商務禮節美語第73期:權力爭奪(2)

David跟Sandra聊天，說起自己以前有個同事，特別喜歡name-drop. David說，

D: We would be in a meeting and she would say. "Yesterday I was chatting with Tom." She meant Tom CEO.

S: Basically she was trying to impress people by using the CEO's who knows if she really talked to him?

D: You don't name-dropping is a really bad habit. It gives everyone else negative feelings about you. If you have a good idea, just speak up. You don't need to use someone else as a cover.

David 舉例說，他們開着開着會，那個同事就會突然說，我昨天跟 Tom 聊天，大家都知道，Tom 是公司首席執行官CEO。David說這樣做其實是個壞習慣，會讓別人對你有負面看法。如果你有什麼好主意，just speak up. 直截了當說出來就好了，you don't need to use someone else as a cover. 不用打着別人的旗號。

S: Yeah... Tim does that too sometimes. But the worst thing he does is try to push me to the sidelines.

D: What do you mean?

S: When we have meetings sometimes people bring up my accomplishments and Tim always has to jump in and say something like, "Yes, but that was last year. We need fresh thinking this year." Why can't he just be nice?

Sandra說，她對Tim最反感的地方是，he tried to push me to the sidelines. sidelines is spelled s-i-d-e-l-i-n-e-s, sidelines 邊線，to push someone to the sidelines 就是排擠某人的意思。另外一種說法是 stay on the sidelines 站在邊線上，意思是不積極參與。Sandra舉例說，比如開會時，只要一有人提到 Sandra 以前的工作成績，Tim 就會馬上說，那都是去年的事了，我們需要新思維 fresh thinking. 以此削弱 Sandra 的影響和份量。

D: Well like you said earlier, he might feel threatened by you. He sees you as a rising star and he's afraid you'll shine brighter than he'll. Some people don't know how to react in situations like that.

S: I don't hate Tim. He'not totally bad; in fact he's pretty clever sometimes. I just hate all the office power struggles!

D: Unfortunately every workplace has its wars for power. That's how the game is played.

David 覺得，Tim可能真是覺得Sandra對自己構成威脅。他怕你會 shine brighter than he'll 比他更耀眼，這裏也可以用 outshine, He's afraid you'll outshine him. Sandra 說，其實她不恨 Tim, 她是不喜歡辦公室裏的權力之爭，all the office power struggles. 然而，所有工作場所都難免有這種爭權奪利，勾心鬥角，按照 David 的話說，That's how the game is played. 如果遇到這種爭權奪利的情況，有什麼好的處理辦法嗎？我們下次繼續聽。