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I originally had interest in this piece about workers' attitudes because of its opening--which showed that American workers are more discouraged and unhappy than they have ever been before. 

And what a fucking shock that was.

But rather than stop at the initial premise, I read the whole article and came away more than a bit bewildered.  Quote:   "...progress in meaningful work is the primary motivator, well ahead of traditional incentives like raises and bonuses."  Now, I'll be the first to admit that since I read Matthew Stewart's The Myth of Management I've been a big skeptical when it comes to studies on what motivates workers (Stewart uses one Frederick Winslow Taylor, the father of scientific management, as an example--Taylor's studies clearly showed money to be the prime motivator but to appease his corporate benefactors Taylor fudged the studies to show workplace culture--what the fuck?--as the prime motivator).  But still....

The title of the article "Do Happier People Work Harder?" was a bit odd in and of itself--I never went to the Harvard Business School, but I'm reasonably certain that with no study of any kind, the answer to that question would be an unequivocal yes. 

The study was undertaken by the Harvard Business School (Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer)--which makes me even more skeptical.  Just a wild guess, but I'd be willing to bet many of American corporations best and brightest came out of said school (not too many of its graduates end up an Assistant Manager at Wal-Mart, I'd suppose)--and one doesn't bite the hand that feeds by showing that share and share alike is better than greed is good.  I mean really--does anyone doubt the Harvard Business School is a wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America?

"...progress in meaningful work" strikes me as one of those bullshit phrases like "thinking outside the box" or "metrics" that corporations are so fond of using (my least favorite is using the word "issue" for the word "problem"--I'm not Noam Chomsky so this might be a bit simplistic, but abortion and taxing the wealthy are "issues"; the host of glitches your new system has are fucking "problems").  One wonders if the study's authors have ever considered telling the titans of Wall Street that those seven figure bonuses aren't really all that important--they could take a hell of a cut in pay and be a lot "happier" if only they made progress in meaningful work.  It doesn't take Einstein to conclude that should such a statement be made to such a titan, the study's authors could quickly find themselves studying the work habits of the Emperor Penguin in the bowels of Antarctica.

Better still, let's ask the poor souls working for minimum wage which they would prefer:  progress in meaningful work or a raise that doubles their salary from $7.50 to $15.00?  Progress in meaningful work or a bonus of $1000?  What do you suppose the fucking answer would be?

What I hate most about these types of "studies" is the legitimacy given to class warfare at its ugliest.  They are little more than bullshit facades to keep the rich richer and the rest of us buying at the company store.

Harvard should be fucking ashamed.

Peace,
emaycee