You are 40 years old, head of China investment banking for Merrill Lynch, the pride of your family and clearly destined for greatness. So, Wilson Feng, what do you say to the Bloomberg reporter who phones you up and asks for an interview?
“I want to change my life,” Mr Feng said. “It's a nightmare. My father won't recognise me if I stay in investment banking.”
Mr Feng is off to go and work for a state-owned Chinese company. “Salaries at state-owned enterprises are low compared with investment banking, but you can have a better life,” he explained. Merrill Lynch is gutted. “It's sad to see him go. He was a model employee,” said Damian Chunilal, head of Pacific Rim investment banking.
“Model employee” is probably nearer the truth than Merrill realises. For this is not simply another case of executive burn-out. Mr Feng is treading a path that, according to research published this week, is likely to get more and more crowded in the months to come.
Worthwhile Work, a report by the communications consultancy CHA, contains the results of a survey of more than 1,500 UK employees working for a range of organisations. It has uncovered deep dissatisfaction with the sort of work that is currently on offer.
About 40 per cent of younger workers (under 35) in private sector companies are considering a move into the public or charity sectors, the survey reveals. In all, one in three private sector workers is thinking about making such a move. More than 60 per cent of 18-25-year-olds, and almost half overall, are looking for what they call “more worthwhile work”.
A phrase such as that will get some managers spluttering with indignation. What on earth do they mean by “worthwhile”? What do they expect? After all you have done for them: paid holiday, sick pay, weekends off, health and safety legislation, protection from discrimination of all kinds, with a salary and pension on top . . . and now they want to be inspired as well? They don't know they're born.
The role model for indignant managers is the film director Alfred Hitchcock. When asked by anxious movie stars what their “motivation” was in a scene, his answer was blunt. “Your salary,” he would say.
Grown-up bosses can also be impatient with the more unrealistic expectations of their employees, especially those held by members of Generation Y – the feisty 20-somethings. There is a paradox here: even though younger colleagues are facing the prospect of working well into their 60s and perhaps beyond, many seem to be in a hurry for rapid advancement.
And younger colleagues in particular seem unpersuaded that dedicating themselves to wealth creation is an attractive or noble option. “You hear people saying that they are going to stick with their private sector job, before going off and doing ‘something more worthwhile',” Colette Hill, chief executive of CHA, says.
The evidence points to leadership failure on a huge scale. Employees do not understand what is important or worthwhile about their work. They do not see why profitability matters. It is hardly surprising that research into employee engagement invariably throws up dismal findings. Employees don't feel they are being offered anything that is worth engaging with.
Leadership gurus talk grandly about providing “a narrative” that people want to follow. More prosaically, it would make a nice change if managers simply told their staff what they wanted from them. The Gallup organisation's “Q12 employee satisfaction survey”, a popular way of finding out what staff are thinking, opens with the statement: “I know what is expected of me at work”, a phrase employees are asked either to agree or disagree with. That first statement often reveals, to business leaders' surprise, just how badly people are being managed.
Does corporate responsibility (CR) offer a new narrative that people want to hear? While the CHA survey confirms that CR matters to employees, it is not an end in itself. Good businesses are responsible. But they also have a purpose that people can believe in. Leaders have to do a better job of explaining why their employees should turn up for work in the morning.
There is a reason why sitcoms such as The Office and novels such as Joshua Ferris's bestseller of last year And Then We Came To The End have proved so popular. The portrayal of worthless rather than worthwhile work strikes a chord. Mr Ferris's deceptively flat narrator describes an average working day in these terms: “We spent most of our time inside long silent pauses as we bent over our individual desks, working on some task at hand.” Inspiring? No, not really.
Stacking supermarket shelves so that families can find what they want to eat is worthwhile. As is paying cheques into the right bank account for customers. Managers have to show why these and other apparently banal tasks matter.
We don't have to go quite as far as the Chicago-based writer Studs Terkel, who said: “Work is about a daily search for meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash . . . for a sort of life, rather than a Monday-to-Friday sort of dying.” But the business that succeeds in providing worthwhile work will leave competitors struggling in its wake.
