美国文化脱口秀 第249期:披露亚马逊企业文化

最近《纽约时报》一篇披露亚马逊企业文化的文章引起轩然大波。亚马逊被指以高压政策管理员工、鼓励员工间激烈的竞争甚至斗争、企业文化冷酷无情。那么在亚马逊工作究竟是什么样子呢?这样的管理方式和企业文化在美国是主流吗?今天我们就节选了这篇《纽约时报》原文的精华段落，为你朗读和解释。

披露亚马逊企业文化

Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace

The company is conducting an experiment in how far it can push

white-collar workers to get them to achieve its ever-expanding ambition.

They are told to forget the "poor habits" they learned at previous jobs, one employee recalled. When they "hit the wall" from the unrelenting pace, there is only one solution: "Climb the wall," others reported. To be the best Amazonians they can be, they should be guided by the leadership principles, 14 rules inscribed on handy laminated cards. When quizzed days later, those with perfect scores earn a virtual award proclaiming, "I'm Peculiar" — the company's proud phrase for overturning workplace conventions.

关键词

To wrestle: 角力、奋斗

Bruising: 让人伤痕累累、惨烈的

Tough: 竞争激烈的

Excerpt: 节选、精华

Unrelenting: 冷酷无情的

Leadership principles: 管理原则

Peculiar: 特立独行的

At Amazon, workers are encouraged to tear apart one another's ideas in meetings, toil long and late (emails arrive past midnight, followed by text messages asking why they were not answered), and held to standards that the company boasts are "unreasonably high." The internal phone directory instructs colleagues on how to send secret feedback to one another's bosses. Employees say it is frequently used to sabotage others. (The tool offers sample texts, including this: "I felt concerned about his inflexibility and openly complaining about minor tasks.")

关键词

Fresh recruit: 新入职的员工

Aggressive: 激烈的、强势的

Tear apart: 摧毁、撕裂

Toil long and late: 幸苦地长时间劳作

Survival of the fittest: 适者生存

Unreasonably high standards: 不近人情的高标准

Tattletale: 背后告密、说别人坏话

Sabotage: 蓄意破坏、斗争

Ruthless: 冷酷的

Extreme: 极端的

Highly competitive: 竞争激烈的

Ultra aggressive/uber aggressive: 超级激烈的

最后再选一段节目中没有读到的文章内容，以亚马逊创始人Jeff Bezos的角度来解读亚马逊的企业文化：

Mr. Rossman, the former executive, said that Mr. Bezos was addressing a meeting in 2003 when he turned in the direction of Microsoft, across the water from Seattle, and said he didn't want Amazon to become "a country club." If Amazon becomes like Microsoft, "we would die," Mr. Bezos added.

In a recent recruiting video, one young woman warns: "You either fit here or you don't. You love it or you don't. There is no middle ground."