如何解釋上份工作爲什麼離職?
My 27-year-old daughter was fired from a job under confusing circumstances. She had been hired as a project coordinator for a construction management firm. Although she had no background in the field, the company was aware of this and willing to train her. She had a rocky start with a project manager but then was reassigned and had an excellent working relationship with her new manager. At a review she was told, "This job will be yours in a year unless you choose to leave." Six weeks later, she was terminated, and told she lacked the necessary "skill set." The project manager she had worked with took a new job elsewhere shortly thereafter. In all, my daughter was there 10 months.
In applying for a new job, how does she deal with this? Should she describe what happened as a termination and, if so, won't that make it very hard to find a job? Could it be described instead as a layoff? Her former project manager is a great reference for her. She wants to be honest, and I want her to find a job.
在申請新工作時，她該怎樣處理這個問題呢？她應該將此起事件說成是公司終止勞動關係嗎，如果是這樣，她再找新工作會不會特別難？她可以將此說成是遭到裁員了嗎？她的前任項目經理將可以成爲她極好的介紹人。她想要坦坦蕩蕩，而我想讓她找到工作。Your daughter can (and should) be honest, but she can do it without blurting out "I was fired!" as an icebreaker.
你的女兒可以（而且應當）坦誠，但她不必在關鍵時刻脫口而出“我被人炒了魷魚！”來表明她的坦坦蕩蕩。
Frankly, the episode sounds ambiguous, and she'll be better off making the details available on a strictly need-to-know basis. So for anything in the realm of opening-round job-search communication — a résumé, an online application — the facts she offers need not go beyond dates of employment. Save the specifics for subsequent, face-to-face interviews. And even then, make it the interviewer's responsibility: If nobody asks why the job ended after 10 months, there's not much upside in telling them.
老實說，她遇到的這件事聽來有點含混不清，在需要嚴格遵守“按需知密”（need-to-know，指在政府或軍方等機構僱用人員時，各類細節需僅限於小範圍知情——譯註）的情況下透露上述細節，對她會更加有利。所以，在公開場合的應聘溝通環節裏——包括個人履歷、在線申請等——她不需要提供除工作日期以外的各類事實。將細節留到接下來面對面的面試中再說。而且即使到那時，也可以將責任推到面試者那邊：如果沒人問她爲什麼上份工作只做了10個月，犯不着主動告訴對方。But because it's likely that someone will ask during the interview process, she should think through the most effective way to answer. "I didn't have the proper skills" is not effective. "I was laid off" is basically a lie. But maybe: "My project ended and I was let go; the manager I worked with left soon after, as well — and is one of my references." That's honest, and moves the subject swiftly from the details of the termination to the fact that her former boss thinks well of her.
不過，因爲很有可能會有人在面試環節中問到這個問題，她應該好好想想該如何最有效地做出回答。“我沒有相應的技能”不算有效。“我被裁員了”基本上是在說謊。但也許能這麼說：“我的項目結束了，所以只能離開；與我共事的經理此後不久也離開了——而且是我的介紹人之一。”這就是在坦誠相對，而且可以流暢地將話題從離職的細節轉移到她的前任老闆對她表示賞識的事實上。If a potential employer becomes fixated on precise circumstances, stay positive: She received an encouraging review — so it was a surprise when the company evidently changed its mind about her future there. In short, your daughter shouldn't be negative about her former employer, but also shouldn't be negative about her performance.
如果某位可能的僱主對細節仍然抓住不放，她需要保持正面的態度：她得到了一份鼓舞人心的評語——所以當這家公司對她在那裏的未來的態度發生了那麼大的轉變時，確實令人驚訝。簡而言之，你的女兒不應該對前任僱主做出負面的評價，但同時她也不應該對自己在那裏的表現做出負面評價。Managing Micromanaging
微觀管理I work for a customer-support call center. Recently, my department lost its supervisor and another manager to other units. My former supervisor was a laid-back person; as long as we kept our numbers up, he was pretty hands-off. He kept us No. 1 in the call center by allowing us to do what we do best: servicing the customer.
