商務禮節美語第72期:權力爭奪(1)

David在走廊上遇到同事Sandra，Sandra看上去很生氣。

David: Hey Sandra, what's wrong? You look furious!

Sandra: I've had it with Tim! I think I'm going to quit!

D: But love your job! You spent months trying to get this position. It's perfect for you!

S: Yeah...I know. But I'm sick and tired of all the office power struggles!
D: What kind of power struggles are you talking about?

David 看見同事 Sandra 怒氣衝衝的 you look furious 問她出了什麼事。Sandra 說受夠了 Tim，I've had it with Tim. 表達受夠了某人某事可以說 have had it with someone or something. 比如 I've had it with Jackie. She won't stop complaining. 意思是我真受不了Jackie，她老是抱怨個沒完沒了。Sandra 說，I'm sick and tired of all the office power struggles. to be sick and tired of something 是受夠了的另外一種表達方式。原來，Sandra 是對辦公室的爭權奪利感到厭倦。她說的 Tim 是個什麼樣的人呢？

S: Basically, I think Tim is threatened by me. I'm doing a better job than he is so he's trying to sabotage my career!

D: So he talks about you behind your back?

S: Yes. He's all nice and friendly to my face. But the second I turn around he stabs me in the back!

D: You know I had a worker like that once. She was always taking credit for my ideas.

Sandra 覺得，自己比Tim能力強，對Tim構成威脅，所以他纔會故意給自己找麻煩，sabotage is spelled s-a-b-o-t-a-g-e, sabotage, sabotage 是故意破壞的意思。David 問，so he talks about you behind your back? to talk about someone behind someone's back 背後說某人壞話。Sandra 說，他當着我的面很友善，我一轉身離開，他就背後捅我一刀，He stabs me in the back. David頗有同感，說自己也遇到過這種人，以前就有個女同事總把David想出的好主意說成是自己的，She was always taking credit for my ideas. to take credit for something 意思是把某種成績歸功於自己。

D: After a while I learned to document my work very clearly so the boss knew 100% that this was my work.

S: That's a good idea. I should keep a better record of my correspondence with the clients so if necessary I can prove it was my effort.

D: My co-worker had a whole bunch of bad office habits. She liked to would be in a meeting and she would say, "yesterday I was chatting with Tom." She meant Tom CEO.

David 又說，自己那個討厭的同事有很多壞毛病，其中之一就是 name-drop, name-drop意思是提起名人，以便提高自己的身價，喜歡這樣做的人就是 name-dropper. name-drop爲什麼是壞習慣呢？我們下次繼續聽。