Soul Assassins

Forget about the product; what about the problem? If the solution to worker unhappiness isn't a better motivational program, or even an actual demotivational one, what is to be done? "I don't know that anything can be done," says Kersten. "When I left academia for the private sector, I was very well-schooled in the cutting edge of management theory. And what I very quickly discovered is that many employees were impervious to even the best management practices. We did somersaults to make people happy, and even though many of them were in the best jobs they ever had, they still complained. The entire organization would have been better off if I had just lopped off the infectious branches the moment I was hired."

That was shocking to Kersten at the time. "I thought work could be redemptive and healing. But after dealing with problem after problem, it was clear that it would have been better if the people who were unhelpable had been fired. Which, eventually, I had to do. They were too immature. Later, I ran into some of them at a company reunion. They thanked me. They said it was the best thing that could have happened to them at the time."

So in some cases, demotivation with extreme prejudice is a helpful thing. But before getting too bleak even for him, Kersten acknowledges that happiness can be found in a steel-and-glass tower. "Look," Kersten says, "obviously some people can be highly fulfilled by their jobs. Doctors, for example: It seems like saving lives would be highly fulfilling. Building bridges, building businesses -- a lot of careers can fulfill a person's inherent passion. But I don't know how passionate you can be about processing paper. The point is that most people should work to make money. They shouldn't expect a company to make them happy. A company can be friendly and good, but it can't really make you happy. At the same time, it shouldn't insult you. It shouldn't say, 'We're a family and have values,' and then act like Enron."

Kersten realizes he has written a book full of strong opinions that don't exactly conform with one another. "That's all right," he says. "The book is like a Rorschach test. Everybody will have different conclusions. "And that's fine. We're Despair Inc. We laugh at ourselves."

Jamie Malanowski is the features editor at Playboy. He's happy in his work.