假如你是Wilson Feng，今年40歲，身為美林中國投行業(yè)務(wù)負責(zé)人，是家族的驕傲，而且明顯擁有遠大的未來。那么，面對打電話要求采訪的彭博社(Bloomberg)記者，你會說些什么呢？
“我想改變自己的生活，”Wilson Feng說道?！斑@是一場噩夢。如果我繼續(xù)呆在投行，我父親會認(rèn)不出我的?！?BR> Wilson Feng將去一家中國國企工作。他解釋說：“國企的收入比投行低，但生活會好一些?！泵懒謸p失慘重。該行環(huán)太平洋地區(qū)投行業(yè)務(wù)主管達米安丘尼拉利(Damian Chunilal)表示：“他的離去令人遺憾。他是一名模范員工。”
“模范員工”這個詞可能比美林所意識到的更貼近現(xiàn)實。因為這不僅僅是另一個高管被累得精疲力竭的例子。本周發(fā)布的一項調(diào)查報告顯示，未來幾個月，Wilson Feng走上的這條道路可能會越來越擁擠。
公關(guān)顧問公司CHA的這份報告名為“有意義的工作”(Worthwhile Work)，涵蓋了對英國各行各業(yè)1500多名員工的調(diào)查結(jié)果，揭示了人們對現(xiàn)有工作機會的嚴(yán)重不滿。
報告顯示，在私營企業(yè)中，大約40%的年輕員工（35歲以下）正在考慮轉(zhuǎn)投公共部門或是慈善機構(gòu)。在所有年齡段的私營企業(yè)員工中，有三分之一的人存在這種想法。超過60%的18歲到25歲員工，及近一半所有年齡段的員工，都正在尋找他們所謂的“更有意義的”工作。
這樣一種說法會讓一些經(jīng)理感到義憤填膺。他們所說的“有意義”到底是什么意思？他們想要什么？你已經(jīng)為他們做了那么多：帶薪假期、病假工資、周末休息、健康與安全立法、各種反歧視法規(guī)，再加上薪水和退休金……現(xiàn)在他們還想得到精神鼓舞？他們簡直不知道自己是誰了。
義憤填膺的管理者的榜樣是電影導(dǎo)演阿爾弗雷德希區(qū)柯克(Alfred Hitchcock)。當(dāng)緊張的影星問他，他們拍電影的“動力”是什么時，他的回答非常直白：“你的工資?！?BR> 成熟的老板也會對員工更多不切實際的期望感到不耐煩，尤其是對那些Y一代成員（朝氣蓬勃、20來歲的年輕人）的期望。這里有一個自相矛盾的地方：雖然年輕同事可能會一直工作到60歲以后，但很多人似乎急于快速提升。
年輕同事似乎尤其不認(rèn)可，把自己奉獻給財富創(chuàng)造是一個誘人或崇高的理想。CHA首席執(zhí)行官科萊特希爾(Colette Hill)稱：“你會聽到人們說，他們目前會繼續(xù)為私營企業(yè)效力，今后則打算離開去做‘更有意義的工作'?！?BR> 這項證據(jù)說明了領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的極度失職。雇員不知道本職工作的重要性或價值。他們不明白盈利能力為什么很重要。雇員忠誠度調(diào)查必然會產(chǎn)生糟糕的結(jié)果，我們對此不必感到驚詫。雇員并不覺得企業(yè)提供了任何值得自己忠誠的東西。
領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力大師們夸夸其談地講到，要提供一個人們愿意效仿的“故事”。更簡單地說，如果經(jīng)理們直接告訴員工，自己對他們的要求是什么，這將會是一個不錯的變化。蓋洛普(Gallup)的“員工滿意度調(diào)查12問”(Q12 employee satisfaction survey)是一個探知員工想法的常用辦法，它開篇第一句話是：“我知道單位對自己工作的要求?！眴T工須要對此表示同意或不同意。令企業(yè)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人吃驚的是，這第一句話常常揭示出對員工的管理是何其糟糕。
企業(yè)責(zé)任(corporate responsibility)是否提供了一個人們愿意傾聽的新故事呢？雖然CHA的調(diào)查證實，雇員在乎企業(yè)責(zé)任，但它本身并不是目標(biāo)。好企業(yè)是負責(zé)任的。但它們還有一個人們可以信賴的目標(biāo)。領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人必須更好地解釋，員工為何早上應(yīng)該來上班。
情景喜劇《辦公室》(The Office)及約書亞菲里斯(Joshua Ferris)去年的暢銷書《我們走到了盡頭》(Then We Came to the End)之所以廣受歡迎是有原因的。對那些沒有意義的工作的描述讓觀眾和讀者產(chǎn)生了共鳴。菲里斯看似平直的敘述這樣描寫了一個平常的工作日：“我們大部分時間都呆在一段一段長時間的沉默之中，伏案做著一些手頭的任務(wù)?！惫奈枞诵膯?？好像不是吧。
把貨物擺到超市貨架上，讓家庭可以找到自己想要的食物，這是一件有意義的工作。將顧客的支票打入正確的賬戶，也也是有意義的。管理者必須要說明，為什么這些及其它顯然很平凡的工作很重要。
我們不必走到芝加哥作家斯特茲特克爾(Studs Terkel)所說的那一步：“工作不僅僅是為了糊口和掙錢，而是要日復(fù)一日地探索生活的意義，求得人們的認(rèn)可，而不是從周一到周五像行尸走肉一樣生活?！钡绻粋€企業(yè)可以成功地提供有意義的工作，它將把競爭者遠遠地甩在后面。
“I want to change my life,” Mr Feng said. “It's a nightmare. My father won't recognise me if I stay in investment banking.”
