【英语生活】我该跳出银行业吗？

I've been working in the City for 20 years and I am starting to suspect I've been held back by my integrity. The bank supposedly values this (it sends us off on integrity courses) but I've noticed that it is the selfish people with no backbone who have advanced faster on the career ladder. They appear to feel no guilt about their actions, which translates into them being happier and much better suited to banking. Am I going mad? Or is it time for me to get out?

Banker, male, 45

LUCY'S ANSWER

No, I don't think you are going mad, though I do think you may be engaging in some perfectly natural post hoc rationalisation. We all tell ourselves comforting stories to explain why we aren't doing better. The most common story goes: "I'm no good at playing office politics." Your story is an extreme version of this: "I'm no good at playing the bastard."

If this is all, there is no reason why you shouldn't stay in your current job and continue to congratulate yourself on your moral superiority to compensate for your lack of advancement.

However, if instead you are genuinely concerned about the morals of those above you, the problem is more difficult.

For a start you need to be clear about what you mean by a lack of integrity. If your bosses are stealing shareholders' money, you must either blow the whistle or leave or both. But if they are simply more motivated by self-advancement than by bettering the lot of all mankind, then I'm surprised it has taken you 20 years to work this out. To succeed in the City - or in any business - one needs to want to succeed desperately. And that generally means being more self-regarding than, say, Mother Teresa.

Beyond that, I don't accept that everyone who does well in the City is particularly horrid. In fact, there is something rather good about having all that competitiveness so explicit, as it means that if people are going to be nasty then they are nasty in a fairly direct way. In my experience a higher percentage of selfish people are to be found in academe, where they fight hard and dirty because the stakes are so low.

Perhaps all you are really saying is that you despise your colleagues or that you are sick of banking. In that case you have reached the end and must go.

YOUR ADVICE

Sleep easy

Just remember, Enron management landed in court because they had no integrity. Follow your instincts and leave the company. I've worked for dubious companies and honest ones - and it was a no-brainer what culture I wanted when I set up my own business. Honesty makes business simple, you sleep at night and it creates its own following of first-rate clients.

PR, female, 50s

Enjoy yourself Special

My father taught me to behave with integrity at work and, because the world works as you describe, I'm not going to advance much further than I already have. But I try to make my job as rewarding as possible and enjoy life outside. Remember: we are a special lot.

Banker, male, 45

Get out now Heartbeat

"Held back by my integrity" . . . I've heard it all now. If the capitalist mantra "bigger, better, faster, more" doesn't make your heart pound (in a good way) then, yes, you do need to find some other way to pay the bills where you feel your integrity is less threatened.

Manager, female, 30

Downhill race

Integrity courses are merely a box-ticking exercise. "Stuff rolls downhill" not uphill - thus the corporate culture of the organisation is defined from the top and employees will be promoted in their own image. Three options are available: exit, suck it up or get ruthless.

Consultant, male, 41

Stocktaking ortoise

Take heart: your more solidapproach likely means you won't be the one fired in the business cycle reversal or indicted if the regs come in. Yet with those folks at the top, make sure you don't have too much company stock in your pension plan (à la Bear Stearns, et al).

Consultant, male, 59

The next problem

I share a small office with a Young Turk, with whom I get on well enough. He is ambitious and hardworking - already on the same level as me despite being 25 years my junior. However, several times a day he telephones his wife and his taciturn manner is replaced by a sickly cooing. "Hello, honey pie," he says in a baby voice and then asks about the mundane details of her day. Following the recent birth of their first child things have got worse as now the baby is put on the phone and he starts saying "da da da" to the child - who can't be more than three months old. It is driving me so demented that every time he picks up the phone I find myself tensing up, fearing the soppy nonsense that I am going to be subjected to. Can you recommend anything?

