#2 Correlation: I hate my job
In the second of our series of Correlation Corner, we’re looking at how the search term, ‘I hate my job’ changes over the course of a year across different countries.
Unfortunately, our multilingual ability only extends to GCSE level French, and a literal translation of ‘I hate my job’ in Google Translate only seems to extend to Spanish, so we’ll only be looking at countries with enough native speakers of English and Spanish to register on Google Trends in this highly unscientific study.
First off, here’s the list of countries, in descending order of popularity, where the term is searched most often in the last 12 months:
Ireland
USA
Spain
UK
Mexico
Canada
Australia
South Africa
Malaysia
India
Brazil
Russia
A surprising choice at number one given so many tax-dodging tech giants have their HQs in Ireland.
Maybe the pool tables, free vending machines, and bean bag break-out rooms aren’t enough to compensate for the bitterness they feel about helping global conglomerates pay 11 times less tax than their local, friendly bookstore. Click here for more information.
With workers’ rights being practically non-existent, it’s hardly surprising that the US comes in second place.
To be honest, the order of the others is anyone’s guess.
So, with that out of the way let’s take a closer look at the UK and how the prevalence of ‘I hate my job’ has cropped up over the last 12 months:
As you can see, there are some pretty big spikes over the course of the year.
Having looked at the 2016/17 results, we can confirm this is a consistent pattern year on year.
Some of the peaks and troughs are relatively easy to explain. July to October is a quiet month. The pleasant summer weather makes even the most horrendous job more tolerable.
There’s a blip in mid-October when people have returned from their summer holidays. At this point, the cold hard reality of getting back to a job they hate really strikes home.
This leads neatly on to the biggest spike of the year, at the start of September.
A large proportion of that is taken up by teachers, with the remainder suffering from post-summer holiday blues.
The on Guy Fawkes's night? That’s anyone’s guess.
And there’s a predictable dip towards Christmas and an equally predictable spike in January when people come back from two weeks with friends and family to realise they need to not only go back to work again but relearn how to do their job.
There’s a final small jump in searches in mid-January, which is in part, due to the worst day of the year pseudoscience that tabloid newspapers wheel out each year. #BlueMonday
In conclusion, people start to realise how much they hate their job after a period of doing something fun.
Stay tuned for how that pans out in the next installment of Correlation Corner.