Bankers, brokers¹ and asset managers were complaining about their jobs this week. They told a New York-based consulting and headhunting firm that they did not like the pay, their prospects² or their colleagues.

银行家、经纪人和资产管理经理最近在抱怨他们的工作。这些人向一家总部位于纽约的咨询和猎头公司表示，他们对薪酬、发展前景或者同事不满意。

There were too many rules these days and too many “greedy senior managers only interested in protecting their own privileges”, they said.

他们说，近来有太多的条条框框，还有太多“只关心维护自身特权的贪婪的高级经理”。

“A lot of people are unhappy and they’re looking for greener pastures,” said Options Group, which conducted the survey.

“有许多人不满意，他们在寻找更好的去处，”进行此次调查的Options Group表示。

What struck me about the bankers’ moan was that I had recently read reports about how many British teachers and doctors were also so miserable³ that they were leaving their professions.

我对银行家的牢骚感到惊讶，因为我在最近还读到一些报告说，有许多英国教师和医生很不快乐并因此决定离职。

In other fields people were apparently⁴ doing the same. I searched a news database for articles that included the words “leaving the profession” and discovered that all these people were thinking of quitting: Californian accountants, South African gynaecologists, UK barristers, Australian women lawyers, Australian prison officers, Irish childcare workers, Atlanta school-bus drivers and Indian autorickshaw drivers.

其他行业的人们显然也是一样。我搜索了一个新闻数据库，找出所有包含“离职”的文章，发现所有人都想着辞职：加利福尼亚州的会计师、南非的妇科医生、英国的律师、澳大利亚的女律师、澳大利亚的狱警、爱尔兰的保育员、亚特兰大的校车司机以及印度的机动三轮车车夫。

Teachers were said to be resigning not just in the UK but in New Zealand and the US states of Idaho, Indiana, Minnesota, Florida and Georgia.

据说不仅是英国的教师要辞职，新西兰以及美国的爱达荷州、印第安纳州、明尼苏达州、佛罗里达州和佐治亚州的教师也要辞职。

Why are so many so unhappy at work that they are ready to give up?

为什么有这么多人对工作如此不满意，以至于准备放弃？

Some of these articles are scare stories drummed up by unions or professional associations trying to fend⁵ off changes in pay and conditions.

这些文章有的是工会或行业协会为了抵制薪酬和工作条件变动而鼓吹的耸人听闻的故事。

Some are related to specific circumstances. TheAustralian female lawyers’ problem, seen in other countries too, is that firms cannot find ways to match the crippling hours with women’s family commitments.

还有一些文章则与特定情况有关。澳大利亚女律师遇到的问题是，企业没有办法让女员工在长时间的工作以外兼顾家庭职责，其他国家也有这种情况。

The Indian rickshaw drivers, based in Kerala, were objecting to a rule requiring them to install meters to prevent them overcharging.

印度喀拉拉邦(Kerala)的三轮车车夫，反对的是一条要求他们安装里程表以防宰客的新规。

But most of the unhappiness was about overwork, stress and lack of respect. All the teachers had the same complaints: too much form-filling, intrusive⁶ monitoring and over-prescriptive curricula.

但牢骚大多与工作负担过重、压力大和缺乏尊重有关。所有的教师都抱怨同样的事情：有太多表格要填、干预式监管，以及过于死板的课程。

Has work got worse? Are all these jobs so much more stressful than they used to be?

工作变得更糟糕了吗？所有这些工作都比过去压力大了？

Lawyers have always worked ridiculous hours. I remember as a student visiting a friend at home and finding her barrister father with his law books strewn over the kitchen table on a Saturday night.

律师们的工作时间一直都很不合理。我还记着上学的时候到一位朋友家中做客，发现她当律师的父亲周六晚间还在餐桌旁工作，桌上散落着许多法律书籍。

“Don’t ever think of doing this job,” he told me. “In the beginning you have no work and you’re miserable. Then the work starts flooding in and, boy, are you miserable.”

“根本不要想着做这份工作，”他告诉我说，“开始你接不到工作，你很惨。然后工作开始像潮水一般涌来，孩子，那时你就真的惨了。”

Doctors have never worked manageable hours. In some respects, it was once worse. Doctors used to make home visits. In 1995 (when The Times reported that one-fifth of UK junior doctors were leaving the profession) the government promised to act when a young medic died after working an 86-hour week.

医生们的工作时间也从来都不可控。从某些方面来说，过去比现在还要糟糕。医生们过去还要进行家访。1995年——当时《泰晤士报》(The Times)报道称，英国有五分之一的初级医生离职——一名年轻医生在一周工作了86个小时后死亡，此后政府许诺采取行动。

What has changed is the regulatory intrusiveness⁷. While the collecting of students’ achievements and patient survival rates may be necessary for teachers’ and doctors’ public accountability, it does undermine their professional autonomy. And autonomy and trust do make for happier workplaces.

真正有所改变的是监管式干预。尽管收集学生成绩和病人存活率是教师和医生的公共责任的必要组成部分，但这的确削弱了他们的职业自主性。而自主性和信任也确实有助于让工作环境变得更加愉悦。

What can be done? I think we need to separate the bankers, lawyers, doctors and teachers from the prison officers, childcare workers, bus and rickshaw drivers. The first group tends to have had better educational opportunities and are usually more highly paid — in the case of bankers, lawyers and, often, doctors, very much more highly.

我们能做些什么？我认为我们有必要把银行家、律师、医生和老师同狱警、保育员、公交司机、三轮车车夫分开来看。前一组人往往有更好的教育机会，通常收入也更高——就银行家、律师以及大多数医生而言，他们的收入要高得多。

Even when the pay is not great, as in teaching, the non-financial rewards can be high. I have done some classroom teaching and worked as a volunteer in schools and I know how tiring it is: the standing⁸, the speaking, the need to maintain concentration if you are not to lose the class.

即使是薪资不算太高的职业，比如教师，也可能有很高的非经济性回报。我教过几堂课，在学校里当过志愿者，知道那有多累：一直站着讲课、为了不走神而集中精力。

But being told by a student at the end of it all that she is going off to do something she had not previously⁹ thought she was capable of produces a feeling you do not get in many other jobs.

但是当课程结束后，有学生告诉你，她要去做一些之前从未想过自己能够做到的事情，那种感觉是你从很多其他工作那里得不到的。

Above all, those with professional skills and qualifications are more mobile and have retraining options that people in less-exalted fields do not.

最重要的是，那些拥有职业技能和资历的人流动性更强，还可以选择再培训，而这是那些较低层次领域的工作者所不具备的。

If you really are that miserable at work, change jobs rather than complaining. Those unhappy bankers could try teaching. With all those people leaving the profession there must be plenty of vacancies¹⁰.

如果你的工作真的让你觉得自己很惨，那就别抱怨了，换工作吧。郁闷的银行家可以试试教书。那么多人都离开这个行业，肯定会有很多职位空缺。