Work, in the South the happiest and most satisfied with their jobs: research

The South is the Italian geographical area where the happiest and most satisfied workers are found. It emerges from the third analysis of the “Ricerca Felicità” Association on the state of happiness and well-being of Italian workers, which Adnkronos / Labitalia is able to anticipate and which will be disseminated in a few days. The Associazione Ricerca Felicità was born from the encounter between Elehubm (a benefit company created by Elga Corricelli and Elisabetta Dallavalle, two professionals with a long managerial career), and Sandro Formica (professor at the University of Palermo and visiting professor of Business Strategy at the University Bocconi University of Milan). The survey, which involved 1,314 active workers, provides the first objective measurement system in Italy and invites institutions, profit and non-profit organizations, schools, educational institutions and the media to discuss, providing the starting point for an analysis that will be carried out year on year. “We wanted to investigate what active workers wanted to report to us through the Observatory’s first questionnaire. We felt the need to further stagger the data by dividing them by gender, generation and geographical area – says Sandro Formica, vice president and scientific director of the Happiness Research Association -. If some data were already visible to the naked eye, analyzing the statistical significance in greater detail, we were surprised by some results, especially as regards the differences by geographic area, where a happier South emerged in the workplace but, to contrast , a suffering Northeast “. To the question” When I wake up to go to work do I feel happy? ” there is a strong positivity in the South – a concentration of responses with a score between 4 and 6 on a scale of 1 to 6, where 1 corresponds to “disagree” and 6 to “totally agree” – but a strong negativity in the North East, where most people responded with a concentration of answers from 1 to 3. The South also responds positively to the questions “When I work, am I so passionate that I forget everything else?” with 67.7% of the weighted population, “Do I feel a strong sense of belonging to my organization?” with 68.7% and “Are my merits recognized?” with 58.2%. The North East responds respectively with 57.0%, 55.5% and 41.0%. “This analysis surprised and questioned us because it highlighted how the the presumed correlation between happiness and productivity is not stable in the Italian regions of the North East. Objectively speaking, these are regions with a high rate of productivity, which however do not feel fully satisfied at work. It would be very interesting to investigate this aspect in depth to understand the reasons for fund ”, says Elga Corricelli, co-founder of the Felicity Research Association.