How to Beat Mid-Career Malaise

我们都有过这样困惑的时候：“我是在合适的公司工作吗？我的工作适合吗？这就是全部吗？”对于处于职业生涯中期的职场人士来说，这些问题尤其令人苦恼，他们可能正在追寻满足感，同时还要应付家庭需求和巨大的经济压力。如何解除职业生涯中期的危机？采取什么行动可以提高职业满意度？怎样才能克服日常工作的单调乏味呢？你怎么知道是时候做出重大改变了呢？

We all have times when we wonder, “Am I at the right company? Am I in the right job? And is this all there is?” These questions are especially agonizing for mid-career professionals who may be searching for fulfillment while juggling demands at home and intense financial pressures to earn. How should you address a mid-career crisis? What actions can you take to improve your professional satisfaction? How can you combat the dullness and tedium of your workaday life? And how can you tell if it’s time to make a drastic change?

职业生涯中期的问题根深蒂固。耗尽你精力的，不仅仅是令人沮丧的“一段插曲”或者“一个特别可恶的工作项目”，欧洲工商管理学院的组织行为学副教授吉安帕罗•皮特里利耶里（Gianpiero Petriglieri）说，“而是‘我是不是漏掉了什么？’”这样一种持久的感觉。他说，这种职业上的不满在中年人中相对普遍。“中年是你失去幻想的时候。你知道你并不拥有无穷无尽的机会，你也意识到时间有限。”这些感受，即便是那些在职业生涯中取得了巨大成功的人也无法幸免，高管教练惠特尼•约翰逊(Whitney Johnson)表示。约翰逊著有《建立一支优秀团队》(Build an A-Team)等书。“他们会问:‘这真的是我想要做的事吗？’”她说，尽管“经历职业上的不安是自然和正常的”，但你必须听从“行动的召唤”。你需要“积极主动，并且想清楚该怎么做”。以下是如何做到这一点。

Mid-career malaise runs deep. It’s much more than just an “episodic moment” of frustration or “a particularly gruesome work project” that depletes you, says Gianpiero Petriglieri, associate professor of organizational behavior at INSEAD. “It’s a protracted feeling of, ‘Am I missing something?’” This type of professional discontent is relatively common in middle age, he says. “Midlife is the time where you lose the illusion of immortality. You know your opportunities aren’t endless, and you realize that time is finite,” he says. Even people who have achieved a great deal of career success aren’t immune to these feelings, says Whitney Johnson, an executive coach and the author several books including Build an A-Team. “They question: ‘Is this really what I want to be doing?’” She says that while “it’s natural and normal to experience professional restlessness,” you must heed “the call to action.” You need to be “proactive and figure out what to do about it.” Here’s how.

在起步阶段，先找出导致你职业不满的原因。皮特里利耶里说:“当你感到莫名的不安时，你开始质疑一切。但你需要拆解问题，先找到烦恼是从哪儿来的。是你的工作吗？还是你所在的组织？你的回答不同，处方也不同。”当然，人到中年，重新考虑职业道路并不容易，因为你可能有若干不容推卸的责任。也许是抵押贷款，也许是由于有自己事业的配偶或伴侣，还有上学的孩子。如果你发现自己总是纠结于是什么阻碍了你，约翰逊建议“重构制约条件”。当你年轻的时候，你可以在世界任何地方生活和工作，规划你的职业道路是难以置信的艰巨——“选项之多简直令人无所适从,”她说，“但在中年时期，选择范围非常有限” 。你知道你需要在特定的地理区域工作，挣足够数量的钱才能维持生计。“这些限制实际上是有益的。”

For starters, identify the cause of your professional discontent. “When you have a sense of malaise, you begin to question everything,” Petriglieri says. “But you need to break down the problem and start with the place where it hurts. Is it your job? Or the organization you’re in?” Depending on your answer, “the prescription is different.” Of course, it’s not easy to rethink your professional path in middle age, when you’ve likely got a number of nonnegotiable commitments to consider — maybe a mortgage, a spouse or partner who has their own career, and children in school. If you find yourself dwelling on what holds you back, Johnson recommends “reframing the constraints.” When you’re young and you can live and work anywhere in the world, plotting your career path is incredibly daunting — “almost paralyzing,” she says. “But in middle age, the scope is tighter.” You know you “need to work in certain geographic regions” and “earn a certain amount of money” to live. “The constraints are actually helpful.”

