作者简介：Ross McCammon，《男士健康》（Men's Health）特别项目编辑、《大众机械》（Popular Mechanics）文章编辑，著有《和睦处世》（Works Well With Others）。
概念说明：
① 千禧一代，说法众多，定义比较模糊，大概包括我们认识中的80、90后。
- When you’re in middle age, you have no choice but to learn from the kids
- 人到中年，不得不向小孩儿们学习学习。
I got laid off a couple years ago, at 41. When you get laid off and you’re 40 or older, included in your severance packet is a document that lists the ages of all your co-workers. It’s required under the — and typing this makes me slightly despondent — Older Workers Benefit Protection Act of 1990, meant to defend the benefits of workers from age discrimination. Perusing this list feels wrong, like you’re invading your former colleagues’ privacy. Yet you can’t look away. Seeing your age and their ages, like that, in a list, in black and white, jolts you into considering where you’re at on your professional journey. And what I realized when I saw my age on the list: I was much older than I thought.
几年前，我被单位踢掉了，当时已经41岁。根据防止员工受到年龄歧视的1990年《年长员工权益保护法》，如果员工在40多岁遭到解雇，离职文件中必须附带一份清单，列明该名员工所有同事的年龄。可我在写出这些话时，还是有点儿沮丧。看着这份清单，虽然心头觉得不应该，感觉就像侵犯了老同事的隐私，却又无法将目光移开。面对着表中自己的年龄、他们的年龄，就这样看着，白纸黑字，猛然意识到是该想一想自己的职业发展状况了。看着自己的年纪，我才发现，原来自己比想象中老得多。
It wasn't just that I was 41, which, let’s face it, isn't old. It was that I was 41 and bored. And a little tired. And, at times, cantankerous. Crotchety, you might say. My professional age was more like 51. Sometimes 61. Once, in a conversation with an intern in the work kitchen about the fridge clean-out schedule, I was 89. A spry 89, but still.
不仅因为我已经41岁了（说实话，这个年龄并不大），而是我不仅41岁了，还厌倦了，而且有点儿累了，时不时还会变得烦躁易怒。也许，你会说我“怪胎”。我的资历更像是51岁，有时像是61岁。有一次，我在公司餐饮室碰到一个实习生，聊了聊冰箱该多久清理一次。当时我觉得自己有89岁，不过是精神头好点儿。
Exacerbating this problem was the fact that I had spent the entire span of my thirties at one place — a prestigious men’s magazine. I thought I had stability and security and swagger. What I didn't realize is that I had slowly started draining energy from the place where I worked instead of injecting it with my own. I was getting soft. I was getting lazy. I was getting older than my colleagues.
更严重的问题是，我从30岁起就在一家著名男性杂志工作，整整十年没有变过。曾经，我以为过上了高人一等的安稳生活，没有意识到自己并未在工作中投入精力，而是已经开始慢慢消耗自己。我变得越来越软弱，越来越懒散。与同事们相比，我的年纪也越来越大。
And then I was getting let go.
后来，公司就让我走人了。
A couple months into unemployment, I got a job at another prestigious men's magazine. There, I was even older relative to my colleagues. And I was all of a sudden having to prove myself, for the first time in a decade. To do this, I had no choice but to become one of them. And becoming one of them meant lowering my professional age.
晃荡了几个月之后，我在另一家著名男性杂志谋得一份差事。在这家公司，我与其他同事的年龄差距更大。忽然之间，我不得不证明自己的能力，这还是十年以来的头一遭呢。为此，我别无他法，只能成为大家当中的一份子，也就是说必须放低身段。
When you’re middle-aged and suddenly find yourself surrounded by younger people, you can either ignore them (because what could they — especially Jaydn — possibly teach you?) or you can open your mind and learn from them. You can Benjamin Button your way to a renewed career. All it requires is a little humility and a lot of respect for people who are hardworking, ambitious, and bubbling with a thousand times more energy than you. It requires learning from them.
