Job Satisfaction

While eating bagels at staff meetings, having drinks during happy hour or chatting during a baseball game, the staff at Nevins and Associates have become more than co-workers. The Hunt Valley-based public relations firm has 15 employees - including one who has been known to knit blankets for special occasions in fellow employees' lives: babies, weddings, birthdays. Staffers know about one another's lives and families. In September, most of the office plans to attend an employee's wedding.

Howard Community College, Anne Arundel Community College and University of Maryland, Baltimore County have been named among the best colleges in the nation at which to work, according to a study by the Chronicle of Higher Education. The three local schools were among 97 recognized, having earned a spot in at least one of 12 categories that the national publication used to determine an exceptional college workplace. The Chronicle, which released the results Monday in its third annual report, "The Academic Workplace," said that 43,000 employees (including 20,000 faculty members)

How would you measure job satisfaction? For employees in a new survey, job security is the most important aspect of satisfaction. The Society for Human Resource Management, which conducted the survey of 601 employees, says the answer underscores the uncertainty workers are feeling in a slumping economy in which experts differ on whether we're in a recession or not. With housing and credit markets in turmoil, the trade group says the economic climate is...

How would you measure job satisfaction? For employees in a new survey, job security is the most important aspect of satisfaction. The Society for Human Resource Management, which conducted the survey of 601 employees, says the answer underscores the uncertainty workers are feeling in a slumping economy in which experts differ on whether we're in a recession or not. With housing and credit markets in turmoil, the trade group says the economic climate is...

The old saw "money can't buy happiness" apparently holds true when it comes to work. Highly paid professionals such as doctors and lawyers didn't make the cut when researchers set out to find the most satisfied workers. Clergy ranked tops in both job satisfaction and general happiness, according to the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. Physical therapists and firefighters were second- and third-ranked in job satisfaction, with more than three-quarters reporting being "very satisfied."

I know why you want my job. You think it's because restaurant critics get paid to eat at all the best restaurants. But the real job satisfaction comes when the waitress tells you, after you've been waiting 45 minutes for your main course, that "somehow the check has been misplaced, the kitchen never got it" and could you tell her again what you wanted.Then she leaves without taking any of your dirty dishes, and she doesn't bring you the water you asked for, and your main courses arrive half an hour later.

Bullying doesn't stop when you graduate from the playground. It happens more often than we think in the workplace. One study showed that 16 percent of U.S. employees are bullied at work, according to the Workplace Bullying Institute in Bellingham, Wash. The scientific study, published in 2000, took a random sampling of 1,100 people, according to the institute. Bullying cannot only affect productivity and increase turnover but can affect the emotional health of the targeted worker. Indeed, workers who've experienced bullying say it can feel like a battle, water torture or a nightmare, according to a recent study conducted by three researchers at Arizona State University in Tempe and the University of New Mexico.

Howard Community College, Anne Arundel Community College and University of Maryland, Baltimore County have been named among the best colleges in the nation at which to work, according to a study by the Chronicle of Higher Education. The three local schools were among 97 recognized, having earned a spot in at least one of 12 categories that the national publication used to determine an exceptional college workplace. The Chronicle, which released the results Monday in its third annual report, "The Academic Workplace," said that 43,000 employees (including 20,000 faculty members)

Howard High School principal is praised I was sorry to read the claims of low job satisfaction at Howard High School in your May 27 article ("Howard High low in job satisfaction"), not because I sympathize with the dissatisfied staff, but because they suggest how much work there is yet to be done at the school. Our oldest child just graduated from Howard, and the difference between the school that he entered and what Howard is today is like night and day. We admire the work Ms. Regina Massella has done as principal.

Robert L. Tiedemann III Heating and air conditioning service technician Dynastics Inc., Lansdowne Salary --$15.13 an hour Age --23 Years in the industry --Five How he got started --When he was 18, he started working in the air-conditioning and heating service and repair field for a contractor. Tiedemann decided to go to school in September to better learn his trade. He is now a first-year apprentice with the United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 486 Training School in Rosedale.

