Employees who have too little work are less satisfied with their jobs than those with too much or just the right amount of work, according to a survey by Sirota Survey Intelligence, specialists in attitude research.

Employees who reported "much too little" work rated their job satisfaction at 37 on a 100-point scale, according to the firm's survey of 203,000 employees. Those who reported just the right amount of work rated their overall satisfaction with their jobs at 68 out of 100.

Workers who said they had too much work were the second most satisfied. They rated their overall satisfaction with their jobs a 60 out of 100. Employees who said they had "much too much" work were in the middle regarding job satisfaction, with a rating of 52.

The second-least satisfied employees are those with too little work. They rated their overall job satisfaction at 43.

"Although there is a cost to employers when their employees are over-worked, there may be an even bigger cost from being under-worked," says Jeffrey Saltzman, chief executive officer of Sirota Survey Intelligence. "Companies need to consider employees' expectations for having the proper amount of work in order to achieve the best productivity, morale, and employee retention."