細數辦公室裏賤賤的"討厭鬼"的價值
James liked his job in the admissions office of a large university. It was interesting, decently paid, useful work, he told me at the holiday gathering where we'd met. The only problem: His co-workers agitated his every last nerve.
詹姆斯(James)在一所大型大學的招生辦工作，他很喜歡這份工作。他在假期聚會上與我碰面時告訴我，這份工作很有意思，收入豐厚，而且挺有意義。唯一的問題是：他那些同事簡直讓他煩透了。There was the social butterfly who spent her days flitting from desk to desk; the workaholic who obsessed over every last detail; the malcontent who subtly belittled anyone who spoke up in a meeting; the passive-aggressive assistant who would only answer calls if you were on her good side that week; and the boss, a hopeless narcissist who inevitably made himself the focus of every task. James came to dread going into the office. (For reasons of privacy, I've changed his name, as well as the names of others cited here.)
同事中有位交際花，一天到晚穿梭在辦公桌之間；有個同事是工作狂，在每個細節上都糾纏不休；有個同事是憤青，會不露痕跡地打擊在會上發言的所有人；辦公室裏有個喜歡消極反抗的助理，你那周討她開心她才接聽電話；而老闆是個無可救藥的自戀者，凡事都必然要搶佔風頭。這些人弄得詹姆斯開始害怕進辦公室了。（因爲事關隱私，所以詹姆斯和本文出現的其他人都爲化名。）You rarely get to pick your co-workers, which makes it nearly impossible to predict whether you'll be happy at any new job. While exploring life in the modern workplace, I've heard people grumble again and again not about their job but about their office mates. They were thrown in among the autocrats and the aristocrats; the passives, the aggressives and the passive aggressives; the suck-ups and the backstabbers. This may be why so many of us could relate to the NBC sitcom 'The Office,' with its universal message: The office would be a fine place to work, if it weren't for everyone else.
你很少能有機會挑選自己的同事，因此也就幾乎沒法預料你從事一份新工作時開不開心。在探索現代職場生活的過程中，我聽到人們一再抱怨的不是他們的工作，而是同事。他們被扔進一羣令他們討厭的人中間，其中有獨裁者和高高在上的貴族；有的人消極被動，有的人咄咄逼人，有的人則喜歡消極抵抗；有些人愛溜鬚拍馬，還有些人愛暗箭傷人。這也許就是許多人看了美國全國廣播公司(NBC)的情景劇《辦公室》(The Office)之後都深有感觸的原因，這部劇的主題思想是：要是沒有其他人，辦公室會是個不錯的工作場所。
But not all 'disrupters' -- the personality types who make it harder to get work done -- harm office life or even productivity.
但並不是所有“破壞者”（會影響他人完成工作的人格類型）都會對辦公室生活甚至工作效率構成不利影響。Take narcissists. Sure, they're terrible listeners and apt to gobble up all the credit. But they also can be charming, engaging and charismatic. They can attract and inspire followers and be terrific mentors and leaders -- which is why so many bosses are narcissists. In a 2006 study of more than 100 CEOs, researchers at Penn State found that executive narcissism can actually be motivational. The key to working for such a boss is learning to share praise, making your own contributions subtly known and ensuring that the narcissist doesn't rule your work life.
以自戀者爲例。當然，他們從不好好聽人說話，而且往往會把成績全部據爲己有。但他們也可能很討人喜歡，令人着迷，富有魅力。他們能夠吸引和啓發追隨者，會成爲出色的導師和領袖──這就是爲什麼有那麼多老闆都是自戀者。在2006年一項針對逾100名首席執行長的研究中，賓夕法尼亞州立大學(Penn State)的研究人員發現，管理者的自戀事實上能夠激勵團隊。在這種老闆手下工作的關鍵是學會分享榮譽，巧妙地讓人瞭解你的貢獻，並確保你的職場生活不被自戀者主宰。Another classic disrupter is the passive aggressive type -- the office scorekeeper. Greg, a graphic designer at a magazine and a family friend, told me that he habitually did better layouts for editors who took a personal interest in him. He'd frequently hand in shabby pages for colleagues he spotted going out for drinks who hadn't invited him along. 'I did not ever want to be perceived as looking vulnerable or weak,' he said. 'Why should I do for other people when they don't do for me?'
