双语新闻：微软新发的裁员备忘录遭嗤笑

2014-08-25 17:40:52来源：可可英语

　　Rule 3. The word “align” serves as a warning that the sentence in which it appears is a dud. MrElop performs no fewer than six acts of alignment in this memo, each more heroic than thelast. In none of them is it clear exactly what he is lining up, nor why it matters that such thingsshould be in a line at all.

　　第三条：“align”(使一致)一词可起到警示标志的作用，人们只要在句子中看到这个词，就能知道这句话是废话。在这份备忘录中，埃洛普“使一致”了不下六次，一次比一次有决心，但没有一次阐明他到底想使什么相互一致，也没有阐明为何应当使这些东西相互一致。

　　“To align with Microsoft’s strategy, we plan to focus our efforts,” he starts with unhelpfulcircularity. He assures us that there will be a lot more aligning: “We will focus on delivering greatbreakthrough products in alignment with major milestones ahead,” thus craftily slipping in fiveother weasel words. In rising order of obnoxiousness, these are: focus, major, milestone,breakthrough and delivering.

　　这个词首先出现在一句毫无意义的罗圈话中：“为了与微软的战略相一致，我们计划集中我们的力量。”埃洛普向我们保证，将来还会有许许多多的“使一致”：“我们将专注于交付与我们未来的重大里程碑相一致的伟大突破性产品。”就这样，他又巧妙地将另外五个含糊其辞的词塞了进来。按可憎程度的升序排列，这五个词分别是：focus(专注)、major(重大)、milestone(里程碑)、breakthrough(突破)和deliver(交付)。

　　But it is only with Mr Elop’s final act of alignment that we see the point of it. “As difficult assome of our changes are today, this direction deliberately aligns our work with the crosscompany efforts that Satya has described in his recent emails.”

　　在埃洛普最后一次祭出“使一致”大法时，我们才弄明白他为什么要这么做。“尽管今天我们的部分改变很艰难，但其方向有意识地使我们的工作与萨蒂亚在他近期电子邮件中描述的‘跨公司努力’相一致。”

　　In other words, don’t blame him. Blame the CEO, Satya Nadella, or, better still, blame the needfor arranging things in lines.

　　换句话说就是：别怪我，要怪就怪首席执行官萨蒂亚•纳德拉(Satya Nadella);或者更好的做法是，怪那种要使东西保持一致的需要。

　　Rule 4. When things are cheap or expensive, say so. Don’t bang on about the “affordablesmartphone space” and “high-end” devices. This fools no one, and alienates practicallyeveryone.

　　第四条：东西是便宜还是贵，直白地说出来。别再喋喋不休地说什么“买得起的智能手机空间”(affordablesmartphone space)和“高端”(high-end)设备。这么说骗不了任何人，事实上只会让所有人反感。

　　Rule 5. Avoid the word “experience”. Not only is it the most fashionable of all managementbuzz words, it is misleading. An experience is something that leaves an impression on you;everyday activities ought to do no such thing, or we would all be exhausted within minutes ofwaking up. Using your phone, except perhaps when it’s brand new, should not be anexperience. I do not want the “device experiences” or even less the “digital life experiences”,that Mr Elop is trying to “showcase” to his customers.

　　第五条：避免使用“experience”(体验)一词。这不仅是因为它是所有管理类流行词中最时髦的一个，还因为它具有误导性。体验是某种给你留下印象的东西;日常活动不该涉及这种事，否则每天睡醒后用不了几分钟我们就全都会精疲力尽。用电话不该是一种体验——或许全新的电话除外。我不想要什么“设备体验”，更不想要埃洛普试图“展示”给客户的“数字化生活体验”。

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