原文標(biāo)題：
Bartleby
Walking in employees’ shoes
It is hard for bosses to understand what life is like for staff. But not impossible
巴特比
站在員工的立場(chǎng)看問(wèn)題
老板很難理解員工的處境…但并非不可能

[Paragraph 1]
ANY MANAGER worth their salt knows the value of spending time “walking in their customers’ shoes”.
任何稱(chēng)職的管理者都知道“設(shè)身處地為客戶(hù)著想”的重要性。

There are many ways to do it. You can observe customers in their natural habitat.
有很多方法，例如你可以在顧客的活動(dòng)范圍內(nèi)觀察他們。

Pernod Ricard’s boss recently told Bloomberg, a news service, about his habit of bar-hopping in order to see what people want to drink.
保樂(lè)力加的老板最近告訴資訊服務(wù)商彭博社，他泡吧的時(shí)候會(huì)去了解人們的喝酒偏好。

Such research is a lot less fun if your company makes soap dispensers for public toilets but the same principle applies.
如果你的公司生產(chǎn)公共廁所里的肥皂分配器，那么這種研究方式就不適用了，但原理一樣。

[Paragraph 2]
You can be a customer yourself, buying your company’s products, ringing your own helplines and enduring the same teeth-grinding muzak. Or you can hear from your customers directly.
你可以當(dāng)一回自己公司的客戶(hù)，購(gòu)買(mǎi)自己公司的產(chǎn)品，撥打自己公司的服務(wù)熱線，忍受同樣無(wú)趣的音樂(lè)。又或者你可以直接詢(xún)問(wèn)你客戶(hù)的感受。

Jeremy Hunt, who has just been appointed Britain’s finance minister but was once its longest-serving health secretary, started each day in that job by reading a letter of complaint from a patient or their family, and writing back to each correspondent personally.
杰里米·亨特曾是英國(guó)任職時(shí)間最長(zhǎng)的衛(wèi)生部長(zhǎng)，剛剛被任命為英國(guó)財(cái)政部長(zhǎng)。他任衛(wèi)生部長(zhǎng)時(shí)每天都會(huì)閱讀患者或患者家屬的投訴信，而且親自一一回信。

If you cancel one internal meeting a week and use that time to hear from customers instead, you will come out ahead on the trade.
如果你每周取消一次內(nèi)部會(huì)議，利用這個(gè)時(shí)間聽(tīng)取客戶(hù)的意見(jiàn)，你將在交易中獲益。

[Paragraph 3]
This idea does not apply only to customers. It can also be useful inside the organisation.
這個(gè)想法不僅適用于客戶(hù)，也適用于組織內(nèi)部。

Walking in employees’ shoes is a way for bosses to understand what impedes productivity, what saps morale and what makes workers feel valued.
站在員工的立場(chǎng)思考問(wèn)題是老板們了解什么阻礙了生產(chǎn)力，什么削弱了士氣，什么讓員工感到有價(jià)值的一種方式。

A sense of affinity can come from living in the same community as other members of staff.
老板與其他員工生活在同一個(gè)社區(qū)，會(huì)產(chǎn)生親近感。

Recent research found that CEOs in Denmark who lived within 5km of their offices seemed to foster better work environments than those who lived farther away.
最近的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，相比于居住在離辦公室5公里以外的丹麥CEO們，居住在5公里以?xún)?nèi)的CEO們會(huì)創(chuàng)造了更好的工作環(huán)境。

But short of moving house, how else can managers get inside workers’ heads?
但除了搬家之外，管理者們還有什么其他的方式可以設(shè)身處地為員工著想？

[Paragraph 4]
Even if a boss genuinely wants to hear the unvarnished truth, employees may not be comfortable delivering it.
即使老板真的想聽(tīng)到樸實(shí)無(wú)華的事實(shí)，但員工也可能不愿意說(shuō)出真相。

Anonymous surveys can help encourage honesty, as can exit interviews, but even in these settings, workers may temper their views.
匿名調(diào)查和離職面談?dòng)兄诼?tīng)到誠(chéng)實(shí)的聲音，但即使在這種情況下，員工也可能會(huì)隱藏自己的觀點(diǎn)。

