This Is No Time For Complaints

David Hirsch hasn't forgotten the unhappy phone calls he used to get from clients back in 1998 and 1999. A director at Credit Suisse Private Banking USA in Chicago, he was carefully investing clients' money in blue-chip stocks, earning them 15% to 20% in annual returns.

But that was a time when some investors were earning 50% or even 100% returns in tech portfolios. Some of Mr. Hirsch's clients pulled their money, grousing that he wasn't serving them well.

Today, though his clients' portfolios are down 35% or more, 'I'm not getting complaints,' Mr. Hirsch says. 'People aren't asking, 'What did you do to my portfolio?' They're asking, 'What do we do from here?''

There may be a positive byproduct of our troubled times: a decrease in the urge to complain. People who still have jobs are finding reasons to be appreciative. (It feels unseemly to complain about not getting a raise when your neighbor is unemployed.) Homeowners are unhappy that home values have fallen, but it's a relief to avoid foreclosure. And yes, our portfolios have plummeted, but most of us can say that at least we didn't invest with Bernie Madoff.

Even if grumbling is only on hiatus, it's clear that in many quarters, we're seeing a return to Depression-era stoicism and an appreciation of simpler things.

Job satisfaction is actually up, according to a December 2010 survey by Yahoo! HotJobs. Almost 38% of respondents said they were 'very satisfied' with their jobs, compared with 28% in 2007, a likely sign that people are grateful they're still employed. And every week now, we hear reports of workers accepting pay cuts or furloughs without complaint -- some of them acts of solidarity to protect jobs elsewhere in their companies.

There is also a growing 'noncomplaining' movement that touts the belief that whining doesn't work as a strategy, and that happiness can be found through rituals such as writing in 'gratitude journals.'

戴维·贺齐(David Hirsch)一直没忘记1998-1999年间那些损失惨重的客户打来的令人不愉快的电话，作为瑞士信贷(Credit Suisse)在芝加哥的美国私人银行部的董事，他多年来一直小心翼翼地把客户的钱投在蓝筹股上，每年能取得15%到20%的收益。

John Segal但在当时，有些科技股投资者可以得到50%甚至100%的年回报率。贺齐的一些客户因此撤回了资金，他们对他提供的投资服务表示不甚满意。

现在，虽然他管理的客户资金减少了35%或者更多，“但没人再向我抱怨。”贺齐说，“他们不会追问我‘你对我的投资组合干了些什么?’他们只是问‘如今我们该干些什么?’”

这可能是动荡时代带来的一个正面效果：人们的抱怨冲动有所收敛。那些还有工作的人正在学会珍惜这份福气。(如果你的邻居已经失去工作，你就会觉得不必为自己没加上工资而抱怨。)有房子的人虽然不愿看到房价下跌，但至少房子还没被银行没收。是的，我们的投资组合大为缩水，但大多数人还可以说，至少我们没把钱交给金融巨骗马多夫(Bernie Madoff)。

虽然投资活动只是暂时收敛，但在很多地方，我们看到了大萧条时代艰苦奋斗精神的回归及对于简单事物的欣赏。

事实上，根据雅虎HotJobs网站2010年12月的一项统计，人们对工作的满意度上升了。有近38%的被访者表示，他们对自己的工作“非常满意”，而2007年这一数字仅为28%。这也许意味着人们对自己还有工作怀着一份感恩的心。现在每个星期我们都能听到很多报导，说员工毫无怨言地接受减薪或暂时休假，有些这类团结一心的做法使公司其他部门的人得以保住饭碗。

而且，日益增多的“不抱怨”运动让人们相信，怨天尤人并不是最好的出路，快乐可以通过各种途径获得，比如写“感恩日记”等等。