Job Satisfaction

Dissatisfaction, fatigue, and unresolved delivery difficulties were prominent in respondents’ accounts, while current job satisfaction was strongly associated with cancellation and intent to leave. Learning, colleagues, and pay remained valued even on canceled engagements. These associations may reflect both the experience preceding cancellation and respondents’ reactions to a difficult or canceled engagement. The study cannot establish their temporal direction.

Written answers linked dissatisfaction to recurring manual work, unresolved decisions, departures from the delivery team, and concerns respondents had ceased raising. Current satisfaction, retrospective comparisons, challenges, and valued aspects of the job are examined separately.

“Frankly the part that wore us down was waiting. My people would sit on a misrouted ticket queue for a week while the two sides worked out who was allowed to change the routing rules, and in that time they are doing the triage by hand, again.” -Engagement Manager, CXM, Corporate and back-office functions

“Honestly I am just tired now. Two of us spend the first hour of every shift re-checking what the agent did overnight, as such we start the real queue already behind. My teammate stop taking her break.” -Individual Contributor, CXM, Regulatory, audit, tax and legal

How we felt going into this was already worn down — the escalation process for HR-sensitive tickets was never written down anywhere by the client, and when a case needed a ruling we could not wait days for one, so we made the call ourselves and routed it, and we told both our own leadership and the client this was happening.”

ENGAGEMENT MANAGER · CXM, Corporate and back-office functions

1 Current Satisfaction of the Respondent and the Delivery Team

Respondents’ own job satisfaction and their perceptions of delivery team satisfaction were low, with distressed ratings accounting for 46.79% and 45.30% of answers, respectively. The latter represents the respondent’s assessment of other delivery team members and is not a separate response from every person concerned.

Both satisfaction ratings were associated with all four core study measures, with the conclusions retained under the applicable robustness checks. Each had a cancellation correlation of r = −0.81 (n = 150 engagements), greater in absolute magnitude than the observed correlations for the 100 rated indicators. This descriptive ordering does not establish statistically significant differences between coefficients.

Respondent job satisfaction was correlated with intent to leave at r = −0.91 (n = 732 respondents). Both answers concern the same respondent and the same job. The corresponding correlation for perceived satisfaction of the extended delivery team was r = −0.76 (n = 742 respondents).

1.1 Respondent Job Satisfaction

Indicator C018 · How happy are you with your current job? · Full statistical analysis ›

Respondent job satisfaction received distressed ratings in 365 of 780 answers (46.79%). The mean rating was 4.2 and the median was 4.0 (n = 780 respondents). The mean on canceled engagements was 1.8 (n = 300 respondents).

Higher job-satisfaction ratings were associated with a lower cancellation rate (r = −0.81, n = 150 engagements), higher customer satisfaction among active engagements (r = 0.76, n = 94 engagements), and a higher engagement indicator mean (r = 0.86, n = 150 engagements). At respondent level, higher satisfaction was associated with lower intent to leave (r = −0.91, n = 732 respondents). The mean rating was distressed on 63 of 150 engagements.

Job satisfaction was addressed in 250 written answers from 219 respondents on 113 engagements. Of the 124 answers outside the question about valued aspects of the job, 60 described the respondent or the delivery team as tired, exhausted, or worn down. All four tests of the relationships between written answers and outcomes were statistically significant. Engagements with a negative written answer had a higher cancellation rate. Respondents whose written answers were more negative reported higher intent to leave.

“Tired, mostly… two months and we still could not get a name for who owns the vendor master file at their end. We asked for access to their procurement system four times, and received a spreadsheet extract instead.” -Engagement Manager, CXM, Corporate and back-office functions

“Its been more tiring than hard if that makes sense, we spend a lot of the day waiting on access to things and then catching up at the end. Nobody on my team is angry about it, we just come out of the week feeling like we did two jobs” -Individual Contributor, CXM, Corporate and back-office functions

“How this has felt for months now is exhausting — closing IT tickets bot could not resolve and rerouting HR cases by hand, because there is still no written escalation path.” -Engagement Manager, CXM, Corporate and back-office functions

1.2 Satisfaction of the Extended Delivery Team

Indicator C020 · How happy is your extended team with the current engagement? · Full statistical analysis ›

Perceived delivery team satisfaction received distressed ratings in 357 of 788 answers (45.30%). The mean rating was 4.3 and the median was 4.0 (n = 788 respondents). These ratings describe the respondents’ assessments of the delivery team.