Reviews on sites like Glassdoor can be brutal, but the motives of the people posting them are not always transparent.
Glassdoor這類(lèi)網(wǎng)站上的評(píng)論可能會(huì)很直白，但發(fā)布評(píng)論的人的動(dòng)機(jī)可能并不單純。

Corporate-messaging apps like Slack can provide a partial window into how some teams are getting on, but surveillance is not a form of empathy.
Slack這類(lèi)企業(yè)消息APP可以為老板了解團(tuán)隊(duì)的進(jìn)展提供部分窗口，但監(jiān)控并不是一種同理心。

And none of this is the same as knowing what it is actually like to be an employee.
以上所有的方式都無(wú)法令老板了解員工的真實(shí)感受。

[Paragraph 5]
It is very hard for managers to replicate the experiences of normal employees.
管理者很難有普通員工的一模一樣的經(jīng)歷。

Rooms will magically become available if the boss asks for one; everyone else has to roam around the building like wildebeest that have become separated from the herd.
如果老板要房間，房間就會(huì)神奇地空出來(lái)；如果其他人要房間，就得像脫離了牛群的牛羚一樣在大樓里四處游蕩（找不到空房間）。

Managers do not have to remind people of their names.
管理們不必?fù)?dān)心員工會(huì)忘了他們的名字。

They are less likely to suffer some of the common feelings that undermine workers’ enthusiasm for their jobs: rare is the boss who feels overlooked or underappreciated.
他們不太可能跟員工有共同的感受，一些感受會(huì)影響員工的工作熱情，但很少有老板會(huì)有被忽視或被低估的感受。

And they are also much less likely than employees to encounter incivility from colleagues.
員工們會(huì)遭遇同事的無(wú)禮行為，而老板們遇到的可能性小。

[Paragraph 6]
One option is to appear on “Undercover Boss”, an entertaining reality-TV show in which executives put on preposterous disguises, work in their own organisations and discover what life is really like for their workers.
一個(gè)方法是參加娛樂(lè)性真人秀節(jié)目《臥底老板》，在節(jié)目中，高管們穿上古怪的偽裝，在自己的公司里工作，體驗(yàn)員工們的生活。

If you go down this route you will learn a lot, but you will have to admit to an audience of millions that you have absolutely no idea what is going on in your own organisation.
如果你沿著這條路走下去，你會(huì)明白很多東西，但你必須向數(shù)百萬(wàn)觀眾承認(rèn)，你完全不知道自己公司的情況。

(A less involved option is not to bother with the cameras and to wear your own home-made disguise in the office, though there is a risk your moustache will fall off at a pivotal moment.)
（一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的辦法是不使用攝像機(jī)，而是在辦公室里穿上自己自制的偽裝，盡管在關(guān)鍵時(shí)刻你的胡子可能會(huì)掉下來(lái)。）

[Paragraph 7]
Even without disguises it is good for managers to spend time doing the same work as their underlings. (It is also good for them to stop referring to people as underlings.)
即使沒(méi)有偽裝，管理者們也可以花時(shí)間做下屬們的工作。（老板最好不要把員工稱(chēng)為“下屬”。）

Airlines and retailers have run schemes that involve executives working in front-line roles in airports and on shopfloors.
航空公司和零售商已經(jīng)實(shí)施了一些計(jì)劃，即高管在機(jī)場(chǎng)和商店從事一線工作。

DoorDash, a delivery app, has a programme called WeDash that requires salaried employees to make regular drop-offs.
配送應(yīng)用DoorDash有一個(gè)名為WeDash的程序，要求全職員工定期送貨。

And bosses can do things for themselves that people without assistants must navigate alone.
老板們要做一些無(wú)需助理必須獨(dú)自完成的事情。

Filling out expense forms is a chore: everyone should have to do their own, at least occasionally.
填寫(xiě)費(fèi)用表是一項(xiàng)繁瑣的工作：每個(gè)人都應(yīng)該自己做，至少偶爾要做一兩次。

By default bosses should fly in the same airline class as their colleagues do. And so on.
無(wú)特殊情況時(shí)，老板應(yīng)該和同事們乘坐同一級(jí)機(jī)艙。等等。

