What Are Unhappiest Jobs In The World? 85-Yr-Old Harvard Study Finds Out

The notion of 'work' being inter-connected to 'inner-satisfaction' seems to come to fruition. As a study by Harvard University which has been consistently worked upon for the ,’last 85 years, has provided the types of jobs which tend to be the unhappiest. The researchers at the institute collected health data from more than 700 participants from around the world since 1938. The participants were asked detailed questions about their lives in the period of every two years.

The findings suggest that jobs that require little to nil regular human interaction and do not offer opportunities to build meaningful relationships with co-workers lead to unhappy temperament in workers.

Meanwhile, it is further revealed that the key to living a happier and longer life is not necessarily tangible things, money, material success, but positive personal relations and having a reliable close circle of people gives people true satisfaction, reported Economic Times.

A professor of psychiatry Robert Waldinger MD at Harvard Medical School and director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development says “It's a critical social need that should be met in all aspects of our lives. Plus, if you are more connected to people, you feel more satisfied with your job, and do better work.”

He added, “Jobs that involve more independent work than interpersonal relationships or require overnight shifts, such as truck driving and night security, also are some of the most isolated ones."

Is Isolation At Work Hindering Your Happiness?

An important component of toxic or negative work life is ‘loneliness’ which not only affects the zeal to work but at the same time drives people to isolation. The current mindset thrives on independent living and solo lifestyle, but as per the CNBC report, some of the jobs with lowest personal gratification involve more independent work than inter-personal connection building and also require overnight shifts; for example, truck driving and night security. The mentioned was covered in one of the reports in NDTV.

The professions which require less of team engagement or depend on individual handling of workers induce loneliness as per the report. Such jobs include tech-driven industries, packaging, food delivery services and online retail businesses.

Thus, ‘socialising’ can do wonders for maintaining happiness index of people and provides consistency in productivity as well. Taking initiatives on personal and organisational levels for social connection can be restorative and it would also be helpful to alleviate feelings of loneliness in order to sustain mental health and prevent any form of depression.

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