我在一家客戶支持呼叫中心工作。近來，我們部門的主管走了，調去了別的部門做經理。我們之前的這位主管是個蠻淡定的人；只要我們的工作業績保持在那裏，他基本就可以放手不管。他通過讓我們做出自己最擅長的事情——服務客戶——令我們部門穩坐呼叫中心業績榜第一把交椅。Now the team has been split in two and given two supervisors with differing management styles. One is much like our former supervisor. The other — the one I'm now reporting to — is a micromanaging, spreadsheet-loving person. She's big on "coaching," which means popping in to critique our calls and telling us how she would have handled them, or having us do practice sessions with her and advising us how we could have "done it better."
而現在，我們的團隊被分成了兩組，上頭分配了兩位主管，兩人管理風格迥異。其中一位更像是以前的主管。而另一位——我現在對他彙報——則是位事無鉅細、熱愛表格的人。她熱衷“指導”，老是要突然探過頭來，批評我們的電話應答方式不對，告訴我們她會怎麼處理這些情況，要麼就領着我們進行演練，建議我們怎樣能“做得更好”。Better? We were the best team in the whole call center before this nonsense! Now, our numbers are slipping and her "coaching" is more relentless than ever, meaning that we spend more time off the phones. One of our top performers has left the company, saying she was tired of being "in a petri dish."
更好？在這些無聊事之前,我們本來是整個呼叫中心最出色的團隊！而現在，我們的業績在下滑，而她的“指導”也越來越頻繁，這意味着我們離開電話的時間越來越多。我們當中一位業績最好的同事已經離開了公司，她說自己煩透了老是“呆在培養皿裏”。I hate being a team player for this team. What can I do to mitigate her micromanaging? P.A., NEW PALTZ, N.Y.
我討厭再在這個團隊中做牛做馬。我該怎麼做，才能讓她的微觀管理鬆鬆勁兒？P.A.，紐約州新帕爾茲You make a brilliant case that you and your colleagues should be spending less time being coached, and more time doing your jobs. It sounds as if you even have the numbers to back it up. All you need now is the confidence to make this case to someone who can do something about it.
在你和你的同事應該花更多時間做自己的本職工作，少接受指導方面，你已經提出了很充分的理由，而且聽起來你甚至還有數據做支撐。現在你需要的就是將自己的理由向可以干預此事的人進行闡釋的信心。Who that someone is depends on how courageous you want to be. One possibility is your former supervisor; that's a low-risk strategy, but it's hard to say if he could, or would want to, essentially intervene in a department where he no longer works. He might be a good strategic sounding board, but probably not much more.
這個人是誰，取決於你的勇氣有多大。一個可能的人選是你的前任主管；這是個低風險的策略，但很難講他是否能夠或願意，去插手一個自己已經不再那裏工作的部門。他或許是個很好的戰略宣傳同盟，但作用也許僅限於此了。The second possibility is the other manager in your department. That person has a deeper interest in keeping the numbers up and not losing good employees. (With both of these options, I'm guessing that you'd want to keep your name out of any discussions with your boss that result; if so, be explicit about that.)
第二個可能的人選是你們部門的另一位經理。此人更加關注保持業績、穩住優秀員工。（無論是上述哪個人選，我估計你都不希望在接下來他們跟你上司的任何討論中，將自己扯進來；假如你願意的話，需要明確跟他們提出來。）The third option is to go to your supervisor. That's the boldest move — but it's worth thinking it through, because in all cases you should take care to frame your complaint as something productive, not mere sniping.
第三個方案是直接去找你的主管。這是最大膽的選擇——但值得你深思一下，因爲無論如何，你都需要讓你的投訴產生某些成果，而不是發發牢騷了事。Skip the whole "micromanager" critique, and put the best face you can on the "coaching" so far. Say things like, "We've learned from it, but..." and "It's been an interesting change of pace, but... ." Then make exactly the point you're making here: It's time to get back to the customers.
你應該完全不去批評她的“微觀管理”，而是儘可能褒揚她的“指導”。可以這樣說，“我們從中學到了東西，但是……”和“能轉換一下步調是件很有意思的事情，但是……”接着直接切入正題：是時候回到客戶服務上去了。Seriously, that's a good argument. The thing is, it doesn't matter how good your argument is if the right person never hears it.
說真的，這是個很好的論點。問題是，如果沒有合適的人聽到，再好也不管用。
