Not long ago, thousands of workers in the US were asked if they fancied the idea of being promoted to the rank of manager. You might have thought they would mostly have said yes. After all, the US is supposed to be the land of opportunity and the entirety of corporate life is founded on the principle that it is better to be on a higher rung of the ladder than on a lower one.
不久前，美国数千名企业员工被问到一个问题：他们是否有过希望被提升到经理级别的想法？你可能会认为他们大多应该会回答是。毕竟，美国被认为是机遇之地，而且职场中的一大原则就是，处于阶梯高层比在低层好。
Only they did not say yes at all. A mere third of the workers canvassed by CareerBuilder said being a manager appealed to them. The remaining two-thirds said no thanks, I’d rather stick with the lowly job I have.
但结果很多人都没有回答是。在凯业必达(CareerBuilder)的调查对象中，仅三分之一的人说，当一名经理对他们有吸引力。其余三分之二的人说：不，我宁愿继续做我的低级别工作。
Within the numbers were some depressingly predictable variations. For instance, 40 per cent of men wanted to be promoted, against only
调查结果显示了一些意料中的差异，令人泄气。例如，40%的男性希望被提拔，而女性中仅29%有此想法。出人意料的是，同性恋者其实比大多数人都更有雄心，44%的LGBT（同性恋、双性恋及变性者）想要成为领导。我不知道这能证明什么，除了或许可以在一定程度上化解对同性恋的恐惧症，因为他们拥有乐观的心态。
29 per cent of women. Less predictably, gays and lesbians turned out to be more ambitious than most, with 44 per cent of LGBT workers wanting to be leaders. I’ve no idea what this proves, except perhaps that having had some success in rolling back homophobia, they are in an optimistic mood.
那么，为什么大多数人不想成为经理呢？超过一半的人解释说，他们喜欢现在的工作，因此没有理由去换。我认为这是一个极好的理由。鉴于金字塔的底部才是最宽的，如果许多人都乐于继续留在底部，那这是一件好事。只有当我们过于着迷升职，而又认为这种生活没有多少价值的时候，才应感到羞愧。