生如梦魇：高管自杀之谜

    凯茨•德•弗里斯表示，高官们不应该被不断地推着走，不需要那么迅速地作出反应。“我给CEO讲课时，总会先看看他们的议程安排。我常发现他们的日程排得满满当当的。这些人什么时候有空思考？空出几天时间，或花上一个下午在公园漫步，这也许是利用时间的最好方式。”

    另一个导致压力的因素是企业文化本身。“股东的短期盈利主义和无法达成指标数量的羞耻感是无情的，尤其是在公开上市交易的公司中。要解决这个问题，上下级关系的好坏与否至关重要。”

    对于苏黎世的首席财务官皮埃尔•瓦塞勒来说，就是这一点出了问题。他在遗书中提到了他的老板约瑟夫•阿科尔曼。哈佛医学院（Harvard Medical School）的精神病学临床讲师杰拉德•克莱恩说：“在瓦塞勒的朋友和同事的描述中，他平时平易近人，非常理性，而且很冷静。但是极端的内部矛盾和追求成功的完美主义太冷酷了。自杀前几个月，他在新闻中透露，这种压力让他无法从工作中解脱。我感觉他处于严重的过度觉醒状态，陷入了死结，导致他唯一逃离痛苦的办法只能是死亡。”

    凯茨•德•弗里斯补充道：“高管需要一个倾倒内心垃圾的地方。说出真正的问题和焦虑有助于身体健康。有些人有很好的同伴、妻子或丈夫来帮助自己排毒。但是许多高管则没有这么幸运。你以为私人教练这个行当为什么在过去几年来出现了爆炸式的增长？就是因为这些高管们正在试着找到一个可以倾诉的对象。”

    克莱恩表示，严厉刻板、完美主义、让一切事物出于控制之中，这是全世界高管的共同特质，德国甚至瑞士的民族文化或许也在其中起到了影响。“居于高位的自豪感是如此强烈，急流勇退变得难以实现。某种程度上，这就像日本高管感到羞耻，走投无路，认为除了自杀以外已别无选择一样。在他们看来，辞职带来的羞耻感比死亡更令人痛苦。”

    克莱恩认为，美国公司的企业文化给人带来的负荷较轻。“在美国，我们不会觉得你不成功，你是个悲惨的失败者。我们的国民观点是：如果你找回自我，重新尝试，终有成功的一天。”

    “此外，美国高管被解雇实在太正常了，因此羞耻感没那么强烈。20年前，首席执行官的任期平均在六到七年，现在仅能勉强达到以前的一半。被炒鱿鱼或者主动辞职已经成为了生意场权力游戏的一个组成部分。”（财富中文网）

    译者：严匡正  

    Instead of constantly being pushed in real time, executives need reflective inactivity, says Kets de Vries. "When I start working with a CEO, I always take a look into their agendas first. I always find them completely full. When do these people have time to think? Cross a few days out, or spend an afternoon walking in the park. That might be the best use of your time."

    Another stress factor is corporate culture itself. "The short-termism of shareholders and the shame of not being able to make your numbers can be relentless, especially in publicly traded companies," says Kets de Vries. "To deal with this, the quality of the relationship between superior and subordinate is very important."

    That is where it seemed to have gone wrong for Zurich CFO Pierre Wauthier, who left a suicide note mentioning his boss Josef Ackermann. "Wauthier was described by his friends and colleagues as easygoing, rational, and calm in his normal state," says Gerald Kraines, clinical instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "But the combination of extreme internal conflicts and a perfectionistic need to be successful became unrelenting. Some months before his suicide, he spoke in the press about how all this pressure made it intensely difficult to switch off from work. My sense about him is that he was in a state of severe hyper-arousal and entrapment, to a point where the only way to get out of the pain was to die."

    Adds Kets de Vries, "Senior executives need a place to dump their garbage. Being able to talk about your real problems and anxieties can add years to your life. Some people have a good partner, a wife, or a husband who can help them detox. But many executives are not so lucky. Why do you think the coaching profession has grown so explosively over the past couple of years? All these executives are trying to find someone to talk to."

    While rigidity, perfectionism, and the need to be in control are common traits among executives worldwide, national culture may play a role in countries like Germany and even Switzerland, says Kraines. "In the top, there is a tremendous sense of pride that makes quitting very difficult. In some ways, it's like when Japanese executives get shamed or trapped and feel they have no choice but to kill themselves. In their mind, the humiliation of resigning would be more painful than just dying."

    The business culture within American corporations is less taxing, argues Kraines. "In the U.S., we don't tend to think that if you're not successful, you're an abject failure. We have this sort of national belief that if you pick yourself up and try again, you'll make it some day.

    "Besides, there is such a norm of American executives being canned, that there is less humiliation and shame in it. Twenty years ago, the average tenure of a CEO was six to seven years. Now it's barely half of that. Getting fired or quitting has become part of the game."