Hard to fathom

On the way to work, I listen to Pacifica Houston (KPFT 90.1 FM), mainly because they have the BBC news hour on and it's soooo much more interesting than npr at that time in the morning. This morning they had a story on about a firm in Germany that instituted a no whinging rule at work and making it a sackable offence! They are allowed to make constructive complaints, but no complaining for the sake of complaining, which is the best kind of complaining, isn't it? Can you imagine not being able to complain at work? All I do is complain in my head anyway, given the "unique" work environment I have here. I wonder if the people at the German firm do that as well. The announcer today was Owen Bennett Jones and he spoke to another long time Brit journalist (can't remember his name) after the whinging piece and they both agreed that whinging was part of Britain's national pride and "we can't all be like the Americans, always happy". I busted out laughing at that. There's some truth to it. All these shiny happy people bouncing around. I dunno how happy I am on an American scale of happiness. I try to make a conscious effort to be happy, though I'm not always successful.