[Paragraph 8]
If managers can learn a few things by walking in employees’ shoes, there is also value in workers thinking about what life is like as a boss.
如果管理者能夠從員工的角度學(xué)習(xí)一些東西，那么員工從老板的角度思考也能學(xué)習(xí)一些東西。

It is not all business-class travel and people agreeing with you.
并不是每次出差都是商務(wù)艙，也不是每個(gè)人都同意你的觀點(diǎn)。

Imagine getting in a lift and conversation around you always dying.
想象一下這樣的情景，你走進(jìn)電梯，你周?chē)娜送Ｖ沽苏勗挕?br>
Imagine being grumbled about all the time, or knowing that your absence causes a general lightening of the mood.
想象一下這樣的情景，員工們一直在吐槽你，又或者你不在場(chǎng)時(shí)大家的心情輕松愉悅。

Imagine not being able to kick a difficult decision upstairs.
想象一下你是老板，你不能把困難的皮球踢給上級(jí)。

The boss wears much nicer shoes but they can still pinch.
老板的處境要好很多，但他們也有苦衷。

（恭喜讀完，本篇英語(yǔ)詞匯量787左右）
原文出自：2022年10月22日《TE》Business版塊

精讀筆記來(lái)源于：自由英語(yǔ)之路

本文翻譯整理: Irene

本文編輯校對(duì): Irene
僅供個(gè)人英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)交流使用。

【補(bǔ)充資料】（來(lái)自于網(wǎng)絡(luò)）
離職面談Exit interview是指在員工離開(kāi)公司前與其進(jìn)行的面談。從雇主的角度來(lái)說(shuō)，離職面談的最主要目的是了解員工離職的具體原因，以促進(jìn)公司不斷改進(jìn)。離職面談應(yīng)該選擇氣氛輕松的地點(diǎn)。面談前應(yīng)準(zhǔn)備與員工相關(guān)的資料，比如員工個(gè)人的的基本資料、績(jī)效回顧、參加的培訓(xùn)，經(jīng)歷的關(guān)鍵事件等。員工會(huì)覺(jué)得自己受到了重視，對(duì)公司不滿(mǎn)者或許可以由此改變其對(duì)公司的消極看法。

Glassdoor 是美國(guó)的一家做企業(yè)點(diǎn)評(píng)與職位搜索的職場(chǎng)社區(qū)。在Glassdoor上可匿名點(diǎn)評(píng)公司，包括其工資待遇，職場(chǎng)環(huán)境，面試問(wèn)題等信息。有助于讓那些正在求職的人提前了解他們未來(lái)可能會(huì)入職的公司的更多真實(shí)的一手信息。

Slack 是聊天群組 + 大規(guī)模工具集成 + 文件整合 + 統(tǒng)一搜索，可以把各種碎片化的企業(yè)溝通和協(xié)作集中到一起。。

Undercover Boss《臥底老板》，一位首席執(zhí)行官在自己公司臥底兩周，偽裝成一名辦公室職員，在10個(gè)不同地點(diǎn)輪班工作。他親耳聽(tīng)到了員工們的真實(shí)想法。這是一次具有啟發(fā)性的體驗(yàn)。

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【重點(diǎn)句子】（3?個(gè)）
If you cancel one internal meeting a week and use that time to hear from customers instead, you will come out ahead on the trade.
如果你每周取消一次內(nèi)部會(huì)議，利用這個(gè)時(shí)間聽(tīng)取客戶(hù)的意見(jiàn)，你將在交易中獲益。

Walking in employees’ shoes is a way for bosses to understand what impedes productivity, what saps morale and what makes workers feel valued.
站在員工的立場(chǎng)看問(wèn)題是老板們了解什么阻礙了生產(chǎn)力，什么削弱了士氣，什么讓員工感到有價(jià)值的一種方式。


If managers can learn a few things by walking in employees’ shoes, there is also value in workers thinking about what life is like as a boss.
如果管理者能夠從員工的角度學(xué)習(xí)一些東西，那么員工從老板的角度思考也能學(xué)習(xí)一些東西。