While we’d all like to work in offices that buzz along happily and harmoniously all during the workday, the truth is it takes a special mix of managers, employees, and policies to forge an office with a truly great, nourishing atmosphere. We asked employees to anonymously answer the question, “Does your current company have a great office vibe?”
This information comes from the latest reading of an ongoing study by Comparably. Over 10,000 employees responded to the question.
Almost two-thirds of all employees answered “yes” to the question. More than one-third said “no,” meaning they would rate their workplace vibe at least “less than great,” if not truly negatively.
When broken up by ethnicity, respondents in most group replied “yes” more often than either overall males or females. The Hispanic/Latino responses were the most positive, followed by the Asian/Pacific Islanders. Caucasian and African-American responses were slightly lower.
As usual, employees from HR and the Executive suite voted “yes” more often than overall averages for all employees. These two departments can be counted on, often, to validate their company’s positive aspects and answer supportively whenever their company’s qualities are questioned. IT and Operations are at the other end of the spectrum, dipping close to 50/50 positive and negative responses on the question regarding the quality of their office vibe.
Positive responses drop steadily with age. Gen Z respondents (18-25) were the most positive, with workers aged 61-65 the least positive. This implies that modern offices are attuned to the modes most attractive to younger workers, but that older workers feel less and less comfortable. Employees aged 61-65 will most likely have worked in an era where employee satisfaction was of far less concern to the employers and, be extension, the employees.
Similarly, we see that the longer a worker has been active in the workforce, the less likely they are to be enthusiastic about the vibe at their office. Entry-level employees answered “yes” nearly 10% more often than workers who had been on the job for more than 10 years.
Employees in San Francisco, Denver, and Boston were most positive about their work environments, and beat the overall average for all employees nationwide. Workers in Chicago and Seattle were most negative.
Latest reading as of June 11.
