Lat week, I ent an e-mail to a friend who had jut lot hi job. “I’m o orry,” I wrote. “Your boe are moron to have got rid of uch a geniu a you. I can only uppoe a queue will hortly tretch round the block a le brain-dead employer clamour to take you on. Hope you are OK.”
The e-mail wa heartfelt except for one word, and that wa “hortly”. I don’t expect a queue to form for my friend hortly. Even geniue are not getting napped up quickly – unle they happen to be ecurity guard, ocial worker, accountant or teacher.
In a trice, I had a meage back. He aid he had had a brief panic about the mortgage and chool fee but otherwie wa really rather cheerful. Indeed, he wa in uch high pirit that he even ent me a funny anecdote*.
I could not help comparing the tone of hi meage with one that I got the very ame afternoon from another friend who work for a company that ha alo been celebrating Chritma with ome avage job cut. Never, he aid, had her morale been a bad. The weight of work wa crippling a he wa now doing the job of three people. There wa talk of pay cut. The office wa pookily quiet, too; ince mot of her friend had been acked, there wan’t even anyone around to moan to. Wort of all wa the fear that her job would be next.
It i tempting to conclude from thee two meage that, if there i one thing wore for hitherto ucceful, well-paid people than being fired, it i not being fired. Thoe who have been axed don’t need to take the acking peronally, and not working in the day before Chritma can be rather jolly. Wherea for thoe who have not been fired, the not-o-fetive eaon thi year i an orgy of fear and drudgery.WWw.hAOZUowEn.com
There might be ome truth in thi now but it i not going to tay true for long. The grimne of the unemployed will get wore a no queue form to take them on, while the grimne of thoe in work will, in time, tart to recede. Thi i not becaue the economy will improve – it i becaue the grimne itelf will bring on a ounder and altogether more realitic approach to work.
Over the pat decade, the rich, profeional clae have developed an increaingly unhealthy attitude to their job. We took our job and our fat alarie for granted and felt aggrieved if our bonue were not even bigger than the year before. We demanded that the work be intereting in itelf and, even more dangerouly and prepoterouly, that it hould have meaning.
The reult of all thee demand wa, of coure, diatifaction. We had climbed to the very top of Malow’ hierarchy of need and dicovered that, at the top of the pyramid, the air wa very thin indeed. A an agony aunt, I found that by far the mot common problem reader ubmitted came from rich and enior profeional who had all their baic need more than catered for, leaving their oul in torment. Help me, I’m bored, they cried. Or, wore: what doe my work mean?
In the pat few month, anguih of thi ort ha vanihed. When one’ job i at rik and one’ aving are a hadow of their former elve, the earch for meaning at work i meaningle. The point of a job become rather more baic: to feed and houe (and, at a pinch, to educate) one’ family and oneelf. If we can do thi, then anything we manage over and above thi i a bonu. Once expectation have fully adjuted to thi new reality and we ee earning money a the main reaon for work, greater atifaction will follow.
Low expectation have an awful lot to be aid for them. In urvey women turn out to be more atified at work than men, in pite of earning le for the ame job and doing mot of the work at home too. The reaon i imple: women’ expectation of working life are lower. Similarly, Denmark i the happiet country in the world in pite of having a cold, dark climate and a top tax rate of 68 per cent. The toical Dane do not expect o much of life and, expecting le, find what little they have rather nice.
Climbing down Malow’ pyramid i painful and progre i low. However, there i omething that manager can do to make the decent a little le grim. The eaiet and cheapet way of cheering up demoralied worker i to tell them that they are doing a great job. It i one of the great myterie of office life why mot manager are o reitant to thi when it doe not cot one penny. Here i all they have to do: pick people off one by one (to do it in group i lazy and quite poil the impact) and ay thank you and well done, and look a if they mean it.
* For anyone who need further cheering, here i the anecdote of my acked friend, who heard it from omeone who work at the chool that Paul McCartney’ child attend. At a recent parent’ evening, Heather Mill wa told that her daughter wa rather good at the recorder. M Mill apparently replied: “She get that from me.”
