My 27-year-old daughter was fired from a job under confusing circumstances. She had been hired as a project coordinator¹ 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.

我27岁的女儿在令人困惑的局面中遭到解雇。她此前受雇于一家建筑管理公司，担任项目协调员一职。她在这个领域并无任何工作背景，不过这家公司非常明了这一点，而且愿意对她进行培训。她起初跟着一位项目经理，开始得并不顺，但在重新分配给一位新的经理后，二人的工作关系发展得非常好。她曾得到了这样的工作评语：“除非你选择离开，不然的话一年后这份工作就是你的了。”可就在六星期后，公司终止了和她的雇佣关系，并且说她缺乏必要的“技能”。这位带着她的项目经理在不久后去别的地方换了个新工作。加起来，我的女儿在这家公司做了10个月。

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 layoff²? Her former project manager is a great reference for her. She wants to be honest, and I want her to find a job.

在申请新工作时，她该怎样处理这个问题呢？她应该将此起事件说成是公司终止劳动关系吗，如果是这样，她再找新工作会不会特别难？她可以将此说成是遭到裁员了吗？她的前任项目经理将可以成为她极好的介绍人。她想要坦坦荡荡，而我想让她找到工作。

Your daughter can (and should) be honest, but she can do it without blurting³ out "I was fired!" as an icebreaker.

你的女儿可以（而且应当）坦诚，但她不必在关键时刻脱口而出“我被人炒了鱿鱼！”来表明她的坦坦荡荡。

Frankly⁴, the episode sounds ambiguous, and she'll be better off making the details available on a strictly⁵ 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.

老实说，她遇到的这件事听来有点含混不清，在需要严格遵守“按需知密”（need-to-know，指在政府或军方等机构雇用人员时，各类细节需仅限于小范围知情——译注）的情况下透露上述细节，对她会更加有利。所以，在公开场合的应聘沟通环节里——包括个人履历、在线申请等——她不需要提供除工作日期以外的各类事实。将细节留到接下来面对面的面试中再说。而且即使到那时，也可以将责任推到面试者那边：如果没人问她为什么上份工作只做了10个月，犯不着主动告诉对方。

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.

不过，因为很有可能会有人在面试环节中问到这个问题，她应该好好想想该如何最有效地做出回答。“我没有相应的技能”不算有效。“我被裁员了”基本上是在说谎。但也许能这么说：“我的项目结束了，所以只能离开；与我共事的经理此后不久也离开了——而且是我的介绍人之一。”这就是在坦诚相对，而且可以流畅地将话题从离职的细节转移到她的前任老板对她表示赏识的事实上。

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.

如果某位可能的雇主对细节仍然抓住不放，她需要保持正面的态度：她得到了一份鼓舞人心的评语——所以当这家公司对她在那里的未来的态度发生了那么大的转变时，确实令人惊讶。简而言之，你的女儿不应该对前任雇主做出负面的评价，但同时她也不应该对自己在那里的表现做出负面评价。

Managing Micromanaging

微观管理

I work for a customer-support call center. Recently, my department lost its supervisor⁶ 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.

我在一家客户支持呼叫中心工作。近来，我们部门的主管走了，调去了别的部门做经理。我们之前的这位主管是个蛮淡定的人；只要我们的工作业绩保持在那里，他基本就可以放手不管。他通过让我们做出自己最擅长的事情——服务客户——令我们部门稳坐呼叫中心业绩榜第一把交椅。

Now the team has been split in two and given two supervisors⁷ 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."

而现在，我们的团队被分成了两组，上头分配了两位主管，两人管理风格迥异。其中一位更像是以前的主管。而另一位——我现在对他汇报——则是位事无巨细、热爱表格的人。她热衷“指导”，老是要突然探过头来，批评我们的电话应答方式不对，告诉我们她会怎么处理这些情况，要么就领着我们进行演练，建议我们怎样能“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 relentless⁸ 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？在这些无聊事之前,我们本来是整个呼叫中心最出色的团队！而现在，我们的业绩在下滑，而她的“指导”也越来越频繁，这意味着我们离开电话的时间越来越多。我们当中一位业绩最好的同事已经离开了公司，她说自己烦透了老是“呆在培养皿里”。

I hate being a team player for this team. What can I do to mitigate⁹ her micromanaging? P.A., NEW PALTZ, N.Y.

我讨厌再在这个团队中做牛做马。我该怎么做，才能让她的微观管理松松劲儿？P.A.，纽约州新帕尔兹

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.

在你和你的同事应该花更多时间做自己的本职工作，少接受指导方面，你已经提出了很充分的理由，而且听起来你甚至还有数据做支撑。现在你需要的就是将自己的理由向可以干预此事的人进行阐释的信心。

Who that someone is depends on how courageous¹⁰ 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, essentially¹¹ intervene in a department where he no longer works. He might be a good strategic sounding board, but probably not much more.

这个人是谁，取决于你的勇气有多大。一个可能的人选是你的前任主管；这是个低风险的策略，但很难讲他是否能够或愿意，去插手一个自己已经不再那里工作的部门。他或许是个很好的战略宣传同盟，但作用也许仅限于此了。

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 explicit¹² about that.)

第二个可能的人选是你们部门的另一位经理。此人更加关注保持业绩、稳住优秀员工。（无论是上述哪个人选，我估计你都不希望在接下来他们跟你上司的任何讨论中，将自己扯进来；假如你愿意的话，需要明确跟他们提出来。）

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 mere¹³ sniping.

第三个方案是直接去找你的主管。这是最大胆的选择——但值得你深思一下，因为无论如何，你都需要让你的投诉产生某些成果，而不是发发牢骚了事。

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.

你应该完全不去批评她的“微观管理”，而是尽可能褒扬她的“指导”。可以这样说，“我们从中学到了东西，但是……”和“能转换一下步调是件很有意思的事情，但是……”接着直接切入正题：是时候回到客户服务上去了。

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.

说真的，这是个很好的论点。问题是，如果没有合适的人听到，再好也不管用。