"Awful," "dreary," and "miserable" are adjectives that many people use to describe their jobs at one time or another. Dissatisfaction on the job is common and often temporary. But not many people take time to analyze what makes a job miserable, and how to fix it.

“糟糕”、“沉悶”、“令人不快”，許多人時常會用這些詞來形容自己的工作。對工作不滿是普遍的，往往也是一時的。但是沒幾個人會花時間去分析為什么工作會不快樂，以及該如何調整。

Fortunately Patrick Lencioni has done much of that work in his book "The Three Signs of a Miserable Job."

幸運地是Patrick Lencioni在《工作不快樂的三個表現》一書中對此做了詳細闡述。

Job Misery Is Universal 工作不快樂是普遍現象

The author notes that a "miserable" job differs from a "bad" job, as one person's dream job may not appeal to another worker. A miserable job, however, has some universal traits.

作者指出：“不快樂”的工作和“壞”工作是不同的。因為一個人的理想工作對另一個人也許毫無吸引力。但是，“讓人不快”的工作有一些共同特征。

"A miserable job makes a person cynical and frustrated and demoralized when they go home at night," Lencioni says. "It drains them of their energy, their enthusiasm, and self-esteem. Miserable jobs can be found in every industry and at every level."

Lencioni說：“不快樂的工作讓人在晚上加班回家后變得憤世嫉俗、沮喪、情緒低落；會耗盡人們的精力、挫傷積極性、損害自尊。各行各業、各個級別中都有讓人不快的工作。”

Lencioni blames much of the problem on managers, who are a key factor in the job satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) of their employees. A recent Yahoo! HotJobs survey points to a similar conclusion: 43% of workers said discontent with their boss was the main reason they planned to look for a new job in 2008.

Lencioni認為這個問題大部分應歸咎于管理者。他們是導致員工對工作滿意或是不滿的關鍵因素。Yahoo! HotJobs近期的調查得出了一個相似的結論：有43%的員工稱對老板不滿是促使他們計劃在2008年找新工作的主要原因。

The Three Signs 三個表現

Lencioni identifies the three signs of job misery as anonymity, irrelevance, and "immeasurement."

Lencioni指出工作不快樂的三個表現：不被關注、感覺自己無關緊要、和無法評價自己。

Anonymity: Employees feel anonymous when their manager has little interest in them as people with unique lives, aspirations, and interests.

不被關注：管理者們對作為獨一無二的個體、有自己抱負和愛好的員工沒有興趣，這使員工感到“不被關注”。

Irrelevance: This condition occurs when workers cannot see how their job makes a difference. "Every employee needs to know that the work they do impacts someone's life -- a customer, a coworker, even a supervisor -- in one way or another."

感覺自己無關緊要：當員工無法看到自己的工作所產生的影響時，就會有這種感覺。“每位員工都需要知道自己的工作以某種方式影響到了其他人——顧客，同事，甚至是上司。”

Immeasurement: This term describes the inability of employees to assess for themselves their contributions or success. As a result they often rely on the opinions of others -- usually the manager -- to measure their success.

無法評價自己：指員工無法評估自己的貢獻或成就。于是，他們往往需要依賴別人的意見（往往是領導者的）來衡量是否成功。

Three Remedies for Job Misery 如何改變工作不快樂的狀態

For workers who may be experiencing the signs of job misery, Lencioni recommends three steps to improve the boss-employee dynamic and enhance job satisfaction.

對于那些可能正在遭受讓人不快工作的員工來說，Lencioni建議用三步法來改善老板——員工關系，提升工作滿意度。

1. Assess your manager. 評價你的上司。Is the boss interested in and capable of addressing the three factors mentioned above? "Most managers really do want to improve, in spite of the fact that they may seem disinterested or too busy," Lencioni says.

你的上司注意到了以上三條工作不快的表現并有能力應對嗎? Lencioni說：“盡管上司們可能都表現地不太關心這些或者太忙，但大部分的確都希望能改善狀況。”

2. Help your manager understand what you need. 幫助上司理解你的需求

This could mean reviewing with your manager what the key measurements for success are for your job. Lencioni also suggests asking your boss, "Can you help me understand why this work I'm doing makes a difference to someone?"

這意味著你得和上司討論一下衡量你工作成績的主要標準。Lencioni建議去問老板一個問題：“你能告訴我為什么我的工作會對人們產生影響嗎？”

3. Act more like the manager you want. 希望別人怎么對你，就要怎么對別人

 "Employees who take a greater interest in the lives of their managers are bound to infect them with the same kind of human interest they seek," the author says. Or find ways to let your manager know how his or her performance makes a positive difference for you.

Lencioni說：“那些對上司的生活更感興趣的員工也會使上司對其產生興趣”。或者，想辦法讓上司知道他/她的表現是如何對你產生了積極影響。

Be Realistic 現實一點

Richard Phillips, founder of Career Advantage Solutions, agrees that "managing up" is a good way to improve job satisfaction, but he cautions employees to be realistic in their expectations.

Career Advantage Solutions創始人Richard Phillips也同意“向上管理”是提高工作滿意度的好辦法，但是他告誡員工在期望值上要現實一點。

 "Managers are not mind readers," he says. "Take the responsibility to communicate upon yourself, and remember there has to be an ongoing dialogue, or change is unlikely to happen."

他說：“上司們可不會讀心術；交流的責任在于自己。記住，必須要有不斷的交流，否則不太可能會發生改變。”