2023年经济学人 过于热爱工作的陷阱（在线收听）

过于热爱工作的陷阱

商业版块

Bartleby

巴托比专栏

The Fashion for Passion

热爱工作的风尚

The pitfalls of loving your job a little too much

过于热爱工作的陷阱

Back in the dim and distant past, job candidates had interests or hobbies.

在遥远的过去，求职人有自己的兴趣或爱好。

Those interests could be introspective: reading a book was a perfectly acceptable way of spending your spare time.

这些兴趣可以是内省的：阅读是一种完全可以接受的消遣方式。

No longer.

如今可不行了。

Today you will probably be asked if you have a “personal passion project”, and the more exhausting your answer sounds, the better.

现在，你可能会被问到是否有“个人爱好项目”，你的回答听起来越累人越好。

Go white-water rafting, preferably with orphans.

玩漂流，最好是和孤儿一起。

Help build motorway crossings for endangered animals.

帮濒危动物在高速公路修建安全通道。

If you must read, at least do so in the original.

如果非要阅读，至少该读原版书。

Passion is becoming a staple for workplace success.

热爱正在成为职场成功的主要因素。

A new piece of research from Jon Jachimowicz and Hannah Weisman of Harvard Business School includes an analysis of 200m job postings in America.

哈佛商学院的乔恩·杰希奥维茨和汉娜·魏斯曼的一项新研究对美国2亿条招聘信息进行了分析。

It finds that the number which explicitly mention “passion” rose over time, from 2% in 2007 to 16% in 2019.

研究发现，明确提到“热爱”的招聘信息数量随着时间的推移而增加，从2007年的2%上升到2019年的16%。

Career websites offer helpful advice on how to come across as passionate about deeply ordinary pursuits.

求职网站提供了一些有用的建议，教你如何给人留下非常热爱普通工作的印象。

Here is a suggestion from one site on how to talk to prospective employers about putting things into an oven.

以下是一家网站的建议，关于如何与潜在雇主谈论怎样将食物放进烤箱。

“I love the process of researching new recipes and testing them out.

"我喜欢研究新食谱并去尝试的过程。

I’ve been writing up my experiences with baking for the past three years…I’m very detail-oriented, and love the scientific aspects of baking.

过去三年里我一直都有记录烘焙经验…我非常注重细节，喜欢研究烘焙的科学原理。

However, I’m also a very social person, and use my baking as a chance to get together with friends and family.”

但我也是一个非常喜欢社交的人，利用烘焙这个契机常和朋友家人相聚。"

Do not say: “I just really like cake.”

不要说：“我就是真的很喜欢蛋糕。”

Once inside an organisation, passion for the job also seems to be a good way to get ahead.

进入一个组织后，热爱工作似乎也是脱颖而出的好方法。

Another paper by Mr Jachimowicz, along with Ke Wang of Harvard Kennedy School and Erica Bailey of Columbia Business School, found that employees who were regarded as more passionate than their peers got more positive feedback as well as more promotion and training opportunities.

杰希奥维茨与哈佛大学肯尼迪学院的王可(音译)、哥伦比亚商学院的艾丽卡·贝利共同撰写的另一篇论文发现，被认为比同侪更有激情的员工会得到更多的积极反馈，以及更多的晋升和培训机会。

Other research has found that workers who cry at work are more highly regarded if they attribute these displays of emotions to caring too much.

其他研究发现，在工作中哭泣的员工会得到更高的评价——如果这些情绪的表现是因为太过在乎工作。

On the surface the fashion for passion makes sense.

从表面上看，流行讲热爱是有道理的。

Better, surely, for an employee to be enthused than not.

员工热情一点总比不热情要好。

Most workers want to do a job they love; most companies want a workforce that is committed and motivated.

大多数员工想做喜欢的工作，大多数公司想要尽心尽力、积极进取的员工。

The case for unbridled energy is particularly strong for certain types of companies.

对于某些类型的公司来说，想要精力无限的员工是格外合理的。

There is a reason why startups do not embrace the cult of the occasionally interested founder.

初创公司不接受偶尔有兴趣的创始人不是没有原因。

But passion can also warp judgment.

但热爱也会扭曲判断。

For firms, the obvious pitfall is rewarding commitment over competence.

对于公司来说，明显的陷阱是奖励投入而不是能力。

Just as that note-taking, detail-orientated baker could be churning out the world’s most disgusting profiteroles, the super-keen employee who volunteers for everything may not be that great at their job.

就像那个做笔记、注重细节的面包师可能会做出世界上最恶心的奶心巧克力酥球一样，一个超级热心的员工什么都愿意做，但可能工作能力并不出色。

The paper by Mr Jachimowicz, Mr Wang and Ms Bailey finds that passion may indeed be blinding managers to reality:

杰希奥维茨、王和贝利的这篇论文发现，激情可能确实让经理们看不清现实：

it finds that even when the performance of passionate employees is on the downward slope, they are still more likely to be given promotions than taciturn peers.

论文发现，即使充满激情的员工业绩下降，他们仍比沉默寡言的同事更有可能得到提拔。

Dangers also lurk for employees.

对于员工来说也潜伏着危险。

Even if commitment is heartfelt, passion comes in different varieties, some better than others.

即使发自内心地想投入工作，热爱也有不同的表现形式，其中一些优于另一些。

Psychologists distinguish between harmonious passion, in which people engage in an activity because they genuinely enjoy it, and obsessive passion, a more compulsive behaviour in which people feel like they are not really in control of themselves.

心理学家区分了和谐性热爱和强迫性热爱，前者是指人们因为真正喜欢某项活动而参与其中，后者是一种更具强迫性的行为，人们感觉自己并不能真正控制自己。

One obvious pitfall stands out.

还有一个明显的陷阱很凸出。

There are only so many ways to communicate passion.

就是表达热爱的方式只有这么多。

Widening your eyes and nodding wildly: too weird.

睁大眼睛，疯狂点头：太奇怪了。

Jumping, whooping and sweating: even weirder.

蹦蹦跳跳、欢呼尖叫、直冒热汗：更奇怪了。

Working ever longer hours, on the other hand, is a fairly simple way to show that your commitment is beyond question.

另一方面，延长工作时间是一种表明你毋庸置疑地投入工作的极简单方式。

Some evidence suggests that employers feel justified in exploiting that fact.

一些证据表明，雇主会理直气壮地利用这一事实。

A survey by academics at Duke University, the University of Oregon and Oklahoma State University found that people thought it was more legitimate to ask passionate workers than disengaged ones to work for no money and to miss time they were meant to be spending with their families.

杜克大学、俄勒冈大学和俄克拉荷马州立大学的学者的一项调查发现，人们认为让热爱工作的员工无偿工作、牺牲他们本应与家人共度的时光，比让对工作不上心的员工这样做更合理。

They are also more comfortable with the idea of asking passionate employees to do totally unrelated tasks.

他们让热爱工作的员工去做并非分内的任务也更不会觉得不好意思。

People apparently believe that if you love your job, you will enjoy cleaning the office toilets more than people who are less enthused by it.

人们显然认为，如果你热爱自己的工作，你就会比那些不热爱工作的人更喜欢打扫办公室厕所。

It is great to feel passion for your job.

对工作充满热爱是很棒的。

But if you are up at 4 am for a meeting with Asia, constantly working on your holiday or have just been handed a bottle of bleach and a mop by your boss, you are in the grip of something that is not entirely healthy.

但如果你凌晨4点起床参加亚洲那边的会议，在假期里不停加班，或者老板递给你一瓶漂白剂和一个拖把，那么你就被某种不完全健康的东西控制住了。