如何當(dāng)好職場(chǎng)前輩
Twenty years ago I started work as the FT’s most junior employee. I was on the foreign desk. Every day I had to phone an angry middle-aged foreign correspondent, based in a faraway city that he hated. I was straight out of university, didn’t know how to talk to adults, and swiftly got up this man’s nose. He’d shout at me. One day, when he was telling me again how stupid I was, I said, “Yes, but you needn’t shout.” He shouted some more, then told me to put him through to my boss, where he really let go.
二十年前我進(jìn)入《金融時(shí)報(bào)》工作，成為一名最初級(jí)的員工。我被分到國(guó)際部，每天都得給一個(gè)憤怒的駐外中年記者打電話(huà)，這位記者駐守在一個(gè)遙遠(yuǎn)的城市，他非常討厭那座城市。那會(huì)兒我剛離開(kāi)大學(xué)校園，不懂該怎么跟成年人說(shuō)話(huà)，于是很快就惹怒了這位中年人，他便開(kāi)始訓(xùn)斥我。有一天，當(dāng)他又對(duì)我說(shuō)我有多么愚蠢時(shí)，我答道：“你說(shuō)得沒(méi)錯(cuò)，但你不必這樣大呼小叫。”結(jié)果他罵得更兇了，他還讓我把電話(huà)轉(zhuǎn)到我上司那里，對(duì)我上司徹底發(fā)了一通光火。
Now middle-aged myself, I often recall the middle-aged colleagues I encountered back then. Some were awful, some wonderful, and combined they taught me the essential art of being an older colleague. The secret: treat ignorant junior employees as humans.
如今我也人到中年，我常常回想起當(dāng)年遇到的那些中年同事。有些人很可怕，有些人則讓人如沐春風(fēng)，而所有這些中年同事讓我了解到身為前輩的基本藝術(shù)，秘訣就是：把無(wú)知的初級(jí)員工當(dāng)做人來(lái)對(duì)待。
Juniors have loads to learn. At 5.30pm on my first day in the office, it dawned on me that nobody was even getting ready to go home. This is how grown-ups live, I suddenly realised, in offices where the windows don’t open. I was equally green about financial news. Once, excruciatingly, I asked on the internal messaging system whether anyone had heard of some ancient event called “the Guinness scandal”. Everyone had. It was the defining British corporate scandal of the 1980s. No matter that I was at school then.
初級(jí)員工有大量東西要學(xué)習(xí)。我第一天上班時(shí)，到了下午五點(diǎn)半，發(fā)現(xiàn)大家甚至沒(méi)有準(zhǔn)備回家的意思。在窗戶(hù)緊閉的辦公室里，我突然意識(shí)到這就是成年人的職場(chǎng)生活。當(dāng)時(shí)我在財(cái)經(jīng)新聞方面也完全是菜鳥(niǎo)。有一次我實(shí)在沒(méi)招了，只得在內(nèi)部即時(shí)信息系統(tǒng)上問(wèn)大家，有沒(méi)有人聽(tīng)說(shuō)過(guò)很久以前一起叫“吉尼斯丑聞”的事件，結(jié)果每個(gè)人都聽(tīng)過(guò)。它指的是上世紀(jì)80年代英國(guó)最典型的企業(yè)丑聞，那會(huì)兒我還在上學(xué)呢。
Being a junior employee teaches you about your colleagues’ characters, because everyone can mistreat you if they feel like it. There were unsmiling pomposities who had swallowed a common fallacy among white middle-aged men: “I have a big job because I am a genius.” To them, it was an irrelevant factoid that almost all big jobs then went to white middle-aged men.