Higher ratings of delivery team satisfaction were associated with a lower cancellation rate (r = −0.81, n = 150 engagements), higher customer satisfaction among active engagements (r = 0.68, n = 94 engagements), and a higher engagement indicator mean (r = 0.87, n = 150 engagements). They were also associated with lower respondent intent to leave (r = −0.76, n = 742 respondents). The mean rating was distressed on 61 of 150 engagements.

Delivery team satisfaction was addressed in 56 written answers from 54 respondents on 44 engagements. Forty-three answers were negative. Of the 47 answers outside the question about valued aspects of the job, 34 described the delivery team as tired, exhausted, or worn down. Ten described departures, applications for other employment, or requests to move to another engagement.

“If every income calculation has to be opened and checked anyway, the processors were doing their old job plus a review job, and they knew it. Two of my best people asked to be moved within the first month.” -Engagement Manager, BPO, Credit, underwriting and suitability

“so two of my analysts spent most of their evenings that month re-running tests instead of the work they were hired for. Please understand it is that, and not the volume, which wears people down. I lost one of them to another account over exactly this.” -Engagement Manager, KPO, Regulatory, audit, tax and legal

“The effect on my team is tiredness more than anything. Every week we take decisions that are not ours to take, because waiting for both sides to agree costs more time than the ticket has. Nobody above notices, they only see the ticket time going up, and then we get asked why the numbers slipped” -Individual Contributor, CXM, Corporate and back-office functions

Nobody tell us when something change on their side. We find out because a run fail and then the whole day is gone for two of us. My team have stopped trusting anything that come in, so now we check every file twice even when it is fine, and that is extra hours nobody count. It make people tired and quiet in standup.”

INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTOR · ITO, Client servicing and communications

2 Satisfaction Relative to Five Years Earlier

Retrospective satisfaction ratings had a mean of 4.9 for both respondents and delivery teams, but did not establish measured change over five years. The answers were judgments collected once, rather than repeated measurements of the same respondents or delivery teams.

The median reported career experience was two years, and the survey accepted five-year comparisons from respondents whose careers were shorter than that reference period. The figures below describe all valid answers, without restriction to respondents with at least five years of career experience. This limitation prevents their interpretation as established five-year changes in satisfaction. Differences from the current-satisfaction questions also do not measure change over that period.

2.1 Respondent Satisfaction Relative to Five Years Earlier

Indicator C022 · Compared to 5 years ago, I am happier with the work I am doing now · Full statistical analysis ›

Retrospective respondent satisfaction received distressed ratings in 214 of 804 answers (26.62%). The mean rating was 4.9 and the median was 5.0 (n = 804 respondents). Higher ratings were associated with a lower cancellation rate (r = −0.59, n = 150 engagements), higher customer satisfaction among active engagements (r = 0.72, n = 94 engagements), and lower intent to leave (r = −0.76, n = 755 respondents). The mean rating was distressed on 26 of 150 engagements. These figures retain the full answering base and the reference-period limitation described above.

One written answer addressed the retrospective comparison. It described an agent handling repeated questions while the respondent handled cases requiring judgment. This account illustrates reported experience and does not establish a measured change over five years.

“before this i am answering same password and leave-balance question fifty time a day. now only the unusual ones reach me, where policy is not clear. my team is less bored and less tired by evening.” -Individual Contributor, CXM, Corporate and back-office functions

2.2 Delivery Team Satisfaction Relative to Five Years Earlier

Indicator C024 · Compared to 5 years ago, the team I work with seems to be happier · Full statistical analysis ›

Retrospective delivery team satisfaction received distressed ratings in 242 of 797 answers (30.36%). The mean rating was 4.9 and the median was 5.0 (n = 797 respondents). Higher ratings were associated with a higher engagement indicator mean (r = 0.80, n = 150 engagements) and lower intent to leave (r = −0.61, n = 751 respondents). The mean rating was distressed on 33 of 150 engagements. The figures describe the full answering base and remain subject to the reference-period limitation.

The single written answer addressing the delivery team comparison came from the respondent whose account also addressed the comparison of personal satisfaction. It described less boredom and fatigue after an agent assumed responsibility for repeated questions. It is one account addressing both questions, rather than independent evidence for each comparison.

