经济学economic（经济学人精读Companyor）

The dividing line between firm and sect is often thin. How to tell them apart，我来为大家讲解一下关于经济学economic?跟着小编一起来看一看吧!

经济学economic

The dividing line between firm and sect is often thin. How to tell them apart

公司和邪教分界线很多时候是细微的。应该如何区分他们？

Here are some common characteristics of cults. They have hierarchical structures. They prize charismatic leaders and expect loyalty. They see the world as a hostile place. They have their own jargon, rituals and beliefs. They have a sense of mission. They are stuffed with weirdos. If this sounds a bit familiar, that is because companies share so many of these traits.

邪教通常有以下几个常见的特点。它们的组织结构是有等级制度的，并且珍视有非凡魅力的领导并且看重忠诚，以及把这个世界看成是一个充满敌意的地方。邪教有自己的行话，仪式和信条，它们有一种使命感，而且内部充满了怪人。如果以上的说法听起来有那么点熟悉，那是因为公司也有很多与之相同的特点。

常见词根

hierarchical [adjective]

: of, relating to, or arranged in a hierarchy 等级制度的

hierarchical是hierarchy（等级制度）的形容词形式，后者是由hieros ‘sacred’ arkhēs ‘ruler’这两个古希腊词根合成得来。原本是指天使的等级系统，后来渐渐演变到指宗教，政府等其他有等级之分的组织系统。arch这个词根还派生出了许多其他常见的词，大多数和统治有关。例如monarchy, matriarchy, patriarchy, oligarchy, autarchy.

熟词僻义

prize noun[count]

1 : something that is won in a contest or given as an award

He won first/second/third prize.

2 : something that is very valuable or desirable and that is difficult to get

This picture would be the prize of any museum's collection.

transitive verb

: to value highly : esteem

prize作可数名词是我们比较常见的用法，一是可以表示比赛获得或他人给予的奖品。二是表示某一个珍贵或者难得的宝物。比较少见的是作为及物动词，表示珍视某人或某物。

熟词僻义

share transitive verb

: to have (something that someone or something else also has) : to have (something) in common

We share an interest in baseball. [=we are both interested in baseball]

The two countries share a border.

I know you're worried about the schedule, but I don't share your concerns. [=I don't have the same concerns that you have; I am not worried about the schedule]

share作为及物动词时，中文通常翻译成共享，分享。但是在文中，更贴切的理解应该是共同拥有（某事或某物）。

Some cult­companies are easier to spot than others. Their bosses are More like deities than executives. These leaders have control of the company, and almost certainly founded it. They have name recognition among the masses. They really like rockets and have a brother called Kimbal.

有些情况下辨认出这种邪教类的公司并不困难。这类公司的老板扮演的角色更像是神明而不是管理者。这些领导通常有对公司的控制权，并且无疑是这家公司的创建者。他们在大众中有知名度，真心热爱火箭且都有一个叫做Kimbal的兄弟。（此处暗指Elon Musk,他有一个同样是企业家的弟弟叫做Kimbal Musk）

But in other cases it can be hard to tell where a company ends and a cult begins. That is true even of employees. So here is a handy guide to help you work out whether you are in a normal workplace or have fallen into the clutches of an even stranger group.

但在其他情况下，要辨认出公司是由哪个阶段开始转变为邪教是有难度的。甚至连身在其中的员工也分辨不出来。下面是一份实用的手册，它可以帮助你认清自己到底是处在正常的工作场所还是已经身陷一个非常怪异的组织的魔爪之中。

Workforce nicknames. It is not enough to be an employee of a company any more. From Googlers and Micro­ softies to Pinployees and Bainies, workforce nicknames are meant to create a sense of shared identity. If you belong to one of these tribes and use its nickname without dying a little inside, you may be losing your grasp of reality. If you work in the finance team and are known as one of the Apostles of the Thrice­Tabbed Spreadsheet①, you already have.

员工绰号。现如今仅仅是公司的一分子是完全不够的。从Googlers，Microsofties到Pinployees，Bainies,员工的这些绰号旨在营造一种员工都拥有同一个身份的氛围感。如果你是这类职业圈子中的一员，并且你毫不麻木地使用着其对应的绰号，那么你可能正在失去认清现实的能力。如果你在财务组工作并且被人称为是thrice-tabbed spreadsheet的传道士，那你已经失去了。

熟词僻义

tribe noun [count]

1 : a group of people that includes many families and relatives who have the same language, customs, and beliefs

2 humorous sometimes disapproving : a group of people who have the same job or interest

tribe做可数名词时，最常见的是第1个用法， 即中文的部落。但它也可以指一群有着相同工作的人，即第2个用法，此时通常是贬义的。

Corporate symbols. Uniforms are defensible in some circumstances: fire­ fighters, referees, the pope. And so is some corporate merchandise: an umbrella, a mug, a diary. But it can easily go too far. Warning signs include pulling on a company­branded hoodie at the weekend or ever wearing a lapel pin that proclaims your allegiance to a firm. If your employer’s corporate swag includes an amulet or any kind of hat, that is also somewhat concerning.

