UNTITLED

 

This Valentine's Day, as people celebrate their romantic bonds, many will also reflect on another significant relationship in their lives: the one between them and their employers.

No doubt, many of the 137 million workers in the U.S. feel grateful to have a steady paycheck, especially considering that the unemployment rate was 5.7% in January and companies like WorldCom, health care provider Cigna and Boeing continue to lay off hundreds of people. On the flip side, a majority of workers, while relieved to be getting a paycheck, are unhappy with their jobs.

So, which emotion to indulge? Should workers just feel grateful to be employed, or angry if they're overworked, under-compensated and bored? First, let's be clear: This is a relative argument that has a lot to do with one's financial situation. If you have a family to support or a mortgage payment due, it's probably even irrelevant. And it seems almost a luxury considering that the U.S. is on the verge of war.

Nonetheless, this psychic dilemma--how to reconcile job dissatisfaction when 8.3 million folks are jobless--is on many minds these days.

"Anyone who works for a living has a right to hope that they will get satisfaction out of their job," says Dr. Alan Hilfer, a psychologist at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Indeed, many workers continue to believe their employers owe them something beyond a paycheck. A recent survey funded by the SITE Foundation, a nonprofit group that funds research about motivational programs, found that 59% of employees believe their companies are not doing enough to motivate them. In other words, salary alone isn't enough.

Another study, by human resources consulting firm Lee Hecht Harrison of Woodcliff Lake, N.J., revealed that 79% of job hunters expect their next employer to provide career-related training, 73% expect flexible schedules and another 58% expect cell phones and laptops.

Some managers have little tolerance for workers who want it all. "Employees who whine and complain about what they don't receive from their employer should either shut up or get out," says Larry Tucker, a human resources manager for Elite Logistics, a private grocery-warehouse company in Kansas City, Kans. "People in many parts of the globe live without electricity and running water. Meanwhile, we have citizens in the U.S. who believe they are entitled to a good job...with no demands or stress."

Tucker's sentiment is echoed by a human resources executive at an apparel distribution company, who asked not to be identified. "Our current employees have watched us close plants and eliminate jobs, but they still complain that we no longer offer free lunches," she says, aghast.

Perhaps this sense of entitlement is unique to American workers. Perhaps it's left over from the economic boom of the late 1990s, or maybe it's a generational phenomenon.

"I think younger workers come from more of a 'me' generation," says Richard Piluso, vice president of internal audits at New York-based conglomerate Loews and who, at 63, has three sons in their 20s. "Their priorities are different."

Not everyone's a whiner. In Manhattan, Nancy Ordover, 36, is a published author with a doctorate in ethnic studies from the University of California at Berkeley. She's been looking for a full-time job in academia for several years. Meanwhile, she's lived frugally and taken a slew of part-time gigs to pay the rent. Her work expectations have withered to a mere ethical thread.

"I've done uninteresting work, and I don't care about prestige, but I won't apply for positions that I find morally reprehensible," she says.

No doubt, desires have been curbed. When lower-than-last-year bonuses were recently handed out at Mountain View, Calif.-based law firm Fenwick & West--which laid off 47 attorneys and staffers in 2001 and currently has a hiring freeze--no one really complained, says Cheri Vaillancour, its chief employment officer. "I had e-mails from people who were just glad to work for a firm that still had a holiday party and a bonus plan," she says.

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