All those devoted to teaching deserve praise and respect, and none more than those who teach where all the school lunches are free, where expectations have been too low for too long, and where every hand goes up when the guest speaker asks: "How many of you know a family member who's in prison?" Ed Morman was there, in a classroom at Patapsco Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore's Cherry Hill, when a former prison warden asked that question. Every hand went up again when the kids were asked if they'd ever been inside a prison for a visit.

Howard High School principal is praised I was sorry to read the claims of low job satisfaction at Howard High School in your May 27 article ("Howard High low in job satisfaction"), not because I sympathize with the dissatisfied staff, but because they suggest how much work there is yet to be done at the school. Our oldest child just graduated from Howard, and the difference between the school that he entered and what Howard is today is like night and day. We admire the work Ms. Regina Massella has done as principal.

Seventy-one percent of school system employees responding say that overall morale at their work site is good, while 85 percent of respondents indicate confidence in Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin, according to the 2006-2007 job satisfaction survey conducted by the Howard County Education Association. HCEA President Ann DeLacy shared the survey results with county school board members during Thursday's meeting. Of 6,300 employees the union represents, 3,089 - about 200 fewer than last year - completed the 28-question survey, which was distributed in December to teachers, guidance counselors, support professionals, instructional assistants, nurses, social workers and cafeteria workers.

When it comes to employee satisfaction, Howard High School has ranked near the bottom in the county system for the past two years, according to a job climate survey conducted by the Howard County Education Association. Although test scores have increased and the school has received a much-needed renovation, Howard High employees responding to the survey were among the least satisfied workers at the system's 71 schools. "Overall, it's in the bottom 10 schools," said Ann DeLacy, president of the Howard County Education Association.

The old saw "money can't buy happiness" apparently holds true when it comes to work. Highly paid professionals such as doctors and lawyers didn't make the cut when researchers set out to find the most satisfied workers. Clergy ranked tops in both job satisfaction and general happiness, according to the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. Physical therapists and firefighters were second- and third-ranked in job satisfaction, with more than three-quarters reporting being "very satisfied."

As President Bush's tenure in the White House begins to wind down, political appointees looking to stick around have to hunt for a long-term job in the civil service. So-called "burrowing" - either for the benefits or the job satisfaction - happens under every administration. Often, it is done fairly. Someone wins a plum political appointment because of outstanding qualifications and then moves to a long-term position. But for a small number, positions are created with an appointee in mind, while veterans or more qualified applicants are passed over, according to a Government Accountability Office review of conversions from May 2001 to August 2005.

We have seen the futurePercent of male high school seniors who believe work is a central part of lifeIn 1976: 41 percentIn 1986: 35 percent-- From "Monitoring the Future" survey, the Institute for Social ResearchBaby boomers bowing outPercentage of working women aged 26 to 45 who expect to reduce their job commitments in the next five years: 43Percentage of them who say they will quit work altogether in next five years: 23.Percentage of men who say they...

Employees of Bell Atlantic Corp., the telephone giant that bills itself as "the Heart of Communications," are disheartened at how they're treating customers.An internal Bell Atlantic survey shows that a majority of the Philadelphia-based company's employees, both management and rank-and-file, rate the company unfavorably on the quality of service it provides.According to the telephone company's 1994 "Heartbeat" survey, only 43 percent of managers and 33 percent of nonmanagement workers say the company is doing a better job of meeting customer requirements than the year before, down from 57 percent and 41 percent respectively in 1991.

Bullying doesn't stop when you graduate from the playground. It happens more often than we think in the workplace. One study showed that 16 percent of U.S. employees are bullied at work, according to the Workplace Bullying Institute in Bellingham, Wash. The scientific study, published in 2000, took a random sampling of 1,100 people, according to the institute. Bullying cannot only affect productivity and increase turnover but can affect the emotional health of the targeted worker. Indeed, workers who've experienced bullying say it can feel like a battle, water torture or a nightmare, according to a recent study conducted by three researchers at Arizona State University in Tempe and the University of New Mexico.

Robert L. Tiedemann III Heating and air conditioning service technician Dynastics Inc., Lansdowne Salary --$15.13 an hour Age --23 Years in the industry --Five How he got started --When he was 18, he started working in the air-conditioning and heating service and repair field for a contractor. Tiedemann decided to go to school in September to better learn his trade. He is now a first-year apprentice with the United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 486 Training School in Rosedale.