THE QUESTION
Last February, I quit as a director in M&A at a big investment bank as I could see the writing on the wall and hated my job anyway. I joined a small outfit that does interesting work with better hours, but I took a 50 per cent pay cut and, since my bonus expectations are muted, I took in effect an 80 per cent cut overall. I thought I'd get past that and focus on the challenges but I find I resent my employer and myself for being so stupid. Should I quit and sit on the beach like everyone else?
今年2月，我辭去了一家大型投行併購業務主管的職位。我當時覺得，被裁是遲早的事，而且我本來就討厭那份工作。我加入了一家小型公司，那裏的工作更有意思，工作時間也更合理，但我的薪水減少了50%。由於獎金預期也降低了，實際上我的收入總水平將下降80%。我以爲自己能克服這一點，把精力都投入到工作的挑戰上。但我現在覺得自己愚蠢至極，還因此埋怨起了我的僱主和我自己。我是否應該辭職，和別人一樣去海邊度假呢？
LUCY'S ANSWER
First, I want to salute your courage in admitting that money matters to you. This unfashionable view has so got up the noses of Financial Times readers that they have quite forgotten their manners in the responses they left on .
首先，我要讚揚你的勇氣，敢於承認金錢對你很重要。這種不合潮流的觀點，讓英國《金融時報》的讀者看了很生氣，以致他們在回答這一問題時完全忘記了應有的禮貌。
This week the outgoing head of Shell put forward a more palatable view when he claimed that a 50 per cent pay cut would have had no effect on his work. Yet he hasn't put his goody-goody theory to the test – and you have. You found that halving your salary cut your enthusiasm. I am sure it would reduce mine, too.
上週，即將離職的殼牌(Shell)老總拋出了一種更爲中聽的說法，聲稱減薪50%不會對他的工作產生絲毫影響。不過，他還沒有將這套僞善的理論付諸實踐——而你有。你發現，薪水減半降低了你的工作熱情。我相信如果遇到這種情況，我也會這樣。
I think much of what is making you cross is your own failure to predict how you would feel in this new, badly paid job. Yet I don't accept that your experiment has been a disaster, as you learnt two important lessons: first, you don't like feeling underpaid; and second, jobs that promise to be interesting often aren't.
我想，你之所以感到苦惱，主要是因爲你沒有預料到，這份薪水欠豐的新工件會給你帶來怎樣的`感受。不過，我不認爲你這場試驗一無是處，因爲你從中學到了兩個重要教訓：第一，你不喜歡感到工資低於應得的水平；第二，乍看之下很有意思的工作，其實往往不然。
Your best course of action is to jack in the new job at once and head for the beach. This too may turn out to be a mistake but if so, you will learn a third, even better lesson: how much having a job matters to you.
你最好是辭去新工作，前往海濱度假。這也有可能是錯誤的決定，但如果是這樣，你就會學到第三個、甚至更有價值的教訓：有一份工作對你是多麼重要。
My guess is that you will be no happier on the beach. You will resent the fact that you are being paid nothing at all to watch other people sitting on the beach being paid nothing either.
我猜你就是到了海邊也不會開心。你會憎恨這樣的事實：看着那些坐在沙灘上沒有分文收入的人，你自己也得不到分文收入。
Once you have learnt that not working is not fun, you will be in better shape when things pick up again. By then you may find it's rather nice taking home a fat salary for doing something that, by the sound of it, you are really rather good at.
一旦你認識到，沒有工作一點都不好玩，那麼當形勢好轉時，你就會處於更好的狀態。屆時，你或許會發現，從事自己相當擅長（聽上去是這樣）的工作，把一份豐厚的薪水拿回家裏，是件相當美妙的事。
