2023年经济学人 "高要求"还是"职场霸凌"?（在线收听）

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Bartleby

巴托比专栏

Dominic Raab, bully or victim?

多米尼克·拉布是职场恶霸还是受害者？

If enough people think you’re a bad boss, then you are a bad boss.

如果有足够多的人认为你是一个糟糕的老板，那么你就是一个糟糕的老板。

A fascinating case study on the exercise of power within an organisation has just reached a conclusion in Britain.

关于在组织内部行使权力的一个有趣的案例研究刚刚在英国得出结论。

Dominic Raab resigned as the country’s deputy prime minister and justice secretary on April 21st, after an independent investigation into whether he is a workplace bully found that he had crossed a line.

4月21日，多米尼克·拉布辞去了英国副首相兼司法大臣的职务，此前对他是否是职场恶霸进行了一项独立调查，调查发现他确实越界了。

The civil servants who lodged complaints against him will feel justified.

对拉布提出投诉的公务员会觉得正义得到了伸张。

His supporters, and the man himself, contend that his departure sets an unhealthily low bar for being found guilty of bullying.

而拉布的支持者及其本人都认为，他的离职为职场霸凌罪名成立设定了一个不合理的低门槛。

Adam Tolley, the barrister who conducted the probe, found that Mr Raab had displayed “unreasonably and persistently aggressive conduct” while he held the job of foreign secretary.

进行调查的律师亚当·托利发现，拉布在担任外交大臣期间表现出了“不合理且持续的攻击性行为”。

Mr Tolley also concluded that Mr Raab’s style at the justice ministry was sometimes “intimidating” and “insulting”.

托利还总结说，拉布在司法部的工作风格有时是“让人畏惧”和“有侮辱性的”。

Mr Raab may not have intended to upset but that is not enough to get him off the hook: the British government’s own website says that bullying is “behaviour that makes someone feel intimidated or offended”.

拉布可能并不是故意的，但这不足以让他逃脱惩罚：英国政府自己的网站上说，霸凌是“让人感到畏惧或被冒犯的行为”。

The context of the Raab affair is unusual.

拉布事件的背景是不寻常的。

Media interest is high, and the relationship between civil servants and British government ministers is a very particular one.

媒体对此很感兴趣，而公务员和英国政府部长之间的关系尤其吸引媒体。

But the question of what distinguishes someone who merely sets high standards, which is Mr Raab’s version of events, from someone who is a bully is of interest in workplaces everywhere.

但是，如何区分那些要求高的人--这是拉布先生对此事件的说法--与进行霸凌的人，这在任何职场都是一个让人感兴趣的问题。

In a survey published in 2021 around 30% of American workers, for example, said they had direct experience of abusive conduct at work; in two-thirds of cases, the bully was someone above them in the food chain.

例如，在2021年公布的一项调查中，约30%的美国员工表示，他们在工作中直接经历过欺凌行为，在三分之二的案例中，霸凌者是在食物链中高于他们的人。

It is hard to read the report and not feel an unexpected twinge of sympathy for Mr Raab.

阅读这份调查报告时，很难不对拉布产生一阵意料之外的同情。

Unfashionable though it is to admit it, fear is a part of organisational life.

尽管承认这一点已经过时了，但恐惧是组织生活的一部分。

Hierarchies hand managers the power and remit to weed out poor performers.

等级制度赋予管理者权力和职权去淘汰表现不佳的员工。

Driven, demanding types are often the people who make it up the ladder.

能在等级阶梯往上爬的往往是那些上进心强、要求高的人。

Mr Raab is definitely that.

拉布先生绝对属于这一类。

Mr Tolley describes an exacting boss: hard-working, impatient and direct.

托利描述了一位要求严格的老板：勤奋、少耐心、直接。

He interrupts when he is not getting a straight answer.

当他得不到直截了当的答复时，他会打断别人。

He does not want to spend time rehearsing arguments that have already been aired.

他不想花时间来重复已经公布了的论据。

If he thinks work falls short of the required standard, he says so.

如果他认为工作没有达到要求的标准，他会直接这么说。

Mr Raab shares many of the attributes of a desk light: he is bright, glares a lot and is not known for empathy.

