Many Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck

Percentage of American employees who like the work they do, but their bosses’ quirks make the workplace less enjoyable, according to a survey by Sirota Survey Intelligence: 76

Percentage who say a key obstacle in performing their job is excessive bureaucracy: 62

Percentage who say another key obstacle is that more attention is given to placing blame than solving problems: 59

Paycheck-to-paycheck

Percentage of Americans who say they are living paycheck-to-paycheck, the highest of any country in a 33-nation survey by ACNielsen: 28

Percentage in Portugal: 24

Percentage in Brazil: 23

Percentage of people in the countries surveyed: 13

Work like a dog

Percentage of dog owners who would take their pets to work if they could, according to a survey by Harris Interactive for Hartz Mountain Corporation: 31

Helping hands

Percentage of American adults age 50 to 70 who say they are interested in taking jobs now or in the future to help improve the quality of life in their communities, according to a survey by Civic Ventures and sponsored by MetLife Foundation: 50

Percentage who say it is important that work in retirement serve the community and those in need: 49

Percentage who are interested in working to help the poor, the elderly and other people in need: 78

Tenure vs. performance

Percentage of U.S. workers who think tenure determines pay where they work, according to a Hudson Highland Group Inc. survey: 60

Percentage who think performance is the deciding factor: 35

Ridicule

Percentage of American workers who have overheard age-related ridicule in the workplace, according to a survey by International Communications Research for Novations/J. Howard & Associates: 21

Percentage who have overheard racial slurs at the office: 30

Percentage who have overheard ethnic slurs: 28

Percentage who have overheard ridicule concerning sexual orientation: 20

Ready to manage money?

Percentage of college upperclassmen who think they’re knowledgeable enough to manage their finances after graduation, according to a survey by Citigroup Inc.: 80

Percentage who have missed or been late on a credit card payment: 32

Percentage who have written a check that bounced: 24

Percentage who have had to face a bill collector: 17

Stay-at-home dads

Percentage of men in the country’s top income bracket who said they would put their careers on hold to become stay-at-home dads, according to a survey conducted by TheLadders.com, a leading $100,000-plus jobs Website: 62

Percentage of dads who would pass up their kids’ soccer goals for scoring points with industry big shots by giving the keynote speech at a convention: 31

Percentage of executives who felt pressure to return to work after the birth of a child: 67

Still wired

Percentage of U.S. adults who have abandoned their traditional telephone service completely and now use their wireless phone exclusively, according to the results of The 2005 Telecommunications Report by Harris Interactive: 9

Percentage of all adults who say they are “seriously considering” going exclusively to wireless service within one year: 5

Percentage of adults who say they are “somewhat considering” this switch: 47

Idle thought

“If moral behavior were simply following rules, we could program a computer to be moral.”

—Samuel P. Ginder, U.S. Navy captain

John MacIntyre is an author and former city magazine editor. His Figuratively Speaking column, launched in 1989, is published in more than 40 newspapers and magazines.