节后工作堆成山，只想送自己一首《凉凉》？不如先想想这几个问题

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Now that the Lantern Festival is behind us, we're officially running out of holiday — and excuses for slacking off!

春节假期过完了。元宵节，也过去了。今年份的摸鱼借口已经用完啦。

For those of us who have cashed our annual bonus checks and taken paid leave to extend the Spring Festival holiday as much as possible, it seems only natural now we're back at work to ask ourselves some existential questions. Do I really like my job? Why am I still here?

一想到又要面对堆成山的工作，已经拿到年终奖，还顺便休了一个加长版带薪年假的你忍不住开始思考一些终极问题：我真的喜欢自己的工作吗？我到底为什么还在干这份工作？

Why am I slaving away at a job I don't even like?

为什么我做着不喜欢的工作

却依然拼死拼活？

Our jobs put bread on the table, they are our livelihoods. There's a reason why working is synonym with "making a living".

工作意味着粮票，而粮票意味着生活，而生活，就等同于生命。工作，是为了活命。

We don't always have the resources or the wisdom to make an informed decision when choosing our careers.

在分不清轻重的时候掂量人生、在看不到利弊的时候做出取舍，我们一直都在做。在工作的选择上，当然也逃不过。

Here are some of the possible reasons why you're stuck in a job you don't like.

主动或者被动选择不喜欢的工作，这形形色色的理由里，很容易看到你我。

Money

为了高薪

Wang Bo gave up on literature — something he really loved — to become a teacher at a language school after getting his master's degree in the UK.

在英国读研的王博，回国后放弃喜欢的文学专业，去了英语培训中心教雅思。

The passion and fervor he used to lavish on his studies of Oscar Wilde and DH Lawrence were redirected to studying test-taking skills and essay templates.

曾经在王尔德和劳伦斯作品上花费的狂热，现在用来琢磨各种答题套路和写作模板。

Needless to say, he was overqualified.

他当然不甘心。

But after suffering from recurring stomachaches from constantly skipping meals, he's going to make sure his unborn child doesn't make the same mistake.

但因为吃饭不规律而得了胃病的他，不想让未降生的孩子也遭遇那种收入配不上才华的境遇。

Family

为了留在父母身边

Li was a Straight-A Computer Science major with internship experience at China's most prestigious Internet companies. He was just about to kick-start his career after receiving a job offer from Netease.

计算机专业学霸的小李，本科期间收割BAT实习经历，临毕业拿到网易offer，眼看着要过上吃有机食堂的幸福生活。

Instead he turned the job down and planted himself in the technical support office of a local government institution in his hometown. "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" became his favorite sentence.

但他拒绝了，回老家一头闷进一个事业单位的技术科室。每天说的最多的一句话是"关机重启试试"。

Now he rarely gets his hands on the latest technology, except when he's shopping with his parents at local department stores.

偶尔陪爸妈逛县城商场时，他会在播放科技新闻的电视专柜站一会儿，就一小会儿。

Hukou

为了户口

Zhao Yang, a third-year graduate student from a top-rated university in Beijing is looking for a job now. She has applied to various companies, including media outlets, State-owned enterprise, consulting firms, and online businesses.

今年即将从国内名校硕士毕业的赵阳在为了求职奔波。希望留在北京的她投了无数份简历，参加了无数场面试。媒体、国企、咨询公司还有互联网企业都在她的选择之列。

Despite the half-dozen job offers she has secured so far, Zhao Yang is far from satisfied.

尽管现在已经手握好几份offer，她仍然开心不起来。

"Very often one is offered a job with no hukou, which means nothing if one wants to stay in the capital," said Zhao Yang. She is by no means alone in her misgivings. In Beijing, many students are seeking not only for a good job, but also a much-coveted hukou.

"对于像我这样想在北京扎根的人来说，不给解决户口的工作没什么意义。" 而在北京，赵阳绝不是唯一一个为户口烦恼的毕业生。

……

Do these stories ring a bell? Does one of them describe you?

这些故事的主角，是不是很熟悉？又或者，根本就是你本人。

I'm doing what I love, only to discover that

freedom in the workplace is relative

我终于选择了自己喜欢的职业

却发现工作的世界没有随心所欲

You used to watch and envy those who were doing what they loved, but you never knew how disillusioned they were.

当你为了各种理由放弃了自己的热爱，而艳羡毕业后顺利进入所学行业、做着自己梦寐已求工作的同学时，或许他们也在经历着从满心欢喜到怀疑人生的职业期待抛物线。

"I thought I was going to be a master architect, but it turned out I was just a lackey."