初級(jí)員工的身份可以讓你了解到同事們的性格，因?yàn)槊總�(gè)人都可以虐你——只要他們樂(lè)意。有些人成天板著個(gè)臉擺架子，他們深信一種謬見(jiàn)，“我職責(zé)艱巨，因?yàn)槲也湃A橫溢”，這在白種中年男性群體非常普遍。他們有一種過(guò)時(shí)的錯(cuò)覺(jué)——幾乎所有重要的工作都應(yīng)交由白種中年男性負(fù)責(zé)。
My contemporaries at other companies suffered similarly. One friend, a gifted graphic artist, once politely reminded his boss that he was terribly paid. The boss replied, “You’re only 29, and you’re already working for this company. You should be proud just to be here.” My friend thanked him, left the office with the useful knowledge that his boss was an antiquated buffoon, and soon had a top job at a rival company.
我的同齡人在其他公司的遭遇也一樣。我有個(gè)朋友是個(gè)很有天賦的圖形設(shè)計(jì)師，有一次他禮貌地提醒上司，他的薪水實(shí)在太低了。而他的上司答復(fù)道：“你才29歲就能進(jìn)我們公司了。光是能來(lái)這兒上班還不夠你驕傲的嗎?”我朋友謝過(guò)了他，從中學(xué)到了一條非常有用的知識(shí)：他的老板是一個(gè)愚蠢守舊的老古董。他辭了這份工作，很快在另一家競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手那兒找到了高級(jí)職位。
Our seniors were missing an important fact: even ignorant junior employees possess useful knowledge. In 1995 I was one of the only people in the building who had ever sent an email. I’d just learnt cutting-edge stuff at university. I had recently gone deep into foreign countries in a way that older colleagues with families couldn’t. One older colleague cannily took me to lunch and pumped me for information on a topic of mutual interest. We became friends. Today he is semi-retired, whereas I have the typical middle-aged man’s minor patronage powers. Recently, I put some work his way.
我們的前輩沒(méi)有意識(shí)到一個(gè)重要的事實(shí)：即使無(wú)知的初級(jí)員工也掌握著有用的知識(shí)。1995年時(shí)，我是那幢大樓里少數(shù)曾經(jīng)發(fā)過(guò)電子郵件的人。我剛剛在大學(xué)里學(xué)到了一些最先進(jìn)的東西。當(dāng)時(shí)我剛結(jié)束了對(duì)幾個(gè)國(guó)家的深度旅行，而那些前輩們因?yàn)橥霞規(guī)Э谑菦](méi)法做到的。一位有遠(yuǎn)見(jiàn)卓識(shí)的前輩請(qǐng)我共進(jìn)午餐，就我們共同關(guān)心的話(huà)題從我這兒汲取信息。我們就此成了朋友。現(xiàn)在他已經(jīng)半退休，而我則成了典型的中年男子，擁有些許提攜后輩的權(quán)力。最近我也開(kāi)始學(xué)這位前輩的做法。
But back then I desperately needed guidance, and a few senior colleagues provided it. One morning, my boss told me I’d made a mistake in the previous day’s paper. I almost burst into tears. She paused a few beats, then said, “It’s OK. I can see you know that making mistakes is serious.” She had taught me the FT’s underlying ideology, and earned my lasting loyalty.
但當(dāng)年的我迫切需要指導(dǎo)，只有幾個(gè)前輩為我指點(diǎn)了迷津。一天早上我上司對(duì)我說(shuō)，我在前一天出版的報(bào)紙上犯了個(gè)錯(cuò)誤。我當(dāng)時(shí)差點(diǎn)哭了，她頓了片刻后說(shuō)道：“沒(méi)關(guān)系。我看得出你已經(jīng)知道出錯(cuò)是很?chē)?yán)重的事。”她教給我《金融時(shí)報(bào)》的根本理念，從此贏得了我長(zhǎng)久的忠誠(chéng)。
Gradually, I got an education in adult life. One evening in the pub, a senior colleague told me his marriage was collapsing because his wife had joined a cult. I asked all the wrong questions, and probably made him feel worse but, slowly, I discovered the unseen dramas of office life: cancer, alcoholism, affairs... people still having to show up at their desks the next morning and pretend.
