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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.
你愿意在把员工的快乐作为企业目标之一的地方工作吗？英国《卫报》最近报道，一种新的风潮正在席卷美国、英国和其他欧洲国家。除了首席执行官（CEO）、首席财务官（CFO）、首席采购官（CPO）外，一种新的执行官诞生了，那就是首席快乐官（CHO），他们的职责是提高每个员工的工作满意度。
“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.
“首席快乐官”的工作就是带头提出各种倡议，比如庆祝、培训和其他类似活动，帮助公司里的员工更好地完成工作并且明确自己的工作目标，“丹麦Woohoo公司联合创始人Alexander Kjerulf告诉《卫报》。Kjerulf在全世界举办了多场演讲和研讨会，帮助如乐高、宜家这样的公司成为更让人快乐的工作场所。
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.
为什么公司在意他们的员工是否开心呢？因为有观点认为快乐的员工更高产，如此一来快乐就成了公司的最大利益。毕竟没有老板希望自己的员工死气沉沉，毫无生气。
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.
首席快乐官是做什么的？根据美国《新共和》杂志的报道，首席快乐官的日常职责包括诊断同事的情绪健康状况和办公室氛围。他们调整企业政策和文化来创造一个快乐的环境。为了达到这个目标，他们还通过问卷调查了解员工满意度。他们还举办研讨会来引导企业员工，从沟通技能到静思冥想。
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.
快乐看起来不再是哲学和空想的概念。追求快乐本身也成了一种产业。首席快乐官还不能满足一些公司的需求。为了提高效率和利润，有些企业甚至用上了数字技术来监控员工的幸福状况。《纽约时报》最近刊登了一篇文章，里面提到包括银行、科技、制药和医疗行业的20多家企业使用了麻省理工学院研发的一款感应ID徽章，该徽章能够监控和分析员工的交流行为，包括语气、姿势、肢体语言甚至谈话时间。之后，公司依据这些数据调整工作环境。例如，通过该技术一家银行发现：社交互动频率越高，员工越高产。于是该银行引入了15分钟的休息时间。
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.”
对员工来说有一个关心自己是否开心的老板听起来是件很棒的事儿。但是这也造成一些其他的问题，《新共和》杂志的文章如是说。为了提高产能而对工作场所进行监控的措施可能会导致侵犯员工隐私。该文章还认为让其他人专职负责我们的快乐是很危险的，因为“这是对我们情感生活的入侵，任何权威人物，不管是企业的或者政府的，不论出于什么目的都不应该获权这么做。”