3 Challenges Named as Reducing Job Satisfaction

Respondents more frequently identified preparation of the vendor and the financial institution as challenges to job satisfaction than the agents themselves. The question asking respondents to identify the three principal challenges to job satisfaction received 755 answers about their own engagements, covering all 150 engagements. The most frequent subjects were the vendor's delivery playbook (139 answers) and the financial institution's legacy systems (128). Pricing of agentic AI work was identified in 115 answers, and provisioning of access and agent identities in 115.

These accounts concerned the arrangements needed to perform and check delivery work, as well as the performance of the agents themselves. The vendor’s commercial model was identified in 110 answers and the availability of qualified agentic AI talent in 86. Capacity to review agent output was identified in 77 answers, and the explainability of agent output in 72. Unclear liability or regulatory accountability for agent errors was identified in 72 answers.

“No real data governance before automating … Vendor-risk model was not built for this … Agent decisions were a black box to us” -Individual Contributor, BPO, Corporate and back-office functions

“No real agentic playbook to follow yet … Data governance still catching up … Documentation always trails the actual process” -Individual Contributor, BPO, Corporate and back-office functions

4 Fatigue in the Written Answers

Qualitative coding identified expressions of fatigue, resignation, and frustration in the written answers. The code “tired” was assigned to 133 answers from 111 respondents on 74 engagements. “Resigned” was assigned to 155 answers from 124 respondents on 76 engagements, and “frustrated” to 119 answers from 99 respondents on 71 engagements. These counts describe expressed emotional states in the supplied answers. They are neither clinical assessments nor estimates of prevalence across the delivery workforce.

“it wear you down. Every region of theirs book a break different way, so we learn one and then the next month it change again. My team is four people and two already ask to move.” -Individual Contributor, BPO, Trade, settlement and reconciliation

Accounts coded as resigned described respondents who had ceased raising recurring concerns or had reduced their expectations after unresolved requests for access, decisions, or data.

“In all honesty i stopped expecting anything. Three months and my access to their break system never come through, we work off screenshots somebody email us each morning, nobody ask about that part” -Individual Contributor, BPO, Trade, settlement and reconciliation

“Wears you down explaining the same thing to their people every week” -Individual Contributor, CXM, Client servicing and communications

“Truthfully I am tired of being middle man. My team asks me every week which expense methodology is approved and I have no answer to give them, because their change board has not met since March. It wears on people” -Engagement Manager, BPO, Trade, settlement and reconciliation

“I dont raise it as a defect because nobody actually fixes the root problem, were just told to keep the queue moving, its bloody exhausting.” -Individual Contributor, BPO, Corporate and back-office functions

The code “calm or fine” was assigned to 115 answers from 94 respondents on 65 engagements, and “proud” to 22 answers. Respondents could express more than one emotional state. These counts are consequently overlapping descriptions of written answers rather than mutually exclusive categories of the delivery workforce.

5 Sources of Sustained Satisfaction

Skills learned, colleagues, and pay were the most frequently valued aspects of the job, including on canceled engagements. The question received 786 answers about respondents’ own engagements, covering all 150 engagements. Skills learned were identified in 427 answers, colleagues in 393, and pay in 214. In 204 answers, a positive statement was accompanied by a qualification identifying a problem. Theme codes could overlap. These counts therefore differ from the counts for specific questions, such as manager effectiveness, and should not be treated as equivalent bases.

Respondents on canceled engagements identified the same valued aspects of the job. Among 296 answers from the 56 canceled engagements, skills learned appeared in 238, colleagues in 192, and pay in 134.

“Learned pricing and margining lessons that will stick … Some solid people on a doomed project … Pay held up through the cancellation” -Individual Contributor, BPO, Trade, settlement and reconciliation

“Learned more about liability frameworks than I expected … Coworkers who understood the mess we were in … The role stays interesting even when the project fails” -Individual Contributor, BPO, Corporate and back-office functions

Twenty-six answers identified the use case as a valued aspect of the job. These accounts described the underlying problem as worth addressing and the financial-industry work as worth learning.

“the security discipline this work has taught me … a genuinely cautious, well-designed IAM use case … colleagues who take the identity risks as seriously as I do” -Engagement Manager, ITO, Technology engineering and operations

Truthfully I don't know how to score top leadership out of ten, I have never met any of them and I've been here a year. What I can score is the training, which was actually decent, the agentic modules were hands on and I use that stuff daily. And the playbook is fine, someone clearly thought about it. But asking me about leadership development programmes when I'm on a POC queue all day is a bit much… my manager is good, that's the bit I can actually see.”

INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTOR · CXM, Corporate and back-office functions