MSNBC had an interesting article last month which cited that American job satisfaction hit new lows, especially for younger workers. Although it is hard to make inferences from articles like these for a number of reasons, the following items struck me as key issues in many of the work environments that I have been in (whether corporate, consulting, or client):

The thing that bugged most workers the most about their jobs were bonus plans and promotion policies. Workload and potential for growth were rated poorly also.

On the item about bonus plans, I would venture to guess that a large portion of the time dissatisfaction arises (excepting sales positions) because one feels that they cannot control their own future. If you subscribe to that point of view on the bonus front then that may beg the issue about whether bonus plans may be overengineered in many cases. Why should companies design complex plans if people feel they cannot influence them? Is it mostly related to fairness and good company hygiene considerations?

On dissatisfaction with potential for growth on the job, while the nature of the work, company, and industry certainly play a role in what might be available to employees, growth potential seems to me to be more controllable by an employee's direct manager. Things like job rotations, temporary delegation of management responsibilty, lunch-and-learn sessions, mentorship, more employee-manager communication, and simple job recognition can go a long way. Maybe I oversimpify, but it's too bad that Americans are rating work environments poorly here.

So the message is that we've hit a new, all-time low. Maybe each of us can find a little something that we can do about it.