If you've got one of those stone-faced bosses who grumbles about the weight of responsibility, chances are she or he is really grinning on the inside.
Recent data from the Pew Research Center basically says bosses have it good, much better than their direct reports, and they're overall quite a bit happier with their lot in life than are the worker bees.
Pew got input from 1,301 working men and women, 16 percent of whom self-identified as bosses.
Recommended For You
Bosses are more satisfied than workers with:
- Family life (83 percent v. 74 percent);
- current job (69 percent v. 48 percent);
- financial situation (40 percent v. 28 percent);
- parenting and getting ahead at work (33 percent vs. 17 percent).
The deciders tend to strongly view their current position as a career, not just a job (78 percent); just 44 percent of non-bosses see their work as a career.
Only 13 percent of bosses agreed that their work is "just a job to get them by," while 36 percent of non-bosses agreed with the statement.
When asked what's important and a job and what's not so important, boss and worker were much more closely aligned.
Work they enjoy doing is "extremely important" to 39 percent of bosses and 44 percent of workers. This was followed by job security (32 percent and 36 percent), and the ability to take time off for child or family care needs (32 percent vs. 35 percent).
"Both groups also agree what is less important about a job," Pew reported. "Only about 1 in 5 bosses and workers say a big salary is extremely important while somewhat similar proportions highly value a job that helps society (19 percent and 23 percent) and opportunities for advancement (25 percent and 24 percent).
Who wants to be the boss? Not everyone.
The survey asked adults if they would like to someday be a boss or top manager. About 40 percent say they would and nearly the same number (43 percent) say they would not. At least maybe not until they see the results of this survey.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
