向前一步:第184期 全能女人是个神话(17)

 It's not only working parents who are looking for more hours in the day; 不仅是上班族的父母觉得白天时间不够用，

people without children are also overworked, maybe to an even greater extent. 即便没有孩子的人也会工作过度，或许程度更严重。

When I was in business school, I attended a Women in Consulting panel¹ with three speakers: 当我还在商学院读书的时候，参加过一个咨询行业的女性座谈小组。

two married women with children and one single woman without children. 3个组员里有两个已婚有孩子，一个单身没孩子。

After the married women spoke² about how hard it was to balance their lives, 两个已婚女人谈起平衡生活多么困难，

the single woman interjected that she was tired of people not taking her need to have a life seriously. 单身女人突然插话说，她烦恼的是人们从没认真想过，她自己也有生活。

She felt that her colleagues were always rushing off to be with their families, leaving her to pick up the slack³. 她觉得已婚的同事总是赶回家和家人相聚，却把她留下加班。

She argued, "My coworkers should understand that I need to go to a party tonight 她争辩道：“同事们应该理解，我晚上要去参加一个派对，

and this is just as legitimate⁴ as their kids' soccer game 这和他们去看孩子的球赛一样合情合理。

because going to a party is the only way I might actually meet someone and start a family so I can have a soccer game to go to one day!" 因为只有参加派对，我才有可能真正遇到某个人，组建一个家庭，在某一天去看我孩子的球赛！”

I often quote this story to make sure single employees know that they, too, have every right to a full life. 我常常讲这个故事，确保让单身的员工知道，他们完全有理由享受充实的个人生活。

My own concerns about combining my career and family rose to the forefront again when I was considering leaving Google for Facebook. 当我考虑离开谷歌去脸谱网时，关于事业和家庭的平衡问题又冒出来了。

I had been at Google for six and a half years and had strong leaders in place for each of my teams. 我在谷歌待了6年半，各个部门都有强有力的领导者。

By then, Google had more than 20,000 employees and business procedures that ran smoothly⁵ and allowed me to make it home for dinner with my children almost every night. 谷歌已经有20 000多名员工，业务流程也非常顺利，我基本上每天晚上都能回家和孩子们一起吃晚餐。

 

1 panel   

n.面，板，专门小组，控制板，仪表盘

参考例句：

• The unusual control panel on the walls caught our attention.墙上不同寻常的控制板引起了我们的注意。
• The panel of judges included several well-known writers.评判小组中包括几位知名作家。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 slack   

adj.松弛的，萧条的，懈怠的；vt.使松弛

参考例句：

• Slack off those ropes there,there's a storm coming!把那里的绳索放松，暴风雨就要来了！
• Some are hard at work and some are slack in work.有的勤奋工作，有的则消极怠工。

4 legitimate   

adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法

参考例句：

• Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave.生病是请假的一个正当的理由。
• That's a perfectly legitimate fear.怀有这种恐惧完全在情理之中。

5 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。