逐漸地，我知道了什么是成年人的生活。一天晚上在酒吧，一位前輩告訴我他妻子加入了一個(gè)邪教組織，他的婚姻快完了。我問(wèn)了一切不該問(wèn)的問(wèn)題，可能讓他感覺(jué)更糟，但是慢慢地，我發(fā)現(xiàn)了辦公室生活里看不到的.情節(jié)：癌癥、酗酒、偷情……但無(wú)論遇到什么事，第二天早上人們還是得神色如常地出現(xiàn)在他們的辦公桌前。
Another senior colleague changed my career. Knowing I was unhappy writing corporate news, he advised me to quit the paper. (Commenters, please add witty zingers here.) I retorted: “You don’t like your job either. Why don’t you quit?” “I can’t,” he patiently explained. “I’ve got a mortgage and two kids. But you’ve got nothing, so go.” I needed the advice, because I was so inexperienced I didn’t know whether I was just unsuited to writing corporate news or to all work. (More zingers here, please.) I quit and, years later, rejoined the FT in a happier capacity.
另外一位前輩改變了我的職業(yè)生涯。他知道我不喜歡寫(xiě)企業(yè)新聞后，建議我辭掉《金融時(shí)報(bào)》的工作。(看官們，請(qǐng)對(duì)此隨意發(fā)表你們的妙語(yǔ)點(diǎn)評(píng)。)我反駁道：“你也不喜歡你的工作，你干嘛不辭職?”他耐心解釋道：“我要還抵押貸款，還要養(yǎng)兩個(gè)小孩�？赡銢](méi)有任何后顧之憂(yōu)，所以你就走吧。”我需要有人給我建議，因?yàn)槲耶?dāng)時(shí)毫無(wú)經(jīng)驗(yàn)，我不知道自己只是不適合寫(xiě)企業(yè)新聞，還是不適合所有工作。(請(qǐng)隨意拍磚。)我辭職了，數(shù)年以后我重新加入《金融時(shí)報(bào)》，這次我接受了一個(gè)更滿(mǎn)意的職位。
That’s something else senior employees often miss: today’s junior employee is tomorrow’s senior, whereas today’s senior is tomorrow’s old reject. Back in 1995, most journalists still retired voluntarily, in their fifties, after decades of well-paid service. On Friday afternoons a drinks trolley would park by someone’s desk, and everyone would toast him, before he left the building for the last time, the mortgage on his London house paid off, his kids sent free though university, his contributions to journalism already almost forgotten by the time he got home. Such is the eternal cycle.
這也是資深員工們經(jīng)常忽視的一點(diǎn)，現(xiàn)在的初級(jí)員工就是以后的資深員工，而現(xiàn)在的資深員工就是以后的退休員工。1995年時(shí)，大多數(shù)記者都是自愿退休，在拿了幾十年豐厚的酬勞后，他們?cè)谖迨畮讱q時(shí)就選擇告別工作。在某個(gè)周五下午，某人辦公桌旁停了一輛飲品推車(chē)，然后大家輪番向他敬酒，然后他永遠(yuǎn)地離開(kāi)這棟大樓，他還清了倫敦住所的抵押貸款，他的孩子順利地上了大學(xué)，當(dāng)他回到家時(shí)，他對(duì)新聞事業(yè)的貢獻(xiàn)基本已被人們拋諸腦后。這就是一名記者的輪回。
It moves faster now, especially for middle-aged men. Bosses are keen to replace us with cheap millennials. The bitter fiftysomething male ex-employee is an icon of our time. The best way to avoid this fate: hug the juniors, pick their brains, and get their email addresses as you leave the building.
現(xiàn)在這個(gè)輪回的速度更快了，尤其對(duì)于中年男性來(lái)說(shuō)。老板們熱衷于用便宜的千禧一代來(lái)?yè)Q掉我們，五十幾歲被辭退的苦悶?zāi)行月殕T成了我們時(shí)代的一個(gè)特征。避免這一命運(yùn)的最好辦法是靠近后輩，征求他們的看法，還有記得在你離開(kāi)辦公樓前問(wèn)他們要電郵地址。
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