Bored at work?

You’re in the minority, if a new book by two USC Marshall School of Business professors is on the money.

According to “The New American Workplace,” authored by James O’Toole and Edward Lawler, American workers today report a higher rate of job satisfaction than they did in the 1970s.

The book revisits data from the 1972 “Work in America” study, released by Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Elliot L. Richardson, which the authors helped publish.

According to O’Toole and Lawler, record numbers of women have risen to managerial positions since the 1970s. Meanwhile, unions which now represent less than 8 percent of the private sector workforce have lost influence

Despite the overall contentment, there is workplace disparity. The authors find that top executives in major corporations are paid hundreds of times more than their employees. The authors report that surveys show that the greater the degree of participation in workplace decision-making, profit sharing and stock ownership, the greater the employee job commitment and satisfaction.

It’s worth noting the economic adage that when the U.S. unemployment rate is relatively low, as it is now at 4.6 percent, employee satisfaction traditionally increases.

The book provides an explanation for why some individuals may work such long hours: 54 percent of those surveyed reported being “very satisfied” at work, while just 34 percent felt the same about home life.