第6课课文及课文翻译

1、Thank God It s MondayBy Jyoti thottam(1) As researchers in psychology, economics and organizational behavior have been gradually discovering, the experience of being happy at work looks very similar acrossprofessions.从事心理学、经济学和组织行为学研究的人已逐渐发现,各行各业的人们在工作中感受到快乐的体验看起来十分相似。People who love their jobs feel

2、 challenged by their work but in control of it.热爱本职工作的人会感到他们的工作有挑战性,但自己能驾驭它；They have bosses who make them feel appreciated and co-workers they like.他们既得到老板的赏识,又有和自己投缘的同事；They can find meaning in whatever they do.无论干什么他们都能发现其中的意义。And they aren t just lucky.他们可不是仅仅凭着运气好。It takes real effort to reach

3、that sublime state.要达到那种完美的境界需要切实下工夫才行。(2) An even bigger obstacle, though, may be our low expectations on the job.Love, family,不过 , 一个更大的障碍也许是我们对工作的期望值太低。community those are supposed to be the true sources of happiness, while work simply gives us the means to enjoy them.爱、家庭和社区往往被看做快乐的真正来源,而工作只是为我们

4、提供了享受那一切的手段。Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who coined the term flow, which adherents of positive psychology would use to describe the job-induced highs, says that distinction is a false one.米哈里·奇凯岑特米哈伊认为这种区分是错误的。他发明了“强感受”信奉正面心理学的人常用此词来描述由工作而引发的兴奋状态。“Anythingcan be enjoyableifthe elementsof floware pr

5、esent,”(flow)这个说法 ,he writesin hisbook Good Business.在称心如意的工作 一书中他写道 : “ 只要存在强感受因素 , 任何事情都能给我们带来愉悦。“ Within that framework, doing a seemingly boring job can be a source of greaterfulfillment than one ever thought possible.”根据这一观点 , 从事一份表面看上去枯燥的工作却会给人们带来想象不到的更大的成就感。”(3) Csikszentmihalyi encourages us

6、 to reach a state in which work is an extension of whatwe naturally want to do.奇凯岑特米哈伊鼓励我们达到这样一种境界在此境界中,工作是我们本就想做的事情的一种延伸。Immersed in the pleasure of work, we dont worry about its ultimate reward.沉浸在工作的快乐中,我们就不会为最终的报酬去操心。If that sounds out of reach, take heart.即便听起来很难达到这种境界,我们也要树立信心。You may soon get

7、 some encouragement from the head office.也许你很快会从上司那儿得到某种鼓励。A growing body of research is demonstrating that happy workers not only are happier in life but are also crucial to the health of a company.越来越多的研究证明 , 如果员工工作时心情愉快 , 不仅其自身生活会更幸福 , 而且对公司的健康发展也有着举足轻重的作用。(4) Thirty-five years ago, the Gallup Or

8、ganization started researching why peopleincertainwork groups,even withinthe same company, were so much more effectivethanothers.35 年前，盖洛普民意调查机构开始研究为什么某些工作团队(甚至在同一公司内) 的工作效率比别的团队高得多。Donald Clifton, the Gallup researcher who pioneered that work, conducted a series of extensive interviews with highly

9、productive teams of workers.盖洛普此项调查的发起者唐纳德· 克利夫顿对许多高效的员工团队进行了一系列范围广泛的采访 ,From those interviews, Gallup developed a set of 12 statements designed to measure employees overall level of happiness with their work, which Gallup calls“engagement ” .从中总结出了一套旨在衡量员工工作快乐感受盖洛普称之为“工作投入”总体水平的 12 条提法。Some of

10、 the criteria reflect the obvious requirements of any worker (Do you havewhat you need to do your job? Do you know whats expected of you at work?), whileothers reveal more subtle variables (Do you have a best friend at work? Does yoursupervisoror someone elseat work careabout you as a person?).Gallu

11、pstartedthesurvey in 1998, and it now includes 5.4 million employees at 474 organizations;Gallup also does periodic random polls of workers in different countries.盖洛普的调查是从1998 年开始的 ,现在已经覆盖国家的企业员工定期进行随机民意调查。474 家机构里的 540 万员工；它还对不同(5) The polls paint a picture of a rather disaffected U.S. work force.对

12、美国的调查反映出美国公司员工工作时情绪不佳。In the most recent poll, from September 2004, only 29 of workers said they wereengaged with their work.根据 2004年 9月开始的最新调查 , 只有 29%的员工说他们对工作很投入 ,More than half, 55 , were not engaged, and 16 were actively disengaged.而一半以上 (55%) 的员工说他们对工作不投入, 16%的员工根本就是消极怠工。Still, those numbers a

