According to a poll of 3,000 British employees by Best Companies, 54% blame a bad day at work on negative atmosphere, followed by boring work (52%), being taken for granted (49%), a nightmare boss (49%) and angry customers (43%).
But men and women differ in their ideas of what makes a bad day. Men thought that boring work was the biggest factor while women believed it was a negative atmosphere.
And coping with boring colleagues winds up 39% of women compared with 32% of their male workmates. More than a third of women thought if they felt undervalued they would have a bad day compared with just 28% of men.
More than nine out of 10 employees who work for organisations on the top 10 Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For said their team was ‘fun to work with'. And 73% of those who had a fun team were engaged compared with only 18% who do not have a fun team.
Jonathan Austin, CEO and founder of Best Companies, said: "If staff are having a bad day at work, they won't be at their most productive and for those in customer-facing roles this could be potentially disastrous.
"It is important to ensure people are motivated about their work so [employers should] set objectives carefully and look for ways to give people work they find interesting. Simply saying thank you will go a long way to ensuring people don't feel taken for granted."
