As much as work is can be essential part of our lives, having a nice time while on the clock is not always part of the deal. Surprisingly, easily more than half of all respondents said they approved of the vibe at work. These aren’t overwhelming majorities, but they demonstrate that U.S. companies have gotten better at seeing to their employees’ needs and comfort while on the job. We asked employees, “Does your current company have a great office vibe?”
The information comes from the latest reading of an ongoing survey by Comparably. Over 10,000 employees responded to the question.
Both genders answered “yes” more often than “no.” Women were slightly more positive overall. The flip side of the story is that 42% of men and 39% of women do NOT like the vibes at their offices, which is still a dispiritingly large number considering how much time we all spend at work.
Hispanic/Latino respondents were most likely to say “yes” to the office vibe question, beating overall responses from both genders. Least positive were African-American respondents, who came in two points lower than overall male responses as seen above. Asian/Pacific Islanders and Caucasians – along with the “Other” grouping – were in line with overall responses.
Employees from HR and the Executive suite were most approving of their office vibe in general, but workers from those two departments are often who we find at the top of these department breakdowns. Workers in IT, Operations, and Legal, however, came in below overall averages for all employees.
Vibes impress less with age, according to a breakdown of responses by age group. We tend to get pricklier about the types of environments and people we would choose to be around as we age, and many workplace tend towards younger workers. Therefore, it makes sense an employee in his or her early 60s would be far less comfortable among his coworkers than a worker in his or her mid 20s.
Interestingly, responses did not vary much among those respondents with different education levels. Those with just a high school diploma seemed just as pleased with their vibes at work as those who had completed a Master’s degree – an encouraging figure in terms of fairness.
Latest reading as of Sept. 18.