"我以为自己会是下一个大师，结果只是又一个工人。"

“

I got a job at an architecture firm after I graduated with a Master's degree in architecture.

我建筑系研究生毕业后就职于一家设计院。

At first I was naïve and actually thought I was going to be a real architect. But after pushing my aesthetic boundaries time after time to suit the client's terrible taste, I caved in and accepted the fact that I am just an ordinary employee.

一开始我天真地以为自己会成为一名设计师，但是在无数次将自己的底线放低后，我终于放弃了与审美为零的甲方的斗争，接受了自己只是一个设计工人的残酷事实。

”

"It doesn’t matter what I want to write, really."

"我想写什么不重要，真的不重要"。

“

I got a job in new media at an Internet company.

怀着对互联网公司的憧憬，我找了一份新媒体领域的工作。

Later I found out that the company wouldn't pay for my expensive apartment to help me realize my dream of being a writer, because it's less about what I want to write than what the readers want to read.

进去之后才发现公司给我高薪，并不是为了让我去实现半吊子文字工作者的梦想 —— "我想写什么"与"读者想看的内容"相比起来不值一提。

”

These are just the tip of the iceberg.

如此惨案，不胜枚举。

What you don't know about that friend you envy for getting his dream job, is that once he's done memorizing everything about his client from his hobbies to his kids' zodiac signs, he's searching for hair growth serum online.

你不知道的是，你羡慕的这位同学背熟了客户的上至兴趣爱好下至儿女星座的必读资料之后，点开了“生发效果好的洗发水”种草推荐的页面。

Why keep going knowing that

you're neither happy nor making enough money?

赚得不多，干得不顺

为什么还在继续坚持？

In the TV show The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, Lenny Bruce, a veteran comedian (based on the real NYC comedian of the 1950s) had a stark observation about his job.

在最近大热的剧集《了不起的麦瑟尔夫人》中，一名资深单口喜剧演员Lenny Bruce对他的演员工作有一番令人印象深刻的见解。

When asked whether he likes being comedian, he says: "If there was anything else in the entire world that I could possibly do to earn a living, I would. If someone said to me, Leonard, you can either eat a guy's head or do two weeks at the Copa, I'd say, 'pass the salt'."
当剧中女主角麦瑟尔夫人问他是否喜欢自己的职业时，他说: "如果这世界上有其他的方式可以养家糊口，我都会去做的。如果有人和我说，莱纳德，你要么吃一个人头，要么去讲科帕讲两周单口，我会说，拿盐过来。"

A moment later, to the same question, he paused and shrugged with an impish grin.

而当麦瑟尔夫人继续追问时，他在短暂沉吟后的耸肩却给出了最好的答案。

Sometimes a job is like your oldest pair of shoes — stretched out, scuffed, or stained on the inside, but you still wear them more often than you do the new ones.

有时候工作就像你最常穿的那双旧鞋。即便它已经松松垮垮，里外都有些磨损，可是你仍穿着它们，而不是宠幸新鞋子。

The rookie architect who spent day after day dealing with clients now brushes up on his passion for architecture by admiring the works of iconic Japanese architect Tadao Ando.

还有上面提到的那位每天与甲方斗智斗勇的建筑设计师，有时候翻起自己曾经的偶像安藤忠雄的设计作品集，依然能够想起刚入行时的热情。

Ando's 1976 Row House in Sumiyoshi uses an interior courtyard to separate two living areas, rendering the changing seasons readily palpable as the owner can hear the summer rain and see the winter snow within his home.

安藤忠雄在1976年的作品"住吉的长屋"里做了一个极小的院子，房屋的感觉一下改变了，四季的变幻一下变得清晰而细致。夏天里可以坐在房间里听落雨，冬天的雪也会落在院子里。

▲ Row House in Sumiyoshi, Tadao Ando, 1976

From mastermind designs like this, the rookie architect begins to grasp that the importance of architecture lies in the marriage between aesthetics and practicality.

这种设计让这位建筑设计师明白，建筑之所以伟大，正在于能将自己的美学原则与实用性结合起来。

We all have to make choices in the workplace. Some people swallow their disillusionment and repeated daily drudgeries all year round; some fall in love with what they're doing at any given moment; and others take a rest to remember why they started before they make another step.

这些都是职场人的选择。有的人接受了梦想与现实的落差，365天重复着“累觉不爱”的工作；有的人在不断磨合中慢慢爱上了当下的职业；还有的人在驻足沉思后，开始追寻自己的初心。

What choices will you make?

你又会怎样选择呢？

Source: LinkedIn

Editor: Zhang Xi

Translator: Liu Yinglun (intern)