Be miserable. It’ll make you feel better
The idea of companies employing jolly good fellows and “happiness alchemists” may be cringe-making, but is there anything else really wrong with it? Various academic studies suggest that “emotional labour” can bring significant costs. The more employees are obliged to fix their faces with a rictus smile or express joy at a customer’s choice of shoes, the more likely they are to suffer problems of burnout. And the contradiction between companies demanding more displays of contentment from workers, even as they put them on miserably short-term contracts and turn them into self-employed “partners”, is becoming more stark.
But the biggest problem with the cult of happiness is that it is an unacceptable invasion of individual liberty. Many companies are already overstepping the mark. A large American health-care provider, Ochsner Health System, introduced a rule that workers must make eye contact and smile whenever they walk within ten feet of another person in the hospital. Pret A Manger sends in mystery shoppers to visit every outlet regularly to see if they are greeted with the requisite degree of joy. Pass the test and the entire staff gets a bonus—a powerful incentive for workers to turn themselves into happiness police. Companies have a right to ask their employees to be polite when they deal with members of the public. They do not have a right to try to regulate their workers’ psychological states and turn happiness into an instrument of corporate control.
C. Discuss the following questions referring to the contents of the article.
1. Do you think there is any relation between the psychological type of the person and his efficiency at work?
2. What is the strongest motivator of an employee’s efficiency from your point of view?
3. Do you think it is possible to measure happiness?
4. If you were an employer how would you motivate your employees?
5. Do you think workers should display contentment in the office even if they are not really happy with what they have?
D. Find the appropriate definition to the given words.
| 1. miscreant | a) to be at the point where something is about to happen |
| 2. delirium | b) the ability to understand other people’s feelings and problems |
| 3. mellifluous | c) unpleasantly clear and impossible to avoid someone who behaves badly or does not obey rules |
| 4. on the verge of | d) a bad person who causes trouble, hurts people |
| 5. empathy | e) a mixture of different things or of various kinds of the same thing someone who behaves badly or does not obey rules |
| 6. assortment | f) the feeling of always being tired because you have been working too hard |
| 7. to be confined | g) a mellifluous voice or piece of music sounds pleasantly smooth |
| 8. discounter | h) colours that are wishy-washy are pale and unexciting, not strong or dark – used to show disapproval |
| 9. to disengage | i) an expression in which someone shows their teeth in a smile but looks strange or in pain rather than looking happy and relaxed |
| 10. wishy-washy | j) a state in which someone is delirious, especially because they are very ill |
| 11. annoyance | k) so bad that you feel embarrassedso bad that you feel embarrassed: |
| 12. cringe-making | l) to stop being involved or interested in something |
| 13. rictus | m) a financial institution that lends a business an amount of money equal to that owed by the business’s suppliers |
| 14. burnout | n) a feeling of slight anger |
| 15. stark | o) to exist in or affect only a particular place or group |
E. Study the examples of the use of the word “to be confined” from the Corpus of The Longman Dictionary and translate them into Russian (http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/be-confined-to-somebody-something)
1. The blue-chip market is confined to a very limited number of names.
2. Pauline Paul was confined to a wheelchair as calcium drained from her bones.
3. They also will be confined to base, except for official business in town.
4. Typically, the patient remains conscious if the disturbance is confined to one hemisphere.
5. All non-managerial personnel belong to the same union, but the privilege of membership is confined to regular workers.
6. Even the cities were secured by the settlers: native people were confined to rented property in peripheral townships.
7. A corporate role could just be confined to the provision of specialist services, such as marketing research and specialist advertising advice.
8. However, its benefits were confined to those already holding land, and it did nothing to relieve the problem of landlessness.
F.Translate the following sentences from Russian into English
F.
G.
H.
1.Бизнесменам давно известно, что в этой отрасли можно заработать денег.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5. person whose personality has features typical of both introverts and extroverts
6.
2. Чем чаще работникам приходится демонстрировать вымученную улыбку, тем больше у них вероятность «сгореть на работе».
3. Компании имеют право требовать от своих подчиненных быть вежливыми при общении с клиентами.
4. Различные научные исследования предполагают, что «эмоциональные усилия» могут обойтись сотрудникам очень недешево.
5. Компания регулярно посылает тайных покупателей, чтобы убедиться в том, что клиентов встречают вежливо.
6. Измерить уровень счастья – крайне трудно.
7. Лучший способ завоевывать друзей и влиять на людей – казаться жизнерадостным.
8. Данная тенденция распространяется не только на частный сектор.
Supplementary Reading
Text 1