企业符号。穿制服在一定工作环境下是理所当然的。比如消防员，裁判和教皇。同样如此的还有企业周边：雨伞，马克杯和日记本。但这种企业符号的现象很容易走向极端。需要警惕的迹象有：周末还穿着印有公司名的连帽衫或者甚至是戴着表露你对公司的忠诚的胸针。如果你所在公司的文化产品包括护身符或者任一类型的帽子，那你多少也要悠着点了。

Surveillance. It is reasonable for executives to want to know what their workers are up to. But it is not reasonable to track their every move. Monitoring software that takes screenshots of employees’ computer screens, reports which apps people are using or squeals on them if a cursor has not moved for a while are tools of mind control, not management.

监视。对于管理者而言，想要知道员工在搞什么鬼是合情合理的。但是盯紧员工的一举一动就太不明智了。那些可以用来截图员工电脑屏幕，记录员工正在使用的应用，并且在鼠标长时间没有移动的情况下用尖锐的提示音提醒员工的电脑软件是用于心灵控制的工具，而不是用来管理的工具。

be up to sth:

1 :used to say that someone can decide about something:

You can pay weekly or monthly – it’s up to you.

2. : doing something especially in a way that is secret and with intentions that are bad

What are they up to?

I know they're up to something, but I don't know what.

第1种用法，当be up to 后面接人时，是我们常见的意思，即某事取决于某人。 而第二种用法，即当up to 后面跟sth/doing sth时，表达的意思是正在做某件不好的事，表贬义。

Rituals. Rites are a source of comfort and meaning in settings from sport to religion. The workplace is no exception. Plenty of companies hand out badges and awards to favoured employees. Project managers refer to some meetings as “ceremonies”. IBM used to have its own song­ book (“Our reputation sparkles like a gem” was one of the rhymes; “Why the hell do we have this bloody anthem?” was not). Walmart still encourages workers in its supermarkets to bellow a company cheer to start the day. Some of this is merely cringeworthy. But if you are regularly chanting, banging a gong or working with wicker②, it becomes sinister.

仪式。在宗教和运动等场所中，仪式给成员带来舒适和人生意义。工作场所也不例外。例如，许多公司会给最受欢迎的员工发放徽章和奖品。项目经理会把一些会议称作典礼。IBM曾经有一本自制的歌集，其中一段旋律是这样唱的：“我们的名誉像宝石一样闪耀”。而“为什么会有这种傻不拉几的旋律”这句歌词当然是不可能被放进去的。沃尔玛至今依旧鼓励员工上班的早上扯上嗓子唱一首公司的加油歌。部分这类仪式仅仅是会让人感到尴尬罢了。但如果你天天唱歌，敲锣打鼓或和柳条一起工作，那就有点让人汗毛直立了。

近义词辨析

ritual or rite

同样都是表达仪式的意思，作者却连续用了2个不一样的词。所以这两个还是有很明显的差别的。

rite这个词可用的范围更小，通常用于对人具有重大意义的事情，比如结婚，毕业典礼，葬礼等。这个特点可以由2个常见的rite短语看出：

rite of passage： a special ceremony or action that is a sign of a new stage in someone’s life, especially when a boy starts to become a man

last rites： final prayers or religious ceremonies for someone who is dying

而ritual指的范围更广，它既可以指在一场rite中一系列流程，也可以指我们在日常生活，工作，学习中的一系列特定的行为习惯。比如以下的例句：

He went through the ritual of lighting his cigar.

the daily ritual of mealtimes

the bird's mating ritual

Doctrines. More and more firms espouse a higher purpose, and many write down their guiding principles. Mark Zuckerberg recently updated his company’s “cultural operating system”— which, among other things, urges Meta­mates (see “Workforce nicknames”) to defy physics and “Live In The Future”. Amazon drums its 16 leadership principles (“Customer Obsession”, “Think Big”, “Are Right, A Lot”, and so on) into employees and job candidates alike. Corporate culture matters, but common sense doesn’t become a belief system just because capital letters are being used. If values are treated like scripture, you are in cult territory.

教条。越来越多的公司推崇更加高尚的目标，其中很多还把它们的指导原则煞有其事地写了下来。例如，马克扎克伯格近期更新了他公司的“文化操作系统”，这个系统中别的不提，其中有一条鼓励Meta-mates(看前面说的员工绰号)“挑战不可能“和“活在未来”。亚马逊则对员工和应聘者以相同的方式鼓吹着它的领导者原则（顾客至上，格局要大，领导英明等等）。企业文化固然重要，但是常识并不能够靠简单地把英文字母写成大写就变为一个信条体系。如果你遇见价值观念被奉为圣经的情况，那你已经步入邪教的领域了。

Family. Some companies entreat employees to think of their organisation as a family. The f­word may sound appealing. Who doesn’t want to be accepted for who they are, warts and all③? But at best it is untrue: firms ought to pay you for your time and kick you out if you are useless. At worst, it is a red flag. Research conducted in 2019 into the motivations of whistle­blowers found that loyalty to an organisation was associated with people failing to report unethical behaviour. And the defining characteristic of families is that you never leave.

