第1437期:Bored at work？Sue the boss!

You might have heard of people who consider suing their former employer for having been bullied or made to work overtime without pay. 

您可能听说过有人考虑起诉他们的前雇主，因为他们受到欺凌或被迫无薪加班。

But what about taking your employer to court for having given you work that is too boring?

但是，如果你的雇主因为你的工作太无聊而将你告上法庭呢？

That's exactly what Frederic Desnard, a 44-year-old Frenchman did.He claimed that his bosses at a prestigious perfume company stripped him of meaningful tasks in his managerial job and gave him duties which were so dull they affected his health.

这正是 44 岁的法国人 Frederic Desnard 所做的。他声称，他在一家享有盛誉的香水公司的老板剥夺了他在管理工作中有意义的任务，并给了他一些无聊的工作，影响了他的健康。

Desnard told French news agency AFP: "I went into depression, I was ashamed to be paid to do nothing".  

德斯纳德告诉法新社法新社：“我陷入了抑郁，我为无所事事而感到羞耻”。

He went on sick leave for seven months and was fired in 2014. The former employee wanted €360,000 in compensation.

他休了七个月的病假，并于 2014 年被解雇。这位前雇员要求赔偿 360,000 欧元。

Some people might argue that being bored should almost be part of the job description.

 有些人可能会争辩说，无聊几乎应该是工作描述的一部分。

Lars Fredrik Svendsen, author of 'A Philosophy of Boredom' and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bergen, says, "Most of the words for work in various languages tend to tell that it's a really unpleasant phenomenon.

 Lars Fredrik Svendsen，《无聊的哲学》一书的作者，卑尔根大学的哲学教授，他说：“各种语言中的大多数工作词都倾向于表明这是一种非常不愉快的现象。

The French word travail goes back to the trepalium, it was a word for a torture instrument."

法语单词travail可以追溯到trepalium，它是一个酷刑工具的词。”

So should employers really care if their staff are bored to death as long as they do their tasks? 

那么，雇主是否真的应该关心他们的员工是否会因为他们的工作而感到无聊呢？

Svendsen thinks it is in their interest to have a stimulated workforce. 

Svendsen 认为拥有一支积极进取的员工队伍符合他们的利益。

The academic says, "Employees who care about what they do tend to do a better job than those who don't. 

这位学者说：“关心自己所做工作的员工往往比不关心的员工做得更好。

It will probably be wise for employers to at least facilitate some perception of meaning at work. Let the workers feel that their work is meaningful to them."

对于雇主来说，至少促进对工作意义的某种理解可能是明智的。让工人觉得他们的工作对他们有意义。”

In any case, Desnard might have been better off finding some meaning in his dull work as his action brought him some notoriety and not much else. 

无论如何，Desnard 最好在他枯燥的工作中找到一些意义，因为他的行为给他带来了一些恶名，而不是其他什么。

A court in France didn't see things the same way he did and ordered Desnard to pay his former employer €1,000 for defamation. 

法国的一家法院对事情的看法与他不同，并命令德斯纳德向他的前雇主支付 1,000 欧元的诽谤罪。

词汇表

employer 雇主
bullied 被欺负
to work overtime 加班
to strip somebody of something 从某人那里夺走、剥夺某物
managerial 管理的，经营上的
dull 枯燥乏味的
depression 忧郁，抑郁
sick leave 病假
fired 被解雇
compensation 赔偿
job description 职务描述，工作职责说明
staff 员工
bored to death 百无聊赖，无聊透了
stimulated 热情高涨的，充满兴趣的
workforce 全体员工
to facilitate 帮助，促进
perception 观念，看法
to be better off 比现状好
notoriety 恶名，名声狼藉
defamation 诽谤，诬蔑