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彭博推送，企业遇到有毒员工，怎么办？本篇为彭博推送，主要由百度翻译，Jingyi 负责校对和略微修正，同时，我们还梳理出语言点，供读者学习英语之用。
01 译文
Donald Trump 在爱荷华州预选中大获全胜，Ron DeSantis 远远排在第二位。
周一晚，在罢工推迟（strike-delayed）的艾美奖颁奖典礼上，《继任》获得了大部分最高戏剧奖。
世界各国领导人和首席执行官齐聚（are gathering at）瑞士达沃斯世界经济论坛，关注我们的最新报道。
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Q： 我们组织的高级管理层中有一名有毒员工，导致人员流动（causing turnover），但首席执行官似乎忽视了这一点。我该怎么办--吉迪恩，华盛顿特区。
A： 好问题。大问题。其中一个问题非常难以回答，因为它既笼统（涉及到我们很多人都能认同的问题），又模糊（当细节未知时，很难解决细节）。但我和“Laurel”，一位长期从事人力资源专业的人，总是要求匿名以畅所欲言，他们将尝试。
strike-delayed 因罢工推迟的
are gathering at 齐聚
causing turnover 导致人员流动
incredibly difficult 非常难以回答
general and vague 笼统又模糊
你的第一笔业务将交给你的主管处理，鉴于你会顾虑太多。Laurel 说：“大多数好公司都有一项标准政策，即如果你在公司目睹或经历了让你或其他人感到不舒服的事情，应该直接向你的主管报告。”。“希望，如果你的主管（或者经理）受过良好的培训，那么你的经理就会知道如何处理这个问题，这取决于写这个问题的人在组织中的位置。”
但是，如果你不能去找你的主管，因为他们是问题的一部分，该怎么办？或者更糟的是：你的主管就是你一开始就感到不安的有毒员工？人力资源部应该是你的下一站。毕竟，保护员工和营造一个正常的工作环境是人力资源部门的职责。一个好的人力资源部门将与离职员工讨论他们离职的原因，这使得由于这位有毒高管而发生的离职更有可能已经在其关注范围内。你是否因此考虑离开公司？如果是这样的话，我也会把这部分内容纳入你的讨论；它将强调，这种毒性是如此普遍或明显，以至于员工部门以外的人都注意到并感受到了它的影响。
experiencing something at the company that’s making you or another person uncomfortable 在公司经历一些你不舒适的人和事
how to navigate this issue up the line 如何在地图上画出清晰的航线。言下之意，如何解决从未解决过的问题。
functional working environment 起作用的工作环境
will be talking to departing employees about why they’re leaving 将与想要离职员工，讨论他们离职的原因
will already be on its radar 已经在关注范围之内
不过，目前还不清楚为什么你确信首席执行官知道这名有毒员工。你写道他或她“似乎忽略了它”……而这“似乎”正在做大量的工作来搅乱局面。如果你非常确定——或者绝对确定——首席执行官意识到了有毒员工的行为，这会改变事情，也不会改变事情。你仍然应该向你的主管提出你的担忧。但是，根据你公司的文化，你可能还想考虑亲自去找首席执行官。这是一个合法的选择。Laurel 说，CEO 也在公司内部制订了“开诚布公”策略，你绝对可以直接向高层表示，你希望他们知道人们正在离开公司——以及为什么。并给出具体细节。Laurel 说：“优秀的首席执行官与公司的各个层面都有联系，因为他们想知道每天工作的人是谁。”。她说，在没有人力资源部门，首席执行官似乎不太可能认真对待你的担忧的情况下，假设有董事会，你总是可以考虑去找公司的一个或多个董事会成员。
muddy the waters 搅乱局面
consider going to the CEO themselves 考虑亲自找 CEO
the CEO has set forth an “open door” policy CEO 也在公司内部制订了“开诚布公”策略
and give specifics 出具具体细节
There are any number of avenues that a person can take, 一个人可以走很多路
retaliation 报复
higher-up behave badly 职位较高之人表现糟糕
I haven’t always comported myself well 并不总是表现得很好
rock the boat 捣乱
moan and groan about it 抱怨
someone is relieved of one's duty 某些人被免除其职责
这并不意味着告诉别人同事的行为很容易。Laurel 说：“一个人可以走很多路。”。“然而，风险在于基于这个问题有这么多未知因素，还有报复的风险。这不应该发生，但确实发生了。”
重要的是要记住，在这方面你并不孤单。我目睹过一位同事或更高级别的人表现得很糟糕——委婉地说——我也是这种行为的受害者。而且，老实说，我并不总是表现得很好，部分原因是恐惧。经济的不确定性对我们许多人来说都是现实，它与我们的工作息息相关，可以说关系到船是否会沉（which means rocking the boat）。因此可以这么说，捣乱（rock the boat）并非我们可以轻率作出的选择 —— 或者毫无压力地这么干。如果（In the case of ...）看到同事创造了一个有毒的工作环境，我通常所做的就是向同事抱怨。但在我自己的主管受到破坏和悄悄辱骂的情况下，我直接去找了人力资源部。多次。（除了我之外，这位主管也受到了投诉，他最终被解除了职责。）
Laurel 说，你所描述的情况——有一个有毒的员工，而首席执行官或总裁却忽视了它——实际上很常见。她说：“我工作过的两家公司可能没有发生这种情况。”。“这是让工作环境不愉快的首要因素我认为，如果领导层主席中有一位首席执行官拒绝履行职责，这是人力资源人员将离职的首要原因，因为他们的工作是在高管团队中雇佣优秀人才，并确保每一位高管都在赋予公司的每一位员工权力。这就是他们在那里的原因。”
她继续说道：“因此，作为一名人力资源人员，有很多很棒的事情要做：辅导，帮助人们成长。然后，当你遇到这样的情况，你的首席执行官只是在工作场所促成了非常非常有害的行为，你最终会花更少的时间培养员工，也更少的时间与人们一起做好工作，相反，你会进行调查你正在就你收到的所有投诉采访别人。这是一个非常悲惨的地方，也是一个非常不必要的地方。（注，这里指的调查别人这样的行为，在公司里是没必要触达的境地。）”（Laurel 因此离职。）
我的建议？与某人交谈，并留下书面记录。事实上，我建议你通过电子邮件联系你的主管——再次假设你觉得有能力这样做——要求召开会议来解决一个严重的问题。然后，在与他们一对一交谈后，一定要发送一封后续电子邮件，回顾并重复你们两人之间所说的话，以及你的主管所说的下一步行动。你可以考虑在电子邮件中抄送人力资源部，以确保每个受影响的人不仅知道有一名有毒员工，而且知道他们正在破坏业务，并在其他员工中引起恐慌。
you wind up spending less time growing the workforce and less time doing the good work with people 最终你花更少的时间培养员工，更少的时间与人们一起做好工作。
reach out to your supervisor 联系你的主管
address a serious concern 阐述一个严峻的问题
talk to them one-on-one 与他们一对一交流
email reviewing and repeating what was said between the two of you and what your supervisor says their next steps will be 一封邮件回顾及重复，你和主管之间讨论了什么，下一步该怎么办？
02 原文
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Q: Our organization has a toxic employee in senior management, causing turnover, but the CEO seems to ignore it. What should I do? —Gideon, Washington, DC
A: Good question. Big question. And one that is incredibly difficult to answer in that it’s both general (it speaks to a problem that lots of us can identify with) and vague (it’s hard to address specifics when the specifics are not known). But I and “Laurel,” a longtime human resources professional who requested anonymity to speak freely, are going to try.
