So Who Hates Their Boss?

Toronto, ONTARIO (Wednesday, March 12th, 2003) - Do Canadians secretly hate their boss? Do they dread going to work each day because of their superior? According to a new poll conducted by Ipsos-Reid on behalf of BBC Canada and Alliance Atlantis Communications the answer to these pressing questions is, in general, no - but for one in ten employed Canadians the answer is a different story.

Nine in ten (88%) Canadian employees agree they are happy at their current jobs, but one in ten (10%) agrees that they secretly hate their boss, while 11% agrees they dread going to work each day because of their boss. Interestingly, working Canadians in lower income households (22%) are three times as likely as those in upper income households (7%) to say they secretly hate their boss.

Looking at the workplace from another angle, a similar one in ten (8%), say they "would be willing to suck up to [their] boss to get ahead in [their] career." Younger (16%) workers are more likely than their middle aged (7%) or older (0%) counterparts to indicate they would be willing to do this for career advancement.

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted on behalf of BBC Canada and Alliance Atlantis Communications between February 25th and February 27th, 2003. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 468 employed adult Canadians. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 4.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire employed adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 2001 Census data.

To view the factum and tables, please open the attached PDF files.

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For more information on this news release, please contact:

John Wright
Senior Vice-President
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900