評級一般的員工怎麼混 Should I leave a job where I've been branded average

I have been working at McKinsey for two years and my performance has been rated average. Many of my peers get far better grades, which led to higher bonuses and early promotions. I act on feedback, but keep getting average performance reviews and it hurts. Managers tell me I will have a successful career, but I don’t really believe it. Should I stay, and be mediocre, or go to a less prestigious firm where

我已經在麥肯錫(McKinsey)工作兩年了，表現一直被評爲“一般”。我的許多同齡人得到了遠高於我的評分，這使他們獲得了更高的獎金並更早得到升遷。我根據反饋採取了相應行動，但還是持續得到表現一般的評價，這讓我很受傷。經理們告訴我，我會在事業上有所成就，但我並不這麼認爲。我應該留下來，繼續當一個平庸的人，還是去一個名氣沒那麼大、但我可以比同齡人做得更好的公司？

I could do better than my peers? Consultant, male, 20s

諮詢師，男，20多歲

Performance reviews don’t mean a thing. They are more telling about the person doing the appraisal than the one being appraised and they end up demotivating almost everyone.

業績評估沒什麼意義。它們更能反映進行評估的人，而不是被評估的人，最終只會打消幾乎所有人的士氣。

Possibly McKinsey decides which of its consultants is average in an above-average manner; one hopes so, given how seriously it takes the process. I hardly need remind you that “The Firm” is built on regular purgings of those who aren’t deemed to be doing sufficiently well, and if you are one of those, they will get rid of you before long anyway.

可能麥肯錫是以超出平均水平的標準來劃分哪些諮詢師屬於一般；考慮到麥肯錫對待考覈十分認真，希望是這樣吧。不需要我來提醒你這家“公司”就是建立在定期把被認爲做得不夠好的人掃地出門這一基礎之上。如果你是其中之一，無論如何他們很快就會讓你走人了。

You raise an important question about small fish in big ponds and big fish in small ones. I think there are two sorts of people — the hypercompetitive who insist on winning whatever the cost, and the rest of us. For the first sort it makes sense to work at McKinsey or in the most ruthlessly successful place available. For the rest of us, it makes sense to avoid such places and seek out the small ponds instead.

你提出了一個重要的問題：做大池塘裏的小魚，還是小池塘裏的大魚？我認爲世界上有兩種人——不惜一切代價也要贏的超級競爭狂和我們這些剩下的人。可以理解，第一種人會選擇在麥肯錫或者那些最冷酷無情也最成功的地方工作。而對於我們這些剩下的人而言，避開這樣的地方，轉而尋求小池塘才合情合理。

It is human nature to compare, and we naturally compare ourselves to those closest to us. So if you are surrounded by thrusting clever dicks at McKinsey who are doing better than you are, then you inevitably end up feeling a failure.

比較是人的天性，我們會自然而然地和身邊的人比較。因此，如果你在麥肯錫被爭強好勝又聰明的傢伙們包圍了，他們做的比你好，你難免會感覺自己很失敗。

The fact that you have to be pretty good to get there in the first place is not much of a consolation. Neither is the fact that on average, almost everyone is, by definition, average.

即便你必須得非常優秀才能進入這家公司，這一事實也沒法給你太多安慰。同樣，絕大多數人都是一般水平這個事實也無法提供太多慰藉。

Not only is it wretched to feel a failure, but feeling one does us the additional disservice of making us be one. Equally, feeling successful is not only jolly pleasant in itself, but it helps us become successful. You see this in schools all the time: kids who are made to feel dim in academic schools progressively underperform until sensible parents swoop in and send them to less academic ones. Once they start feeling intelligent again, they start to do better, ending up with better results than if they had stayed put.

覺得自己很失敗不只感覺糟透了，還會進一步使我們真的變成失敗者。同樣，覺得自己成功不僅會讓我們非常愉快，還會助我們走向成功。我們總能在學校裏看到這樣的情況：那些在偏學術的學校中覺得鬱悶無望的學生會慢慢地越學越差，直到明智的家長們介入，把他們送到不那麼學術的學校中。一旦他們又覺得自己聰明瞭，他們的表現就會開始變好，最終結果要比他們留在原來的學校好。

So leave McKinsey soon and by choice. You will find it easy to find another job as employers are pathetically impressed by the ex-McKinsey badge. You could always go to Deloitte or Accenture, where they have recently announced that the appraisal machinery has been torn down. Or, better still, find a smaller firm, where they are interested in what you are doing not in what box to put you in.

所以，趕快主動離開麥肯錫吧。你會發現找到另一份工作並不難，因爲僱主們很可悲地會被在麥肯錫工作過的光輝經歷打動。不管怎樣，你可以選擇去德勤(Deloitte)或埃森哲(Accenture)，這兩家機構最近宣佈取消了考覈機制。或者，更好的選擇是找一家更小的公司，那裏的人看重的是你做了什麼，而不是給你分門別類。