职场暴脾气是好是坏?| 《经济学人》外刊精读

文化   教育   2024-03-04 09:42   北京  

这是 一直夫妇 的第 703 篇文章

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生气是一种常见的情绪表达。有些人令人如沐春风,有些人却容易火山爆发。在职场中,经常发脾气有利还是有弊呢?下面我们来最新一期《经济学人》的文章。


01




Its destructive side is obvious. Furious people are not much fun to work with, and less fun to work for. A short-fused boss is likely to instil fear among employees and to discourage people from speaking up. Anger can also engender poor performance. Anyone who has ever been riled by a rude email or uncivil colleagues knows how in such circumstances suddenly nothing else matters. Every spare bit of cognitive power is redirected to thinking of devastating put-downs from which the offender will never recover; other tasks can wait.


整段译文:生气的破坏性显而易见。跟暴脾气的人一起工作并不好玩,为暴脾气而工作就更不好玩了。暴躁的老板很可能会让员工们心生恐惧,使他们不敢直言不讳。愤怒也会导致工作表现不佳。任何一个曾被粗鲁的电子邮件或不礼貌的同事所激怒的人都知道,在这种情况下,其他事情突然变得无足轻重。所有剩余的认知能力都会被重新分配,用来思考那些让冒犯者一蹶不振的毁灭性谩骂,至于其他任务,可以等。




有哪些形容人「生气的」花样表达?


01 furious
表示 very angry「狂怒的,暴怒的」。

She was furious with herself for letting things get out of hand.
她生自己的气,怪自己把事情搞得不可收拾。

02 infuriated
派生自动词 infuriate,表示 to make sb extremely angry 「使大怒,激怒」。

The sales clerk was being shouted at by an infuriated customer.
一名愤怒的顾客冲着售货员大吼。

03 in a rage
rage 作名词时,常表示 a strong feeling of uncontrollable anger「盛怒,狂怒」。常和 in 搭配使用,即 in a rage

Sam became quite frightening when he was in a rage.
山姆发火的时候很吓人。


04 rile

rile 是动词,表示 to make someone extremely angry「激怒,使非常生气」。在本段中有出现。


He was the calmest guy I ever knew – nothing ever riled him.

他是我认识的最冷静的人 — 没有什么事能让他生气。


fuse
六级 + 考研词汇
fuse 作名词有「导火索」的意思。导火索易燃易爆炸,所以作动词的 fuse 有「熔化」之义。如果我们两只手分别拿的不是物品,而是文化、思想,把它们熔化会怎么样呢?文化、思想「融合」在了一起,也就是 to combine different qualities, ideas, or things, or to be combined。这个引申义是不是牢牢地种在脑瓜里啦?

Dreams and reality fuse in her latest film.
在她的最新影片中,梦想和现实融合在一起。


再来看 2012 年英二考研阅读中的一个句子。其中 intrinsically 也是考研词汇,表示「本身地,内在地」。

It is not that pink is intrinsically bad, but it is such a tiny slice of the rainbow and, though it may celebrate girlhood in one way, it also repeatedly and firmly fuses girls' identity to appearance.
并不是粉色本身不好,而是它只是七色彩虹中的一小道而已。粉色虽在某种程度上赞美了少女时代 ,但也一而再将女孩的特质与外表牢牢地融合在一起 。

short-fused
have a short fuse 是固定搭配,意思是 to have a tendency to get angry quickly and easily「脾气火爆,性情暴躁」。如果有人动不动就发火,就可以用上这个短语。由此衍生出 short-fused 这个形容词,相当于 bad-tempered。《经济学人》的另一篇不是讲员工发脾气,而是老板。

Celebrity bosses used to have nicknames that made a virtue of short fuses and brutality. 
从前名人老板们的那些绰号让脾气急躁和性情暴虐听起来都像是什么美德似的。



02




In one paper on the effects of rudeness on medical professionals, Arieh Riskin of Bnai Zion Medical Centre in Haifa and his co-authors describe a training exercise in which teams of Israeli physicians and nurses treated a mannequin of a baby. The teams were joined by someone billed as a visiting expert from America, who offered studiously neutral comments to some groups and made unprompted and disparaging remarks about the quality of medical care in Israel to others. The teams that had suffered rudeness performed significantly worse.


整段译文:在一篇论述粗鲁对待医疗专业人员影响的论文中,来自海法 Bnai Zion 医疗中心的 Arieh Riskin 及合著者描述了一次培训活动,几组以色列医生和护士对一个婴儿模型在进行治疗。一位据介绍是美国来访专家的人加入了这些小组,针对其中一些小组,他的评论刻意保持中立,而针对另一些小组,他却主动发表了贬低以色列医疗质量的言论。这些受到无礼对待的小组表现显著更差。



Haifa

海法是以色列北部的港口城市,西濒地中海,是以色列第三大城市,仅次于西耶路撒冷和特拉维夫。


mannequin  /ˈmænəkɪn/

指的是商店中用于陈列服装的「人体模型」,行话叫「人台」;医疗或艺术教学用的人体模型多用 manikin。另外也指「时装模特」,类似 model。对非医学专业的同学来说,这个词随便一看,不需要过脑子。




be billed as …

考研词汇

bill 这个单词很有意思,既是「账单」,也是付账单的「美元」。不过,它也可以作动词,表示 to advertise or describe something in a particular way「把某物宣传为......」,常用于被动,构成 be billed as sth。下面我们来看 2021 年英二完形填空中的一句话。


Airlines have simply changed the time a trip is meant to take. A one-hour flight is now billed as a two-hour flight.

