People Start Hating Their Jobs at Age 35, Study Says (bloomberg.com)

Older workers tend to be more unhappy in their jobs than their younger colleagues, according to a survey of more than 2,000 U.K. employees by human resource firm Robert Half U.K. One in six British workers over age 35 said they were unhappy -- more than double the number for those under 35. Nearly a third of people over 55 said they didn't feel appreciated, while 16 percent said they didn't have friends at work. From a report: There's the stress of being in a high-ranking position -- or the disappointment of not making it far enough up the career ladder. True, salaries are higher, but life starts to get more expensive. "Work-life balance" starts to mean taking care of children, rather than just personal stress management. "There comes a time when either you haven't achieved success, work has burned you out, or lived experience tells you family is more important," said Cary Cooper, a workplace researcher at Manchester Business School. "You ask yourself: 'What am I doing this for?'"

Comments

How older people are treated

[burtosis]

If you aren't in management then you start to get dumped on around 35. Just look at who is hired after 40 with a good resume and lots of experience vs a ok resume and little experience at 25. Perhaps if management, in general, didn't crap all over thier employees this wouldn't be nearly as pronounced.

Do these people settle?

[HalAtWork]

Are these the same type of people who get stockholm syndrome working for shitty people and under horrible policies?

The people you work with and workplace culture have a lot to do with happiness, I've convinced my wife and other people in my family to keep looking for something better even though they were making enough to be comfortable, simply because they were unhappy at work. Most have found something with equal or better pay and much nicer bosses/coworkers, and it made all the difference in their lives. No longer coming home feeling like shit and ready for a drink, too anxious to sleep well at night, etc.

Don't settle, if you're not happy then keep looking.

The employer yes, the work, almost never

[unfortunateson]

I'm in my 50s and I never have hated the work to be done: I'm lucky enough to be in an industry with near-constant change in technology, and have carved out positions for myself where I'm nearly indispensible, and become the expert. (Yes, I'm being vague)

That's obviously not easy for anyone to do, but it's been very satisfying for me.

On the other hand, I've hated my employers at times: companies that don't support their employees, don't enable them to do what's best for the customers or the company, and in one case, kept me hanging by golden handcuffs for most of a year with almost no work to do.

Re:Its called: Adulting

[Ol Olsoc]

Between 25 and 35 the world is your oyster and the sky is the limit. From 35 to 45 fast living is catching up with the demands of family, you may have teenagers, and possibly overspent your credit cards. The mortgage on the house is feeling heavy. From 45 to 55 you settle into reality and just plough on, or reinvent yourself with a career change. From 55 to 65, your planning your exit strategy.

Or you can plan your retirement/exit strategy a whole lot earlier. I had three retirement accounts by my mid 20's.

I've seen altogether too many people use the plan you mentioned, and then suddenly at age 55, they start planning, often in a panic.

I retired at 55, while most people are only starting to think seriously about it. And can report that while I loved my career, retirement is sooooo much better.

Re:Software development

[Stinky Cheese Man]

I hate the phrase "Human Resources". A resource is something you extract and burn, then discard the ashes.

I'm still looking for an alternative to "resource" when talking about a fellow worker. The best I have so far is "team member".

This is because...

[AmazingRuss]

... by that time, you have most likely developed some competence, and you can see the vast array of morons and fakers that surround you. You're confronted with a choice: Scream at them until they do the right thing, or just let things fall to shit. Either choice pays the same, so to shit things will go.

It's not

[rsilvergun]

but nobody's giving them any answers. For all I've heard from the last few weeks about Hate this and Racism that I've heard almost nothing that addresses why these people felt they had to turn to Nazism and the KKK. I'm guessing the media at large isn't allowed to talk about economic issues, especially given that they're owned by billionaires that benefit from the working class's worsening situation.

There's alternative media on Youtube. Look for the videos pushing Bernie Sanders and the like.

It actually was the answer

[rsilvergun]

the drop in population combined with wartime economies and a massive spike in new technology to feed the war machine is what got us out of what was looking like a perpetual recession/depression. Having to rebuild Europe helped to. Most of history has been about prying enough money away from our ruling class for civilization to proceed despite their best efforts (since if you're rich the last thing you want is anything upsetting the apple cart, seeing as how you own the cart and all the apples).