一个中年人，突然发觉周围的人都比自己年轻，要么直接忽略他们——这些人，尤其是职场小白，能比自己能耐？也可以放开思想，向他们学习。中年员工可以放下身段，重新开创一番事业。只需要虚心一些，对这些努力上进、干劲十足的年轻人表示尊重。我们需要向他们学习。
And if you choose to learn, here's what they'll teach you.
如果决定向年轻人学习，这里就谈一谈可以从他们身上学到什么。
No one cares how old you are.
年龄不是问题
They care how good you are. And how kind. And how willing you are to collaborate. They don't care how old you are. But they do care about how old you seem.
他们看中的是你的能力，你的人品，你和他们并肩作战的意愿。他们不在乎你实际有多大，而是你看起来有多大。
Your office is a trap.
独立办公室是一个圈套
Recent research has debunked the hateful myth that open offices are more productive offices. But here's my own research on a less-studied aspect of the office setup: Unless you’re the boss — and maybe even then — that office is ultimately going to get you fired. That office is an illusion. It’s a comfy sweater that hides your weight gain. It's a warm place for people who are tired and want to talk to the cat groomer without anyone knowing their business. I spent a lot of my twenties and thirties waiting for the day I'd have an office, and I finally got one at the new place. And all of a sudden I was working with people who just didn't care about it.
最近有研究表明，开放型办公室并不会提高工作效率。但是，根据我自己对办公室布局的经验，除非你是老板，或者说就算你是老板，独立办公室最终都会让自己没好果子吃。独立办公室是一场幻觉，是一件遮住身上肥肉的衫衣，是疲惫的人躲着大家联系宠物店服务的安乐窝。二三十岁的时候，我一直期待着拥有自己办公室的那一天，现在终于在新东家得到了一间。谁料想，和我一块儿工作的人根本就不在乎这个。
Not only did they not care, but during a restructuring, one of my colleagues was actually bummed he would have to leave Cubeland and move into his own closed-door space. At first, it didn't compute. “But you have a door, man!” I thought. “And you can close it! You can privately talk to your plumber!!”
不仅是不在乎。有一次公司装修，我一同事必须从格子间搬到自己独立的办公室，他居然还挺不乐意。起初，我没想明白。心想：你办公室有门儿啦，兄嘚！你可以关门谈私事儿啦！
But now I get it. For him, the office is a democracy. The office is where you work with people and make interesting things happen, together. Why would you work any better because you were able to close your door? Why wouldn't you want to be around other people who are working hard? Why wouldn't you want to Slack funny shit to them and hear them laugh about it? Why wouldn't you want to be an active member of a community? (Because you’re tired, that’s why. And your office is where you can nap with your eyes open. And soften.)
现在我明白了。对他而言，办公室意味着民主。办公室就是和大家一起工作、一起创造乐趣的地方。为什么你关上门就能更好地工作？为什么不愿意呆在努力的人旁边，不愿意讲几个段子博大家一笑，不愿意成为集体中的积极分子？答案就是，因为你累了。而在自己的办公室，可以睁着眼睛打瞌睡，松懈下来。
You're acting old.
老员工只是表现得年龄大
The older employee can’t help it sometimes. At some point you just lose the ability to sense your own behaviors. And early on at my new job, I was just that older employee. I interrupted people in meetings. It got back to me, too, and it was mortifying. So I changed my behavior. Soon there were numerous other behaviors I discovered I needed to change: Saying no a lot. Also: “We done here?” The “no-look pass” where you walk past someone in the hallway without acknowledgment. Attentive readers will note that what these jackanapes were pushing me to develop were… manners.
