2009年,一如80年前的大萧条时期,全球处于低气压。下至基层工人,上至高层干部,都要直面一波又一波的“裁员”风暴。相比起普罗大众,曾经仕途坦荡的高层可能更难以接受身上烙上“我被淘汰了”这个印记。“重新上路,找寻新方向”这个信念给予了每个身处低谷的人莫大的鼓励,也成为了一帮身处逆境的CEO们不变的信仰。
文字难度：★★★
Greg Sam, 50, has always been a rising corporate star. In his most recent job, as a vice president for 1)Millipore, a company that services the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, Mr. Sam built a quality-oversight program 2)from scratch into a staff of 350 working worldwide.
格雷格·山姆,今年50岁,多年来,他一直都是企业界里稳步高升的骄子。他最近的一份工作是在密理博公司担任副总裁一职。密理博公司为医疗药业与生物工程业界提供服务。山姆先生从零开始,建立了一个拥有350名员工,服务范围覆盖全球的质量监督体系。
For this, he earned a mid-six-figure income and traveled the globe, making two dozen business trips a year. At Millipore’s 50th anniversary celebration in Puerto Rico, Mr. Sam delivered the keynote speech in Spanish. In France, he sometimes conducted business in French.
凭着出色的业绩,他赚取约五十万的年薪,经常全球各地跑,一年要出差二十四次。在波多黎各举行的密理博公司成立50周年的庆祝活动中,山姆先生用西班牙语发表重要讲话。而有时候在法国,他会用法语处理业务。
In fact, Mr. Sam was so good at what he did, he was fired.
事实是,正是因为表现得太出色,山姆先生被炒。
“He came in, built us a global quality assurance program, but now that it’s in place, we don’t need a person of his skills and 3)caliber to continue running it,” said Dr. Martin D. Madaus, the president of Millipore, who fired Mr. Sam during a round of 200 layoffs in last December.
在去年12月公司裁员200人的时候,密理博公司的总裁马丁·D·马多斯博士辞退了山姆先生。他说:“他当初来我们公司创建了一个全球质量安全系统。而现在这套系统运作已上轨道,我们并不需要一个能力才干如此突出的人来继续管理这个系统。”
As Dr. Madaus explained when he visited Mr. Sam’s office to deliver the bad news, it was nothing personal. But because Mr. Sam was so highly valued until he was fired, Millipore added about $40,000 to his4)severance package for job placement services.
正如当时马多斯博士到山姆先生的办公室亲自向他宣布这个坏消息时说的那样,此举并非针对山姆先生个人。不过因为在此之前山姆先生十分德高望重,所以密理博公司在给他的资遣费中额外加了约四万美元,以便他重新找到工作。
“The higher up you are,” said Dr. Madaus, whose company employs 6,000, “the longer it takes to find a new job.”
“你的地位越高,你就得花更长的时间去找新工作。”马多斯博士如是说。他的密理博公司共有六千名员工。
For three months, instead of going to work, Mr. Sam has come to a top-of-the-line job-search firm, New Directions headquartered in Boston. As its 5)literature says, New Directions specializes in helping unemployed “C.E.O.’s,6)C.O.O.’s, 7)C.F.O.’s, 8)C.I.O.’s” find their way back up the corporate ladder.
在随后的三个月里,山姆先生并不是去上班,而是来到一家总部位于波士顿,名为“新方向”的顶级求职公司。就它字面宣传的那样,“新方向”擅长帮助失业的“首席执行官、首席运营官、首席财务官、首席信息官”重回公司高层。
Situated in the heart of Boston with beautiful views; 9)staffed by friendly professionals with advanced degrees; stocked with plenty of fresh-brewed coffee and free lunches, New Directions feels like an exclusive corporate retreat—except that the participants have lost their corporations.
“新方向”坐落在波士顿的中心地带,那里风景优美,员工态度友善,全是拥有高等学历的专业人士,现煮的咖啡和免费午餐供应充足,一切都让人感到这里就像是一个公司高管的高级度假胜地,只不过现实是到这里来的顾客都是失业者。
Like Mr. Sam, most of the 85 current clients are 10)baby boomers who have enjoyed an uninterrupted string of successes but now, in very bad times, are struggling to back into the market.
目前在这里的85名顾客中,大部分都像山姆先生一样,是二战后婴儿潮时段出生的,一帆风顺地走过来,但在这个经济不景气的当下,他们却要努力重回职场。
Mark Gorham, a Harvard Business School 11)grad and a former 12)Hewlett-Packard vice president, has been unemployed for six months. At first, he said: “I sat around thinking someone will realize how great I am and call me 13)out of the blue. Next, I figured, I’ll throw out my great résumé to search firms and someone will come knocking.” Now he’s learning networking from Jeffrey Redmond, his personal job coach.
马克·葛罕毕业于哈佛商学院,以前是惠普的副总裁。他已经失业六个月了。他说,一开始,“我守株待兔,想着总会有人意识到我的优秀之处,不期然地给我来个电话。随后,我又想,如果我把我那顶呱呱的履历送到猎头公司,就会有人来敲门。”而现在,他正在跟他的个人职业顾问杰弗里·雷德蒙学习如何运用人际关系网络。
Mr. Redmond, a partner who has been at New Directions since its founding 23 years ago, said, “At 53, Mark has to learn to tell his story and, like a marching band, 14)toot his own horn.”
自“新方向”公司23年前创办以来,雷德蒙先生就一直是公司的合伙人。他说:“已经53岁的马克必须学会怎样讲述自己的故事,就像一支仪仗乐队一样,吹起号角,推销自己。”
Mr. Gorham is looking for a job using his management skills in the renewable-energy field.
