actually got more new justices (two) than baseball did new umpires (one).

As a mid-career professional with a doctorate in chemistry, Maurice Stephenson appeared made to order for the Los Angeles Unified School District, especially because he was eager to teach at a high-poverty campus in a system woefully short of qualified science teachers. But the honeymoon ended abruptly after less than two years. Fed up with student insolence and administrative impotence, he stalked out of Manual Arts High School on March 12 and never went back.

The Securities and Exchange Commission three weeks ago posted a job opening designed to help prevent employee burnout: an organizational psychologist. The post, which pays $101,000 to $147,978 annually, aims to "improve employee attitudes and satisfaction related to employee retention, job satisfaction, burnout, conflict and stress," according to a listing on the SEC's website. The closing date for applications had been Thursday but was extended until July 9.

In regard to "Service Without a Smile Can Be Deadly" (June 15), I'd like to say a few words on behalf of those folks on the other side of the counter known as employees. Sometimes, new policies imposed by management to achieve what they define as good customer service can create unbearable tension that diminishes employee morale and job satisfaction. I work for a large bank that has imposed a barrage of rules that we must strictly adhere to or risk losing our jobs. We have a supervisor whose sole function is to constantly monitor us and to interview our customers at the office and at home through phone calls and mail questionnaires.

"There are now too many musicians in San Francisco, more than enough to fill all the 'jobs.' What we need is work, not musicians. Stay away from San Francisco. You will find it cheaper in the end." Notice signed "By order, Board of Directors, Local #6, San Francisco" and posted in the American Musician in 1898. * ANYONE who supposes that American musicians have a tough time finding jobs compared with their forebears obviously hasn't looked into the matter.

Some days, the fat man just wants the fat lady to sing. He wishes the holiday season would end already. His back aches, his red suit feels like a spacesuit, his cheeks have gone numb from smiling for 12 hours -- and still the kids keep coming and coming, like ants at a picnic.