Mr Feng is off to go and work for a state-owned Chinese company. “Salaries at state-owned enterprises are low compared with investment banking, but you can have a better life,” he explained. Merrill Lynch is gutted. “It's sad to see him go. He was a model employee,” said Damian Chunilal, head of Pacific Rim investment banking.
“Model employee” is probably nearer the truth than Merrill realises. For this is not simply another case of executive burn-out. Mr Feng is treading a path that, according to research published this week, is likely to get more and more crowded in the months to come.
Worthwhile Work, a report by the communications consultancy CHA, contains the results of a survey of more than 1,500 UK employees working for a range of organisations. It has uncovered deep dissatisfaction with the sort of work that is currently on offer.
About 40 per cent of younger workers (under 35) in private sector companies are considering a move into the public or charity sectors, the survey reveals. In all, one in three private sector workers is thinking about making such a move. More than 60 per cent of 18-25-year-olds, and almost half overall, are looking for what they call “more worthwhile work”.
A phrase such as that will get some managers spluttering with indignation. What on earth do they mean by “worthwhile”? What do they expect? After all you have done for them: paid holiday, sick pay, weekends off, health and safety legislation, protection from discrimination of all kinds, with a salary and pension on top . . . and now they want to be inspired as well? They don't know they're born.
The role model for indignant managers is the film director Alfred Hitchcock. When asked by anxious movie stars what their “motivation” was in a scene, his answer was blunt. “Your salary,” he would say.
Grown-up bosses can also be impatient with the more unrealistic expectations of their employees, especially those held by members of Generation Y – the feisty 20-somethings. There is a paradox here: even though younger colleagues are facing the prospect of working well into their 60s and perhaps beyond, many seem to be in a hurry for rapid advancement.
And younger colleagues in particular seem unpersuaded that dedicating themselves to wealth creation is an attractive or noble option. “You hear people saying that they are going to stick with their private sector job, before going off and doing ‘something more worthwhile',” Colette Hill, chief executive of CHA, says.
The evidence points to leadership failure on a huge scale. Employees do not understand what is important or worthwhile about their work. They do not see why profitability matters. It is hardly surprising that research into employee engagement invariably throws up dismal findings. Employees don't feel they are being offered anything that is worth engaging with.
Leadership gurus talk grandly about providing “a narrative” that people want to follow. More prosaically, it would make a nice change if managers simply told their staff what they wanted from them. The Gallup organisation's “Q12 employee satisfaction survey”, a popular way of finding out what staff are thinking, opens with the statement: “I know what is expected of me at work”, a phrase employees are asked either to agree or disagree with. That first statement often reveals, to business leaders' surprise, just how badly people are being managed.
Does corporate responsibility (CR) offer a new narrative that people want to hear? While the CHA survey confirms that CR matters to employees, it is not an end in itself. Good businesses are responsible. But they also have a purpose that people can believe in. Leaders have to do a better job of explaining why their employees should turn up for work in the morning.
There is a reason why sitcoms such as The Office and novels such as Joshua Ferris's bestseller of last year And Then We Came To The End have proved so popular. The portrayal of worthless rather than worthwhile work strikes a chord. Mr Ferris's deceptively flat narrator describes an average working day in these terms: “We spent most of our time inside long silent pauses as we bent over our individual desks, working on some task at hand.” Inspiring? No, not really.
Stacking supermarket shelves so that families can find what they want to eat is worthwhile. As is paying cheques into the right bank account for customers. Managers have to show why these and other apparently banal tasks matter.
We don't have to go quite as far as the Chicago-based writer Studs Terkel, who said: “Work is about a daily search for meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash . . . for a sort of life, rather than a Monday-to-Friday sort of dying.” But the business that succeeds in providing worthwhile work will leave competitors struggling in its wake.
