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> "I find the scale you chose to be interesting" To be fair, part of that is just American society. It's acceptable to complain about crap work and low pay.

by roc 15y ago

> "I find the scale you chose to be interesting" To be fair, part of that is just American society. It's acceptable to complain about crap work and low pay. Whereas celebrating your awesome job and high pay is seen as uncouth. [1] So whenever you tally up public statements about jobs, you should expect it to be tilted toward the negative. In this case, I was trying to restrict it to people I've known whose attitudes changed while doing essentially the same job at the same place. But you know how anecdotes go... [1] The same goes for many aspects of American life. When things go well you're expected to keep quiet in deference to those who haven't had such good fortune. Hence "Fuck my life" and "white people problems" are memes. But there are no comparable analogues. Amusingly, the only time Americans generally acknowledge that there's lots of complaining and little celebrating, is in the context of complaining about the complaining. (e.g. "Everything is Great and No-one is Happy")

davidcuddeback 15y ago
> To be fair, part of that is just American society. It's acceptable to complain about crap work and low pay. Whereas celebrating your awesome job and high pay is seen as uncouth. So whenever you tally up public statements about jobs, you should expect it to be tilted toward the negative. I wonder if that could be a source of the problem. Would Americans be happier if the societal norm allowed for celebrating your awesome job? I think we would be. It's been shown that smiling makes people happier [1]. I don't think it's far-fetched that that theory could extend to expressing happiness with your job affecting your opinion of it. Since our emotions can also affect those around us, if it's only acceptable to complain about your job, that probably drags down those who actually enjoy theirs. Another way this societal norm could be a source of a happiness problem is that even if bosses understand that they should care about their employees happiness at work, it's difficult to measure and focus on if people aren't supposed to express their happiness. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/18/science/a-feel-good-theory-a-smile-affects-mood.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm http://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/18/science/a-feel-good-theory...

by roc 15y ago

davidcuddeback 15y ago

> To be fair, part of that is just American society. It's acceptable to complain about crap work and low pay. Whereas celebrating your awesome job and high pay is seen as uncouth. So whenever you tally up public statements about jobs, you should expect it to be tilted toward the negative. I wonder if that could be a source of the problem. Would Americans be happier if the societal norm allowed for celebrating your awesome job? I think we would be. It's been shown that smiling makes people happier [1]. I don't think it's far-fetched that that theory could extend to expressing happiness with your job affecting your opinion of it. Since our emotions can also affect those around us, if it's only acceptable to complain about your job, that probably drags down those who actually enjoy theirs. Another way this societal norm could be a source of a happiness problem is that even if bosses understand that they should care about their employees happiness at work, it's difficult to measure and focus on if people aren't supposed to express their happiness. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/18/science/a-feel-good-theory-a-smile-affects-mood.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm http://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/18/science/a-feel-good-theory...