家庭。一些公司会恳求员工们把公司当成一个家庭。这个F开头的单词似乎听起来很有吸引力。谁不想让自己被别人毫无保留地接受呢？但最好的情况下这个词是不真实的：公司根据你的工作时间支付薪水并在发现你没多大用的时候把你炒了。在最差的情况下这个词代表着危险。2019年一项关于检举者的告发动机的研究发现，员工的忠诚与他们未能举报公司不道德行为这两者之间有联系。毕竟家庭这一概念典型的特点就是你永远不会离开。

If none of the above resonates, rest easy: you are not in a cult. But you are unemployed. If you recognise your own situation in up to three items on this list, you are in an ordinary workplace. If you tick four or five boxes, you should worry but not yet panic; you may just be working in technology or with Americans, and losing your sense of self may be worth it for the stock options. If you recognise yourself in all six items, you need to plan an escape and then write a memoir.

如果你对上述的内容没有一点共鸣，放轻松，你没有身处邪教当中。不过你也不可避免地失业了。如果你发现上述有三点情况存在于你的工作环境中，那说明你是在一个正常的工作场所中。如果你发现四至五点，你要警惕，但没必要惊慌。原因是你可能处在科技行业或者正和美国人共事。这种情况下为了得到股票期权而失去自我意识未尝不可。如果你发现全部六点都符合，你需要赶紧计划跑路然后写一篇回忆录。

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①Apostle of thrice-tabbed spreadsheetApostle最初指的是耶稣的十二个门徒（即最后的晚餐同耶稣同一桌的那十二个人），也包括了其他一些比较出名的传道士。他们通常被指派到各个地区去布道，比如在德国的布道士Saint Boniface就被称为Apostle of Germany。

Thrice-tabbed spreadsheetSpreadsheet指的是用于制表的软件，最常见的莫过于excel工作簿。tab指的则是表格中的工作表，也叫做sheet。另外，chrome等游览器的新标签页也叫tab。Thriced-tabbed指的是三个工作表合成的。因为文章内提到了finance team,所以这边的三个工作表就是财务报表中常用的三个表：1) income statement, 2) balance sheet, and 3) cash flow statement.

②wicker noun [noncount]

: thin twigs or sticks that are woven together to make furniture and baskets

原意是指用于编织的柳条，但在文章内指的其实是wicker man（柳条人）。wicker man相传出于罗马时期凯尔特人和凯尔特教祭祀活人的仪式。最出名的记载出自于凯撒大帝所著的Commentary on the Gallic war，书中提到了高卢地区的德鲁伊（凯尔特教中祭师所用的名词）会用柳条等树枝编成一个人像，并把活人放入人像之中，之后将其焚烧以献祭神明。而这个用柳条所制的人像，也叫做wicker man. 这种焚烧柳条人像的仪式一直延续到了现在，并且还曾作为主题登上荧幕，由罗宾哈迪导演的上映于1973年的悬疑恐怖电影《异教徒》的英文原称就是the wicker man。

An 18th-century illustration of a wicker man. Engraving from A Tour in Wales written by Thomas Pennant.

柳条人海报

再回到原文，wicker响应了开头所说的rituals，当员工工作中使用柳条时（work with 有用某种材料，某种机械工作的意思），难免有人会想到同样的宗教仪式，从而得出it becomes sinister.

③warts and all [idiom]

：(informal) including all the bad or unpleasant features of sb/sth

直译过来是包含某人某物的所有缺陷。其中wart本身有imperfection, defect的意思。而这个短语据说出自一个关于克伦威尔的轶事：在克伦威尔成为英国的护国公后，他曾聘请查理一世的肖像画师Sir Peter Lely为其做一幅画。后者的画风，正如那个时代流行的一样，经常美化画中的人物。但是克伦威尔却不喜欢这种虚荣，要求Lely按照他本来的样子作画，相传他当初是这么说的：

"Mr Lely, I desire you would use all your skill to paint my picture truly like me, and not flatter me at all; but remark all these roughnesses, pimples, warts and everything as you see me, otherwise I will never pay a farthing for it."

后人将这幅画像和依靠现代技术重塑得来的克伦威尔的脸部做对比，发现确实是做到了很大程度的还原。[笑哭]

Portrait of Oliver Cromwell by LELY

Death Mask of Oliver Cromwell

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呦呦英语，致力于精准翻译高水平外文报刊。若浏览的同时，能觉得有点儿意思，那就更好了~