The glass is half empty for UK tech workers

Ah, the UK tech industry. Downbeat is a word that comes to mind. It was recently revealed that not only is UK tech industry pay was amongst the lowest in the world but that a third of tech firms agreed the onset of Brexit had affected business in a negative way. Now for the icing on the cake: the UK shows a significant global lag in job satisfaction. You know, that minor factor people take into consideration when pursuing a career. In fact, the tech industry’s collective outlook is so bleak that it risks deterring new talent from entering that particular subset of the workforce. And a UK devoid of tech workers is a UK falling behind on fostering innovation, talent and entrepreneurship. With that in mind, Hired has conducted a survey to decode the reasons behind the tech industry’s rampant pessimism.

The notion of a dream job – one that can feasibly be realised – is a stunted phenomenon in the UK tech industry. Whilst the global average for people who believe they can attain their #careergoals is a heart-warming 70%, only 58% of UK tech workers think they can achieve their dream job – that’s a 12% lower thandrop on the global average. That figure depletes considerably when people were quizzed about already having achieved their dream job, with 35% of UK tech workers saying they’d already found theirs compared to a global average of 44%.

It might, of course, have something to do with the fact that over a third of UK tech workers don’t think the work they do utilises their best skills; 38% believe this to be the case, over 10% more than in Australia, where the figure is confined to a mere 27%. Disappointingly, the statistic for people who don’t think their work matters falls just shy of one in four, at 24%. Whilst this does mean that the majority of UK tech workers believe their work to be somewhat meaningful, it’s a higher percentage of unfulfillment than the global average, which falls at 17%.

There’s a little tale unravelling here, culminating in the statistic that nearly half of the UK’s tech workforce are seeking another job. Head to the US, and it’s less than one in three, at 30%. I’m no detective, but this might possibly have something to do with the perceived absence of meaning that seems to permeates so much UK tech work. In this light (pale, barren and wintry though it may be), it becomes evident that the working environment for the UK tech industry is in need of some serious rejuvenation. UK tech workers are, in all, twice as likely to hate their job compared to those who live in the US and Australia.

All in all, the survey’s outlook is about as sunny as our leaden British skies. The UK tech industry crawling with veritable Mark Corrigans. How to fix that is a tough question – some companies have taken to tearing up the rule book in order to maintain worker happiness, but it possibly requires a deeper cultural shift and a soul searching question: why are American and Australian businesses better at instilling a sense of contentment?