正文

英国男性工作热情不如女性

2010-07-02来源:和谐英语

Men in Britain are less engaged in their work compared with women until the final years of employment when they get a late surge of enthusiasm, according to a survey.

Men start off their careers at a much lower level of job satisfaction than women, only catching up shortly before they give up the commute and pick up their pension.

"One line of theory which I would like to look at more is that men have the Protestant ethic of going out to work to make money and not to enjoy it," Simon Easton, co-author of the report said.

Women's engagement starts high, before dipping mid-career and then bouncing back, again shortly before retirement.

The research carried out by Easton and Darren Van Laar, of the University of Portsmouth's psychology department and spin-out company QoWL, did not look into why there were changes in enthusiasm or explain the differences between the attitudes of men and women.

But the pair said the research should encourage employers to hang on to older, more experienced workers who are generally more "engaged."

It comes at a time when the British government is looking to speed up plans to raise retirement ages in a bid to rein in a record peacetime budget deficit.

Van Laar also said the findings suggested employers could increase employee retention, get higher productivity and reduce absenteeism if they found ways to increase young men's engagement and satisfaction in the workplace.

Employers could also try to better understand why women lose engagement at work mid-career, he said.

The research quizzed 4,000 people at nine large educational organizations including academics, managers and cleaners as part of wider research into the quality of working life.

一项调查显示，英国男性的工作热情不如女性，直到退休时他们才会迸发出一股迟来的热情。

男性在事业刚刚起步时对工作的满意度远低于女性，直到临近退休时才会发生些变化。

调查报告的撰写者之一西蒙．伊斯顿说：“我想深入探讨的一个说法是男性对于工作的态度带有一种新教的观念，他们认为工作是为了赚钱而不是从中获得快乐。”

女性在刚开始工作的时候热情高涨，但到了事业中期工作热情会出现回落，到了退休前又会反弹。

该调查由朴次茅斯大学心理学系和附属公司QoWL的伊斯顿和戴伦．范．拉尔共同开展，调查并未探究人们的工作热情为何会发生变化，也没有解释为何男性和女性对于工作的态度存在差异。

但这两位研究人员称，调查结果说明，雇主们应该留住那些年龄较长、更有经验的员工，因为他们对工作更加“投入”。

目前英国政府正加速推进提高退休年龄的计划，以遏制已创和平时期最高纪录的巨额赤字。

范．拉尔还称，调查结果表明，雇主们如果能想办法提高年轻男性员工的工作积极性及他们的工作满意度，那么将能提高员工存留率和工作效率，减少旷工现象。

他说，雇主们也可以去想想为什么女性在事业中期会丧失工作热情。

该调查对九家大型教育机构的4000人进行了访问，其中包括学者、管理人员和清洁工。该调查是范围更广的工作生活质量研究的一部分。

Vocabulary:

catch up: reach the point where one should be after a delay 赶上