New study finds retail staff are among the unhappiest workers in UK

Love2shop, a UK gift voucher company, conducted a censuswide poll of 2,000 employed UK adults and revealed eight in 10 working in retail feel undervalued in the workplace. 

The report looks at key areas of work-life balance, job satisfaction and sense of appreciation among UK workers across both the public and private sectors.

Findings showed that around 6.5 million in the UK feel underappreciated by their boss and are actively looking to leave – up 1 million from 2023.

The survey also showed that 41% of employees feel their contribution to the business is not valued and 39% said they receive poor pay. 

Other reasons contributing to underappreciation were feelings that loyalty was one-sided and employers never saying thank you. 

Love2shop’s director of business development Frank Creighton said: “Thinking about this solely as a wage issue would be a mistake. We found 29% of people feel undervalued because ‘loyalty is a one-way street’ – meaning they feel employers demand their loyalty but will axe their jobs without a second thought. A quarter of people also cited the lack of a simple ‘thank you’ as a significant problem.”

As well as the increase in unhappy workers generally this year, the survey also found that the looming employment crisis in education and health refuses to go away despite recent pay settlements. 

Lunchtime yoga, dogs in the office, pizza parties and work nights out were also found to be ineffective in solving issues around employee appreciation and value. 

Creighton added: “We have been doing the report for a number of years now and the data clearly shows that loyalty, productivity and happiness increase with employers who put the right reward strategies in place. Those businesses grow and thrive more readily than businesses that do not show employees they are valued.

“Employee expectations have changed. If businesses do not change with them, they may very soon find themselves falling behind.”