year ago human resources consultancy Towers Perrin created quite a stir when it revealed its newest study showing the deep emotional connection that workers have with their work—and clearly documented just how negative those emotions are for most workers.

But as the glimmer of an economic recovery continues to emerge, can we assume that our workers are going to become more positive about their work life?

Not likely, according to Towers Perrin analysts, who see the negative factors as being more deep and durable than could be explained by simple economic uncertainty.

"Companies dependent on their people's skills—as most are today—may face real risk when the economy improves and top talent begins looking for greener pastures," says Donald Lowman, a managing director of Towers Perrin.

Managers have to be more focused than ever on keeping the right people, and keeping their team motivated as the economy begins to turn around.

Strong (and Mostly Negative) Emotions

Using sophisticated market research techniques that actually measure the intensity of emotion, Towers Perrin surveyed 1,100 workers in mid-sized and large companies. So instead of the usual "strongly agree" or "strongly disagree" scales, workers' feelings toward job recognition, for example, could be directly compared to their feelings about their workload.

Overall the study showed that workers have a tremendously strong emotional connection to their job—both positive and negative. More importantly, the overall emotional balance was negative, and one-third of the emotional content was "intensely" negative. The key factors were: