【英语生活】卑微工作的九条启示

One evening last week I was in the kitchen fixing myself a cup of tea when my son put his head around the door. I have hardly seen him since he left school last summer as he spends his days working in a sandwich shop and nights taking orders in a fast-food takeaway.

How’s it going, I asked.

Good, he replied.

These jobs of yours, I said. Have they taught you anything interesting yet about or work, or life – or anything?

Yeah, he said. They’ve taught me I like getting paid.

My question was prompted by a recent Harvard Business Review blog arguing that humble jobs teach young people more about work than any amount of poncing around as an unpaid intern in a film production company. The author, who is now a law school professor, was once a busboy and a cleaner – jobs which he says taught him lessons that have come in handy ever since.

Already I was seeing the sense in his general argument. My son’s first key takeaway from the takeaway restaurant was spot on:

● Getting paid really is nice. It is a pity most of us get so used to it that we forget to be pleased when payday comes around.

So what else had it taught him? He said he’d think about it and tell me later: he had to go or he’d be late for his evening shift.

This led to the second revelation:

● If you are earning ￡7 an hour you need to work longer than an investment banker to make any money at all.

And that, in turn, led to the third:

● Earning the minimum wage makes you grateful to live at home where there is a warm bed and full(ish) fridge. For everyone else, it is a game of survival and he doesn’t understand how they manage.

Later that evening I got a text from him saying the restaurant was quiet and that we could talk. So I went over to find the place entirely empty apart from my son, who was loafing around by the till. This led to his fourth revelation:

● Doing nothing sucks. It’s the worst thing there is. It makes you so lethargic that when things get busier you can hardly bring yourself to budge.

Isn’t he also learning how to be professional, I asked – leading the witness outrageously.

Obvs, he replied. And then came lesson number five:

● You have to be punctual. And reliable. You mustn’t swear, or turn your back on customers, or answer them back. If you have a hangover you still have to get to work on time, and you have to pretend that you feel fine.

Listening to him recite this list led me to contribute an insight of my own:

● A fast-food restaurant is an excellent finishing school. It has succeeded in areas where 18 years of liberal parenting and seven years of hugely expensive private education have made little impression.

Yet even though he has learnt how to be civil to customers, he has not learnt to like it. In fact what he has discovered is that:

● Dealing with customers can suck. Some of them are friendly, but there are lots who don’t even look at you. That gets to you after a while.

My son looked anxiously at his watch and said his boss would be in soon. But I thought you told me you liked him, I protested.

He shrugged. “He’s OK. In the beginning we went for a drink after the shift, but he decides how many hours I work, and he blames me for stuff like not ordering new menus, when that’s not even my job. So drinking with him feels weird.”

In other words he has learnt invaluable lesson number eight:

● Being friends with your manager is never a good idea.

Before I left him, I told him that his lessons bore no resemblance to the ones drawn by the HBR blogger, whose stint doing humble jobs taught him great truths about humanity: that most people want to take pride in their work, and that everyone has big dreams. What did he think of that? He pointed out it was hard to take pride in your work when the restaurant is doing badly and the manager doesn’t care.

But even with good management, some people are still useless moaners, which led him to lesson nine.

● Working with whingers is rubbish.

So what should be done about them, I asked. He looked at me as if I were an idiot.

“F-ing fire them,” he said, momentarily forgetting lesson #5.

And what about dreams? “Yeah,” he said. “Everyone here has dreams.”

Slightly dreading the answer, I asked what were his. To my relief he replied: “To get into university and to get a skilled job.”