Accountant, male, 55

我在伦敦金融城已经工作了20年，我开始怀疑，是不是我的诚信阻碍了我前进的脚步。这家银行大概很重视这点（它把我们派去学习诚信课程），但我注意到，在职业阶梯上攀爬最快的是那些没有骨气而且自私的人。他们对自己的行为似乎毫无愧疚感，这反而让他们变得更快乐，也更适合银行业。我疯了吗？或者我该跳出这一行吗？银行家，男，45岁

露西的答案

不，我认为你没疯，不过我确实认为，你可能有某种非常自然的酸葡萄心理。我们都会告诉自己一些能够安慰自己的故事，解释我们为何做不到更好。最普通的故事是这样的：“我不善于玩办公室政治。”你所讲的就是这种故事的极端翻版：“我不善于耍混蛋。”

如果事情是这样的话，那么你就完全有理由停留在目前的工作岗位上，继续为你的道德优越感而庆祝，以弥补自己没有得到晋升的失落之情。

然而，如果你确实关心地位在你之上的那些员工的道德，那问题就更复杂了。

首先，你必须弄清楚，你所谓的缺乏诚信是什么意思。如果你的老板正在窃取股东的金钱，那么你必须要么报警要么离开，或者两样都做。但如果你所谓的缺乏诚信更多的是指人们只为自身利益，而非为所有人类造福，那么让我吃惊的是，你居然用了20年时间才懂得这点。要想在金融城或任何职业中取得成功，我们需要有不顾一切争取成功的愿望。这通常意味着更为自私，而非像特里萨修女（Mother Teresa，译者注：一生致力于为印度贫民窟做贡献，曾获诺贝尔和平奖）那样。

此外，我不认为在金融城表现出色的人尤为可怕。实际上，让所有竞争都变得非常明显，倒是一件好事，因为它意味着如果人们想变得丑陋，那么他们就会非常直白的表现出他们的丑陋。以我的经验来看，自私人群比例更高的地方是在学术界，他们勾心斗角，因为风险很低。

你真正想说的可能是，你鄙视你的同事，或者你厌恶银行业。如果是那样的话，就说明你已走到了尽头，必须跳槽。

读者的建议

睡个安稳觉

记住，安然(Enron)管理层之所以落入法网，是因为他们不诚信。跟随你的直觉，离开现在的公司吧。我曾在可疑的公司和诚信的公司工作过，当我自己开公司时，我轻而易举的就知道我想要什么样的文化。诚信让生意变得简单，你可以在夜里合上眼，它会创造自己的一流客户群。

公关，女，50多岁

享受自己的特别之处

我父亲曾教育我，要在工作中诚信；但由于这个世界跟你形容的一样，因此，我不会升到比现在还高的位置。但我会努力让我的工作尽可能有回报，并享受外面世界的生活。记住：我们是特别一族。

银行家，男，45岁

以最快速度离开

“我的诚信阻碍了我的脚步”……我听过这样的话。如果“更大、更好、更快、更多”的资本主义箴言不会让你心动（以有利的方式），那么是的，你确实需要寻找另外的方法，在你认为你的诚信受到的威胁较小的地方工作。

经理，女，30岁

流水比赛

诚信课程只是一种在方框内打钩的练习。“水往低处流”，因此，公司的企业文化是从高层界定的，员工将按照自己的形象得到晋升。你有3种选择：退出、忍耐或者变得无情。

咨询顾问，男，41岁

重估自己

鼓起勇气：你那更可靠的方式可能意味着，你不会在企业周期逆转时被裁员，或者被指责违反了规定。然而，由于公司高层有那些人，你要确保在你的养老金计划中没有配置太多的公司股票——如贝尔斯登(Bear Stearn)。

咨询顾问，男，59岁

下一个问题

我与杨•特克(Young Turk)共用一间小办公室，我们关系不错。他志向远大，工作努力，尽管他比我小25岁，但他已达到与我同等的水平了。然而，他一天会给妻子打好几次电话，他沉默寡言的风格变成了令人作呕的情话绵绵。他用婴儿般的声音问道：“你好啊，亲爱的小喜鹊。”然后他问起了妻子一天的平常琐事。在他们第一个孩子最近出世后，情况变得更为糟糕，因为现在他的孩子能够听电话了，他开始跟他的孩子说 “嗒嗒嗒”——他的孩子不过3个月大。每次当他拿起电话时，我就会紧张，我害怕听到那些如苍蝇般嗡嗡的废话。我快疯了。您能给我一些建议吗？

会计，男，55岁

译者/梁艳裳