Unhappy workers can be damaging to wider company goals, according to one employment analyst.

Dilys Robinson, principal research fellow at the Institute for Employment Studies, believes that “structural commitment” among workers could be one of the biggest problems facing the workplace.

She argues that employees may have abandoned the blitz spirit bought on by the recession in favour of hanging on purely for financial security.

While workers may have been happy taking pay freezes and losing perks during the downturn, more have felt increasingly unhappy at the lack of rewards for their sacrifices.

“Discontented, disengaged employees are likely to withdraw discretionary effort and voice their discontent to their colleagues,” Ms Robinson argued.

A separate report published by Badenoch and Clark this week backed up her findings, that more workers are expressing dissatifaction with their jobs.

More than a quarter (27 per cent) would not recommend their employer to other people, while 22 per cent said they were unhappy with their workplace.