Happy Workers (and Slough, too)

Perhaps prompted by the extensive academic investigations into the prevalence of ennui amongst Chinese librarians, (see: Improbable Research 2012/02/06/) authors XIANG Yi-wen,WANG Hai-ying of the School of Economics and Management,Shenyang University of Science and Technology,Shenyang China draw attention to the Organizational Elements of the Happy Work

"In modern society, competition is more and more intensive day by day. Life rhythm is more and more quick, we are all facing with great working pressure. Most employees have the same feeling that they are doing their work unhappily, and this feeling affect their body and mind health and life state. The organizational elements have the direct impact on the happy work. So we should cnange [sic] the work way, pay attention to the employees' improvement, strengthern [sic] the stimulation system, respect the communication and then create the happy situation."

And yet more advice comes from researcher ZHANG Kang-kang, who maybe in a good position to have had first hand experience of ennui, being based at the Library, Mianyang Normal University, China.

"Through analyzing the Librarian job burnout, and all sorts of Librarian job burnout, the paper has put forward the method of librarian happy work, for the reference by librarians."

See: Learn to Work Happily to Free from the Slough of Librarian Job Burnout

BONUS: Notes regarding Slough.

• The noun Slough (poss, pron. 'Sluff') is no longer in common use, but is recorded as early as 1678, in John Bunyan's masterwork The Pilgrim's Progreſs, referencing the 'Slough of Despond'.

• Slough  (poss, pron. 'slaʊ') is also a town in the UK, which some have insinuated is less than 100% pleasant and interesting – see this poem by poet laureat Sir John Betjeman (1906 – 1984) "Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!"

• Perhaps for the similar reasons, Slough was chosen by authors Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant as the location of the headquarters of stationery suppliers Wernham Hogg in the original version of the TV series The Office.

(photo courtesy official China news agency, Xinhua)