拉布和台灯有许多共同特点：他明亮夺目，经常对人怒目而视，也不以同理心著称。

But he appears to be motivated principally by achieving better outcomes.

但他的动机似乎主要是为了取得更好的结果。

The investigation found no evidence that Mr Raab shouted or swore at people, or that he targeted individual civil servants.

调查没有发现拉布对人大喊大叫或咒骂他人的证据，也没有证据表明他针对个别公务员。

Mr Tolley was unpersuaded by allegations from officials that he made threatening physical gestures, whether banging the table loudly or putting his hand out towards someone’s face to stop them talking.

公务员们指控拉布做出了威胁性的肢体动作，包括猛拍桌子、把手伸到某人的脸跟前以让他们闭嘴，托利对此并不信服。

The “hand out” gesture was not as emphatic as alleged, writes the lawyer; the banging was unlikely “to cause alarm”.

这位律师写道，“伸手”的动作并不像声称的那样盛气凌人，拍桌子不太可能“引起恐慌”。

If Mr Raab is a bully, he is not nearly as aggressive as some media reporting had implied.

就算拉布是职场恶霸，他也并不像一些媒体报道所暗示的那样咄咄逼人。

Yet that twinge of sympathy passes, as twinges are wont to do.

但是对拉布的这阵同情已经过去了，情绪本来就来得快，去得也快。

The number and consistency of complaints about Mr Raab is itself evidence that something was genuinely amiss.

对拉布的投诉的数量之多和内容之一致本身就证明确实有什么地方出了问题。

The civil servants who spoke out about him had worked for other ministers before; they were not greenhorns.

公开谈论拉布的公务员以前曾为其他部长工作过，他们并不是新手。

Mr Tolley is persuaded that the complainants acted in good faith, despite protests from Mr Raab that he is the victim of “activist civil servants”.

尽管拉布抗议说自己是“激进主义公务员”的受害者，但托利还是相信提出投诉的人是在就事论事。

Mr Tolley’s most acute observation is to recognise that working life is not a series of discrete incidents, each bearing no relation to the other.

托利最敏锐的观察是职场生活并不是一系列互不相关的事件，每个事件都与另一个没有关系。

Some of the complaints people had about Mr Raab might seem innocuous in isolation.

单独来看，人们对拉布的一些抱怨似乎是无伤大雅的。

A propensity to bang the table or interrupt people is discourteous but plenty of bosses do the same.

拍桌子或打断别人的习惯是不礼貌的，但许多老板也这样做。

Cutting people off in meetings would have mattered less if he was not also the sort of person to describe work he received as “utterly useless” and “woeful”.

如果他不是那种把他收到的工作描述为“完全没用”和“垃圾”的人，那么他在会议上打断别人的话也就没什么了。

Bullying can be a one-off, but more often it is incremental: stresses accumulate, anxiety builds, atmospheres form.

霸凌可以是一次性的，但更多的时候霸凌是渐进的：压力累积，焦虑增加，霸凌气氛就形成了。

And even if you think Mr Raab has been unfairly labelled as a bully, it is hard to overlook another problem -- his effectiveness as a manager.

即使你认为拉布被贴上霸凌的标签是不公平的，你也很难忽视另一个问题，即他作为管理者是否称职。

If enough people think you are a bad boss, you are a bad boss.

如果有足够多的人认为你是一个糟糕的老板，那么你就是一个糟糕的老板。

If employees try to avoid you, the pool of talent available to you shrinks.

如果员工总是躲着你，那么你可用的人才库就会缩小。

Mr Tolley himself, who has done a scrupulously fair job, clearly found the deputy prime minister trying.

托利的这个案子办得无可挑剔，他本人显然发现这位副首相很难对付。

He describes Mr Raab’s approach to the investigation as “somewhat absolutist”.

他将拉布接受调查的方式描述为“有点专制主义”。

That sounds suspiciously like British-lawyer-speak for “he is a complete nightmare”.

这听起来倒是很像英国律师所说的“他就是个彻头彻尾的噩梦”。