摘要：研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，快樂的員工并不一定就是具有創(chuàng)造力的員工。工作很愉快很有可能不是好事。

　　Ever since the founding fathers wrote "and the pursuit of happiness" into the Declaration of Independence, the elusive emotion has become a holy grail of sorts for Americans. We expect to be happy, even believe we are owed happiness by the gods, our work, our family, and our life. Unfortunately, the expectation can sometimes lead to a disappointing reality.

　　自從國父把“追求幸福”寫進(jìn)《獨立宣言》之后，這種微妙的情感就已經(jīng)成為每一個美國人的“圣杯”了。我們都希望獲得幸福，甚至我們還相信幸福是上帝賜予的，是我們從工作，家庭和生活中獲得的。然而不幸的是，這些美妙的期待有時并不意味著與現(xiàn)實相符。

　　André Spicer, professor of organizational behavior at Cass Business School in London, and Carl Cederström, associate professor of organization theory at Stockholm University, have studied the impact of happiness in corporate settings. In a recent article in Harvard Business Review, they discuss their findings.

　　André Spicer是倫敦卡斯商學(xué)院的組織行為學(xué)方面的教授，以及Carl Cederström，瑞典斯德哥爾摩大學(xué)的組織行為學(xué)的副教授，共同研究了在職場環(huán)境下幸福感的影響。他們在最近的哈佛商業(yè)評論雜志中論述了他們的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)。

　　Spicer and Cederström say the recent trend of companies harnessing "happiness as a way to boost productivity" dates back to the Hawthorne experiments in the 1920s, which involved changing employees' environments to increase productivity at a factory. Since then, this belief has been applied to almost every corporate philosophy--happy employees equal productive employees.

　　Spicer和Cederström提到，近年來的公司利用“幸福感作為一種促進(jìn)生產(chǎn)力的方式”的趨勢可以追溯至20世紀(jì)20年代的霍桑實驗，其中包括了改變職員工廠里的工作環(huán)境以提高生產(chǎn)力的實驗。自此，這個理念幾乎應(yīng)用于所有的公司理念中——快樂的員工就是有創(chuàng)造力的員工。

　　However, "When you look closely at the research, it's actually not clear that encouraging happiness at work is always a good idea," Spicer and Cederström write. "Most striking is that consciously pursuing happiness can actually drain the sense of joy we usually get from the really good things we experience." Below, find out how the authors' research has found the happiness theory on productivity is a "mere myth."

　　然而，“當(dāng)你仔細(xì)閱讀這一次的研究結(jié)果，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)實際上提高員工的幸福感并不總能適用于所有的情況，”Spicer和 Cederström在文章中寫道。“最令人感到吃驚的是，有意識追求幸福感，實際上會磨光了那些平常讓我們真正感到快樂的事情的滿足感。”接下來，看一看兩位學(xué)者的研究是如何發(fā)現(xiàn)幸福感提供生產(chǎn)力“只是一個傳說”。

　　Happy workers do not mean productive workers.

　　發(fā)現(xiàn)1：快樂的員工≠有創(chuàng)造力的員工。

　　Here's the bombshell: "Happiness doesn't necessarily lead to increased productivity," Spicer and Cederström write. A study conducted in British supermarkets found that "the more miserable" employees felt, the greater profits reaped by the company. The study also found a negative relationship between job satisfaction and productivity. Other research has shown the opposite, suggesting that the effect on happiness on productivity remains murky.

　　這是最爆炸性的發(fā)現(xiàn)：“有幸福感不一定就意味著提高生產(chǎn)力。”Spicer和Cederström在文章中寫道。通過對英國超市的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)：員工們覺得“越痛苦”，公司所獲得的利潤就越多。研究還發(fā)現(xiàn)了工作滿意度與生產(chǎn)力之間呈負(fù)相關(guān)。但也有別的研究結(jié)果與這一結(jié)果相反，這就說明幸福感對生產(chǎn)力高低的影響仍然不明確。

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　　The pursuit of happiness is "exhausting."

　　發(fā)現(xiàn)2：追求幸福的過程“很累”。

　　Happiness is thought to energize people and make them more effective. But if you're not happy--certainly a normal emotional state--the pursuit of happiness can be taxing. The authors quote French philosopher Pascal Bruckner, who said, "Unhappiness is not only unhappiness; it is, worse yet, a failure to be happy." Setting yourself up for failure by expecting, or demanding, yourself to be happy will work against you.

　　幸福感常常被賦予了“給予人動力，做事更有效率”的內(nèi)涵。不過如果你并不快樂——當(dāng)然是一個正常的情感狀態(tài)下——追求幸福是很費勁的。兩位作者在文章引用了法國哲學(xué)家帕斯卡爾·布呂克內(nèi)的話：“不快樂不僅僅是不幸的，更糟的是，它是一個失敗的幸福。”把自己推向失敗的邊緣，期待自己，要求自己，這樣的幸福只會讓你更痛苦。

　　Happiness is a tool.

