I’ve been given a 22-year-old to manage who has a first-class degree from Cambridge — and is a first-class pain in the butt¹.

公司让我去管理一个22岁的年轻人，他是剑桥的优等毕业生——也是个一等一的刺头。

I’ve asked him to work on some slides for a presentation, which he has done carelessly.

我让他做几张演讲用的幻灯片，他给我敷衍了事。

When I pointed² out all the fonts and colours were not our house style he had the cheek to say that he did it that way because it looked better.

我说他用的字体和颜色都不是我司的风格，他居然有脸说他那样做更好看。

Pep talks don’t work; he just shrugs³ and looks condescending⁴.

对他进行励志无济于事；他只是耸耸肩，露出不屑一顾的神态。

How can I make him buckle⁵ down and get on with it?

我怎样才能让他踏下心来好好干活？

Manager, male 51

经理，男，51岁。

Lucy Kellaway’s answer

露西的回答

People with first-class degrees from Cambridge are not usually well suited to the corporate⁶ world.

剑桥的优等毕业生们大都不太适合职场生活。

In his short life this young Turk has been very successful at one thing.

在他年轻的生命里，这个愤青只干成了一件事。

Now he is being asked to do something else for which not only does his degree not help, it un-helps.

现在让他去干点别的，他的学位帮不上忙不说，还败事有余。

Getting a first means slogging away amassing⁷ a lot of knowledge and then doing something original with it.

成为优等生意味着埋头苦学积累大量的知识，再用知识去做一点独创的事情。

Big companies cannot really deal with originality⁸; for all their talk of creativity, they only work if everyone does everything more or less the same way.

而大公司不能真的把握好独创力；尽管他们大谈创造力，但只有在每个人都差不多步调一致的情况下，公司才能运转。

That’s why they make a big deal of their fonts all being the same.

这就是为什么他们在意字体的统一。

Equally, getting a first involves spending a lot of time in a library on your own.

而且，成为优等生要花大量时间在图书馆里自习。

There is no need to cultivate anyone, or even to be minimally⁹ polite.

用不着应酬谁，连最基本的礼貌都用不着。

This is the worst possible preparation for corporate life, which demands that everyone goes through the pretence¹⁰ of liking¹¹ all the people they are forced to work with.

而以这种状态应对职场生活是最糟糕的，职场要求人们对自己被迫共事的所有人都假装喜欢。

There’s another thing too. Possession of a first-class degree means that your ageing managers who are not similarly endowed are likely to resent you.

另外，作为优等毕业生意味着你那些没有类似学历的年长上司们很有可能看不惯你。

That is what has happened in this case.

这个案例就是这样。

You see this young man as a spoilt, lazy pain in the butt — and in return he doubtless sees you as a pedantic¹² and stupid old man who personifies everything he has already learnt to hate in his job.

你认为这个小伙子是个被人惯坏的、懒惰的刺头——但反过来他也一定认为你是个迂腐的笨老头，是他对这份工作已经讨厌的一切的化身。

I’m expecting him to write to me complaining about his intolerable situation any day now.

我随时期待他来信向我吐槽他的各种不能忍。

He needs a pep talk but so do you.

他需要有人对他励志，而你也需要。

Yours goes like this.

下面是对你的励志。

You have been given this man to manage, so manage him.

既然你被指派去管理这个人，那就好好管理他。

It is your job to find out what his skills are (apart from writing essays) and see if you can give him something more interesting to do.

你的工作是弄清他擅长干什么（除了写论文），然后看看能否让他做些更有意思的工作。

Equally you have to explain to him how the system works.

同样你得给他解释体制是如何运作的。

As he is starting out he may have to do some tasks that he thinks are beneath him.

鉴于他刚刚踏入职场，他可能不得不做些让他觉得不屑的工作。

Tell him about the importance of office politics and help him understand how to play the game better (for example, by doing what he’s told, looking less snooty, and so on).

告诉他办公室政治的重要性，并帮他弄明白怎样才能更好地打成一片（比如，依照吩咐行事，别流露出目中无人的神态等等）。

Explain to him why fonts matter.

给他解释为什么字体很重要。

Explain why it matters that your presentation is correct and why it is his job to correct it.

为什么你的演讲一切正确很重要，而他的工作就是做出正确的幻灯片。

When you have explained it all, if he is as recalcitrant¹³ as ever, you can stop managing him.

如果你把这些都给他讲明白了，他还一如既往地拎不清，那就随他的便。

He won’t stay long and so he isn’t worth bothering with.

他呆不了多久，所以不值得在他身上费心思。