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Study: most Swiss workers are cynical about employer

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Study: most Swiss workers are cynical about employer
Swiss workers: a cynical bunch. File photo: Alan Clark

Swiss workers are less than impressed with their employers, according to research from Zurich’s federal technology institute, ETH Zurich.

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The Swiss Human Relations Barometer gathers data on how Swiss employees experience their work situation.

Published on Tuesday, the 2016 edition focused on the relationship between employees and employers to understand how they both experience and demonstrate loyalty and cynicism.

The results revealed that while the majority of employees feel loyalty to their company, a third are not satisfied with their boss and colleagues.

And 60 percent display cynical behaviour towards their employer, said the study’s lead Professor Bruno Staffelbach in a press release.

"The results show that the situation is essentially a good one in regard to employee loyalty," said Staffelbach.

Some 54 percent of employees feel emotional ties to their employer and only 16 percent are seriously considering resigning, found the study.

However a fourth of employees regard some promises made by the company they work for as having been broken and a third are not fully satisfied with their relationship to their superior and with their co-workers.

"As a result, 60 percent of employees manifest cynical behaviour toward their employer by, eg., making deprecatory comments," said Staffelbach.

To combat employee cynicism companies should demonstrate job security and loyalty to their employees, said the professor.

However Swiss workers show limited willingness to take responsibility for their own careers, the report added.

“While most do not expect their company to plan and further their careers for them, they nonetheless want to stay at one company for a long time,” said the statement.

“The necessity to deal with uncertainty and in some circumstances to even be able to use it to one's advantage, is something that is not recognized by a large and even growing number of employees.”

The study quizzed 1,506 Swiss employees across all regions of the country based on a random sample registry from the Swiss Statistics Office.

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