礼节美语 Business Etiquette 106（在线收听）

公司高管Peter, Jason和Helen开会讨论员工保健项目。大家都赞成把地下室改成健身中心。然而，Peter提出了一个棘手的问题。

P: Now comes the sensitive part - setting standards and setting penalties for non-compliance.

H: Oooh. That is tough.

P: Take smoking for example. Smoking tobacco is legal - of course - but our records show we pay roughly 25% more in medical costs for our employees who smoke. Is that fair to the other employees or to the company?

如果员工不按规定做，该怎么办。这个问题很敏感sensitive。 Take smoking for example. 比如说吸烟。Peter说，公司为吸烟员工支付的医疗费用比不吸烟的人多25%，这种情况对其它员工、对公司公平吗？

H: That's an interesting point. A person's actions really do have a bigger effect than we think they do.

J: As they say: "No man is an island."

P: That's right. OK...here's an even more delicate situation. What do we do with people who are seriously overweight or obese?

No man is an island，没有人是孤岛，意思是说你的行动一定会影响到别人。除了吸烟的员工外，还有一类员工也很让人头疼。那就是体重超重或是肥胖的人。 Overweight，是超重的意思，如果更严重的话，就变成了obese, 肥胖。

J: Um...like me?

(Laughter)

H: You're not that bad, Jason!

J: Well, I'm certainly overweight. I've been carrying around an extra 20 pounds for years now.

P: Well, you're certainly not alone. Weight is a serious problem faced by many in this country. But again, our records show that obese people also cost a great deal more to insure and their medical conditions are much more expensive to deal with. We don't want to be callous, but it's affecting our bottom line.

J: Well, I'd personally love to lose some weight and the new gym might help.

Jason承认自己体重超标。他说，I've been carrying around an extra 20 pounds for years now. 很多年来，我的体重一种超标20磅。Peter说，you are certainly not alone，意思是超重绝不是你一个人的问题。

虽然我们不想不尽人情，we don't want to be callous，意思是冷酷无情，但是这个问题已经影响到了公司的bottom line. Bottom line，指的是公司的利润底线。 Jason说，他个人其实很想减肥，新开的健身房说不定会对他有帮助。