The Actively Disengaged Worker

From the LA Times:

Seven out of 10 workers have "checked out" at work or are "actively disengaged," according to a recent Gallup survey. In its ongoing survey of the American workplace, Gallup found that only 30% of workers are "were engaged, or involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their workplace." . . .

The survey classifies three types of employees among the 100 million people in America who hold full-time jobs. The first is actively engaged, which represents about 30 million workers. The second type of worker is "not engaged," which accounts for 50 million. These employees are going through the motions at work.

The third type, labeled "actively disengaged," hates going to work. These workers -- about 20 million -- undermine their companies with their attitude, according to the report.

"The general consciousness about the importance of employee engagement seems to have increased in the past decade," said Jim Harter, Gallup's chief scientist for workplace management and well-being. "But there is a gap between knowing about engagement and doing something about it in most American workplaces."

This is a strange sort of survey, and I am not sure what it means or how it has changed over time, but it certainly does not refute my notion that work in our age is generally pretty awful. Nor is this just about fast food servers, hotel cleaners, and other wage slaves; employees with college degrees are more likely to be disengaged than those without them.