有时候，老员工真是不由自主地表现出老成。从某种程度上讲，老员工已经失去了辨别自己行为举止的能力。刚到新东家时，我也是这样的老员工，而且在会上打断别人说话。然后当然是遭报应了，而且真是让我无地自容。所以，我改变了自己的行为。很快，我又发现自己还有很多需要改正的地方，比如经常说“不”。另外还有“说完了吧？”以及“漠然路过”，就是在走廊上碰到某人，却不打招呼就走了。细心的读者应该会发现，这些不好的言谈举止让我，呃，形成了习惯。
You can change your job from within.
转变心态就能改变工作状态
If you came up in the 2000s, within a year or two of being in the workforce, you were disabused of the notion that you have, you know, a say in what kind of work you do and how you do it. But for people coming up in the 2010s — people who look at jobs as stints — being nimble and entrepreneurial is just how you are… always. You pivot, either to another job entirely or to a new way of doing your current job. For older workers, you just have to tap into that post-college idealism you felt at your first job. Because you were right and they were trying to screw you over. The office manager who says “We don’t have the resources for that” or “Please leave my office” is an obstacle you have to work around, not a brick wall.
如果你是2000年以后参加工作，入职不出一两年就会醒悟过来：自己对做什么工作、怎么做是没有发言权的；但是对于2010年以后参加工作，把工作当任务完成的人，他们本来就比较机智、有闯劲，可以今天干这个，明天干那个，或者把现在的工作玩儿出新花样。对于老员工，必须重温自己在第一份工作当中感受到的那种刚出校门的理想主义精神。那时候的你认为自己全对，其他人就是想要和自己对着干。“我们没资源搞那个”、“请离开我的办公室”，说出这种话的经理只是需要绕开的障碍，不是一堵过不去的墙。
Mentorship is reciprocal.
教导这事儿是相互的
Help them. Because you know things and have seen things. And you are inured to certain events, like mass layoffs and budget cuts. You know how to cope. Your stalwart attitude is a model. But also admit what you don’t know. There’s nothing more humble than saying to a younger colleague, “You’re better at this than me. You should do it, and I’ll watch.” And there’s nothing more flattering.
作为老员工，应该帮助年轻人。因为你懂得多、见得多，对大规模裁员和预算缩减习以为常，应付自如。你的坚定就是一面旗帜。但同时，老员工要正视自己认识的不足。告诉年轻同事：“这个你比我在行，你来，我看着就行。”既能很好地体现自己虚怀若谷，又是对他们莫大的恭维。
You have to move on.
不能停滞不前
Younger workers just don’t carry around shame and embarrassment like older workers. Social media has provided them with a platform for expression and feedback to that expression. We think we’re the calloused ones. We’re not. They are.
年轻员工不像老员工那般容易害臊、难为情。社交媒体为他们提供了一个平台，让他们既能表达自我，也清楚别人对他们的反馈评价。我们觉得自己是身经百战的老油条，其实不对，他们才是。
You have to stay hungry.
不能满足于现状
People in their twenties have always been naturally hungry. They’re even hungrier now that, almost a quarter of the way into this bonkers century, “stability” seems like an outmoded concept. If you’re not looking to prove your worth every day, then you've stopped being afraid to fail. So you will.
二十几岁的年轻人天生不知足。在这个疯狂的世纪即将走过四分之一之际，他们更加饥渴，“稳定”看来已经是老掉牙的观念。如果老员工不注意每天提高自己，就说明自己对跌倒已经无所顾忌，就会因此而栽跟头。
Earlier this year, I was laid off from the new place, too. It was a strangely thrilling experience. It felt like an opportunity, not an ordeal. The prospect of starting over somewhere else wasn't traumatic at all. Why would it be? I was nimble, eager, ambitious, and unshakable. I was young.
今年年初，新东家也把我裁掉了。但这次我却感到一种奇妙的刺激，觉得像是一场机遇，而非苦难。想着从什么地方重新开始，我竟然一点也不难过。为什么要难过呢？曾经的我也机智热情，也有雄心壮志，坚定不可动摇。我也年轻过。
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