評論
打印
My amazement at his pride and joy in salesmanship will be easily understood by all who read this article. In many shops the customer has to wait for someone to wait upon him. And when finally some clerk does deign to notice you, you are made to feel as if you were interrupting him. Either he is absorbed in profound thought in which he hates to be disturbed or he is skylarking with a girl clerk and you feel like apologizing for thrusting yourself into such intimacy.
我對這少年做買賣的自豪感和喜悅的心情覺得驚異，讀者對此當不難理解。因為在許多商店，顧客得靜候店員的招呼。當一個店員終于屈尊注意到你，他那種模樣會讓你覺得你在打擾他。他不是沉浸在沉思中，惱恨別人打斷他的思路，就是在同女店員嬉笑聊天，讓你感到不該打斷了如此親昵的談話，反要向他道歉似的。
He displays no interest either in you or in the goods he is paid to sell. Yet possibly that very clerk who is now so apathetic began his career with hope and enthusiasm. The daily grind was too much for him; the novelty wore off; his only pleasures were found outside of working hours. He became a mechanical, not inspired, salesman. After being mechanical, he became incompetent; then he saw younger clerks who had more zest in their work, promoted over him. He became sour. That was the last stage. His usefulness was over.
無論對你，或是對他領了報酬專門來出售的貨物，他都毫無興趣。然而就是這么個無動于衷的店員，可能當初也是懷著希望和熱情開始他的職業的。年復一年枯燥乏味的苦差使叫他無法忍受；新奇感被磨掉了；只在工作之余，他才能找到一點歡樂。他成了一個機械的、沒有干勁的售貨員；機械呆板之后便是笨拙無能；他看到那些工作熱情比他高的年輕店員晉升，超過了他，他開始煩躁不安。他已走到最后一站，已全無價值。
I have observed this melancholy decline in the lives of so many men in so many occupations that I have come to the conclusion that the surest road to failure is to do things mechanically. There are many teachers in schools and colleges who seem duller than the dullest of their pupils; they go through the motions of teaching, but they are as impersonal as a telephone.
各行各業都有許許多多人在生活的道路上走下坡路，意氣消沉。我見得太多了，便得出了一個結論：機械地干工作必然導致失敗。一些學院和學校里面許多教師，幾乎比他們最遲鈍的學生還要呆板；他們也進行教學活動，但就像一臺電話機一般，絲毫沒有一點人情味。
