When Spherion^® set out to survey the U.S. workforce on a variety of topics throughout the year, we had no idea of the answers we’d receive. The American worker has proven to have strong opinions about everything from dating coworkers to blogging about their employers to listening to iPods at work. Some of those opinions were surprising, some were not. But all help us to better understand what makes the workplace work. Here’s a quick recap.

The heart (and soul) of discretion

Four out of every ten workers (42%) said that, if they were single, they would consider dating a coworker, but a third (34%) said they would not. Could be because almost 40% think it would jeopardize their job security or their chances for advancement.

Meanwhile, not even half of workers (44%) trust their Human Resources departments to keep private the details of a problem they may have. (Psst: Might not want to tell them about your workplace romance!)

Balancing work and personal life

Almost 80% reported that their employers do not offer most of the programs that can help employees achieve a better balance between work and personal lives—including no programs for telecommuting (79%), job-sharing (79%), sabbaticals (77%) or paid time off to perform community service (82%).  And only 57% said their employers offer flexible working hours.

The result?  42% of workers are not satisfied with the work/life balance programs their employers offer, and a third (33%) aren’t happy with their ability to maintain an acceptable balance.

Despite the absence of these desired company programs, most employees are happy with their own bosses.  Almost three-quarters (74%) say they have a positive relationship with their boss.  More than half (52%) would refer their friends to work at their company—and 23% would receive a bonus from their employer in appreciation for the referral! 

Ethics and values at work

One-third of workers (34%) report having witnessed unethical activities in their workplace, but more than half (53%) say they are not likely to report or are undecided about reporting such activities.

Almost three-quarters feel it’s wrong to take supplies from their workplace for personal use (71%) and have not done so (69%).

Almost half (49%) say they don’t think it’s acceptable to use their work computers to shop for holiday gifts online or to purchase them online at work, and they walk the talk—with more than half (54%) saying they don’t do their online shopping at work.

In the good old summertime

The majority of workers (67%) planned to take a summer vacation in 2006—and a true vacation, at that, with the same number reporting that their employers do not expect them to check emails while on vacation.

42% said that a relaxed summer dress code was important to them, and 45% got their wish as employers allowed relaxed dress codes during the summer months.

Listen while you work

A third of workers (32%) listen to iPods, MP3 players or similar devices at work—with 79% saying it improves their job satisfaction and/or their productivity.

The net effect

While only 5% of employees blog about their employers and only 6% read blogs about them, social networking sites are a different story. Almost one-fifth of workers (19%) would post their resume on MySpace, Facebook or Friendster for employers to see, and a third (33%) would remove certain existing content on their sites if they knew employers could see it. 

No more party animals

Finally, workers told us that 58% of their employers hold an annual holiday party, but it’s only important to 57% of workers, and only 46% feel obligated to attend. This endangered party animal may be giving way to gestures that employees appreciate more—such as a little extra free time off, year-end cash bonuses or gift certificates, and some of those other work/life balance programs you’d like to have.

We’ll be continuing our workplace snapshot surveys in 2007, as part of the Spherion Emerging Workforce^® Study conducted by Harris Interactive, to see how trends have changed (or not) over time. You can read all of our workplace snapshots at our Pressroom at www.spherion.com or our Career Center. And you can blog with us 24/7 about these or other workplace topics at www.spherion.com/careerblog.