一个常见的现象是，你对你所在的组织机构充满好感，而对你所做的工作却心生厌恶。皮特里利耶里说，一个可能的补救方法是考虑“你可以做出哪些小的改变，使自己更充分地投入到工作中”。即使你不能改变你的大环境，“你也可以改变你工作的微环境”。例如，你可以寻找一个激动人心、高度融入的项目，或者雇佣有不同背景的员工，或者加入一个能以新的、不同的方式拓展你的内部委员会或团队。你也可以尝试协商不同的工作安排或时间表，或者要求调到不同的办公室。打破你的日常惯例，“重塑职业承诺”能对你的愿景和展望产生重大影响。关键是深思熟虑地取舍：“你选择做什么，你选择和谁一起做，你选择在哪里做。”

It’s not uncommon to be generally happy at your organization but miserable in your job. One possible remedy, Petriglieri says, is to consider what kinds of small “changes you can make to bring yourself more fully to your work.” Even if you cannot change your circumstances, “you might be able to change the microenvironment in which you operate.” For instance, you could seek out an exciting and immersive project, hire employees with different backgrounds, or join an internal committee or team that will stretch you in new and different ways. You could also try to negotiate different work arrangements or schedules, or request a move to a different office. Shaking up your routine and “rejuvenating your commitments” can have a big impact on your outlook and perspective. The key is being deliberate “in what you choose to do, whom you choose to do it with, and where you choose to do it.”

中年人职业萎靡不振的罪魁祸首之一就是无聊。“你的生活和职业是一个很大的学习曲线”，约翰逊说。但是当你四十多岁的时候，“你知道自己在做什么，并且很拿手，所以你会感到无聊”。昔日的学习和成就带来的多巴胺冲动已经不再。向老板要求升职——面对新的挑战和承担新的责任——是一个明显的答案。然而，约翰逊建议考虑横向调动。“问问你自己：‘向上攀升是唯一的出路吗？’如果做一些有趣的事情能促进学习和成长，也许你就大可不必攀登升职阶梯。”

One of the biggest culprits of middle-age career malaise is boredom. “Your life and your career is one big learning curve,” Johnson says. But by the time you hit your forties, “you know what you’re doing and you’re good at it, so you get bored.” You miss that “dopamine rush that comes with learning and achieving.” Asking your boss for a promotion — and taking on new challenges and responsibilities — is an obvious answer. Johnson, however, recommends considering a lateral move. “Ask yourself: ‘Is up the only way?’ Maybe you don’t have to climb the ladder if you can do something interesting that will allow you to learn and grow.”

如果没有吸引人的现成的职位空缺，约翰逊建议自己设计一个：“在组织内部寻找问题，然后说明为什么你具备解决问题的独特能力”。问问你自己:“我的同事面临什么样的挑战？是什么让我的客户感到沮丧？”然后，“是什么让我一次又一次地得到大家认可？哪些事情我觉得容易，别人却觉得难?”要有创造力。想想哪些方法可以利用自己的优势为公司赚钱或者省钱。然后说，“这是我们作为一个组织应该尝试的东西”。底线是，“绝不要坐等别人告诉你下一份工作是什么。去创造它吧。”

If there are no appealing openings, Johnson suggests designing one of your own by “looking for problems inside your organization — and then making the case for why you’re uniquely equipped to solve them.” Ask yourself: “What challenges do my colleagues face? What frustrates my clients?” And then: “What compliments do I receive over and over again? What things do I find easy that others find difficult?” Be creative. Think about ways you could use your strengths to make or save your company money. “Then say: ‘Here’s something we as an organization ought to try.’” The bottom line: “You mustn’t wait for someone to tell you what your next job is. Go create it.”

根据皮特里利耶里的说法，对影响力的渴望得不到满足是烦恼和职业厌倦的另一个常见来源。你可能会达到这样一种境地：你加班加点地工作，同时却在疑惑:“这一切都为了什么？” 记住,“意义是不会自动敲门的,”他说。“这就像爱情一样——必须不断地追寻、努力，而且你不能把它视为理所当然。” 他建议做出一以贯之的努力，与那些直接从你的工作中受益的人见面，不管他们是顾客还是同事。“当看到别人如何使用你的工作成果时，很难不发现其中的意义。”否则，你很容易忘记自己为什么要做这些事情，它会变得“太抽象”。

The unmet desire for impact is another common source of ennui and professional unhappiness, according to Petriglieri. You may reach a point where you’re working long hours while wondering, “What is it all for?” Bear in mind that “meaning is not going to knock on the door,” he says. “It is like love — you have to keep looking for it, working at it, and you cannot take it for granted.” He suggests making a concerted effort to meet the people who directly benefit from your work, whether they’re customers, clients, or colleagues. “When you can see how your work is being used by others, it is hard not to find meaning.” Otherwise it’s easy to lose sight of why you do what you do; it can become “too theoretical.”