葛罕先生的目标是在可再生能源领域找一个能发挥他的管理才能的工作。
“We try to work on it a little every day,” Mr. Redmond said. “Three contacts today, three tomorrow. At the end of month we have 60 people thinking about this guy who can bring all this knowledge to a growing industry.”
“我们尽力每天踏出一小步,”雷德蒙先生说,“今天联系三个人,明天再联系三个。这样到了月底,就有六十个人在想或许这人能够把他的经验带到这个新兴行业当中。”
Mr. Gorham dreaded his first networking call in January. For weeks, he and Mr. Redmond rehearsed.
在一月的时候,葛罕对他要打的第一个联系电话惧怕不已。他与雷德蒙先生为此反复排练了好几个星期。
“Like a lot of senior executives, Mark was used to going on and on,” Mr. Redmond said. “He used to give speeches to thousands of people.” But now they practiced answering questions in 45 seconds.
“跟许多高级主管一样,马克习惯了讲起话来没个完,”雷德蒙先生说,“他以前会对着数千人讲话。”而现在,他们要练习在45秒里回答他人的问题。
“Jeff told me I could just talk 40 percent of the time,” Mr. Gorham said.
“杰弗跟我说,我说话的时间只能占整个谈话时间的40%左右,”葛罕说。
Mr. Redmond had him write a one-page script.
雷德蒙让他写了一页纸的讲稿。
“We rehearsed to get it shorter,” Mr. Redmond said.
雷德蒙说:“我们一起排练,把稿子再精简了一下。”
“Before calling,” Mr. Gorham said, “I must have rehearsed five more times at my office at home.”
葛罕先生说:“在拿起电话之前,我在家中的办公室里至少又演练了5次。”
The first call was to a colleague he hadn’t spoken with in eight years.
第一个电话是打给一位他已经八年没有联系的同事。
“I knew he’d be nice,” Mr. Gorham said. “We weren’t supposed to pick the toughest one for our first call. Part of the dread was saying I didn’t have a job. I’ve never not had one. But I realized I wasn’t calling to say, ‘Hey can you hire me.’ I basically was letting him know what’s going on and getting his advice on my plan.”
“我知道他会对我很客气,”葛罕先生说,“我们不会挑最难缠的来做第一个电话联系对象。最让我害怕的是要告诉对方,我失业了。我还从没失业过。但我也意识到,我给对方打电话不是要恳求他雇用我。我只不过是让他了解我目前的状况,让他对我目前的计划提出建议。”
Mr. Redmond said in its 23 years, New Directions has served 2,400 executives and, typically, they find new positions in seven to nine months, although in a recession that could be a year.
雷德蒙先生说,在过去的23年里,“新方向”曾为2400名高管提供服务。一般说来,他们会在七到九个月里找到新职位,不过在经济危机中,等待时间可能长达一年。
If it is a year, Mr. Sam said his severance will cover him, but after that he would have to dip into savings.
山姆先生说,他的解雇费可以让他维持一年时间,如果要等更长的时间,他就要动用积蓄了。
“My frame of mind is realistic, a bit anxious,” he said. “Last night I sat with my wife and we looked at our finances. My philosophy is, be aware of it, manage it, but don’t get obsessed by it—that’s not doing myself or family any good.”
“我的心理状况既现实又不乏焦虑,”他说,“昨晚,我跟妻子坐下来,研究我们的财务状况。我的理财哲学是:了解现状,好好管理,但不沉迷其中,不然对我自己和家人都没有任何好处。”
On a recent Tuesday, Mr. Sam sat in on a seminar. Many of the men attending were dressed as they had for work, in jackets and ties. Though sitting in a room full of such bright, 15)urbane unemployed people could be worrisome, Mr. Sam found it calming.
在最近的一个星期二,山姆先生参加了一个讲座。出席讲座的许多人的衣着都如同他们此前上班时一样:西装革履。虽说坐在这样一群才华横溢,彬彬有礼的失业人士当中会令人不安,但他的心却觉得很平静。
He spent six hours at New Directions that day. He had his weekly meeting with his job coach, who gave him tips on cutting his résumé from five pages to three. He met with the New Directions research director, Claire Burday for advice and spoke with the staff psychologist, Dr. William Winn, who’d given him 16)a battery of tests, and for several hours interviewed him to make sure he was suited for the jobs he’s seeking.
那天,他在“新方向”呆了六个小时。每周他与职业顾问会面,顾问教他如何把五页长的履历减到三页。他与“新方向”的研究主任克莱尔·博戴会面,向她讨教。他又与心理学家威廉·威恩博士聊了聊,后者曾让他参与了一系列的测试,与他谈了数小时,要确定他适合目前所找的工作。
Dr. Winn concluded that it wouldn’t be wise for Mr. Sam to take a position that would focus solely on what’s wrong with a company. Mr. Sam is a builder who needs to be involved in fixing what’s wrong, Dr. Winn noted.
威恩博士的结论是,要是山姆先生找一份完全专注于给公司找茬的工作,那是不明智的。威恩博士注意到,山姆先生是一个创建者,他应该参与纠正问题。
Indeed, asked what he missed about his old job, Mr. Sam said, “There was still plenty of opportunity to improve the company.” And he is ready for a new direction.
确实,在被问到对于他以前的工作,他最怀念的是什么时,山姆先生答道:“公司可改善的空间还很大。”而他已经做好准备朝新方向迈进。