　　發(fā)現(xiàn)3：幸福感只是工具。

　　Happiness, like any other promise of an elusive emotion or spiritual achievement, can be used as a tool for manipulation. Companies use happiness to get more out of their employees, not because they want their employees to be happy. Spicer and Cederström believe that companies continue to rely on the happiness myth because of aesthetics and ideology. "Happiness is a convenient idea that looks good on paper (the aesthetic part). But it's also an idea that helps us shy away from more serious issues at work, such as conflicts and workplace politics (the ideological part)," they write. When happiness is slated as a choice, unhappy employees can be characterized as dysfunctional, which ignores the problems that are actually making the employees unhappy.

　　快樂的感覺，正如其他難以捉摸的情緒或精神成就的滿足感一樣，都可以作為工具被利用。公司利用滿足感從員工身上獲取更多利益，并不是因為他們真的希望員工們獲得快樂。Spicer和Cederström認(rèn)為，公司們之所以一直依賴于“幸福感信念”，是出于對美感與意識形態(tài)的追求。“幸福感是一個很方便的紙上概念(美感的部分)。但同時也是一個讓我們逃避更多工作上嚴(yán)肅問題(如沖突，辦公室政治)的借口(意識形態(tài)的部分)。”他們寫道。當(dāng)幸福感被設(shè)計成一個選擇，不快樂的員工就會被歸類為不正常的員工，這樣就忽略了員工不快樂的真正原因。

　　Happy people lose negotiations and get duped.

　　發(fā)現(xiàn)4：快樂的人兒輸了爭辯還會被騙。

　　Another study Spicer and Cederström cite found that people in a good mood were less effective at reading deceit in other people. And in corporate settings, research has found that when people are angry they are more effective in negotiations. "This suggests that being happy all the time may not be good for all aspects of our work, or jobs that rely heavily on certain abilities," they write. "In fact, for some things, happiness can actually make us perform worse."

　　Spicer和 Cederström在文中提到了另外一個研究，結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)，心情愉快的人們辨別他人說謊的能力相對較弱。在職場的環(huán)境下，研究還發(fā)現(xiàn)當(dāng)人們的情緒越易怒，他們在談判中更游刃有余。“這就證明了隨時保持愉快的心情并不利于工作的所有方面，還可能不適用于需要某種技能的職業(yè)崗位。”他們在文章中說道。“實際上，對于處理某些事情，快樂感會讓我們表現(xiàn)得更糟糕。”

　　The expectation trap.

　　發(fā)現(xiàn)5：預(yù)期陷阱。

　　When you expect work to make you happy, it makes you expect your boss to cater to your emotional needs. The writers mention a study by researcher Susanne Ekmann, which found that employees who had an expectation that work would make them happy were confused psychologically about the role their boss played in their lives. Instead of looking at their bosses for who they really were, they viewed them as "surrogate spouses or parents." When the employees did not receive the "expected emotional response" from their managers, "these employees felt neglected and started overreacting."

　　當(dāng)你期待自己能從工作中獲得幸福感，這就讓你不自覺產(chǎn)生“老板迎合你的要求”的情感需求。兩位作者在文章中提到了Susanne Ekmann的一個研究，研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，期待從工作中獲得幸福感的員工在心理上混淆了老板在現(xiàn)實中的真正角色。他們并沒有正視老板實際的角色，而是把他們看作“代理配偶或父母”。當(dāng)員工們沒有從上司身上獲得“預(yù)期的情感回應(yīng)”，他們就會覺得自己被忽視甚至?xí)a(chǎn)生過度的反應(yīng)。

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　　The truth will set you free.

　　發(fā)現(xiàn)6：真相會讓你解脫。

　　All of this forced happiness is a bad thing, Spicer and Cederström say. If you're not happy, it's fair to feel that way. "In reality, work--like all other aspects of life--is likely to make us feel a wide range of emotions," they write. "Happiness, of course, is a great thing to experience, but nothing that can be willed into existence." The duo write that the less we actively pursue happiness through our jobs, the more likely we are to experience a sense of "joy which is spontaneous and pleasurable, and not constructed and oppressive."

　　所有的這些強迫性的幸福感都不是好的事情，Spicer和Cederström說道。如果你覺得不開心，其實也很正常。“實際上，在工作中——甚至生活中的方方面面——或多或少都會讓我們產(chǎn)生不一樣的情感。”他們寫道。“當(dāng)然，幸福感是很棒的體驗，但是我們不能強求。”兩位學(xué)者都認(rèn)為，我們從工作中追求的幸福感程度越少，我們就更容易體驗到那種“無意識的，愉悅的，非人為的無壓迫的快樂。”