Wouldn’t
it be exciting to have a job where you
get up each morning and look forward to going to work?’
In the broadest, most-comprehensive survey yet of how occupation
affects happiness, franchised business owners and business owner in general outrank
10 other occupational groups in overall well-being, based on the landmark
survey of 100,826 working adults recently released. Franchised business owners
surpassed 10 other occupational groups on a composite measure of six criteria
of contentment, including emotional and physical health, job satisfaction,
healthy behavior, access to basic needs and self-reports of overall life
quality.
This puts the franchise owner well ahead of movers and shakers
typically regarded as the top of the heap in society—professionals such as
doctors or lawyers, who ranked second, and executives and managers in
corporations or government, who came in third—according to the
Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, a collaboration between Gallup and
Healthways, a Franklin, Tenn., health-management concern. This is despite franchise
business owners ranking below those more-prestigious occupations in physical
health and access to basic needs, such as health care.
The findings, psychologists say, reflect the importance of being
free to choose the work you do and how you do it, the way you manage your
time, and the way you respond to adversity. Regardless of occupational field,
the survey suggests that seeking out enjoyable work and finding a way to do it
on your own terms, with some control over both the process and the outcome, is
likely for most people to fuel satisfaction and contentment.
"Despite the recession, it still pays to be your own
boss," says Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Poll. The survey,
adds John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety
and Health, "reaffirms my view that the more control you have over your
work, the happier you are."
Smaller studies have shown links between certain kinds of stress
and particular job roles or employment groups. But the huge size of the
Gallup-Healthways project, which conducts 1,000 telephone surveys a day, makes
it possible to draw detailed, reliable distinctions among a large number of
occupational groups. "I know of no other survey of this size" on the
subject, says Humphrey Taylor, chairman of the Harris Poll, a competitor. The
11 occupational categories surveyed also include farmers and sales, clerical,
construction, installation and service workers.
.
The findings to be fair, likely might reflect declining
quality-of-life in some professions, Dr. Howard says. Rising cost controls in
medicine, for example, and mounting pressure to chalk up billable hours in law,
have curtailed doctors' and lawyers' flexibility to control their work.
"Where professionals may have had greater freedom 20 or 30
years ago, many are now experiencing loss of control, erosion of satisfaction
and increased stress," Dr. Howard says.
At the bottom of the heap, transportation and manufacturing
workers scored lowest on well-being. These occupations tend to foster conditions
Niosh has identified as contributors to unhealthy stress: lack of control or
participation in decision-making, conflicting or unclear job expectations, and
hectic tasks with little inherent meaning.
Management and executive jobs have gotten tougher, too, during the
period the Gallup-Healthways data were gathered, the first eight months of this
year. Beset by cost cuts and layoffs, corporate bosses at all levels now share
more of these stress-inducing conditions.
Franchised business owners stand in stark contrast. Even in tough
times, "you do your own thinking and no one can tell you you're
wrong," says Edwin Locke, an industrial psychologist and professor
emeritus of leadership and motivation at the Robert H. Smith School of Business
at the University of Maryland. "You make your own decisions, and if you're
wrong, reality gives you the feedback," he says.
Measuring Well-Being
In a study of how occupation affects happiness, franchise business
owners came out on top.
|
Occupation
|
Overall well-being
|
|
Franchise Business Owner
|
72.5
|
|
|
|
Professional
|
71.5
|
|
Manager/Executive
|
70.9
|
|
Farming/Forestry
|
67.8
|
|
Sales
|
67.6
|
|
Clerical
|
66.1
|
|
|
|
Construction
|
65.0
|
|
Installation
|
64.4
|
|
Service
|
64.0
|
|
Transportation
|
62.6
|
|
Manufacturing
|
62.1
|
Source: Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index
Note: Scores are based on respondents' answers to six categories
of questions about work and life quality.
Staying in Control
As a franchised business owner, even when things are out of your control,
as they are with this economy, you're still in control of your
relationships" with customers. Corporate managers and executives may sit
and wonder if they're going to be laid off, or get frustrated with the inabilities
of management, If you're the owner, you may have to say, 'I screwed up,' but
it's a lot better than saying, 'I didn't deserve that.
Other patterns among the self-employed help explain their
psychological well-being. Entrepreneurs tend by nature to be optimistic, evidenced
in their willingness to strike out on their own, psychologists say. Sure, the
economy is bad. But they aren't coming into a workplace wondering, 'Are we
going to get fired today?' " If you control your destiny, the well-being
is something that just comes naturally.
The freedom business owners have to control their schedules enables
them to adhere more closely to their personal priorities, says Amy Neftzger, an
organizational psychologist for Healthways. They have the flexibility to
"make it to a child's play, or spend time with family," she says.
So smile, you own your own business!
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