这是封相当贴心的电子邮件，除了“不久”这个词。我不希望我的朋友“不久”才能找到工作。(虽然)这年头连天才都不会立刻被人抢走，除非这人恰好是保安、社工、会计或者教师。
才一会儿功夫，我就收到了回信。他说，在经历了对按揭贷款和孩子学费的短暂恐慌之后，他便释然了。事实上，他的心情相当不错，甚至还给我发了个小笑话*。
我忍不住拿这封信的语气和那天下午刚收到的另外一个朋友的相比，她所在的公司残忍地解雇了一些人并准备庆祝圣诞节。绝不，她说，我决不会让自己垮掉。她做着三个人的工作量，即将达到她的极限，并且还有减薪的可能。办公室里也安静得吓人，因为她的大部分朋友都已被解雇，周围连个可以说抱怨的话人都没有。最坏的还不是这些，而是担心自己也会被解雇。
从这两封信得出的结论非常有趣：如果那些到目前为止还算成功、拿着高薪的人有什么比那些已经失业的人更遭的话，那就是他们还没被解雇。已经被解雇的人不用再担惊受怕，而且圣诞节前的悠闲日子毕竟相当惬意。但对于那些仍在职的人来说，这个毫无节日气氛的冬天充满着无休止的担忧和劳累。
这个结论现在听起来有点道理，但将来就未必了。由于没有职位可供选择，失业人群的严峻处境只会更糟;同时，在职人群的情况最终会获得改善。这并不是因为经济形势的好转——而是因为习惯成自然，进而接受现实。
过去的几十年，富有的职业经理阶层日益滋生出一种对工作的不健康心态。我们坦然占据着高薪职位，同时抱怨加薪太慢。我们要求工作本身得有趣，更为危险和荒谬的是，那份工作还应该有意义。
所有这些自然导致导致一个结果，那就是不满。我们爬到马斯洛需求层次(1)的顶端后竟发现，金字塔顶端空气如此稀薄。作为知心大姐，我发现到目前为止最为常见的读者提问都来自于富有的高级职业经理，这些人已经满足了包括饮食在内的所有基本需求，却精神空虚、痛苦不堪。帮帮我，我好无聊，他们叫道。还有更糟的：我的工作到底有什么意义?
最近几个月，这种痛苦突然消失的无影无踪。当某人的职位都难保住，并且银行存款日渐萎缩的时候，再去探究工作的意义也就变得毫无意义。工作的目的变得更为原始：为他和他的家庭提供吃和住(必要时，还有教育)。在此基础之上，我们才有可能考虑年终奖的事情。一旦我们的期望回归现实，我们会发现，赚钱才是工作的最主要目的，其它更高级的满足感都得靠边站。
低期望蕴含着大道理。总体看，女性对工作的满意程度要比男性高，虽然同样的工作女性收入要低，而且女性还承担了大部分家务。理由很简单：女性对职业生涯的期望较低。同样道理，尽管气候阴冷、税率奇高(75%)，丹麦仍是世界上最快乐的国家。清心寡欲的丹麦人对生活要得并不多，他们发现：少点欲望、多点快乐。
从马斯洛金字塔往下爬是个痛苦而崎岖的过程。但是，经理们还是有些方法可以减轻这种痛苦的。鼓舞士气低落的员工有一种最简单和成本最低的方法，那就是告诉他们：他们正在做一项伟大的工作。这种不用花一分钱的好事儿大部分经理却不愿意干，这真让人想不通。。经理们要做的就是：找员工挨个谈话(不要分组，这会让你显得懒惰并且效果不佳)，告诉他们：你做的很好，谢谢你。这多少让他们看上去像是那么回事儿。
*如果有人想知道更多，我给你讲讲我那个失业朋友给我发的小笑话，她是从Paul McCartney(2)的孩子所在学校的一个工作人员那里听来的。在最近一次晚间的家长会上，Heather Mill被告知她女儿在音乐方面很有天赋，Mill女士明确回答到：“她受我遗传。”
(1) Malow’ hierarchy of need：马斯洛需求层次(模型)，马斯洛需求层次模型认为人的需求分为生理需求、安全需求、爱和归属需求、自尊需求和自我实现需求，金字塔排列，最高层次的为自我实现需求。
(2) Paul McCartney，大名鼎鼎，甲壳虫乐队成员;Heather Mill是McCartney的前妻。很明显女儿的天赋来自McCartney……