Generation Misery? Gen X Hate Their Jobs More Than Millennials and Gen Z
How do you really feel about your job, and how honest would you be about that with your coworkers or your boss? AI career tool Kickresume’s new survey asked 1,002 workers to share their experiences.
Key Findings
The biggest percentage, 38%, feel neutral about their job and 27% actively dislike it.
43% dread work several times a week — 16% dread it every day.
86% faked enthusiasm for their job at least once last week.
45% of Americans put on a happy face most days, compared to 30% of Europeans.
More than half of workers would continue working if they had enough money to never work again.
37% of those who dislike their job haven’t told any of their colleagues.
Gen X are the most likely to dislike their job (34%) vs Millennials (26%) or Gen Z (22%).
Pay is the number one reason people decide to stay (25%) or leave (24%).
When asked how they feel about their job, rating it on a scale of 1-5, 27% dislike it, 35% like it, and 38% are neutral. 12% said they “hate” their job. The industries most likely to dislike their jobs were sales and retail (38%), finance and banking (35%) and marketing, advertising and PR (33%). In contrast, discontent is lowest in education (20%) and creative, design and media (18%).
So, that’s over a quarter of people who are miserable at work — and not always visibly. 86% of workers said they pretended to be more enthusiastic about their job in the previous week. 25% did it most days, with a further 11% putting on a happy face “constantly”. Even people who like their jobs faked enthusiasm, with 80% of people who rated their job 5/5 doing so in the previous week at some point. 45% of US workers put on a happy face most days or every day, compared to 30% of Europeans.
Who are workers performing for? 28% of respondents said “everyone equally” — after that, it was clients and customers (18%), the boss (16%) and their coworkers or even themselves (both at 13%). When it came to telling the truth about how they feel, 37% of people who dislike their job hadn’t told a soul — but 36% had told their coworkers, 9% had told their boss and 3% had even told customers or clients.
The survey also explored how much people dread work, beyond Sunday Scaries. 43% feel anxious about work several times a week, while 16% do on a daily basis. The youngest workers were the most likely to feel dread multiple times a week, with 51% of Gen Z experiencing this.
Kickresume asked people whether they would keep their current job if they won a large sum of money and could afford to stop. And perhaps surprisingly, 55% would still work, albeit some would reduce their hours (34%).
Even without a lump sum to make it easier, 66% said they have considered leaving their job in the past 6 months — and 86% have taken some kind of step towards this during work hours. Over half have updated their CV or LinkedIn (55%) or searched for a new job (53%). 44% have applied for a new job and 26% have gone so far as to take an interview while at work. Americans were more likely to have done this, with 36% taking an interview during work hours.
Kickresume investigated people’s motivation behind whether to stay or go. The most common reason people had stayed in their current job was pay (25%) followed by not having found anything better (20%). On the other hand, the most common reasons to consider leaving were pay (24%), lack of growth (20%), management or leadership (14%) and workload or burnout (11%). However, in the U.S., burnout was a significantly bigger driver, at 16%.
But looking specifically at people who dislike their job, most said they would leave because of management (21%) or lack of growth (19%), followed by pay (16%). Most of this group of respondents said their main reason for staying was pay (30%) or having no better option (29%).
The unhappiest age group was Gen X, 34% of whom dislike their job compared to 26% of Millennials and 22% of Gen Z. This age group were also the most likely to quit if they never had to work again, at 53% compared to 46% of Millennials and 36% of Gen Z. 29% of Gen X told Kickresume they stay in their current job because they can’t find anything better, a much higher percentage than Millennials (19%) or Gen Z (18%).
Peter Duris, CEO and Co-Founder of Kickresume, comments:
“Our research reveals that while the biggest percentage feel neutral about their jobs at 38%, more than a quarter say they dislike their work, including 12% who went so far as to say they hate it. Most are keeping a straight face, though – 37% of those who dislike their job haven't told a soul.
“Nearly 9 in 10 of all respondents told us they’ve feigned enthusiasm at work in the past week. I expect this is pretty relatable with most people having pretended to be in a better mood than they really are at some point. But 11% they put on an act “constantly” – and it’s not just the unhappy ones. For many, the performance seems to have become part of the job.”
This anonymous online survey by Kickresume, conducted in September–October 2026, gathered insights from 1,002 respondents from around the world. All participants were reached via Kickresume's internal database.
Kickresume is an AI-based career tool that helps candidates source jobs and raise salary with powerful resume and cover letter tools, skills analytics, and automated job search assistance. It has already helped more than 8 million job seekers worldwide.