航空公司修改了一下旅程所需的时间,一个小时的航程现在被宣传成两个小时。


studiously

这个副词的意思是 in a way that is carefully planned and deliberate「刻意地,成心地」,相当于 intentionally, deliberately 等。


He studiously avoided answering the question.

他刻意不去回答那个问题。


家族成员:studious

形容词是 studious,形容人 spending a lot of time studying and reading「勤奋的,用功的」。所以想描述年轻人勤奋,我们可以用 a studious young man 来代替用了很多遍的 a diligent young man。区别在于,前者在外刊中的使用频率较低,但也不是那种平时写作、口语根本不会用到的老词。在去年一则有关霉霉的新闻中,标题就有 studious。


By getting involved in their community discussions you can surround yourself with highly driven and studious peers.

通过参与他们的群体讨论,你可以置身于充满干劲和勤奋的同伴之中。





unprompted

去掉前缀 un- 和后缀 -ed,prompt 露出了鸡脚。这是一个四级 + 考研词汇,用来表示 to make sb decide to do sth; to cause sth to happen「引起,促使」。前不久在11勇士举报教授,外媒怎么评价?我们刚跟它打过照面。


This examination confirmed the presence of academic misconduct, prompting the university to take immediate action.

在收到学生对一名黄姓教师的指控后,学校进行了初步调查。这次调查证实了学术不端行为的存在,促使校方立即采取行动。


由此可见,unprompted 应该是「不被引起的」意思。什么是不被引起?自发的行为就不需要其他外界因素来刺激。所以这个形容词的意思是 said or done without anyone asking you to「主动的,自发的」。

Quite unprompted, Sam started telling us exactly what hadhappened that night. 

山姆此举完全出是自发行为,他开始把那天夜里发生的事一一向我们说了出来。


disparaging

这个形容词派生自动词 disparage,表示 to suggest that sb / sth is not important or valuable「贬低,轻视」。饭圈常见的「拉踩」是指赞美甲,抨击乙,所以我们可以译为praise A by disparaging B


作为形容词,disparaging 自然就是「贬低的,抨击的」。比如,disparaging remarks / comments 是指「贬损的言论」。这个表达在 2002 年的考研阅读中出现过。


With other audiences you mustn’t attempt to cut in with humor as they will resent an outsider making disparaging remarks about their canteen or their chairman. 

而对于其他听众,你千万不要试图插入这类幽默,因为他们会反感一个局外人对他们的食堂或领导发表贬损评论。


03




Anger can have a galvanising effect in specific circumstances. A study by Barry Staw of the University of California, Berkeley, and his co-authors analysed half-time team talks by college and high-school basketball coaches in America, and found that expressions of negative emotions such as anger and disappointment were associated with better second-half outcomes—up to a point. When coaches reached the bulging-eyeballs stage, rage started to have the opposite effect.


整段译文:在特定情景下,愤怒也能产生激励作用。加利福尼亚大学伯克利分校的巴里 · 斯托(Barry Staw)及其合著者的一项研究分析了美国大学和高中篮球教练在中场休息时的团队谈话。结果发现,愤怒和失望等负面情绪的表达与下半场更好的结果有关,但仅限于一定程度。当教练们到了怒不可遏的阶段,愤怒开始产生相反的效果。



half-time

one time 是一次,所以 half time 是「半次」?half time 指的是「中场休息时间」。与之相对的是 full-time 「终场」。


The score was tied at halftime.

中场休息时,双方战平。


galvanising

派生自动词 galvanize,意思为 to make sb take action by shocking them or by making them excited「使振奋,激励」。类似 encourage, motivate, inspire 等。所以 galvanising 意思是「令人为之一振的」。虽然四六级、考研等考试没考过这个词,但是外刊挺常用。话都说到这儿了,不上个外刊例句说不过去,《经济学人》走一个。


A push by Latin American central banks to promote QR-style digital payments could galvanise fintech platforms in Latin America, such as Mercado Pago.

拉美各国央行推行二维码式数字支付,可能会促进 Mercado Pago 这类金融科技平台的发展。


up to a point

表示「在一定程度上」,相当于 partly, in part, to some degree, to a certain extent。2015 年 12 月六级听力用过该短语。


With money and careful planning, we can boost efficiency up to a point.

利用资金和精心规划,我们可以在一定程度上提高效率。




bulging-eyeballs 

bulge 常表示「凸起,鼓起部分」。生气时,有些人的眼睛会鼓起来,在汉语中,有个词来形容这种状态:鼓睛暴眼。英语的 bulging-eyeballs 与之类似,指「眼睛突出的」。文中  reached the bulging-eyeballs stage 字面意思是「到了眼球突出的阶段」,我们可意译为「到了怒不可遏的阶段」,让文意更加清楚。 



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