The average American worker spends around 40 hours a week, or about 8.9 hours working each day, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. When you consider that, it's no small wonder that there is a high emphasis placed on happiness in the workplace. After all, happy workers are more productive and employee retention is often higher when workers feel there is job satisfaction.
To discover how employees really feel about their places of employment, Indeed asked current and former employees to review their employers and rate the companies from one to five stars. They also asked them to rank their company individually by a series of measurements: management, job security, advancement, culture, compensation and benefits and work-life balance.
If you're wondering if Atlanta workers are happy, they most certainly are. According to the report, when it comes to workplace happiness around the country, Atlanta workers ranked No. 12 on a list of 25 cities. While workers in Los Angeles (No. 1) and Boston (No. 8) ranked higher for job satisfaction, Atlanta workers still placed higher than cities like Orlando (No. 16), and San Antonio (No. 24).
Top 25 happiest (job satisfaction) large cities in the U.S.
1. Los Angeles
2. Miami
3, San Diego
4. Providence, R.I.
5. San Francisco
6. New Orleans
7. Washington, D.C.
8. Boston
9. Riverside, Calif.
10. San Jose
11. Sacramento
12. Atlanta
13. Detroit
14. Seattle
15. Minneapolis
You might think that happiness in the workplace would stem mostly from employee compensation, or rather, those who earn more are happier, but that's not necessarily true. Indeed's methodology showed that other factors were often more important than a worker's pay.
Work-life balance
When it comes to overall job satisfaction, Indeed's study showed that a balance between the demands of work and the personal lives of employees ranked highest. They found that the score given to employers closely matched the same score that the workers gave to work-life balance, showing that this was what mattered most to employees.
Other contributing factors
Interestingly, the second highest contributing factor identified for job happiness was still not compensation. Instead, the second factor was having good management. This was followed by culture, job security and opportunities for advancement. Compensation and benefits were ranked at the bottom of the list.
Click here to read more about Indeed's report.
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