认真你便輸了 / If you take it seriously, you lose

因為要寫這篇文章，我回想了過往人生中那些认真的時間，赫然發現原來我大部份的认真是用在玩樂之上，對學業和工作上认真的時間相對地短很多。看來這次的題目，我想又要作反面教材了。

Because of this article, I tried to recall all the events I took seriously before. I realized those were all related to leisure and game, seldom did I really serious about study and work. I guess I am going to be a negative example this time.

讀書時代，平常總是认真不了，欠做欠交功課，測驗考試都是臨急抱佛腳的得過且過。只是符合最低限度的要求 - 「昇班」便再沒有動力再投入心血。反而玩樂方面，例如玩「創世記 (Ultima)」系列電腦遊戲，反而令我不自覺的投入了所有心機，全情投入，超級认真的去玩。认真到連我媽媽都問：「為什麼玩電腦遊戲就經常查英文字典，做功課時卻從來不見你用過呢？而且每天所有時間都是在玩電腦遊戲，從來不見你溫習，什麼時候測驗，考試呢？」

When I was a student, I used to had overdue homework, study only at last minute, barely got promoted. However, I kept English dictionary as my company all the time so that I could play the most popular computer games "Ultima" series. My mother never understood why she seldom saw me did my homework and study at that time but I kept checking the dictionary.

當然认真的對像還有籃球。每天在學校的空閒時間和放學後學校關門之前，都是在籃球場上渡過。當然，我還是有认真溫習的時候 - 考試前的一個星期開始，我通常就會全心全意的溫習，畢竟以我的水平，要合格昇班完全不溫習是沒有可能的。

Being a basketball lover, I always take basketball very seriously. You could only find me at the badketball court during off class time. Of course, I am no genius, I still burnt tons of midnight oil before examinations in order to get a Pass. Those were the time I was serious about studying.

到出來社會工作之後，經過幾年社會大學的深造，建立了自己在職場的一套生存之道，大慨就是抱着和讀書時代差不多的目標 - 「收入足夠用」便可以了。所以只要不是家裏不是有什麼大改變而導致需要更多的收入，我就會乖乖的留在同一間公司工作，每年領着公司給予的少量工資增長過活，沒有什麼野心。

在職場打滾了這樣多年，慢慢的變得對工作上的事變得不再认真。「认真你便輸了」這幾年前由國內傳入香港並在網絡爆紅的一句說話，已經成為我的工作態度。在我工作的部門，抱着同一個態度的同事不在小數。

I don't have any ambition, my goal at work is to make enough money ~~and retire ASAP~~ to support myself and my family. That's why I developed a way of survival a few years after I started my career - that was "Don't be serious about work". In fact, majority of my colleagues have the same attitude.

為什麼會有這樣的情況呢？我認為有幾個原因：

部門的工作沒有什麼大的變化，只要熟習了運作，每天每月每年都只是重複不斷做着差不多的事
我們的部門只是執行訂單的部門，不像銷售部門要在市場上爭取訂單。我們做的只是把執行訂單的內容。
我們公司做的是算是高科技產品，要進入這個產業的門檻非常之高，全球只有不足五家公司在做着同樣的產品，加上公司是行業的龍頭，所以訂單的數量相對穩定，亦即我們的工作量亦是同樣的穩定。
最後，亦是最重要的一點，就是我們部門的領導可以說是最差的老闆的代表。由於他經常下達很多不合理的命令，如果認真的去執行他的命令，輕則浪費自己的時間和精力去做一些沒有用的事，重則會破壞自己及部門在公司的信譽和存在價值。這樣只會令大家的工作量超大，壓力超標。所以大家都以「认真你便輸了」的態度去對應。因為只有馬虎地敷衍過去，才可以令事情得以安全的解決。

Reasons behind this phenomenon could be:

We all very familiar with daily operations of our work, we just need to repeat them again and again.
We are not the Sales department, we are execution department of sales orders.
The company I work for produce very high tech products, with an extremely high entry barrier. We are the market leading in this niche market so that our orders volume is kind of stable.
Last and the most important reason is that our boss, the head of our department, is the worst boss ever in our life. If we take his orders seriously, not only we will have tons of meaningless works, we are very likely to ruin our reputations and relationships. That's why we adapted the "If you take it seriously, you lose" attitude, only do bare minimum to drive him away.

你會問：有這樣的一個老闆，為什麼還不離開這間公司呢？答案很簡單：既然可以不用认真，簡單地執行自己熟悉的工作就可以得到尚算不錯的收入和福利，為什麼要自找麻煩到外邊打拼呢？所以請容許我繼續用「认真你便輸了」的工作態度生存下去。畢竟我只是一個平凡不過的普通人。

Why I am still with this company? very simple, I can get fair amount of income and benefits just by simply repeating something I am familiar with. Why should I take any risk to move to other company? I am just an ordinary man without any ambitions.

圖片來源 | Image source : 1, 2, 4. 3 & 5 - Pixabay.