另一種典型的“破壞者”是消極反抗的人──他們是辦公室的記分員。我們家的世交格雷格(Greg)在一家雜誌擔任平面設計師，他告訴我，他的習慣是，爲重視他的編輯做設計時會做得好一點。他常常會把做得很爛的設計交給他發現出去喝酒時沒有邀他的同事。他說：“我可不想讓人覺得我脆弱或者軟弱。如果別人不爲我做事，我憑什麼要爲他們做事呢？”Scorekeepers don't play fair, which makes them tricky to get along with. But Pat Heim and Susan Murphy, authors of 'In the Company of Women,' argue that scorekeeping can have an upside, if used to encourage cooperation and motivate co-workers -- a sort of 'do for others what they do for you' philosophy.
記分員們厚此薄彼，因此他們很難相處。但《與女性爲伴》(In the Company of Women)一書作者帕特・海姆(Pat Heim)和蘇珊・墨菲(Susan Murphy)認爲，如果“計分”能用來鼓勵合作和激勵同事，那麼這種行爲也是有好處的──這是一種“其他人怎樣對待你，你就怎樣對待他們”的哲學。Then there is the office gossip. A 2012 study at the University of Amsterdam found that gossip makes up a whopping 90% of office conversation -- but isn't as detrimental as you might think. The researchers concluded that such behind-the-back chatter may be essential for group survival. They found that gossip can make offices run more smoothly and improve productivity, helping to keep underperforming workers in line while fostering camaraderie.
接下來是愛在辦公室傳八卦的人。阿姆斯特丹大學(University of Amsterdam) 2012年展開的一項研究發現，八卦在辦公室聊天中所佔比例高達90%──但它的危害並不像你所認爲的那樣大。研究人員的結論是，這種背地裏的說長道短對團隊的生存也許起到至關重要的作用。他們發現，八卦能使辦公室運行得更加順暢，並能提高工作效率，幫助落後的員工跟上隊伍並增進友情。Consider Sascha -- a friend's daughter who worked as an assistant to a busy orthopedist in a Manhattan hospital. Sascha had been enduring a painful divorce and was overwhelmed with personal obligations. Her co-workers were losing patience, but she figured they would have to understand.
來看看薩沙(Sascha)的經歷──她是我一位朋友的女兒，在曼哈頓一家醫院爲一名忙碌的整形外科醫生做助手。薩沙當時在經歷一場痛苦的離婚，被個人責任壓得喘不過氣來。她的同事逐漸失去耐心，但她以爲同事必須得體諒她。They didn't. Sascha began to overhear her name whispered in the hallways; she'd enter the break room for coffee, and chatter would halt. But instead of calling her co-workers out, she listened. She tried hard to get her work done despite her personal struggles. 'I was wrong in assuming that my co-workers were my friends, or even that they shouldn't talk about me,' she told me. 'I needed someone to give me a kick in the ass, and, well, they did.'
同事們並沒有體諒她。薩沙開始無意中聽到同事在走廊上小聲嘀咕她的名字；她走進休息室喝咖啡時，聊天會戛然而止。但她沒有衝同事們發脾氣，而是去留心聽他們說些什麼。她盡力克服個人痛苦來完成她的工作。她告訴我：“我以前錯以爲同事是我的朋友，甚至以爲他們不應該談論我。我需要有人來點醒我，他們確實做到了。”Finally, there are the obsessive, workaholic types -- disrupters who live for order. They may be annoyingly rule-bound, but they set high standards, communicate well and make great operators, mentors and team members. As a 2011 study from the Rouen Business School in France reported, workaholism often can be constructive, inspiring co-workers to be more original and dedicated.
最後是愛 牛角尖的工作狂──他們是爲秩序而生的“破壞者”。他們也許較真得令人生厭，但他們也會設定高標準，他們善於溝通，是出色的經營者、導師和團隊成員。法國魯昂商學院(Rouen Business School) 2011年的一項研究顯示，工作狂通常能發揮積極作用，能啓發同事，讓他們更具創意，更加專注。Adapting to personality types at work need not mean abandoning your principles. Even the most annoying co-workers often have something to teach. You also need to figure out if you yourself are a disrupter. James realized that he was the office enabler, the one who needed everyone's approval all the time. That revelation let him separate himself more from his job -- making him not just a better worker but a better co-worker too.
在工作中適應個性不同的人不一定意味着放棄你的原則。就連最討厭的同事通常也有可取之處。你還應該弄清楚自己是否也是“破壞者”。詹姆斯意識到自己是辦公室裏的賦能者，總是需要得到所有人的肯定。領悟到這一點，使他能更好地把自己與工作分開──這讓他不僅成爲更好的員工，也成了更好的同事。
