In a survey conducted by workplace expert and author Michelle McQuaid, 65 percent of American workers said that getting a boss who acknowledges their good work would make them happier, while only 35 percent said that getting a raise would do so.
In the survey of 1,000 workers, 31 percent of the respondents said that they don't feel appreciated by their bosses. The workers don't appreciate their bosses, either, with only 38 percent of the bosses getting a thumbs-up from the people they supervise.
Workers' preference for a good boss over a raise doesn't come as a surprise to WorkplaceDynamics, the human resources consulting firm that oversees the Star Tribune's annual Top Workplaces survey. In helping come up with the list of best places to work, the firm said it looks at what it calls "me factors" and "we factors," the latter including the feeling that workers are appreciated and doing something meaningful.
It's the "we factors" that figure most prominently in employees' satisfaction ratings, according to Doug Claffey, the firm's CEO.
"You cannot pay more money to get someone to remain engaged in a bad workplace," he said.
