I’ve been given a 22-year-old to manage who has a first-class degree from Cambridge — and is a first-class pain in the butt. I’ve asked him to work on some slides for a presentation, which he has done carelessly. When I pointed out all the fonts and colours were not our house style he had the cheek to say that he did it that way because it looked better. Pep talks don’t work; he just shrugs and looks condescending. How can I make him buckle down and get on with it?
公司讓我去管理一個(gè)22歲的年輕人,他是劍橋的優(yōu)等畢業(yè)生——也是個(gè)一等一的刺頭。我讓他做幾張演講用的幻燈片,他給我敷衍了事。我說(shuō)他用的字體和顏色都不是我司的風(fēng)格,他居然有臉說(shuō)他那樣做更好看。對(duì)他進(jìn)行勵(lì)志無(wú)濟(jì)于事;他只是聳聳肩,露出不屑一顧的神態(tài)。我怎樣才能讓他踏下心來(lái)好好干活?
Manager, male 51 經(jīng)理,男,51歲。
Lucy Kellaway’s answer 露西的回答
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People with first-class degrees from Cambridge are not usually well suited to the corporate world. In his short life this young Turk has been very successful at one thing. Now he is being asked to do something else for which not only does his degree not help, it un-helps.
劍橋的優(yōu)等畢業(yè)生們大都不太適合職場(chǎng)生活。在他年輕的生命里,這個(gè)憤青只干成了一件事?,F(xiàn)在讓他去干點(diǎn)別的,他的學(xué)位幫不上忙不說(shuō),還敗事有余。
Getting a first means slogging away amassing a lot of knowledge and then doing something original with it. Big companies cannot really deal with originality; for all their talk of creativity, they only work if everyone does everything more or less the same way. That’s why they make a big deal of their fonts all being the same. Equally, getting a first involves spending a lot of time in a library on your own. There is no need to cultivate anyone, or even to be minimally polite. This is the worst possible preparation for corporate life, which demands that everyone goes through the pretence of liking all the people they are forced to work with.
成為優(yōu)等生意味著埋頭苦學(xué)積累大量的知識(shí),再用知識(shí)去做一點(diǎn)獨(dú)創(chuàng)的事情。而大公司不能真的把握好獨(dú)創(chuàng)力;盡管他們大談創(chuàng)造力,但只有在每個(gè)人都差不多步調(diào)一致的情況下,公司才能運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)。這就是為什么他們?cè)谝庾煮w的統(tǒng)一。而且,成為優(yōu)等生要花大量時(shí)間在圖書館里自習(xí)。用不著應(yīng)酬誰(shuí),連最基本的禮貌都用不著。而以這種狀態(tài)應(yīng)對(duì)職場(chǎng)生活是最糟糕的,職場(chǎng)要求人們對(duì)自己被迫共事的所有人都假裝喜歡。
There’s another thing too. Possession of a first-class degree means that your ageing managers who are not similarly endowed are likely to resent you. That is what has happened in this case. You see this young man as a spoilt, lazy pain in the butt — and in return he doubtless sees you as a pedantic and stupid old man who personifies everything he has already learnt to hate in his job. I’m expecting him to write to me complaining about his intolerable situation any day now.
另外,作為優(yōu)等畢業(yè)生意味著你那些沒有類似學(xué)歷的年長(zhǎng)上司們很有可能看不慣你。這個(gè)案例就是這樣。你認(rèn)為這個(gè)小伙子是個(gè)被人慣壞的、懶惰的刺頭——但反過(guò)來(lái)他也一定認(rèn)為你是個(gè)迂腐的笨老頭,是他對(duì)這份工作已經(jīng)討厭的一切的化身。我隨時(shí)期待他來(lái)信向我吐槽他的各種“不能忍”。
He needs a pep talk but so do you. Yours goes like this. You have been given this man to manage, so manage him. It is your job to find out what his skills are (apart from writing essays) and see if you can give him something more interesting to do.
他需要有人對(duì)他勵(lì)志,而你也需要。下面是對(duì)你的勵(lì)志。既然你被指派去管理這個(gè)人,那就好好管理他。你的工作是弄清他擅長(zhǎng)干什么(除了寫論文),然后看看能否讓他做些更有意思的工作。
Equally you have to explain to him how the system works. As he is starting out he may have to do some tasks that he thinks are beneath him. Tell him about the importance of office politics and help him understand how to play the game better (for example, by doing what he’s told, looking less snooty, and so on). Explain to him why fonts matter. Explain why it matters that your presentation is correct and why it is his job to correct it. When you have explained it all, if he is as recalcitrant as ever, you can stop managing him. He won’t stay long and so he isn’t worth bothering with.
同樣你得給他解釋體制是如何運(yùn)作的。鑒于他剛剛踏入職場(chǎng),他可能不得不做些讓他覺得不屑的工作。告訴他辦公室政治的重要性,并幫他弄明白怎樣才能更好地打成一片(比如,依照吩咐行事,別流露出目中無(wú)人的神態(tài)等等)。給他解釋為什么字體很重要。為什么你的演講一切正確很重要,而他的工作就是做出正確的幻燈片。如果你把這些都給他講明白了,他還一如既往地拎不清,那就隨他的便。他呆不了多久,所以不值得在他身上費(fèi)心思。
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