首席快樂官CHO 讓微笑進駐企業
Would you like to work for a company that lists making its employees happy as one of its goals? According to a recent report in The Guardian, a new wave is rolling over workplaces in the US, the UK and other European countries. Among the CEOs, CFOs and CPOs, a new executive has emerged. Meet the CHO, or Chief Happiness Officer, who is responsible for the contentment of individual employees.
你願意在把員工的快樂作爲企業目標之一的地方工作嗎？英國《衛報》最近報道，一種新的風潮正在席捲美國、英國和其他歐洲國家。除了首席執行官（CEO）、首席財務官（CFO）、首席採購官（CPO）外，一種新的執行官誕生了，那就是首席快樂官（CHO），他們的職責是提高每個員工的工作滿意度。
“The CHO’s job is to spearhead different initiatives to make people happier, like celebrations, training, events and similar activities in the workplace that help people do great work and see the purpose of what they do,” Alexander Kjerulf, co-founder at Woohoo Inc in Denmark, told The Guardian. Kjerulf conducts speeches and workshops worldwide to help companies such as Lego and Ikea create happier workplaces.
“首席快樂官”的工作就是帶頭提出各種倡議，比如慶祝、培訓和其他類似活動，幫助公司裏的員工更好地完成工作並且明確自己的工作目標，“丹麥Woohoo公司聯合創始人Alexander Kjerulf告訴《衛報》。Kjerulf在全世界舉辦了多場演講和研討會，幫助如樂高、宜家這樣的公司成爲更讓人快樂的工作場所。
Why do companies care about whether their employees are happy or not? The theory goes that happy workers are more productive, so happiness turns out to be in the company’s best interest. After all, no boss wants bored and unmotivated workers.
爲什麼公司在意他們的員工是否開心呢？因爲有觀點認爲快樂的員工更高產，如此一來快樂就成了公司的最大利益。畢竟沒有老闆希望自己的員工死氣沉沉，毫無生氣。
What does the CHO do? According to a story in US magazine The New Republic, a CHO’s daily duties include diagnosing the emotional well-being of their coworkers and the office atmosphere. They adjust workplace policy and culture in order to create the conditions for happiness. To achieve this, CHOs put out surveys that measure contentment. They also lead workshops on everything from communication skills to mindfulness meditation.
首席快樂官是做什麼的？根據美國《新共和》雜誌的報道，首席快樂官的日常職責包括診斷同事的情緒健康狀況和辦公室氛圍。他們調整企業政策和文化來創造一個快樂的環境。爲了達到這個目標，他們還通過問卷調查瞭解員工滿意度。他們還舉辦研討會來引導企業員工，從溝通技能到靜思冥想。
It seems that happiness is no longer a philosophical and romantic concept. The pursuit of happiness has become a business itself. And CHOs may not be enough for some companies. In order to make themselves more productive and profitable, some businesses now use digital technology to monitor their workers’ well-being. A recent New York Times article reported that more than 20 US companies in banking, technology, pharmaceutical and health care industries use a kind of sensor-rich ID badge developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to monitor and analyze workers’ communication behaviors including tone of voice, posture and body language, as well as the duration of the conversation. Companies then use the data to adjust their working environment. For example, a bank has found through the new technology that workers are more productive if they have more social interaction. So it introduced a shared 15-minute coffee break.
快樂看起來不再是哲學和空想的概念。追求快樂本身也成了一種產業。首席快樂官還不能滿足一些公司的需求。爲了提高效率和利潤，有些企業甚至用上了數字技術來監控員工的幸福狀況。《紐約時報》最近刊登了一篇文章，裏面提到包括銀行、科技、製藥和醫療行業的20多家企業使用了麻省理工學院研發的一款感應ID徽章，該徽章能夠監控和分析員工的交流行爲，包括語氣、姿勢、肢體語言甚至談話時間。之後，公司依據這些數據調整工作環境。例如，通過該技術一家銀行發現：社交互動頻率越高，員工越高產。於是該銀行引入了15分鐘的休息時間。
Having a boss who actually cares whether you are happy or not might sound nice to an employee. But there are some problems, says The New Republic article. Workplace surveillance measures aimed at boosting productivity may intrude upon workers’ privacy. And the article claims making someone else professionally responsible for our happiness is dangerous: “It represents an intrusion into our emotional lives that should not be permitted to any kind of authority figure – be it corporate or governmental – regardless of intention.”
對員工來說有一個關心自己是否開心的老闆聽起來是件很棒的事兒。但是這也造成一些其他的問題，《新共和》雜誌的文章如是說。爲了提高產能而對工作場所進行監控的措施可能會導致侵犯員工隱私。該文章還認爲讓其他人專職負責我們的快樂是很危險的，因爲“這是對我們情感生活的入侵，任何權威人物，不管是企業的或者政府的，不論出於什麼目的都不應該獲權這麼做。”