上周的一个晚上，我在厨房给自己沏茶，我的儿子突然在门边探着脑袋。自从他今年夏天离开学校之后我几乎就没见过他，因为他白天在一家三明治店工作，晚上在一家外卖快餐店接受顾客订餐。

“最近怎么样？”我问。

“不错，”他回答说。

我问：“你的这些工作，有没有教会你一些有趣的事，不管是工作、生活或是别的什么方面的？”

“有，”他说，“它们让我知道我喜欢获得收入。”

我之所以问这个问题，是因为《哈佛商业评论》(Harvard Business Review)近期的一篇博文指出，关于工作，卑微的活计教给年轻人的东西，比在电影制作公司当一名没有工资的实习生这类游手好闲的工作多得多。文章的作者现在是一所法学院的教授，他曾当过餐馆勤杂工和清洁工，他说这样的工作教会他的东西让他一直受用。

我已经看到了他的整体观点的合理性。我儿子在外卖餐馆的第一个关键收获非常妙：

●赚到工资的感觉真的很棒。可惜的是，我们大部分人已经习惯了，以至于发工资那天忘记感到愉悦了。

那么这还教会了他什么呢？他说他会考虑考虑然后再告诉我，他得出门了，否则晚班就会迟到了。

于是得出第二个启示：

●如果你每个小时只挣7英镑，那么要想真的赚点钱，就要比投资银行家工作的时间还要长。

于是又得出了第三个启示：

●挣最低的工资让你能够感恩家里的生活，因为家里有张温暖的床和装满食物的冰箱。对于所有其他人来说，这就是一场生存游戏，他并不理解他们是如何玩好这一游戏的。

那天比较晚的时候，我收到他发来的一条短信说，餐馆很冷清，他可以和我说话。于是我来到餐馆，发现这里除了我儿子没有其他人，他在收款台边上无所事事。于是得出了第四个启示：

●无所事事很糟糕。这是最糟糕的事。它让你变得非常懒散，一旦有点忙的时候，你几乎就无法应付过来。

我问：“你是不是也在学习如何表现出职业精神？”儿子听了颇为不满。

“当然。”他回答说。于是我们得出第五个启示：

●我们必须守时，也要靠谱。不能乱承诺，也不能不理会顾客，或者和他们顶嘴。即使你是处于宿醉状态，也需要按时工作，并且要强颜欢笑。

听他讲述这些启示之后，我也总结了自己的感想：

●快餐店是一所很好的精修学校。在某些方面，18年自由式的父母言传身教和7年昂贵的私立学校教育，都没有起到什么效果，它却在这些方面取得了成功。

然而，尽管他学会了如何礼貌待客，却没有喜欢上与客人们打交道。实际上他发现：

●与客人打交道可能会很不爽。有些客人比较友好，但很多人连看都不看你一眼。工作一段时间后，个中滋味你就能体会到。

儿子紧张地看了看手表说他的老板可能马上就要来了。我反驳说：“我记得你告诉过我你喜欢他。”

他耸耸肩说：“他人不错。一开始在轮班结束后我们还去喝过两杯，但他决定我工作多长时间，还因为一些事责怪过我，比方说不订购新菜单，但这些甚至都不在我职责范围内。因此和他喝酒感觉怪怪的。”

换句话说，他学到了第八条珍贵的经验：

●与老板称兄道弟绝不是什么好主意。

在我离开他之前，我告诉他，他得出的启示与《哈佛商业评论》那篇博文的作者得出的一点也不一样。那位作者从事的少量卑微工作教会了他关于人性的伟大真理：大多数人都希望以自己的工作为骄傲，每个人都有远大的梦想。我儿子对此是怎么看的呢？他认为，当餐馆生意糟糕，而经理不在乎的时候，很难对工作感到骄傲。

但即使有着很好的管理，一些人依然是无用的抱怨者，于是他得出了第九个启示。

●和爱抱怨的人共事糟糕透顶。

我问：“那么应该如何应付他们呢？”他看着我，仿佛我就是一个傻子。

“解雇他们，”他回答说，似乎暂时忘记了第五个启示。

那么梦想呢？他说：“是的，这里的每个人都有梦想。”

我对他的回答有点担忧，于是问他的梦想是什么。他的回答让我松了一口气，他说：“上大学，然后找一份有技术含量的工作。”

译者/王慧玲