Uzbek Officials Unable to Keep Up with Workaholic Leader

 

At an international conference in Uzbekistan, a government official suddenly collapsed¹ onto the floor.

Other government workers casually² carried the man away.

Just a few minutes earlier, the man was seen moving from one side of the room to the other, making sure even the smallest details of the conference were just right.

The Reuters news agency reports that what happened to him was not an unusual event.

The Central Asian nation is slowly opening its economy to other areas. To get the nation ready, some government workers have been working 15-hour days, seven days a week, for more than three years.

Foreign businessmen who go to Uzbekistan face an unusual problem – making sure the officials they are meeting stay awake.

“He fell asleep twice during an afternoon meeting,” said one Western businessman after meeting a mid-level Uzbek official.

Uzbekistan, once part of the Soviet³ Union, is home to 33 million people. Government workers there have a tradition of not leaving the office before their boss does.

But since the death of Uzbek President Islam Karimov in 2016, working all day long, every day has become a way of life.

His replacement⁴, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, says he wants the country to move forward. He has asked government workers to be more responsible to the needs of Uzbekistan’s citizens.

“When President (Mirziyoyev) came to power, he declared an emergency for (government workers) and said that officials would not rest until we please the people,” said one Uzbek official. He spoke⁵ to Reuters on the condition of anonymity⁶ for fear of openly criticizing the system.

The president usually works long hours, so everyone below him feels they must do the same.

Perhaps sensing that his country’s workers are tired, the president last month ordered officials to leave their offices at five in the afternoon on Saturdays and spend Sundays with their families.

“But in reality nothing has changed,” said the same Uzbek official.

"I still go to work at eight in the morning and come back at midnight," he said. “Sometimes I don’t see my children for several days…they are already asleep when I come home and leave for school earlier in the morning,” he added.

I'm Susan Shand.

Words in This Story

casual – adj. not formal or rushed

boss – n. a supervisor⁷ or chief

anonymity - n. without revealing one’s name

afternoon – n. the period between morning and sunset

midnight – n. the middle of the night; at the end of one day, and the beginning of the next

1 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

2 casually   

adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地

参考例句：

• She remarked casually that she was changing her job.她当时漫不经心地说要换工作。
• I casually mentioned that I might be interested in working abroad.我不经意地提到我可能会对出国工作感兴趣。

3 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

4 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 anonymity   

n.the condition of being anonymous

参考例句：

• Names of people in the book were changed to preserve anonymity. 为了姓名保密，书中的人用的都是化名。
• Our company promises to preserve the anonymity of all its clients. 我们公司承诺不公开客户的姓名。

7 supervisor   

n.监督人，管理人，检查员，督学，主管，导师

参考例句：

• Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说，我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
• He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。