Lenny's Polls

How do you feel
about your job?

323 product and tech professionals shared how they really feel about their jobs, and what drives their feelings.

323 responses Jan 28 – Feb 4, 2026 Polly survey
How do you feel about your job?
1 = hate it, 5 = love it
6%
21%
28%
31%
13%
Hate it
Not great
It's okay
Pretty good
Love it
Hate it Love it
The tl;dr

Only 13% truly love their jobs. 27% are actively unhappy (rating 1 or 2). Most people land somewhere between "it's okay" and "pretty good."

What keeps people happy:

What drives people away:

One more thing: solopreneurs average 4.25 while employees at 5,000+ person companies average 2.96. The bigger the company, the less happy the people.

What people love vs. hate

Click any theme to see representative quotes.

What people love

Top themes from those rating 4–5
1
Team and people
60
▼
"I absolutely love working with the team."
Head of Product · 51–250
"Love the people I work with. You spend the most time weekly with your colleagues, so it makes a big difference if you have a good relationship with them."
Data Analyst · 1,001–5,000
"I am working in an AI accelerator and I feel like a kid again. Getting to play with new tooling daily with a kind, smart team is a dream."
Principal Product Manager · 1,001–5,000
2
Autonomy and freedom
49
▼
"I love that I have a lot of autonomy and freedom to experiment and lead the charge in the direction I want. Love how flexible my schedule is."
Head of Product · 11–50
"Freedom. Moves fast. Zero corporate politics."
Cofounder, Product & Design · 2–10
"I work on my own time, don't have to work if I'm feeling unproductive so I can save my deep work for when my mind is at its best. I control my destiny."
Founder/CEO · 2–10
3
AI and innovation
40
▼
"Time to experiment with AI. Work feels like play."
Lead PM · 51–250
"I am working in an AI accelerator and I feel like a kid again. Work is suddenly fun again. GenAI has fundamentally changed the industry forever."
Principal Product Manager · 1,001–5,000
"I love that to be a non-technical PM who can build things with AI makes me better at my job because I can show my work and ideas, and it helps me grasp technical concepts in ways I couldn't before."
Product Manager · 11–50
4
Learning and growth
34
▼
"I really get to get my hands dirty and build new skills that I wouldn't just by reading or taking a course: evals, prompt design, consumer AI UX."
Head of Product · 2–10
"Stimulating. We are strongly pushed to upskill and we have budget for it."
Senior Product Designer · 11–50
"Being able to learn so much every day and having real impact on the business."
Product Manager · 11–50
5
Impact and mission
24
▼
"Big scope, big impact, customer-facing, strategic, and kinda cool."
Director, Product Management · 5,001+
"Love the nature of working at a mission-driven govtech early-stage startup."
Senior PM · 11–50
"Solving real problems for real people, in an organization that has not yet leveraged the scaling power that comes from tech. And our mission is amazing."
Head of Product · 51–250
6
Ownership and empowerment
22
▼
"The ownership and accountability I have: being able to find an opportunity, build buy-in, and deliver on it is really fulfilling."
Senior Product Manager · 51–250
"I'm now enabled to do more with more autonomy. I can be a single founder."
Group PM · 1,001–5,000
"I love that I am encouraged to bring my ideas to fruition as an engineer, even though we have a dedicated PM."
Software Engineer I · 1,001–5,000

