Almost half of Ireland’s workers (49%) have fallen out of love with their current job. And of those who no longer like their job, one third said that they are not being paid enough, with one quarter admitting that they don’t like the company they are working for.
In the results from Matrix Recruitment’s annual Dream Job Survey, a further 27% cited working in a toxic environment and more than one in ten want to work for a company that has implemented a four-day working week.
The survey sought the views of more than 1,000 adults in Ireland on a range of career-related topics. Eight in ten of those surveyed said that they had a dream job in mind when growing up. Of those, 38% said that they were now in that dream job, while 22% are working on it.
WORK/LIFE BALANCE VALUED OVER SALARY
A great work/life balance that includes flexible working was a key factor in people’s concept of the dream job, according to 58% of respondents, more so than having a good salary (54%). A pleasant work environment and job satisfaction were ranked highly by more than half of all those surveyed (55% and 50% respectively).
Meanwhile fewer people rated benefits such as free lunches, sleeping pods or gym membership (17% 2023, versus 21% in 2022).
Interestingly, being in a job that helps others has fallen down the ranks from 38% to 20% in the past 12 months, while fame has become marginally more important to people when choosing a dream job, rising to 7%, from just 3% last year.
FINANCIAL BARRIERS
29% of respondents who are not in their dream job identified financial factors as one of the main barriers. Notwithstanding this, nearly one third of all respondents (32%) said that they would be willing to take a pay cut to secure what they believed to be their dream job. However, it was evident that age played a factor in this answer as almost half (45%) of all 35–44-year-olds surveyed said they’d take a pay cut for their dream job, while only a quarter (25%) of 25–34-year-old said the same.
When asked what other sacrifices they would be willing to make, more than half said they would upskill or return to education (51%); 32% said they would move abroad, with 26% saying they would miss a personal event such as a wedding or a funeral.