假如你是Wilson Feng，今年40歲，身為美林中國投行業(yè)務(wù)負責(zé)人，是家族的驕傲，而且明顯擁有遠大的未來。那么，面對打電話要求采訪的彭博社(Bloomberg)記者，你會說些什么呢？
“我想改變自己的生活，”Wilson Feng說道?！斑@是一場噩夢。如果我繼續(xù)呆在投行，我父親會認(rèn)不出我的?！?BR> Wilson Feng將去一家中國國企工作。他解釋說：“國企的收入比投行低，但生活會好一些?！泵懒謸p失慘重。該行環(huán)太平洋地區(qū)投行業(yè)務(wù)主管達米安丘尼拉利(Damian Chunilal)表示：“他的離去令人遺憾。他是一名模范員工。”
“模范員工”這個詞可能比美林所意識到的更貼近現(xiàn)實。因為這不僅僅是另一個高管被累得精疲力竭的例子。本周發(fā)布的一項調(diào)查報告顯示，未來幾個月，Wilson Feng走上的這條道路可能會越來越擁擠。
公關(guān)顧問公司CHA的這份報告名為“有意義的工作”(Worthwhile Work)，涵蓋了對英國各行各業(yè)1500多名員工的調(diào)查結(jié)果，揭示了人們對現(xiàn)有工作機會的嚴(yán)重不滿。
報告顯示，在私營企業(yè)中，大約40%的年輕員工（35歲以下）正在考慮轉(zhuǎn)投公共部門或是慈善機構(gòu)。在所有年齡段的私營企業(yè)員工中，有三分之一的人存在這種想法。超過60%的18歲到25歲員工，及近一半所有年齡段的員工，都正在尋找他們所謂的“更有意義的”工作。
這樣一種說法會讓一些經(jīng)理感到義憤填膺。他們所說的“有意義”到底是什么意思？他們想要什么？你已經(jīng)為他們做了那么多：帶薪假期、病假工資、周末休息、健康與安全立法、各種反歧視法規(guī)，再加上薪水和退休金……現(xiàn)在他們還想得到精神鼓舞？他們簡直不知道自己是誰了。
義憤填膺的管理者的榜樣是電影導(dǎo)演阿爾弗雷德希區(qū)柯克(Alfred Hitchcock)。當(dāng)緊張的影星問他，他們拍電影的“動力”是什么時，他的回答非常直白：“你的工資?！?BR> 成熟的老板也會對員工更多不切實際的期望感到不耐煩，尤其是對那些Y一代成員（朝氣蓬勃、20來歲的年輕人）的期望。這里有一個自相矛盾的地方：雖然年輕同事可能會一直工作到60歲以后，但很多人似乎急于快速提升。
年輕同事似乎尤其不認(rèn)可，把自己奉獻給財富創(chuàng)造是一個誘人或崇高的理想。CHA首席執(zhí)行官科萊特希爾(Colette Hill)稱：“你會聽到人們說，他們目前會繼續(xù)為私營企業(yè)效力，今后則打算離開去做‘更有意義的工作'?！?BR> 這項證據(jù)說明了領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的極度失職。雇員不知道本職工作的重要性或價值。他們不明白盈利能力為什么很重要。雇員忠誠度調(diào)查必然會產(chǎn)生糟糕的結(jié)果，我們對此不必感到驚詫。雇員并不覺得企業(yè)提供了任何值得自己忠誠的東西。
領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力大師們夸夸其談地講到，要提供一個人們愿意效仿的“故事”。更簡單地說，如果經(jīng)理們直接告訴員工，自己對他們的要求是什么，這將會是一個不錯的變化。蓋洛普(Gallup)的“員工滿意度調(diào)查12問”(Q12 employee satisfaction survey)是一個探知員工想法的常用辦法，它開篇第一句話是：“我知道單位對自己工作的要求?！眴T工須要對此表示同意或不同意。令企業(yè)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人吃驚的是，這第一句話常常揭示出對員工的管理是何其糟糕。
企業(yè)責(zé)任(corporate responsibility)是否提供了一個人們愿意傾聽的新故事呢？雖然CHA的調(diào)查證實，雇員在乎企業(yè)責(zé)任，但它本身并不是目標(biāo)。好企業(yè)是負責(zé)任的。但它們還有一個人們可以信賴的目標(biāo)。領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人必須更好地解釋，員工為何早上應(yīng)該來上班。
情景喜劇《辦公室》(The Office)及約書亞菲里斯(Joshua Ferris)去年的暢銷書《我們走到了盡頭》(Then We Came to the End)之所以廣受歡迎是有原因的。對那些沒有意義的工作的描述讓觀眾和讀者產(chǎn)生了共鳴。菲里斯看似平直的敘述這樣描寫了一個平常的工作日：“我們大部分時間都呆在一段一段長時間的沉默之中，伏案做著一些手頭的任務(wù)?！惫奈枞诵膯?？好像不是吧。
把貨物擺到超市貨架上，讓家庭可以找到自己想要的食物，這是一件有意義的工作。將顧客的支票打入正確的賬戶，也也是有意義的。管理者必須要說明，為什么這些及其它顯然很平凡的工作很重要。
我們不必走到芝加哥作家斯特茲特克爾(Studs Terkel)所說的那一步：“工作不僅僅是為了糊口和掙錢，而是要日復(fù)一日地探索生活的意義，求得人們的認(rèn)可，而不是從周一到周五像行尸走肉一樣生活?！钡绻粋€企業(yè)可以成功地提供有意義的工作，它將把競爭者遠遠地甩在后面。