This Is No Time For Complaints

David Hirsch hasn't forgotten the unhappy phone calls he used to get from clients back in 1998 and 1999. A director at Credit Suisse Private Banking USA in Chicago, he was carefully investing clients' money in blue-chip stocks, earning them 15% to 20% in annual returns.

But that was a time when some investors were earning 50% or even 100% returns in tech portfolios. Some of Mr. Hirsch's clients pulled their money, grousing that he wasn't serving them well.

Today, though his clients' portfolios are down 35% or more, 'I'm not getting complaints,' Mr. Hirsch says. 'People aren't asking, 'What did you do to my portfolio?' They're asking, 'What do we do from here?''

There may be a positive byproduct of our troubled times: a decrease in the urge to complain. People who still have jobs are finding reasons to be appreciative. (It feels unseemly to complain about not getting a raise when your neighbor is unemployed.) Homeowners are unhappy that home values have fallen, but it's a relief to avoid foreclosure. And yes, our portfolios have plummeted, but most of us can say that at least we didn't invest with Bernie Madoff.

Even if grumbling is only on hiatus, it's clear that in many quarters, we're seeing a return to Depression-era stoicism and an appreciation of simpler things.

Job satisfaction is actually up, according to a December 2010 survey by Yahoo! HotJobs. Almost 38% of respondents said they were 'very satisfied' with their jobs, compared with 28% in 2007, a likely sign that people are grateful they're still employed. And every week now, we hear reports of workers accepting pay cuts or furloughs without complaint -- some of them acts of solidarity to protect jobs elsewhere in their companies.

There is also a growing 'noncomplaining' movement that touts the belief that whining doesn't work as a strategy, and that happiness can be found through rituals such as writing in 'gratitude journals.'

戴維·賀齊(David Hirsch)一直沒忘記1998-1999年間那些損失慘重的客戶打來的令人不愉快的電話，作為瑞士信貸(Credit Suisse)在芝加哥的美國私人銀行部的董事，他多年來一直小心翼翼地把客戶的錢投在藍(lán)籌股上，每年能取得15%到20%的收益。

John Segal但在當(dāng)時(shí)，有些科技股投資者可以得到50%甚至100%的年回報(bào)率。賀齊的一些客戶因此撤回了資金，他們對他提供的投資服務(wù)表示不甚滿意。

現(xiàn)在，雖然他管理的客戶資金減少了35%或者更多，“但沒人再向我抱怨?！辟R齊說，“他們不會(huì)追問我‘你對我的投資組合干了些什么?’他們只是問‘如今我們該干些什么?’”

這可能是動(dòng)蕩時(shí)代帶來的一個(gè)正面效果：人們的抱怨沖動(dòng)有所收斂。那些還有工作的人正在學(xué)會(huì)珍惜這份福氣。(如果你的鄰居已經(jīng)失去工作，你就會(huì)覺得不必為自己沒加上工資而抱怨。)有房子的人雖然不愿看到房價(jià)下跌，但至少房子還沒被銀行沒收。是的，我們的投資組合大為縮水，但大多數(shù)人還可以說，至少我們沒把錢交給金融巨騙馬多夫(Bernie Madoff)。

雖然投資活動(dòng)只是暫時(shí)收斂，但在很多地方，我們看到了大蕭條時(shí)代艱苦奮斗精神的回歸及對于簡單事物的欣賞。

事實(shí)上，根據(jù)雅虎HotJobs網(wǎng)站2010年12月的一項(xiàng)統(tǒng)計(jì)，人們對工作的滿意度上升了。有近38%的被訪者表示，他們對自己的工作“非常滿意”，而2007年這一數(shù)字僅為28%。這也許意味著人們對自己還有工作懷著一份感恩的心?，F(xiàn)在每個(gè)星期我們都能聽到很多報(bào)導(dǎo)，說員工毫無怨言地接受減薪或暫時(shí)休假，有些這類團(tuán)結(jié)一心的做法使公司其他部門的人得以保住飯碗。

而且，日益增多的“不抱怨”運(yùn)動(dòng)讓人們相信，怨天尤人并不是最好的出路，快樂可以通過各種途徑獲得，比如寫“感恩日記”等等。

David Hirsch hasn't forgotten the unhappy phone calls he used to get from clients back in 1998 and 1999. A director at Credit Suisse Private Banking USA in Chicago, he was carefully investing clients' money in blue-chip stocks, earning them 15% to 20% in annual returns.