What people hate

Top themes from those rating 1–2
1
Bad leadership
39
▼
"Love the product and my team. Hate leadership."
Director of Product · 51–250
"High pressure, low autonomy, terrible management."
Staff ML Engineer · 1,001–5,000
"I hate that the vision is being hijacked and micromanaged by my CEO and CPO who don't seem to be in sync with each other. The product direction keeps changing every month without any supporting data."
Senior Product Manager · 51–250
2
Team and culture issues
33
▼
"Intensely political and finger-pointy. Doesn't feel like we're a team all aiming for the same goals anymore."
Product Manager · 1,001–5,000
"Low talent density from teams outside of technology, intense focus on profitability with fear of layoffs constantly looming."
VP of Product · 251–1,000
"I love the work and the people. I hate leadership's tunnel vision on AI at the expense of company culture."
Advocate · 1,001–5,000
3
No clear strategy
27
▼
"It's complete chaos right now. No sign of leadership."
Senior in tech · 5,001+
"Too much ambiguity, even the leaders are not sure on what they want."
Product Manager · 1,001–5,000
"Prioritization mess from the C-level. Constant strategy changes, uncertainty. I'm afraid to mention issues to leadership."
Senior PM · 1,001–5,000
4
AI disruption and pressure
19
▼
"Clueless execs who continue to force employees to do more with less because of AI. Execs over-inflating the value of AI, it's getting hilariously bad."
UX Researcher · 251–1,000
"So many new expectations with the rise of AI."
Group PM · 1,001–5,000
"Corporate decision making is so slow but everyone is in panic over AI. The role of a PM is changing but my company is risk-averse and slow to adapt."
Sr. Product Manager · 5,001+
5
No learning or growth
16
▼
"It's boring. The hours are long. There is zero chance to be creative."
Team Lead · 251–1,000
"Not intellectually demanding; routine."
Finance Operations · 251–1,000
"It's unclear what my career growth looks like and I don't think leadership values me. I'm not sure what to do differently to add value."
PM, ML & Computer Vision · 51–250
6
No autonomy
14
▼
"Micromanaging C-suite."
Vice President · 5,001+
"We are pulled in so many directions and most of my time is spent providing an update of some sort rather than solving problems."
Director of Product · 1,001–5,000
"So much Product/Agile theatre with a severe lack of empowerment. Everything is decided by committee and takes forever."
Delivery Lead · 251–1,000
Satisfaction by company size, tenure, and role

By company size

Just me
4.25
n=8
2–10
3.45
n=22
11–50
3.41
n=46
251–1,000
3.32
n=57
51–250
3.26
n=76
1,001–5,000
3.10
n=60
5,001+
2.96
n=54

By tenure

Less than 1 year
3.55
n=91
11+ years
3.50
n=12
6–10 years
3.23
n=31
3–5 years
3.11
n=98
1–2 years
3.08
n=91

By role level

Founder / C-suite
3.63
n=27
VP / Director / Head
3.16
n=74
Group PM / Manager
3.40
n=15
IC
3.22
n=207
Patterns worth noting

The honeymoon is real. People under 1 year at their company rate satisfaction highest (3.55). At 1–5 years, it drops to about 3.1. The novelty wears off, the frustrations accumulate, and the things you accepted on the way in become harder to tolerate.

Company size and happiness move in opposite directions. Every step up in company size brings satisfaction down, likely because the things people love most (autonomy, close-knit teams, moving fast) get harder to maintain at scale.

VPs and directors feel the squeeze. They rate lowest of any role level (3.16), below both the ICs who report to them and the C-suite above them. They're caught between strategy they didn't set and execution they have to deliver.

AI shows up on both sides. Among happy people, AI is mentioned 40 times as a source of energy and new capability. Among unhappy people, it comes up 19 times as top-down pressure and unrealistic expectations. The difference seems to be whether leadership is enabling experimentation or mandating adoption without clarity.

Who responded

Company size

51–250
76
23.5%
1,001–5,000
60
18.6%
251–1,000
57
17.6%
5,001+
54
16.7%
11–50
46
14.2%
2–10
22
6.8%
Just me
8
2.5%

Tenure in current role

3–5 years
98
30.3%
Less than 1 year
91
28.2%
1–2 years
91
28.2%
6–10 years
31
9.6%
11+ years
12
3.7%

Data collected via Polly · Jan 28 – Feb 4, 2026 · 323 responses · Lenny's Polls