In my FMP I’m researching and analysing the reason behind people going to work. Because of the social aspect on my project, I decided to use surveys as part of my investigation on the subject. I used SurveyMonkey portal to create my survey, and shared a link to it via social media, mainly Facebook.
I originally intended to cover bigger area of “Why do we work?”, however, SurveyMonkey offers free survey creation for up to 10 questions. I was limited with my investigation, however, the 10 questions were enough for me to draw conclusions.
My main objective was to find out why people go to work and what do they do with the money get earn from it. Most of the questions were open, and respondents could answer them with anything that came to their mind. I wanted to get honest feedback and find out how people are responding without prompts from multiple choice answers.
22 people filled in my survey, from which 16 completed it. I’m analysing data from the 16 competed surveys.
Because of the open question type of this survey, most answers are quite personal, but there is also few of the same answers. I broke down the survey below into separate questions and illustrated the responses.
Having a slight idea of respondents’ demographic is always important for analysing results.
Because I shared this survey with mainly people I know (my Facebook friends), I’m limited to my own socio-economic group.
Even though most respondents are in their 20s and from Brighton, I managed to get a range of different answers for the rest of the survey.
Most of people that took part in the survey have a degree (a few in the Undergrad group are completing their studies now). I counted the 3rd year students to Undergrad group, because most of them already have jobs or just starting their career in chosen industry.
Two respondents are College educated, and two have Master degree. I will show how these two groups answered differently to the Undergrad group in relevant questions.
It would be interesting to also know specific qualifications of respondents, for example, which degree did they complete and how relevant is to their job (next question).
I wish I split this question into two separate ones but, as mentioned before, there is a limitation of questions on SurveyMonkey free service, so I combined this into one.
Majority of respondents only shared their job title, but not where they work or only shared industry they’re in. The range of different jobs and sectors really surprised me.
I asked two similar questions in this survey, first being “Why do you work in this particular place?”, and “Why do you have a job in general?”, because I was wondering how different the answers will be.
When listing all the reason for having a current job position, most people said that it’s the first/next step in their careers. A lot of people also said that they are able to learn in their job, it pays money (not specifically “good” or “bad” money, just money), and that they are able to utilise their skills and knowledge.
To enjoy one’s work means something else to different people, and it’s hard to measure the enjoyment when there is so many factors to consider. Fo example, someone might have a really good time with their coworkers, but they don’t feel that their job in meaningful or it doesn’t pay enough, or perhaps their supervisor is not a nice person to work with.
Most of people said they’re enjoying their current work – 12 such answers (green areas of the graph) and there were few admitting they’re not so found of their workplace or the work they do.
The most common answers to this question was the need having money to pay rent and bills; and to spend quality time with family and friends.
Another frequent response was the need of being challenged and having a purpose in life, which work can give.
One respondent highlighted the importance of having a routine, and other respondent shared that he feels the expectation from society and his family to have a job.
Even though respondents do very different jobs, most of them enjoy creative activities as their hobbies. Art and Music were top choices here, with a few specific areas, such as photography and printmaking.
Most of listed hobbies are considered wholesome and relaxing. There is also a correlation between how much a person enjoys their job and what type of hobby do they have. I will explore this later in this post.
A few respondents have listed “Chatting to my friends” and “Going to the pub” as their hobbies, however, I categorise these activities as socialising, rather than hobbies.
Most people listed Alcohol, Eating Out and Buying Clothes as their main bad habits that cost them between £100 and £250 per month.
Self-care and socialising budget might seem like an odd questions to ask someone, but it was important for me to find out how much people value these two aspects in terms of money.
Interestingly, the figures here vary from £50 to £700, and a few respondents could not produce an answer.
Money is a main incentive for most people to work. Apart from covering basic needs, housing and funding activities and hobbies, I wanted to find out what other financial goals respondents might have.
Most people save for holidays, which is ironic (someone is constantly working to have few weeks a year off). However, without work there wouldn’t be any rewards, so holiday wouldn’t have the same meaning. Because most of respondents work full-time, it’s natural that part of their salary is designated to holiday fund.
Second after holidays, was the need of purchasing music instrument or music equipment. This corresponds with question number 6 (Why do you have a job in general?), where one of the common answers was “To fund my hobbies.”
Other common answers to the last question were quite mixed, but most of them indicated financial intelligence of respondents (emergency fund/security, capital to start a business, buying shares, and paying off debt). People also listed the common milestones in modern adult life, such as saving for a deposit for a house, car, and future children.
Conducting this survey was crucial for development of characters for my publication. I was able to assign different attributes to the characters by finding out details about people’s work-life and financial ideas.
I was hoping for more diversity, however, as I mentioned above, I was limited to my own social circles. Here is an average person that took my survey.
When analysing data from this survey I found few commonalities between respondents. For example, both respondents with Master Degree very much enjoy their work and they both stated it comes from helping other people through their job.
Other questions I considered adding, but couldn’t because of SurveyMonkey limitation:
WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
WHAT MAKES YOU ANGRY?
WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU’D WIN £1m?
