飞鸟信:十大最幸福的工作

我所撰写的那篇有关“十大最令人厌恶的工作”的文章惊异不断。在“十大最幸福的工作”中也有很多惊奇之处，由芝加哥大学国家研究组织进行的综合社会调查对此进行了报道。（我非常感激卢·佩尔曼引起了我对《基督教科学箴言报》中的这篇文章的关注。）

1.  Clergy:  The least worldly are reported to be the happiest of all

1. 神职人员：最不世俗的工作据说是最幸福的工作

2. Firefighters: Eighty percent of firefighters are “very satisfied” with their jobs, which involve helping people.

2. 消防员：80%的消防员对自己的工作“非常满意”，这份工作是在给予人们帮助。

3. Physical therapists: Social interaction and helping people apparently make this job one of the happiest.

3. 理疗师：社会互动和帮助他人明显使得这份工作是最幸福的工作之一。

4. Authors: For most authors, the pay is ridiculously low or non-existent, but the autonomy of writing down the contents of your own mind apparently leads to happiness.

4. 作家：对于大多数作家来说，他们的报酬少得可怜，或者根本没有，但是写下自己心中所想的自由显然会带来幸福。

5.  Special education teachers: If you don’t care about money, a job as special education teacher might be a happy profession. The annual salary averages just under $50,000.

5. 特殊教育老师：如果你不在乎金钱，特殊教育老师这个工作或许是个幸福的职业。这份工作每年的平均薪水仅在5万美元以下。

6. Teachers: Teachers in general report being happy with their jobs, despite the current issues with education funding and classroom conditions. The profession continues to attract young idealists, although fifty percent of new teachers are gone within five years.

6. 教师：尽管当前存在着教育经费和教室条件的问题，一般来说教师们还是感到自己的工作很幸福的。这一职业继续吸引着年轻的理想主义者，尽管在五年以内有50%的新教师已经转行了。

7. Artists: Sculptors and painters report high job satisfaction, despite the great difficulty in making a living from it.

7. 艺术家：雕刻家和画家据称是工作满意度最高的职业，尽管在这一职业上谋生有着相当大的困难。

8. Psychologists: Psychologists may or may not be able to solve other people’s problems, but it seems that they have managed to solve their own.

8. 心理学家：心理学家可能会也可能不会解决其他人的问题，但是似乎他们能够解决自己的问题。

9. Financial services sales agents: Sixty-five percent of financial services sales agents are reported to be happy with their jobs. That could be because some of them are clearing more than $90,000 dollars a year on average for a 40-hour work week in a comfortable office environment.

9. 金融理财销售代理：据报道80%的金融理财销售代理认为自己的工作很幸福。这大概是因为他们中的一些人在舒服的办公环境中工作，每周工作40个小时，平均每年挣9万多美元。

10. Operating engineers: Playing with giant toys like bulldozers, front-end loaders, backhoes, scrapers, motor graders, shovels, derricks, large pumps, and air compressors can be fun.  With more jobs for operating engineers than qualified applicants, operating engineers report being happy.

10. 施工工程师：摆弄那些大型玩具可能是很有趣的，比如推土机、前载车、反向铲、刮运机、平地机、铲车、起重机、大型水泵以及空气压缩机。施工工程师的工作供大于求，这使得他们很幸福。

It’s interesting to compare these jobs with the list of the ten most hated jobs, which were generally much better paying and have higher social status. What’s striking about the list is that these relatively high level people are imprisoned in hierarchical bureaucracies. They see little point in what they are doing. The organizations they work for don’t know where they are going, and as a result, neither do these people.

将这些工作与十大最令人厌恶的工作相比还是挺有意思的，那些最令人厌恶的工作通常收入较高，带来的社会地位也较高。其中显著的一点是，那些相对处于高层次的人被监禁于等级森严的官僚体制中。他们在自己做的事情中找不到一点意义。他们所服务的机构不知道他们到底在做什么，结果，这些人自己对此也不清楚。

1. Director of Information Technology

1. 信息技术主管

2. Director of Sales and Marketing

2. 市场销售主管

3. Product Manager

3. 产品经理

4. Senior Web Developer

4. 高级网页开发员

5. Technical Specialist

5. 技术专家

6. Electronics Technician

6. 电子技师

7. Law Clerk

7. 法官助理2

8. Technical Support Analyst

8. 技术支持分析师

9. CNC Machinist

9. 计算机数控机械师

10. Marketing Manager

10. 市场销售经理

The meaningfulness of lives

生活富有意义

Why were these jobs with better pay and higher social status less likely to produce happiness? Todd May writing in the New York Times argues that “A meaningful life must, in some sense then, feel worthwhile.  The person living the life must be engaged by it.  A life of commitment to causes that are generally defined as worthy — like feeding and clothing the poor or ministering to the ill — but that do not move the person participating in them will lack meaningfulness in this sense. However, for a life to be meaningful, it must also be worthwhile. Engagement in a life of tiddlywinks does not rise to the level of a meaningful life, no matter how gripped one might be by the game.”

为什么这些收入高、社会地位高的工作却很少会带来幸福呢？托德·梅在纽约时报中的文章中提出，“富有意义的生活必须在一定意义上让人感到值得。过这种生活的人必须全身心投入其中。如果一个人的生活奉献给了普遍被认为有价值的事业，比方说给贫苦人提供衣食或照顾病患，但是这并不能驱使这个人参与到其中，那么在这一意义上，生活就失去了意义。然而，要富有意义的人生必须也是值得拥有的。充斥着挑圆片游戏的人生并没有上升到有意义的人生的高度，不管一个人因这个游戏可能会变得多么有影响力。”2

This is what underlies the difference between the happiest jobs and the most hated jobs. One set of jobs feels worthwhile, while in the other jobs, people can’t see the point. The problems in the most hated jobs can’t be solved by job redesign or clearer career paths. Instead the organizations must undertake fundamental change to manage themselves in a radically different way with a focus on delighting the customer through continuous innovation and all the consequent changes that are needed to accomplish that. The result of doing this in firms like Amazon , Apple and Salesforce.com is happy customers, soaring profits and workers who can see meaning in their work.

这就是最幸福的工作与最令人厌恶的工作的根本区别。一组工作让人觉得值得去做，而在另一些工作中，人们无法看到这点。最令人厌恶的工作中存在的问题并不能通过工作再设计或者更清晰的职业道路来解决。这些机构必须进行根本的转变来以一种彻底不同的方式进行自我管理，专注于通过持续创新和达到创新所需要的随之而来的所有变化来取悦顾客。在亚马逊、苹果和Salesforce.com公司这样的公司进行这样转变的结果就是，顾客更加满足，利润不断上升，员工可以从工作中看到价值。