{BEC高级阅读备考资料}说话技巧：如何聪明地面对属下有体臭 THE PROBLEM 问题

{BEC高级阅读备考资料}说话技巧：如何聪明地面对属下有体臭

THE PROBLEM 问题

I run a small media company and have an admirable young junior member of staff who works well, is (or would be) popular and is a good team player. But he comes to work and he smells. I don't know if it is his armpits, his clothes or his feet, but the pong is the subject of much comment in the office and is really off-putting. I think the other employees expect me to do something about it, but what? Can I get someone else to tell him or must I? And how?

我开了一家小型传媒公司。公司里有一位很优秀的年轻低层员工，他工作出色，很受欢迎(或者以后会受欢迎)，而且很有团队精神。但他来上班时，身上总是臭烘烘的。我不知道那是他的腋臭、衣服臭，还是脚臭，但这种臭味成了办公室里的大部分话题，而且确实令人讨厌。我想，其他员工希望我对此做点什么，但我能做什么呢?我该找个人告诉他，还是必须由我告诉他?怎么办好呢?

THE ANSWER 回答

There is one word in your message that fills me with dread. That word isn't smell - it's small.How small is your media company, I wonder? Is it too small to have a personnel person for you to dump the problem on? One of the beauties of personnel is they can tell malodorous workers that they must wash more carefully, and then give precise instructions and targets for how it is to be done.

在你的来信中有一个词让我感到可怕。这个词不是"臭"(smell)，而是"小"(small)。我想知道你的传媒公司有多小?难道小到连一个能帮你解决这个问题的人事职员都没有吗?人事职员的优点之一就是，他们能告诉有体臭的员工，必须更仔细地洗澡，然后就具体做法给出确切指导和指标。

Assuming that there is no such person, you have a serious problem. Such is the mad and twisted nature of managing other people that telling someone they have BO can be harder than telling them they are fired.

假设没有这么个人，那你的问题就严重了。告诉别人身上有体臭，比告诉他们被解雇了还难，这就是管理别人既令人发疯和苦恼的特性。

Partly this is because we are squeamish and were taught as children never to make personal remarks. It is also because the intimacy of what people get up to (or not) in their bathrooms is outside the remit of managers. To go crashing into this zone would be horribly embarrassing for you, and humiliating for the smeller. Worse still, after this most hideous of embarrassments, normal working relationships must be resumed. In all, it would better for everyone if you outsource the job to someone else.

部分原因在于，我们都过于拘谨，而且从小受到的教育就告诉我们，千万不要评论别人的私人问题。另一个原因是，人们在浴室里干(或不干)什么这种隐私，不在经理的职权范围之内。闯入这一禁区将使你非常尴尬，也会让那个有体臭的人感到丢人。更糟糕的是，在这种极为可怕的尴尬之后，还得花精力恢复原有的正常工作关系。总而言之，如果你把这项工作外包给别人做，那么对所有人都比较有利。

小编有话说：有一些在生活中很敏感的话题，如体臭，婚姻状况都是私人的而且难以启齿的，可是当这些问题影响到了其他同事的工作情绪时，我们就要聪明巧妙地面对。