But that was a time when some investors were earning 50% or even 100% returns in tech portfolios. Some of Mr. Hirsch's clients pulled their money, grousing that he wasn't serving them well.

Today, though his clients' portfolios are down 35% or more, 'I'm not getting complaints,' Mr. Hirsch says. 'People aren't asking, 'What did you do to my portfolio?' They're asking, 'What do we do from here?''

There may be a positive byproduct of our troubled times: a decrease in the urge to complain. People who still have jobs are finding reasons to be appreciative. (It feels unseemly to complain about not getting a raise when your neighbor is unemployed.) Homeowners are unhappy that home values have fallen, but it's a relief to avoid foreclosure. And yes, our portfolios have plummeted, but most of us can say that at least we didn't invest with Bernie Madoff.

Even if grumbling is only on hiatus, it's clear that in many quarters, we're seeing a return to Depression-era stoicism and an appreciation of simpler things.

Job satisfaction is actually up, according to a December 2010 survey by Yahoo! HotJobs. Almost 38% of respondents said they were 'very satisfied' with their jobs, compared with 28% in 2007, a likely sign that people are grateful they're still employed. And every week now, we hear reports of workers accepting pay cuts or furloughs without complaint -- some of them acts of solidarity to protect jobs elsewhere in their companies.

There is also a growing 'noncomplaining' movement that touts the belief that whining doesn't work as a strategy, and that happiness can be found through rituals such as writing in 'gratitude journals.'

戴維·賀齊(David Hirsch)一直沒忘記1998-1999年間那些損失慘重的客戶打來的令人不愉快的電話，作為瑞士信貸(Credit Suisse)在芝加哥的美國私人銀行部的董事，他多年來一直小心翼翼地把客戶的錢投在藍(lán)籌股上，每年能取得15%到20%的收益。

John Segal但在當(dāng)時(shí)，有些科技股投資者可以得到50%甚至100%的年回報(bào)率。賀齊的一些客戶因此撤回了資金，他們對他提供的投資服務(wù)表示不甚滿意。

現(xiàn)在，雖然他管理的客戶資金減少了35%或者更多，“但沒人再向我抱怨?！辟R齊說，“他們不會(huì)追問我‘你對我的投資組合干了些什么?’他們只是問‘如今我們該干些什么?’”

這可能是動(dòng)蕩時(shí)代帶來的一個(gè)正面效果：人們的抱怨沖動(dòng)有所收斂。那些還有工作的人正在學(xué)會(huì)珍惜這份福氣。(如果你的鄰居已經(jīng)失去工作，你就會(huì)覺得不必為自己沒加上工資而抱怨。)有房子的人雖然不愿看到房價(jià)下跌，但至少房子還沒被銀行沒收。是的，我們的投資組合大為縮水，但大多數(shù)人還可以說，至少我們沒把錢交給金融巨騙馬多夫(Bernie Madoff)。

雖然投資活動(dòng)只是暫時(shí)收斂，但在很多地方，我們看到了大蕭條時(shí)代艱苦奮斗精神的回歸及對于簡單事物的欣賞。

事實(shí)上，根據(jù)雅虎HotJobs網(wǎng)站2010年12月的一項(xiàng)統(tǒng)計(jì)，人們對工作的滿意度上升了。有近38%的被訪者表示，他們對自己的工作“非常滿意”，而2007年這一數(shù)字僅為28%。這也許意味著人們對自己還有工作懷著一份感恩的心?，F(xiàn)在每個(gè)星期我們都能聽到很多報(bào)導(dǎo)，說員工毫無怨言地接受減薪或暫時(shí)休假，有些這類團(tuán)結(jié)一心的做法使公司其他部門的人得以保住飯碗。

而且，日益增多的“不抱怨”運(yùn)動(dòng)讓人們相信，怨天尤人并不是最好的出路，快樂可以通過各種途徑獲得，比如寫“感恩日記”等等。