13、re better than in many other countries.尽管如此 ,这些数字比许多其他国家还要好些。The percentage of engaged workers in the U.S. is more than twice as large asGermany s and three times as great as Singapores.美国对工作投入的员工的百分比是德国的两倍多, 是新加坡的 3 倍。But neither the late 1990s boom nor the subsequent bust had much impact in either

14、direction,indicatingthat the state ofworkerhappiness goes much deeper than theswings of the economy.但是 20 世纪 90年代后期的经济繁荣和随之而来的经济萧条都没有对员工的两种工作态度产生多大影啊 ,这表明工人在工作中是否能获得快乐感受有比经济形势更深层的原因。(6) James Harter, a psychologist directing that research at Gallup, says many companiesare simply misreading what make

15、s people happy at work.盖洛普指导这项调查的心理学家詹姆斯· 哈特说 , 很多公司完全误解了工作快乐感受产生的原因。Beyond a certain minimum level, it isn t pay or benefits ；it s strong relationships with co-workers and a supportive boss.高于某种最低水平之后,工作中的快乐感受与收入或奖金的关系就不大了, 关键在于是否有融洽的同事关系和支持自己工作的老板。“These are basic human needs in the workplace

16、, but they re not the ones thoughtby managers to be very important.”Harter says.哈特说 : “ 这是人们在工作场所的一些基本需求,但往往得不到上司的重视。”Gallup has found that a strong positive response to the statement“I have a bestfriend at work ”, for example, is a powerful predictor for engagement at work and is correlated with pr

17、ofitability and connection with customers.盖洛普的调查已发现,例如 ,如果有人对“同事中有我最好的朋友”这个提法反应强烈的话, 这就有力预示着他能积极投入工作 , 而且这与企业的收益率以及企业和客户之间的联系都互有关联。“ It indicates a high level of belonging,” Hatter says.哈特说 : “ 这显示了一种高度的归属感。”(7) Without it, a job that looks good on paper can make a worker miserable.如果没有归属感,一项表面上看起来不

18、错的工作也会使人感到痛苦。MartinaRadix,41, tradeda high-pressurejob as an executiveassistantat a companywhere she liked her colleagues for a less taxing position as a clerical worker ina law firm six years ago.41 岁的马丁娜·雷迪克斯原是一家公司的经理助理,虽然工作压力大,但她和同事相处都很好； 6 年前她换了工作 , 到一家律师事务所成了一名职位相对清闲的办事员。 She has more time

19、 and flexibility but feels stifled by her co-workers and unappreciated by her boss.如今她时间多了 , 自由度也大了 , 但她感觉和这里的同事共事太压抑 , 也得不到老板的赏识。“I am a misfit in that department,” she says. 她说 : “ 我不适应这个部门。“No matterhow good your personallifeis,ifyou go in to a bad atmosphere at work,it takes away from it.”不管你个人生

20、活多惬意,如果工作单位氛围不好,个人生活就会大受影响。”(8) In fact, engagement at work is less a function of your personality than is happinessin general.事实上 , 对工作的投入与其说是人的个性使然 , 不如说是源于人们在工作中总体上感到的快乐。Harter estimates that individual disposition accounts for only about 30 of thedifference between employees who are highly engag

21、ed and those who are not.哈特认为 , 对工作高度投入与并不投入的员工之间之所以存在差异, 员工的个性只起 30%的作用 ,The rest of it is shaped by the hundreds of interactions that employees have every day with co-workers, supervisors and customers.其他的取决于员工每天与同事、主管以及客户的频繁交往。(9) The most direct fix, then, is to seek out a supportive workplace.所

22、以 , 最直接的解决办法就是选择一个称心的工作单位。 Finding a job that fits a life calling unlocks the door to happiness. 找到一份适合自己终生从事的工作便打开了快乐之门。Lissette Mendez, 33, says her job coordinating the annual book fair at Miami Dade College is the one she was born to do.33 岁的莉塞特·门德斯在迈阿密达德学院每年的书展中搞协调工作,她称自己天生就是做这份工作的料。“ Book

23、s are an inextricable part of my life,她说“ :我和书有一种不解之缘。”(10)Even ifyour passiondoes not easilyfindhappiness on the job.” she says.translateintoa profession,you can still即使你的爱好无法轻易地转化为一项职业,你仍可在自己的工作中找到乐趣。Numerous studieshave shown correlationsbetween meaningfulwork and happiness,jobsatisfaction and ev

24、en physical health.大量研究已经表明,有意义的工作与心情愉快、工作满意度甚至健康状况都相关。That sense of meaning, however, can take many different forms.然而 ,这里所说的工作意义可能包括多种形式。Somepeople finditin the work itself;otherstake pridein theircompany s missionrather than in their specific job.有人感到工作本身有意义;有人则以公司的使命而非自己的具体工作而自豪。People can find

