Where are Britain's happiest and most grumpy employees?
A new study has identified the happiest workers in the country. They are apparently in Norwich - where 77.3% of people love their job, and just 9.4% of people are dissatisfied with the daily grind. This contrasts strikingly with the least happy workers in the country. They are based in Newcastle, where just 64.1% are happy at work - and a massive 23.4% are unhappy. The study also claims to have found the ingredients of a happy working life.
Happiest
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Overall an average of 71% of us are happy at work. The rest of the top five happiest places to work include Liverpool (where 76.6% of people are happy at work), Birmingham at 73.5%, Brighton at 73.4% and Plymouth at 73.2%.
The study, by business psychologists OPP said that the three most important factors affecting people's happiness at work were the workload, salary increases, and changes in management.
Norwich employees have benefited from a big drop in the level of unemployment, which means local businesses are ensuring they have enough staff on board to avoid people being overwhelmed by the workload. There's every chance that this has helped people feel more secure at work, and encouraged their employer to increase their pay too.
Liverpool, meanwhile, is seeing major growth, and the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey predicts that growth will continue in 2016. It added that there is a shortage of skilled staff, and many employers are willing to pay more to keep the best. This is helping boost their pay and security, which is instrumental to their happiness at work.
Miserable
At the other end of the spectrum, Newcastle is not booming quite so impressively. The Irwin Mitchell report on the Northern Powerhouse highlighted Newcastle as suffering sluggish and slowing growth. This could help explain why people are not feeling so secure and wages are not rising to people's satisfaction.
This city is followed by Cardiff (where 17.9% of people are unhappy at work), Glasgow at 17.3%, Edinburgh at 16.2% and Leeds at 13.9%.
George Osborne was in Cardiff recently, announcing a new city deal. He had plenty of upbeat things to say about plans for the future, but in among it was the admission that Wales has not grown at the same pace as the rest of the country. Of course he couched it positive terms as: "If the growth rate in Wales matched that of the UK average, the economy would be around £6 billion bigger by 2030."
Improve your happiness at work
Of course, wherever you live, there's always an opportunity to improve your own personal happiness at work. The researchers behind Fortune's list of the best companies to work for say they have identified the secret to happiness at work.
They say doing work you feel challenged by - but not too challenged - is the best way to make time fly. This could mean volunteering for projects that interest you, or offering to help on jobs you know you will enjoy. Of course, if your workplace doesn't offer any of these sorts of opportunities, it might be time to look elsewhere.
The experts say we are happiest if we are able to make decisions about our work, rather than being micro-managed or swamped with too much to do. If you find yourself facing either of these problems, therefore, it's important to raise it with your line manager or HR and try to agree a more positive way of working. If you can't agree, this may be an indication you'd be happier elsewhere.
Finally, they say we need to feel secure, valued and that we belong at a company. These things are harder to influence at your current workplace, so if it feels you could lose your job at any minute, your boss doesn't appreciate you, or you cannot get along with the team, then it may be time to dust off your CV.
But what do you think? What makes you happiest at work? Let us know in the comments.
