As Ivo Karlovic whacked¹ a tennis ball at 135 miles per hour towards Andrew Murray on Wimbledon's Centre Court last week, I found myself staring at something behind his back that wasn't moving at all. Two kids of about 15 were standing² in symmetrical formation, stock still. When a stray ball came their way, they scooped³ it up, threw it with speed and perfect accuracy into the player's hand and then returned to being statues once more.

前几天，在温布尔顿中央球场举行的一场网球比赛中，当伊沃•卡洛维奇(Ivo Karlovic)向安德鲁•穆雷(Andrew Murray)发出一记时速高达135英里的球时，我发现自己正盯着他身后那个一动不动的小东西。两个15岁左右的孩子对称地站在场地两端，一动不动。只要有球越过边线，朝他们飞来，他们便会敏捷地捡起球，迅速而准确地扔给运动员，然后回到场边，重新成为一座"雕像"。

As someone who has spent a decade trying and failing to get teenagers to pick up stray dirty socks from the floor and throw them in the general direction of the laundry basket, I found this performance even more remarkable⁴ than the one being given by the grown-up men with the tennis racquets.

作为一个十年来一直试图让几个少年人捡起他们散落在地板上的脏袜子、然后扔向一个统一的方向——洗衣筐，但却屡屡失败的人，我发现球童们的表现甚至比那些拿着网球拍的成年人更加令人赞叹。

It turns out that there is a formula for drilling these Wimbledon ball boys that has been in operation for decades. It is the last training course on earth that makes no concessions⁵ whatsoever⁶ to modern management methods; it also produces better results than any I've seen.

原来，对于温布尔顿球童，早已有一套训练方案，这套方案已经实行了数十年。它是世界上最不愿向现代管理方法做出任何妥协的培训课程；而在我看来，它的训练效果却是最好的。

Four months before the tournament begins, 700 teenage hopefuls begin to learn how to stand still, throw, march, look people in the eye and tuck their shirts into their shorts. Each has a number pinned on them – there is no truck with anything as namby-pamby as calling people by their names. They are expected to memorise⁷ rules and understand that following them isn't optional. Only a third of the hopefuls get selected; absenteeism, even through illness, is not tolerated.

在赛事开始前的四个月，700名十几岁左右的球童候选人开始学习如何站立不动、如何掷球、行进、与人对视，以及如何将他们的上衣塞到短裤里。每个人身上都别有一个数字——相比起直呼其名，数字的使用使得训练气氛中少了一些矫饰与人情味。他们需要记住比赛规则，并且懂得，这些规则必须遵守，没有其他选择。在这些候选人中，只有三分之一被筛选出来；旷课，即便是由于生病，也是无法容忍的。

In return for their time, effort and devotion, ball boys get paid nothing at all. They don't even get thanked. When they threw the ball back to Karlovic he didn't turn round and say "great job!" to help boost their self-esteem. He ignored them. Ball boys understand it is their job to be invisible and merge⁸ into the background. They aren't even allowed to enjoy the tennis.

尽管他们付出了时间、精力和热诚，但这些球童却不会得到一分钱的报酬。甚至都不会有人对他们表示感激。当他们把球扔回給卡洛维奇时，他并没有转过身说一句"干得好！"来增强他们的自尊心。他对他们视而不见。球童们知道，让自己从人们的视线中消失，成为背景之一，这是他们的本职工作。他们甚至不能欣赏整场比赛。

On paper it all sounds most unattractive. Yet half the children in Years 9 and 10 in south-west London schools would gladly saw off their right arms for the chance – were it not for the fact that minus a limb they'd be less useful on court.

通过这些描述，球童的工作听上去简直太没意思了。可在伦敦西南部学校就读9年级和10年级的孩子们当中，有一半的人宁愿在训练中折掉右胳膊，也不愿错过这个机会——要不是考虑到如果少了一条胳膊，他们在球场上的表现就没有那么灵活了。

You might think that what makes a normal, Facebook-addicted teenager so desperate to become a ball boy is no mystery. It is proximity⁹ to sporting royalty¹⁰ as well as to actual royalty. It is also the chance to be on television, though as they all look identical in their navy uniforms, even the proudest parent might struggle to identify their offspring.

