新年假期近在眼前，按理说应该开心的，不过前提是没什么闹心的工作跑出来搅局。

曾担任微软、美国啤酒商Miller Coors和美国空军等大机构顾问的心理学家保罗?怀特指出：“假日应该是一段心情愉快的时光。可要是老板带着工作闯进私人时间，还要害荷包失血，假期就成了毒药。”

怀特海说，辞旧迎新之际有太多“强颜欢笑”的应酬，结果往往是导致负面情绪，与庆贺节日的本意背道而驰。

怀特对全美范围内1200名员工做的调查显示，节日最困扰员工的是：不得不给同事买礼物。70%的受访者透露，非送不可的所谓圣诞老人“神秘礼物”和礼物交换游戏都很让人“恼火”。另有22%的受访者表示，一想到同事等着收礼物，不管送什么都不开心。

上述调查收到500多人回复。怀特在调查中请受访者回忆职场中最难受的节日经历，下面是其中一些回答：

在圣诞节和元旦两周，一位经理连一天都不让手下休息，自己却整整两周都在放假。

一名员工质疑为什么要同事凑钱送给主管指定的礼物，遭到主管的太太“当众批评和羞辱”。

有人装扮成圣诞老人参加员工的节日午餐会，给现场所有人派送“令人讨厌的恶作剧礼物，还讲尖酸的笑话”。

某家公司要求全体员工参加“在大巴上举行的公司派对，车上全是酒水”。戒酒期间的员工也不例外，想请假不去都不行。

还有些影响节日心情的事，比如下班后组织活动要求必须参加，开派对要求员工自带食物等。

调查发现，只有约两成的受访者抱怨年末截止的工作让人压力山大。不过有一位受访者提到，老板曾让她在圣诞节干了17个小时的活。这种老板简直让狄更斯笔下的小气商人埃比尼泽?斯克鲁奇都自惭形秽。毕竟，在狄更斯的《圣诞颂歌》中，斯克鲁奇都给员工鲍勃?克拉特基特放了一天带薪的圣诞假（还是在幽灵们现身劝他以前）。

译者：Pessy

校对：夏林

‘Tis the season to be jolly—unless, that is, your job is sucking the joy out of it.

“Holidays are supposed to be a happy time, but when bosses’ expectations eat into people’s personal time and finances, it’s toxic,” observes Paul White, a psychologist who has done consulting work with Microsoft, Miller Coors, and the U.S. Air Force, among many others.

An excess of “forced fun” at this time of year, he adds, often results in negative attitudes—the opposite of what was intended.

At the top of the naughty list in White’s nationwide poll of 1,200 U.S. employees: Having to add presents for colleagues to their shopping lists. A 70% majority reported being “aggravated” by compulsory Secret Santa and white-elephant gift exchanges, and 22% are unhappy about being expected to give coworkers anything at all.

More than 500 survey respondents, asked to recount their worst holiday experiences at work, gave answers like these:

—A manager banned his team from taking even one day of vacation during the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s Day—and then took both entire weeks off himself.

—When a worker asked why chipping in for a gift for his supervisor was required, the boss’s wife “publicly criticized and humiliated” him.

—Someone in a Santa Claus costume came to an employee holiday luncheon and treated everyone to “offensive gag gifts and uncomplimentary jokes.”

—All employees at one company were required to board an “alcohol-laden corporate party bus.” Recovering alcoholics who asked to be excused were not.

Also not conducive to holiday cheer: Mandatory festivities after work hours, and parties where employees were required to bring food.

Only about one in five complained about buzz-killing pressures from year-end deadlines. But one person described reporting to a boss who demanded that she put in 17 hours on Christmas. That puts even Ebenezer Scrooge in the shade. After all, in Dickens’ famous tale (even before the ghosts showed up), Scrooge grudgingly gave Bob Cratchit the day off with pay.