French workers biggest whiners, Irish happiest: study

French workers are the world's biggest whiners, according to a study published Monday which said the Irish complain least about their lot.

Britons come second to their Gallic cousins in the moaning stakes, followed by Sweden, the United States and Australia. Japanese workers have the lowest morale, but don't complain so much.

The lowest levels of whining were found in the Netherlands, Thailand and Ireland, according to the study by the FDS research group.

\"It is interesting to note that after France, Britain and Sweden, the world's biggest workplace whiners are Americans, despite their having by far the highest levels of income,\" said FDS chief Charlotte Cornish.

\"Compare them to Thai workers: while real levels of income are more than eight times higher in the States, more workers in the US feel their pay is a problem than in Thailand,\" she added.

The study, entitled \"What Workers Want, A Worldwide Study of Attitudes to Work and Work-Life Balance\", draws on data from 14,000 employees in 23 countries.

They were notably asked about their satisfaction with issues including pay levels and their work-life balance, as well as average working hours.

In terms of worker morale, Dutch workers are the happiest, followed by their Thai and Irish counterparts. The lowest morale of all is found in Japan, followed by Germany, said the study.

The study's authors noted that French President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy shouldn't expect things to become happier anytime soon, as he prepares to shake up notoriously strike-prone France.

\"The UK and US, with their marked competitive individualism and unequal wealth distribution, both appear towards the top of the world's list of whiniest workers,\" said Cornish.

\"The French come out on top -- it seems unlikely that Nicolas Sarkozy's election and the likely shift to more Anglo-Saxon economic practices will make the workers in France any more happy with their lot,\" she added.

(AFP)
据本周一公布的一项调查显示，法国员工最爱抱怨，而爱尔兰员工抱怨得最少。

英国人位居法国之后，排名第二，其后是瑞典、美国和澳大利亚。日本员工的工作热情最低，但很少抱怨。

据FDS调查集团的此项调查，荷兰、泰国和爱尔兰的员工最不爱发牢骚。

FDS集团总裁夏洛特·科尼什说：“有趣的是，在法国、英国和瑞典之后、抱怨最多的竟然是美国员工，美国人的收入水平到目前为止可是全世界最高的。”

她说：“将美国与泰国做个比较：泰国员工的实际收入水平为美国的八倍，美国越来越多的工人觉得他们的工资已成为一个问题。”

此项名为“员工想要什么？--工作态度及工作-生活平衡的全球性调查”对23个国家的1万4千名雇员进行了访问。

调查涉及的主要问题包括对薪资水平、工作-生活平衡及平均工作时间等问题的满意度。

此外，据调查，荷兰员工的工作热情最高，其次是泰国和爱尔兰。工作热情最低的是日本人，其次是德国人。

调查报告的撰写者指出，法国刚当选的总统尼古拉斯·萨科奇目前正打算好好治理这个因罢工频起而声名狼藉的国家，但他不能指望一切很快好起来。

科尼什说：“以竞争、个人主义著称和财富分配不均的英美两国竟然名列这一排行榜的前列。”

“而法国则名列排行之首，看来萨科奇的当选及法国向自由经济模式的转型不大可能提升法国人的工作满意度。”

（英语点津姗姗编辑）







Vocabulary:   

whiner : a person who complains（抱怨者；动词 whine;形容词 whiny）