Copier Careers^® is the only recruiting firm exclusively dedicated to the Copier and Office Solutions Channel^℠. With over 30 years of experience, Copier Careers connects employers and job seekers, providing valuable insights, career opportunities, and unmatched support in the industry. Whether you’re an employer, employee or job seeker, Copier Careers is here for you!

Workplace Unhappiness: How to Cope

Pew Research Center’s most recent survey reports only half of US workers are very or highly satisfied with their jobs in 2023. Notably, respondents said they were most satisfied in their relationships with co-workers and supervisors. But their lowest satisfaction was in their pay and opportunities for promotion.

Good news for employers

The factors most bringing down employee satisfaction (and retention) are within your control. Bonus: Improving these factors also helps attract new employees!

Compensation. Many companies have allowed wages to stagnate since 2008, especially in service positions. That past austerity makes compensation leveling more challenging now. Try starting here:

• Take a long-time employee’s salary in 2008 and enter it into an inflation calculator. Compare the results to their current compensation. If their compensation is lower or the same, you have to adjust for inflation and their increased value from 15 years of experience and company knowledge.
• Try a few salary estimate tools but use them with a grain of salt. They offer rough estimates and often miss the nuance of industry-specific roles.
• If the numbers rankle, try calculating (if you can) the cost of missed opportunities, cascading burnout, increased turnover, inferior service, department brain drain and other problems if you lose your experienced employees.

Career Path. Your employees are not cogs in a machine – they are complete people who will continue to grow and mature. If you don’t give them somewhere to go, they will leave.

• It’s time to go over (or develop) your company’s career progression plan and improve both your vertical and horizontal career paths.
• You can’t (and shouldn’t) promote every successful sales rep or tech to management. But you should recognize and reward employees’ increasing experience and value over the years.

Good news for employees

If your company can’t compensate you fairly or create an attractive career path, you have options!

Advocate and negotiate. If you like most aspects of your work, it’s worth fighting to improve the rest! Take ownership of the problems you can control and bring the ones you can’t to a trusted leader.

• For compensation, use a few tools to get a clearer picture of your value and needs: inflation calculator, cost of living calculator, salary calculator, salary estimate tool (use with a grain of salt), etc.
• For your career path, ask yourself what you want to be doing in five years – is it more of the same? More skilled problem-solving? More flexibility and autonomy? Management? Something completely different?

Move on. Is your company too riddled with problems to fix? Were your negotiations rejected? You have many other options!

• Make a list of what you want and what you don’t want – start looking for opportunities that meet those needs.
• Dust off your resume.
• Keep an eye out for good signs and red flags.
• Follow our recruiting advice!
• Browse our job board or submit your resume to start working with our recruiters.