Maintenance workers are below average when it comes to happiness.

At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, maintenance workers rate their career happiness 2.9 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 24% of careers.

To put this into perspective, we compared how happy maintenance workers are to similar careers in the industry. Take a look at the results below:

Salaries and satisfaction ratings in similar careers

Career Satisfaction Avg Salary
Rotary drill operator
2.9
$56k
Stonemason
2.9
$48k
Boilermaker
2.9
$64k
Ironworker
2.9
$59k
Quarry rock splitter
2.9
$38k
Maintenance worker
2.9
$43k
Water treatment plant operator
2.9
$48k
Cement mason
2.9
$47k
Surveyor
2.8
$62k
Marine electrician
2.8
$77k

So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:

  • Salary: Are maintenance workers happy with their salary?
  • Meaning: Do maintenance workers find their jobs meaningful?
  • Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as maintenance workers?
  • Work environment: How enjoyable are maintenance worker’s work environments?
  • Skills utilization: Are maintenance workers making the best use of their abilities?

Are maintenance workers happy with their salary?

Maintenance workers rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.9/5. Maintenance workers tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.

We asked maintenance workers how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:

2.9 out of 5 stars

217 maintenance workers

5 Star
6%

6% of maintenance workers rated their compensation 5 stars

4 Star
28%

28% of maintenance workers rated their compensation 4 stars

3 Star
32%

32% of maintenance workers rated their compensation 3 stars

2 Star
19%

19% of maintenance workers rated their compensation 2 stars

1 Star
15%

15% of maintenance workers rated their compensation 1 stars

Do maintenance workers find their jobs meaningful?

On average, maintenance workers rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.5/5. The majority of maintenance workers struggle to find any sort of meaning in their work, likely resulting in less satisfaction with the career overall.

We asked maintenance workers how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:

2.5 out of 5 stars

217 maintenance workers

5 Star
6%

6% of maintenance workers rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars

4 Star
15%

15% of maintenance workers rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars

3 Star
25%

25% of maintenance workers rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars

2 Star
26%

26% of maintenance workers rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars

1 Star
28%

28% of maintenance workers rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars

How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as maintenance workers?

Maintenance workers rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.6/5. The majority of maintenance workers find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.

We asked maintenance workers how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:

3.6 out of 5 stars

222 maintenance workers

5 Star
18%

18% of maintenance workers rated their career fit 5 stars

4 Star
40%

40% of maintenance workers rated their career fit 4 stars

3 Star
27%

27% of maintenance workers rated their career fit 3 stars

2 Star
13%

13% of maintenance workers rated their career fit 2 stars

1 Star
2%

2% of maintenance workers rated their career fit 1 stars

How enjoyable is a maintenance worker’s work environment?

As a whole, maintenance workers rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.3/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.

We asked maintenance workers how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:

3.3 out of 5 stars

225 maintenance workers

5 Star
11%

11% of maintenance workers rated their work environment 5 stars

4 Star
36%

36% of maintenance workers rated their work environment 4 stars

3 Star
30%

30% of maintenance workers rated their work environment 3 stars

2 Star
16%

16% of maintenance workers rated their work environment 2 stars

1 Star
7%

7% of maintenance workers rated their work environment 1 stars

Are maintenance workers making the best use of their abilities?

Former maintenance workers on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.8/5. Maintenance workers tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.

We asked maintenance workers how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:

2.8 out of 5 stars

224 maintenance workers

5 Star
8%

8% of maintenance workers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars

4 Star
25%

25% of maintenance workers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars

3 Star
25%

25% of maintenance workers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars

2 Star
25%

25% of maintenance workers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars

1 Star
17%

17% of maintenance workers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars