導讀Photocredit:GettyImages壹職場友誼為何重要？Indeed,mostofuswillbeabletothinkofaninstancew....

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壹

職場友誼為何重要？

Indeed, most of us will be able to think of an instance where a boss has been difficult or a performance review has gone badly and a workplace friend has offered support. Similarly, friends can act as allies and partners who look out for each other and advance each other’s interests.

實際上，我們大多數人都可以想到這樣的例子：當老板很難打交道或者業績評估不順時，一位職場朋友提供了支持。同樣，朋友可以扮演盟友和合作伙伴的角色，他們互相關心，促進彼此的利益。

① ally [?la?] n. 同盟國；伙伴；助手 vt. 使聯合

例句：For Americas existing allies in the region, that means helping to usher them out even when their successors are something of a gamble. 對美國在該地區的現有盟友來說，這意味著幫助引導他們走下權力舞臺，盡管其繼任者的行為仍是變數。

② look out for 照料；尋求；期待；提防

例句：Better than one Fort Knox are many individuals empowered to look out for one another. 比諾克斯堡更有效的模式是，授予廣大網民彼此照應的權力。

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Office friendships have always been important to Suzanne Azzopardi, an executive producer of digital global strategy at FremantleMedia. “When you start at a company, you find people who are similar to you and understand you,” she says. “Work is often the place where you spend more time than any other and you need people you can share confidences with or lean on.”

對FremantleMedia數字全球戰略部門的執行制作人蘇珊娜?阿佐帕爾迪(Suzanne Azzopardi)來說，辦公室友誼總是很重要。她說：“當你剛進一家公司的時候，你會發現和你志趣相投、理解你的人。辦公室往往是你呆的時間最久的地方，你需要有人可以分享秘密或依靠。”

Work friendships can also be very intense, Ms Azzopardi adds, especially when you are young — you may end up sharing accommodation or even your lives with colleagues. Years later she is still in touch with some of them.

阿佐帕爾迪補充說，職場友誼也可能非常深厚，尤其是在你年輕的時候——你可能會與同事一起住，或者在生活中有來有往。多年以后，她仍然與其中一些人保持著聯系。

③ lean on 依靠；依賴；倚靠

例句："I was afraid to die alone, " she said. "I wanted someone to lean on in my old age. I wanted a child of my own. " “我很害怕孤獨終老，”她說，“我想在老了以后有人依靠，想有一個自己的孩子。”

④ accommodation [?k?m?de??(?)n] n. 住處，膳宿；適應；通融

例句：Then, the answer was unprecedented monetary accommodation, direct support for the financial sector and a dose of fiscal stimulus. 那時的解決方案是實行前所未有的寬松貨幣政策、為金融部門提供直接支持和一次性的財政刺激政策。

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Sarah Godwin, co-founder of the legal recruitment firm, Law Absolute, started a business with two work friends. “The three of us who founded the company met while working together in the 90s,” she explains. “Over the years, one of the women had been my boss and then, later I’d been hers.”

法律業招聘公司Law Absolute的聯合創始人薩拉?戈德溫(Sarah Godwin)與兩位職場朋友創辦了一家企業。她解釋說：“我們三人是在上世紀90年代一起工作時相識的。多年來，其中一位女士曾經是我的老板，后來我是她的老板。”

Starting a company with good friends, she says, has been a real plus. “There’s a really nice cohesive culture and a lot of trust. That filtersdown through the business.”

她說，與好友一起創辦公司真的很棒。“公司會有非常好的文化，有凝聚力，彼此非常信任。這滲透到整個企業當中。”

⑤ filter [f?lt?] vt. 過濾；滲透 n. 濾波器；篩選

例句：But he said only about 10 e-mails a day made it through to his inbox, because of anti-spam technology that filters the messages. 但是鮑爾默表示，每天只有大約10封郵件能夠進入他的收件箱，因為反垃圾郵件技術過濾了垃圾信息。

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職場友誼潛在的缺點

While some friendships endure and even enhance your career, others are more situational and, when one of you leaves, it is quickly apparent you had only work in common.

雖然有些友誼可以長久不衰，甚至有助于你的職業發展，但也有些友誼會隨著形勢變化，當你們當中的一人離開時，很快你就發現，你們顯然只是共事過。

⑥ situational [s?tj?e???n?l] adj. 環境形成的；情境的

例句：Economists are expected to explain human behaviour in terms of situational factors and not to compete with preachers and politicians. 經濟學家的職責是從情境因素的角度解釋人類行為，而不是與傳教士及政治家一爭高下。

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“It’s a bit like when a normal friend moves to a different part of the country,” says John Lees, author of How to Get a Job You Love. “If it’sgenuine, the friendship will endure when they go.”

