There’s a difference between being challenged at work and being overwhelmed. We asked employees to anonymously answer the question, “Are you challenged at work?” While one might expect feelings of being challenged to decrease as one becomes accustomed to their role, our data shows that most workers remain challenged by their jobs throughout their careers.
This information comes courtesy of an ongoing study by Comparably. Over 10,000 employees responded to the query.
Males were 5% more likely to respond “yes” to the question than female employees. The higher number for men may imply that men are most likely to admit being challenged, or it may imply that they are asked to do more at work than their female counterparts.
African-Americans reported being challenged the least of any group. Responses for most ethnicities fell between the above overall averages for males and females. Caucasians reported the same number as overall males, and Hispanic/Latinos and Asian/Pacific Islanders fell between the two gender averages.
All age groups save one answered “yes” between 65 and 70% per%cent of the time. Entry-level workers felt the least challenged, but from there each age bracket is fairly comparably to the one that follows and precedes it. The only outlier is the 51-55 age group, who spike slightly about 70%.
The same constancy is seen when responses are broken down by job experience. Those who had been in the workplace for 6 to 10 years reported “yes” the most often, but the range of averages here is small.
85% of employees from the Executive suite answered “yes” to the question about being challenged. Those respondents as well as respondents from HR had the highest frequency of “yes” responses, and it can be said that workers from both departments have a unique perspective on their workplaces. Down at the other end, responding “yes” far less frequently, were employees from less visible departments like Operations, Customer Support, and Admin.
Men felt more challenged in 11 out of 15 departments on our list. The only departments where women felt more challenged at work were in Admin, Customer Support, IT, and Product.
Latest reading as of Jan 3.
