According to a new survey from the London School of Economics, the only activity people enjoy doing less than working is being sick in bed.
Respondents preferred a variety of tedious chores, including paying bills and cleaning the house, to working. The researchers surveyed more than 10,000 workers in the United Kingdom who reported feeling generally stressed and unhappy while working.
“Although work can be beneficial, it can also stress you out and make you worried and anxious,” said Alex Bryson, one of the survey’s lead researchers, The Wall Street Journal reports. “That’s why we normally have to be paid to work in the first place, because in the moment, we’d rather actually be doing anything else.”
Participants in the survey used an app called Mappiness to answer a variety of questions about how working affected their well-being and self-worth. The researchers would randomly prompt participants throughout the day with questions to determine how their happiness fluctuated as the work day dragged on. Responses given more than half an hour after the prompt were disregarded. Similar surveys in the past relied on people attempting to recall how they felt the previous day, rather than being asked in real-time.
While working in the company of friends made work a much more pleasant experience, respondents also said that dealing with the boss was consistently stressful. Minor diversions like listening to music or drinking coffee helped get people through the day.
Surprisingly, low income workers said they were the most satisfied with their jobs of any group surveyed. Their non-work alternatives were likely not very appealing, Bryson said, adding, “In that sense, they may as well be working.”