張總李總去哪兒了 Being a boss is not what it used to be literally

In China, you are what you do. The boss of any workplace — even if that is a greasy spoon or corner store — is called “boss”. Even journalists are referred to by status-laden honorifics. So I am not Ms Waldmeir or Patti, but Teacher Waldmeir. Reporters here may want for press freedom but at least they receive a title they might not merit elsewhere.

在中國，你的工作就是你的身份。任何一個工作場所（即便只是一個廉價小飯館或街角小店）的所有者都被稱爲“老闆”。甚至連記者也被冠以代表身份的敬稱。所以人們對我的稱呼不是沃德米爾女士，也不是帕提，而是沃德米爾老師。中國記者可能欠缺出版自由，但至少他們獲得了一個在其他國家可能無法得到的稱呼。

Even within the family, names were traditionally hierarchical: the first born was laoda (“the big one”); the second child laoer or, literally, number two. It’s all in the title.

甚至在家庭內部，名字通常也會顯示出等級性：第一個出生的孩子叫老大；第二個孩子叫老二。稱呼就能說明一切。

What happens, though, when a boss is not a “boss”?

然而，當老闆不被稱呼爲“老闆”時會怎樣？

One of China’s biggest property developers, Vanke, is trying to find out. Recently the Shanghai branch banned staff from calling each other zong — literally, “general manager” but functionally “boss”. All staff must call each other by English names or nicknames, or they can add the prefix “young” or “old” before the surname. Basically, anything but zong. That goes for everything from meetings in the C-suite to texts or WeChat messages about which bar to hit for a quick baijiu after work. To make sure the order is obeyed, the zong must pay the Rmb100 fine if it is transgressed. Vanke wants no more zongs.

中國最大房地產開發商之一萬科(Vanke)正試圖找到答案。最近，萬科上海分公司禁止員工相互稱呼“總”，這個稱呼的字面意思是“總經理”，但從職能上來看意思是“老闆”。所有員工都必須相互稱呼對方的英文名或暱稱，或者可以在姓氏前加上“小”或“老”。總之，除了不能稱呼“總”，怎麼稱呼都行。這一規定適用於所有場合，從高管會議到郵件、再到約下班後去哪個酒吧小酌一杯的微信消息。爲了確保這一要求得到遵守，萬科規定，如有違反，被稱呼者每次將罰款100元人民幣。萬科不需要更多的“總”。

This comes from the land of “just call me comrade” — the title Beijing used to require all Communist party members to use, regardless of their status, to smash hierarchy and create an egalitarian society. And we all know how that turned out.

中國過去曾推行過“請叫我同志”的做法，當時中國要求所有共產黨員都使用“同志”這一稱呼，不管級別高低，目的是消滅等級制度和創建平等社會。我們都知道最終結果如何。

Vanke can be forgiven for having another go. Chinese workplaces are hierarchical. Maybe every company in the world is the same and the rest of us just like to pretend it isn’t. In China, however, no one pretends; in many offices sycophancy is the order of the day. Vanke, however, is betting that sycophancy is not conducive to innovation — the theme of the decade for Beijing, which is banking on it to help China escape a period of slowing growth.

萬科再次進行這樣的嘗試情有可原。中國的職場是等級森嚴的。或許，全世界的公司都一樣，其他地方的人們只是喜歡假裝不是這樣。然而，在中國，沒有人假裝；在很多辦公室裏，拍馬屁是一種風氣。然而，萬科認爲，拍馬屁不利於創新，創新是中國本10年的主題，中國政府希望藉助創新幫助中國擺脫經濟增速放緩時期。

“Vanke is trying to change the culture,” says Katherine Xin, professor of management at China Europe International Business School in Shanghai. “I see it as a signal for culture change from a hierarchical to a flat organisational structure.”

