New studies show that government employees are on average much happier than employees in the private sector. Researchers at CareerBliss interviewed thousands of workers in both the private sector and the public sector, and found that government workers were far more positive about their work environment, compensation, workload and opportunity for income growth. Government workers scored top marks across the board with an average happiness score of 4.07 out of 5. Could this be a sign that government can make people happier?
Government Employees are Happier
The study carried out by CareerBliss revealed that government employees have better relationships with their bosses and have much more relaxed work environments. When employees were asked whether they worried about accountability, government workers tended to have a relaxed attitude, whereas private sector employees tended to worry more. Workplace anxiety has been shown to lead to all sorts of health problems in the long term, so private sector workers are at significantly more risk of developing stress related health problems. When government employees were asked about whether they were worried about retirement, the results were dramatic. Government employees were far less worried about retirement than their private sector counterparts, which is probably attributable to government employees’ generous pensions and excellent job security.
Government Supports Diversity
Empowering under-served demographics is one of the keys to creating a happier society , and our government often has strict quotas for diversity in government positions. Our government is actively working to promote women and minorities in the workplace by improving access to government jobs and promotions. A study carried out by the Partnership for Public Service reports that within the public sector women are more satisfied with their jobs than men, which compares very favorably to the private sector. The studies also reveal that women and minorities are do not believe that enough is being done to further gender and racial equality in this country, and that they want our government to do more. Ironically, men, whites and Asians were most likely to report that diversity is being sufficiently encouraged, even though these groups were the most highly paid and over-represented.
Government Reduces Anxiety
When interviewed about whether they would prefer a private company to carry out government services like helping the poor, building roads and garbage collection, 98% of people say that they prefer the government to provide these services. People report that having the government provide these services for free makes them feel less anxious about whether they can afford the services. People also don’t want to have to worry about whether the poor can afford these services, and prefer to know that our government is providing these services for free.
Government Encouraging Happy Spending?
A new study shows that as countries get richer, some get happier but others don’t. Economic growth in Denmark and the Netherlands seems to have had a greater impact on happiness than economic growth in the United States and China for example. Obama’s chief economic adviser, Alan Krueger notes “Why do some countries do a much better job translating income gains into happiness than others?”. Many of our government’s top economic advisers are asking whether the government should encourage people to spend their money on things that make them happier. Many ‘freedom’ advocates will resist this kind of policy, but what good is the freedom to spend your money as your choose if it doesn’t make you happier?
Creating a Happy Society
The evidence shows that government is the key to creating a happy society. Our government is actively looking at how to promote happiness, but they can’t do it alone. It’s time for the private sector to start replicating the policies that make working for the government so much better. Corporations need to start focusing less on executive pay and ‘shareholders’, and more on creating a happy work environment. Studies show that happier employees work better than unhappy employees, so it is in the interests of private sector employers to invest in the happiness of their workers. If the private sector can’t step up to the plate and offer their employees fair pensions, time off and a relaxed work environment, then maybe it’s time for the government to play a more active role in the economy. There is nothing more important than creating a happy society, and we as a nation need to work with and learn from our government in order to make it a reality, not only for ourselves, but for our children in years to come.
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1 2 Next »Here's a tip .... you turn on your computer .... it's 4 am .... you pour yourself a mug of coffee and light a cigarette .... you forgot an ashtray .... but, you get by .... by flicking the cool ash into the waste paper basket .... then you get down to the butt .... you don't want to risk a fire .... you don't have the patience to stand the butt on it's filter and let it burn down .... so you lightly dip the tip of your cigarette in your coffee .... after flicking off the loose ash .... butt extinguished .... no residue in your coffee .... no risk of fire ?
Nice analogy, but what about those of us that enjoy a Brandy at 4am?
Procedure not recommended for inflammable liquids ! Coffee and red wine .... of course .... tap the cold ash first .... the wicking action prevents contamination of your beverage !
Statist clap trap.
Many say MDB gives good tongue in cheek sarcasm .... it's dry libertarian, cerebral humour .... mimicking the inane socialist clap trap .... real socialists don't kid around with their sacred, religious dogma .... so, he's either a clever libertarian .... or a rather dull socialist .... I prefer to think he's the first .... and give him the benefit of the doubt ?
Clearly, MDB, the solution is to outlaw the private sector! I mean, stop tiptoeing around this. The private sector has been a miserable failure at delivering things of REAL value: diversity, large pensions, and jobs free of the threat of being laid off or fired. Everyone has bad days and in the private sector, you can lose your job for saying the wrong thing to the wrong person. In the public sector, this fear simply isn't there; life is a "big tent" unless you do something TRULY outrageous like criticizing diversity or not kowtowing to a minority boss.
The private sector continues to fall flat on its face, preferring things like performance and profit and all of this other competitive stuff. These things are not our strength. DIVERSITY is our strength. Public sector jobs gave gay partners benefits, the public sector created a black middle class with preferential hiring and promotion, and no-fire policies for minorities. These are the things that the civil rights movement taught us are of REAL value.
However, I take one issue with some facts in your article. I see you refer to this phony classification, "Asians," and I don't know what that's about. I do not see this group in beer commercials or on network television programming featured as the president or super genius inventor superheroes, so I must question whether they really exist. Those who talk about this fake group tend to use them to try to disprove the FACT of wanton, massive, systemic white racism and oppression against nonwhites, by pointing out that "Asians" were, in the 1950s, subject to the same "colored" rules under segregation, in some states could neither own property nor vote, and lived in some of the poorest, most unsanitary conditions in the nation, and yet still outearn whites and have higher educational achievement on average. This is simply hate and ignorance talking. This imaginary group "Asians," clearly isn't real and is a hate tactic used by racists.
Of course Asians don't exist. Race is a social construct, my professors were all careful to mention that often, even in those racist and sexist science and mathematics classes invented by the white male patriarchy. We are all one race, the human race.
I appreciate the inclusive effort of the images associated in the article, but they fall short of the mark. I can't see any Ainu, Hottentots, Sami, Romani, or Amazonian tribes persons. This is clearly indicitive of unconscious racism, possibly bordering on outright Nazism on the part of the author.
White people need to check their enormous sense of privilege.
Cyndi, let me step up and apologize. I feel incredibly guilty. I was so carried away with my sense of privilege and moral righteousness that I didn't even notice my incredibly insensitive racism. Racism is so ingrained into the subconscious that we (especially white people) have become desensitized and don't even notice when we're doing it.
Stop thinking race .... start thinking "latitude attitude" .... the northern tribes are smarter .... the ice ages did in most of the dumb ones .... an eskimo would have a better chance of surviving in the Congo .... than a Nigerian in Nome ? Monedas 1929 Comedy Jihad Post Racial World Tour
Those TSA guys at LAX today seem pretty happy!!
They make upwards of $100,000 and even more with incident induced overtime and per diem expenses .... they can actually afford to eat in airport restaurants ?
TSA agents make more .... than the illegal aliens .... who dry clean their smart uniforms !
"My name is Dexter .... I'm a TSSA cavity search and fecal splatter analyst !"
A benign and benevolent Socialist government dispenses happiness .... and spends more on rubber gloves .... than hollow point ammo !
Happy "Holloween" .... to err is human .... to govERRn is divine !
what crock of ****!