Are we talking about a corporate wellness program and how effective it is? Employee or job satisfaction? A healthy work/life balance? All of the above? The answer is in the eye of the beholder, but let's take a look at a couple of metrics that might provide some clues.

Employee/Job Satisfaction

Since the Conference Board – an important bellwether of consumer confidence, among other economic and workplace trends – started tracking employee satisfaction in 1987, the numbers of workers who are happy at their jobs has dropped precipitously from just over 61% to around 42.6% at the height of the Great Recession.

Granted, the economy has improved since then and job growth continues to trend higher, but the satisfaction needle hasn't moved that much. It was 47.7% in 2013.

What's this about? The Conference Board cited a number of factors. One is the changing of the guard of workplace generations – the exit of the Baby Boomers, many of whom had grown increasingly burned out and dissatisfied with their jobs over the years; and the entry of a new generation that feels somewhat "entitled" to a higher level of employee satisfaction than their predecessors did.

Drilling down a bit deeper, they discern factors like reduced job security and benefits packages, less engagement on the part of employees (and maybe managers as well), poor communication between the workforce and senior management (as well as with immediate supervisors), underutilization of skills, lack of autonomy and independence in their jobs – the list of grievancesgoes on.

Part of a National Trend

Even if there is cynicism to be found among the different generations that now comprise the workforce, it doesn't tell the whole story. Recently, the Gallup organization issued survey results that track the level of confidence Americans have had about a broad range of institutions in this country over the past four decades.

Some of the results were not surprising, such as Congress at the bottom of the approval ratings and the military at the top. However, others were eye-opening. For example, small business ranked just below the military in popularity, while TV news and Internet news came in just above Congress. Banks and big business were closer to the bottom of the pack (no surprise in the wake of the economic turndown), but police and organized religion got relatively high marks.

The main takeaway from this study is that, overall, Americans have been losing confidence in time-honored public and private institutions since the mid-1970s. Even though the workplace per se wasn't on the list, it stands to reason that it would follow similar trend lines – given that most of us spend roughly a third of our lives at the office.

If not necessarily happier, are we healthier at work? The jury's still out on this question, but there are perceptible efforts being made in corporate America to make employees healthier – and concurrently more content.

While Americans still have way less vacation and down time than our counterparts in other industrialized countries, the flip side of that coin is our productivity level tends to be higher. The work/life balance is arguably better than it ever has been. Perks like flex time, telecommuting and on-site daycare have made the work week more convenient for many workers.

In terms of actual physical and mental health, an industry term gaining traction in recent years is 'population health management' or PHM. This is a concerted public/private effort to make the country healthier, both in the workplace and in our homes, and partly ramping up now because of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as the first organized effort to make America a healthier country in some 50 years.

The PHM initiative is complex and will likely be ongoing for the foreseeable future. At the same time, some 85% of larger companies (typically upwards of 1,000 employees) have initiated corporate wellness programs, which attempt to make the workplace healthier through improved cafeteria dietary offerings, fitness facilities or discounts for employees to join a gym, smoking-cessation programs, weight-loss incentives, etc.

On this front, we have a long way to go. Gallup research points out that only about 60% of employees nationwide are even aware of wellness programs at their firms; and only about 25% are actually participating.

The upshot of discussions like this is that the dialogue in corporate circles and benefits offices is under way, which is how situations can change and improve over time. Another vantage point is that these studies and surveys are released via Internet news and websites – and we saw the kinds of approval ratings they received from the public at large.

In other words, it's way too early to throw in the towel and give up on being happy – and healthy – in our work lives.