“萬科試圖改變這種文化，”上海中歐國際工商學院(Ceibs)管理學教授忻榕(Katherine Xin)表示，“我把這視爲一個信號，代表着一種文化變革——從等級分明的組織結構轉向扁平組織結構。”

One Vanke employee, who did not want to be identified even by a nickname, says: “After the new rules were released, my boss — let’s say his surname is Xu — gave us a choice to call him either by his English name, or Old Xu.” “Old” may not sound like the kind of prefix western staff would append to their boss’s name.

一名萬科員工表示：“在新規出臺後，我的老闆（假設他姓徐）讓我們選擇要麼叫他的英文名，要麼叫他老徐。”這名員工甚至不願透露他的暱稱。西方員工應該不會用“老”加上姓氏來稱呼自己的老闆。

In China, by contrast, it is inoffensive, casual and commonly used in and out of the workplace. No need to report that one to HR. “I think it makes us feel closer. The company wants us to have a sense of belonging.”

相反，在中國，這樣的稱呼並無不敬，人們常常在工作場合和其他場合隨意使用這種稱呼。所以別誤會，這不是歧視，無需向HR報告。“我認爲，這讓我們感覺更親密。公司希望我們有一種歸屬感。”

So has it levelled the playing field at Shanghai Vanke? The same employee says the hierarchy still exists. “Even though the company has promised to make information transparent, we still don’t find out about executives’ decisions right away.”

這是否讓上海萬科的競爭環境變公平了？這名萬科員工表示，仍然存在上下級之分。“儘管公司承諾讓信息透明，但我們還是不會馬上知道高管們的決定。”

Ms Xin says the practice, which is in any case still very rare, is most common at technology companies. At Alibaba, the Chinese ecommerce group, employees can choose their own nicknames. Many were initially required to choose from Chinese martial arts novels because Alibaba’s boss — oops, I mean Jack Ma — is a fan. Those quickly ran out so staff can now choose more freely. Employees say that, even though he has selected a nickname, most still call him Ma Zong. Mr Ma, who previously taught English, has recently appealed to executives to call him Teacher Ma instead.

忻榕表示，這種做法在科技公司最爲普遍（不管怎麼說，這種做法仍非常罕見）。在中國電商集團阿里巴巴(Alibaba)，員工可以選擇自己的暱稱。起初，很多人需要從中國武俠小說裏選名字，因爲阿里巴巴的老闆（哎呦，我是說馬雲(Jack Ma)）喜歡武俠。這些名字很快就被用光了，因此員工們現在可以更自由地選擇。員工們表示，儘管馬雲選擇了一個暱稱，但多數人仍稱呼他馬總。最近，曾當過英語老師的馬雲呼籲高管們稱呼他馬老師。

Ms Xin herself forbade her executive MBA students from calling each other zong in the classroom, “but many of them have not been called by their names for so many years, they are almost shocked by it”, she says. “If I call them by their full name they assume they are in trouble, like my daughter would.” They revert to zong when socialising after class.

忻榕自己禁止她的高管MBA學員在課堂上相互稱呼“總”，“但其中很多學員已經多年沒有被別人叫過名字了，這項規定幾乎讓他們震驚”，她表示，“如果我稱呼他們的全名，他們會認爲自己有麻煩了，我女兒聽到我稱呼她全名時就會這麼想。”他們在課後交往時還是會使用“總”來相互稱呼。

“For those who are much older than me or high up in the company,” says the Vanke employee, “their English names stick in my mouth and I think it’s not appropriate to call them that, so I call them ‘teacher’.”

“對着那些比我年長得多或者在公司裏位高權重的員工，”這名萬科員工表示，“英文名實在叫不出口，我認爲這麼稱呼他們不合適，於是我就稱呼他們爲‘老師’。”

It will take more than a few English monikers or hero nicknames to flatten the Chinese hierarchy but it’s a start. Maybe one day soon we’ll be asking where all the zongs have gone.

要消除中國的等級制度，需要的不僅僅是幾個英文名或主角暱稱，但這是個開始。或許很快就會有那麼一天，我們會問那些“總”都到哪裏去了。