25、meaning in anything.人们可以在任何事情当中发现意义。(11) The desire for meaning is so strong that sometimes people simply create it, especially to make sense of difficult or unpleasant work.人们对工作意义的渴望是如此强烈, 以至于有时干脆造出个意义, 尤其对那些困难或烦心的工作而言更是如此。Ina recentlycompleted six-yearstudy of physicians duringtheirsurgicalreside

26、ncy,forexample,it was foundthatthe surgeonswere extremelydissatisfiedinthe firstyear, when the menial work they were assigned, like filling out endless copies ofpatient records, seemed pointless.例如 , 最近完成了一项为期6年的对外科住院医生实习期间表现的研究。该项研究发现 ,头一年里外科医生都牢骚满腹,因为分配给他们的那些乏味的活儿( 如没完没了地填写病历本)似乎都毫无意义。Once they st

27、arted to thinkofthe trainingas part of thelargerprocessof joiningan elite group of doctors, their attitude changed.可是一旦开始想到这项训练是他们加入医生这一精英群体所要经历的更重大过程的一部分时, 他们的态度就改变了。They re able to reconstruct and make sense of their work and what they do.他们会调整心态,给自己的工作和所做的事情赋予意义。By the end of year one, they ve st

28、arted to create some meanings.到第一年结束时,他们已经开始创造出工作的某些意义了。(12) While positive psychology has mostly focused on the individual pursuit ofhappiness, a new field positive organizational scholarship has begun to examine the connection between happy employees and happy businesses.尽管正面心理学的重点大多关注个人对快乐的追求 , 但

29、是一个新的领域一门研究成功组织的学问已开始着手研究员工心情愉快和公司生意兴隆之间的关系。Instead of focusing on profitability and competition to explain success, researchers in this field are studying meaningfulness, authentic leadership and emotional competence.这一领域的研究者们不专注于用利润率和竞争来解释成功层和情感能力这些因素进行深入研究。,而是对工作意义、 可信赖的领导Not the typicalB-school

30、buzzwords, buttheymay soon become part of the languagespoken by every M.B.A.这些都不是商学院典型的时髦用语,但不久就可能成为每个MBA 学生的口头禅。(13)Untilrecently,businesspeoplewould dismissemployee well-beingas“ outsidetheirdomain and kindoffringe-ish” , says Thomas Wright,a professoroforganizationalbehavior at the University of

31、Nevada, Reno.内华达大学里诺分校的组织行为学教授托马斯· 赖特说 , 直到不久前 , 企业家们还不愿考虑员工是否工作心情舒畅的问题 , 认为这“不属于他们关心的范围 , 和他们的职责范围相去甚远”。Early hints of the importance of worker happiness were slow to be accepted.很早就有人提出工作时雇员是否心情愉快很重要,但人们接受这个观念却用了很长时间。A 1920s study on the topic at the Hawthorne Plant of the Western Electric Co

32、. inCicero, Ill. looked at whether increased lighting, shorter workdays and other worker-friendly fixes would improve productivity.早在 20 世纪 20 年代 , 在伊利诺伊州西塞罗市的西部电力公司霍索恩发电厂就进行了有关这一命题的研究 , 对增加照明、缩短工作日以及其他有利于员工的措施能否提高生产率的问题进行了调查。While the workplace changes boosted performance, the experimenters eventua

33、llydiscovered that the differences workers were responding to were not in the physical environment but in the social one.尽管工作场所的变化改善了员工的工作表现 , 但调查者最终发现对员工产生影响的不在于物质环境的变化 , 而在于人际环境的变化。In other words, the attention they were getting was what made them happier and more effective.换句话说 , 让员工们心情更愉快、工作劲头更高

34、的是他们所受的关注。This phenomenon came to be known as the Hawthorne effect.这种现象后来被称为霍索恩效应。“ The researchers came to realize that it was people s happiness that made the difference, ” Wright says.赖特说 : “ 研究人员逐渐意识到 , 起关键作用的是人们的快乐感受。” But later studies that looked at job-satisfaction ratings were inconsistent.

35、 但后来对工作满意度的许多研究结果却前后矛盾。Broadermeasures ofhappiness,itturnsout,are betterpredictorsof productivity.现在看来 ,用更广泛的衡量标准来评估快乐感受,能更有效地预测生产率。(14)Making any of those changes depends on the boss,althoughnot necessarily,theCEO.任何这类改变都取决于公司的领导,尽管不一定非取决于首席执行官。So a handfulof businessschoolsare tryingto createa new kind of frontlinemanager,based on the idea of“ authentic leadership因此 ,一些商学院根据“可信赖的领导层” .的思想正努力塑造一类新型的第一线管理者。Instead of imposing faddish management techniques on each supervisor, authentic leade