It’s often purported that East Asian economies are driven by a workaholic labour force who will happily put in the hours to get results. However, this may be a misnomer. A recent study of working conditions in the largest economies in the world has revealed that workers in this region have the lowest job satisfaction at all.
Fed up by lack of agency in company decision making processes, endless uncompensated overtime and generally depressing working conditions, workers in Asia’s G8 and BRIC nations are growing increasingly fed up with the way their companies view their human resources.
Younger generations a less economically rational than their parents, having seen the promised rewards at the end of the tunnel fail to materialise. Instead they are prioritising work-life balance and overall day to day job satisfaction- two areas where many Asian companies fail to deliver. Rate of pay also ties into this, and may explain in part why Indian employees are the least happy of all.
The full employee satisfaction survey in the G8 and BRIC group results, which were compiled by the British-based Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD), are listed below.
1. Canada (G8) – 91%
2. United Kingdom (G8) – 91%
3. Germany (G8) – 86%
3. Italy (G8) – 86%
3. America (G8) – 86%
3. Brazil (BRICS) -86%
7. South Africa (BRICS) – 81%
7. Japan (G8) – 81%
7. France (G8) – 81%
10. China (BRICS) -73%
11. Russia (G8/BRICS) – 60%
12. India (BRICS) – 39%
* Percentages indicate level of satisfaction