“這有點像一個普通朋友搬到國內不同的地方，”《如何獲得你喜愛的工作》(How to Get a Job You Love)的作者約翰?利斯(John Lees)說，“如果是真正的友誼，即使分開了友情還在。”

Current work friendships have potential drawbacks too. “You need clarity around boundaries,” says Mr Lees. “You might, for example, need to berecused from disciplining a friend.” However, he adds you can sometimes be blunter with a friend than you can be with someone who is merely a colleague.

當前的職場友誼也有潛在的缺點。“你需要清楚界限在哪里，”利斯說，“例如，你可能需要回避懲戒訓斥朋友。”然而，他補充說，與普通同事相比，你有時可能會對朋友直言相告。

One of the biggest pitfalls that can happen with colleagues whose company you enjoy is the question of what happens when a close friend gets promoted ahead of you. As the essayist Gore Vidal apparently put it: “Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.”

與你志同道合的同事可能出現的最大隱患之一，是在你的密友先于你升職時會發生什么。正如散文家戈爾?維達爾(Gore Vidal)所說的那樣：“每當有朋友獲得成功時，我身上的某種東西就會消失一些。”

⑦ genuine [d?enj??n] adj. 真實的，真正的；誠懇的

例句：It would be easy to tell if it were easy to identify all genuine news. 如果我們能輕易辨別出所有新聞的真假，這個問題會很容易回答。

⑧ recuse [r?kju?z] vt. (提出某種理由)要求轍換(審判員等)；自請回避；自行取消資格（鑒于利益沖突，法官自行回避案件審理）

例句：Two years ago, when I came to the Bank, I raised the issue of a potential conflict of interest and asked to be recused from the matter. 兩年前我來世行上任時，我提出一個潛在的利益沖突問題，要求在這件事上采取回避。

⑨ blunt [bl?nt] adj. 鈍的；生硬的；直率的 vt. 使遲鈍

例句：After the staff rebellion against Mr Wolfowitz, a blunt and confrontational approach would almost certainly backfire at the bank. 在沃爾福威茨遭到員工群起反對之后，幾乎可以肯定，在世行采取生硬和對抗的方式會產生事與愿違的結果。

⑩ pitfall [p?tf??l] n. 圈套；缺陷；誘惑

例句：Even for an unwary western traveller, it was an avoidable pitfall. 就算是對于一個不小心的西方旅行者來說，這也是一個可以避開的陷阱。

? ahead of （時間、空間）在…前面；早于；領先

例句："China is out on its own, far ahead of the pack, " said James Wilsdon, science policy director at the Royal Society in London. “中國獨占鰲頭，遙遙領先于其它國家，”英國皇家學會（RoyalSociety）的科學政策主管詹姆斯?威爾斯頓（JamesWilsdon）表示。

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職場友誼總體利大于弊

Thalia Wheatley, associate professor of psychological and brain sciences at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, who has done research on work friendships, says that studies suggest your brain has a way of coping when this happens. “The way you ‘survive’ is you tell yourself that you don’t do exactly the same job as they do,” she explains. “So you might say, ‘they’re in marketing, but if you look at my role, it’s really sales.”

新罕布什爾州漢諾威市達特茅斯學院(Dartmouth College)的心理學和腦科學副教授塔利亞?惠特利(Thalia Wheatley)對職場友誼進行了研究。他說，研究表明，發生這種情況時，你的大腦有一種應對方式。“你‘挺過來’的方式是告訴自己，你做的工作和他們不完全一樣，”她解釋說，“所以你可能會說，‘他們在搞營銷，但如果你看我的職務，我干的其實是銷售。’”

A defence mechanism, sure. But one that for many will have an uncomfortable smack of recognition.

這當然是一種防御機制。但是對于很多人來說，承認這一點會有點令人不快。

? smack [sm?k] n. 滋味，風味；少量；海洛因 vt. 摑；用掌擊 vi. 帶有…風味/意味（ of）

例句：Meanwhile, anything that smacks of curbing domestic consumption in favour of international goals is anathema to the White House. 與此同時，任何抑制國內消費以迎合國際目標的行為，都是美國所厭惡的。

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Even so, studies suggest that the net overall result of work friends is positive and without them the office is a very lonely place. “When you talk to people at the end of their working lives,” says Mr Lees, “the thing they’ll often remember is not what they achieved or accomplished, but the friends they made.”

即使如此，有研究表明，職場朋友總體來說是利大于弊的，如果沒有他們，辦公室就是一個非常孤獨的地方。“當你與即將走完職場生涯的人交談的時候，”利斯說，“你會發現，他們記住的往往不是曾經取得的成績或成就，而是交過的朋友。”