如果这些策略没有达到预期的效果，这可能是一个信号，你需要做出重大的改变，约翰逊说。“当灵魂深处有需要瓦解自己的感觉时,”她说，你不能忽视它。“如果工作时一直不在状态，随着时间的推移，你会加速自己的死亡。”她表示，尽管许多人说是金钱让他们从事一份摧毁灵魂的工作，但很多时候，正是离开一条已知职业道路所导致的“声望和地位的丧失”这样的恐慌让人止步不前。扪心自问，是什么让你安于现状；耽望前程，是否需要担当一些风险，进行一些实验。的确，在中年换工作是一件令人生畏的事情。但是，请不要忘记你所处困境的积极方面。她表示:“想必你已经获得了一些专业知识，而且你更了解自己——你不需要像20多岁时那样需要别人的认可”。利用这些知识，深入而仔细地思考一下，在现在的职业之外，你想追求什么。在这些情况下，来自职业教练的指导会有所帮助，皮特里利耶里说。

If these strategies don’t have their desired effect, it could be a sign that you need to make a dramatic move, Johnson says. “When you have a feeling deep in your soul that you need to disrupt yourself,” she says, you mustn’t ignore it. “If you stay checked out in your job, over time, you precipitate your own demise.” While “many people say it’s the money” that keeps them in a soul-destroying job, quite often it’s the presumed “loss of prestige and status” of leaving a known career path, she says. Be honest with yourself about what is keeping you in your current position and whether some risks and experiments might be in order. True, switching careers in midlife is intimidating. But, again, remember the positives of your predicament. “Presumably you’ve got some expertise and you know yourself better — you don’t need approval from others as you did in your twenties,” she says. Use that knowledge to think deeply and carefully about what you want to pursue if it’s not your current career. In these cases, working with a career coach can be helpful, Petriglieri says.

你在职业上萎靡不振的感觉也可能是你的工作显得过于重要的信号。皮特里利耶里说，也许你正被一种企图让你永远沉迷于事业的文化所窒息。也许你的不适是因为你把所有鸡蛋都放在同一个篮子里了。你可能需要在工作之外寻求自我价值和生活满足感——也许是通过你的家庭或信仰，你支持的慈善机构，或者是你倾心的项目、业余爱好或热爱的运动。诚然，这不是大多数雄心勃勃者和成功人士习惯的思考方式。“你应该通过工作找到意义，否则你就会受到歧视，”皮特里利耶里说。为了克服耻辱，“你必须原谅自己。你还需要周围都是支持你的人”，他们不会因为你摆脱了传统成功的标准来判断你的渴望。毕竟，“你的时间不再是永恒的，所以推迟（实现职业之外的目标）会让你觉得代价高昂。如果不是现在，那什么时候开始？”

Your feelings of professional malaise could also be a sign that your job looms too large. Perhaps “you are being suffocated by a culture that wants to keep you in a state of being perpetually obsessed with your career,” Petriglieri says. “Maybe your malaise is due to the fact that you have all your eggs in one basket.” It could be that you need to seek self-worth and life satisfaction outside of work — perhaps through your family or faith, a charity you support, or a project, hobby, or sport you’re passionate about. True, it’s not the way most ambitious and “successful people” are conditioned to think. “You are supposed to find meaning through work, otherwise you are stigmatized,” Petriglieri says. To get over that stigma, “you have to forgive yourself. You also need to surround yourself with supportive people” who won’t judge your desire to break free from the traditional trappings of success. After all, “your time is no longer forever, so postponement feels costly. If not now, when?”

应该做的:

• 诊断问题。问问你自己: 是我的工作吗？还是我所在的组织机构？
• 通过努力结识那些从你的工作中受益的人来寻找意义。
• 考虑横向调动。这是一个接受新挑战和学习的好方法。

Do:

• Diagnose the problem. Ask yourself: Is it my job? Or the organization I’m in?
• Seek meaning by making an effort to meet people who benefit from your work.
• Consider a lateral move. It’s a good way to take on new challenges and learn.

不应该做的:

• 低估对日常惯例和环境做些微小改变带来的威力。
• 被动等待机会。寻找你想要解决的问题，然后设计一份新的工作。
• 把所有鸡蛋都放在你的职业这唯一的篮子里。想想如何通过你的家庭、信仰、项目或爱好来获得满足感。

Don’t:

• Discount the power of making small changes to your routine and environment.
• Wait around for opportunities. Look for problems you want to solve and then design a new job.
• Put all your eggs in your professional basket. Think about ways to derive satisfaction through your family, faith, or a project or hobby.

瑞贝卡•奈特 (Rebecca Knight)|文

瑞贝卡•奈特是波士顿的一名自由撰稿人，也是卫斯理大学的讲师。她的作品发表在《纽约时报》《今日美国》和《金融时报》上。

译言网网友 玉堂春晓 |译  周强|校