你或许会认为，沉迷于Facebook的普通少年之所以会如此热切地想成为球童，个中原由并不难解释。既是因为体育的魅力，也是由于它本身所带来的一种荣耀。除此之外，还有机会在电视上露脸，尽管他们穿上统一的深蓝色服装后，看起来全都一个样，即便是最感到得意的父母，要想认出他们的孩子，或许也要花一番力气。

But I suspect there is something more important going on too. It is about being part of something wonderful. It is understanding that a valuable institution rests on the perfect behaviour of everyone who works there. The draconian¹¹ training is not a drawback, it's a selling point. The stricter the rules, the more seriously the institution takes itself and therefore the greater the glory in being a part of it.

但我总觉得，背后还有一些更重要的因素在起作用。被选为球童，你便成为了一项非凡事业的一份子。人们都知道，一个伟大的组织有赖于在其中工作的每一个人的完美表现。严格的训练不是一件坏事，而是一种优势。规则越严格，这个组织自身就会越严谨，而成为其中一员所带来的荣耀感就会愈加强烈。

Yet this sort of training, based on pride and obedience¹² and anonymity¹³, is not merely out of fashion in the corporate¹⁴ world, it has vanished without trace. Only last week I received a survey showing how even punctuality is no longer seen as a thing of value. Three-quarters of bosses apparently¹⁵ don't care if their employees are half an hour late for work. Such flexibility¹⁶ is "brilliant news for workers everywhere", said Mozy, the company that did the survey. But is flexibility really so good? And what about its sister trend, individuality? The ball boys are more than capable of doing the best possible job without it. Why shouldn't office workers be so too?

然而在企业界，这种建立在自豪感、服从和默默奉献基础之上的训练方式，却不单单只是"过时"而已，它已经消失得无影无踪了。就在最近，我还看到了一项调查，调查显示，就连守时也不再被认为是一项重要的品质。有四分之三的老板似乎并不在意他们的员工上班是否迟到了半小时。发起这项调查的公司Mozy表示，这种灵活性"无论对哪里的员工来说，都是一件好事"。可是，灵活性果真有那么好吗？那与它如影随形的另一种趋势，个体性呢？虽然不能展现自己的个性，但球童们依然出色地完成了自己的工作。那职场上的白领们为何不能如此呢？

In modern offices, individuality is so rampant¹⁷ it is getting in the way of work. Last week I was sent a dull press release about a wealth management business and as I hovered¹⁸ my cursor over the email to delete it, a picture of a pouting¹⁹ blonde popped up. She turned out to be the PR girl – a cog in a machine if ever there was one – who forwarded the release, and here she was stamping not just her name on the message, but her face too. Surely even in PR there could be someone stern enough to tell staff that the job matters, that the company is bigger than they are and they should be proud to be invisible components²⁰ of a well-oiled machine?

在现代职场上，员工的个性极尽张扬，以至于工作都会因此受到影响。前些天，我收到了一封枯燥无趣的理财公司新闻稿，正当我移动光标，准备删除这封电子邮件时，突然，一个撅着嘴的金发女子弹了出来。原来，她是发来这份新闻稿的公关部员工——即便公司设有这样一个职位，也不太重要。出现在邮件中的，不仅有她的名字，还有她的那张脸。即便是在公关界，也应该有一些厉害的人物站出来告诉员工：这项工作很重要，应该将公司置于员工之上，能够在一部运转顺畅的机器中充当一枚看不见的元件，员工应该感到自豪，不是吗？

Admittedly this might be a stretch for PR; it is an even bigger stretch for the socks. I can think of two very fine and worthwhile traditions that are maintained by the prompt picking up of socks: having a tidy house and sharing chores evenly. The snag is that the average 15-year-old has no interest in upholding either of these.

诚然，这或许是对公关的误解，更是对袜子的曲解。我想起了这样两项值得发扬的优良传统——保持房间整洁和平均分摊家务——只有及时拾起脏袜子，这些传统才能得到保持。可问题在于，一个普普通通的15岁孩子对于保持这两项传统毫无兴趣。