Your first order of business will be going to your supervisor with your concerns. “Most good companies have a standard policy that if you are witnessing or experiencing something at the company that’s making you or another person uncomfortable, it should be reported directly to your supervisor,” Laurel says. “And hopefully, if your supervisor—your manager—is well trained, then your manager will know how to navigate this issue up the line, depending on where this person who wrote this question is in the organization.”
But what if you can’t go to your supervisor because they’re part of the problem? Or worse: Your supervisor is the toxic employee you’re upset about in the first place? HR should be your next stop. It’s the HR department’s job, after all, to protect employees and foster a functional working environment. A good HR department will be talking to departing employees about why they’re leaving, making it that much more likely that turnover taking place because of the toxic executive will already be on its radar. Are you considering leaving the company because of this? If so, I’d also make this part of your discussion; it’ll underscore that the toxicity is so pervasive or evident that people outside the employee’s department are noticing and feeling affected by it.
It’s not clear, though, why you’re sure the chief executive officer knows about the toxic employee. You write that he or she “seems to ignore it”... and that “seems” is doing a lot of work to muddy the waters. In the event that you’re pretty certain—or absolutely sure—the CEO is aware of the behavior of the toxic employee, that both does and doesn’t change things. You should still approach your supervisor with your concerns. But, depending on your company’s culture, you might also want to consider going to the CEO themselves. It’s a legitimate option. Laurel says that in a company where the CEO has set forth an “open door” policy, you should absolutely feel free to go right to the top and say you’d like them to know that people are leaving the company—and why. And give specifics. “Good CEOs are connected to every level of their company, because they want to know who the people are that are doing the work every day,” Laurel says. In a situation where there is no HR department and the CEO seems unlikely to take your concerns seriously, she says, you can always consider going to one or more of the company’s board members, assuming there is a board.
That doesn’t mean telling people about a co-worker’s behavior is easy. “There are any number of avenues that a person can take,” Laurel says. “However, the risk is with so many unknowns based on this question, there’s also the risk of retaliation. It shouldn’t happen, but it does.”
It’s important to remember that you’re not alone in this. I’ve witnessed a colleague or higher-up behave badly—to put it mildly—and I’ve also been the recipient of this sort of behavior. And, to be honest, I haven’t always comported myself well, in part because of fear. Economic uncertainty is a reality for many of us, and it’s tied to our jobs, which means rocking the boat, so to speak, is not a decision most of us take lightly—or feel free to take at all. In the case of watching a colleague create a toxic work environment, all I’ve usually done is moan and groan about it to my work peers. But in the case where my own supervisor was being undermining and quietly abusive, I went straight to HR. Multiple times. (The supervisor, who was the subject of complaints besides mine, was eventually relieved of his duties.)
Laurel says the scenario you describe—in which there’s a toxic employee and the CEO or president is ignoring it—is in fact common. “There are probably two companies that I’ve worked at [where that] did not happen,” she says. “It’s the No. 1 thing that makes a work environment unpleasant. [And] it’s the No. 1 reason why human resources people, I think, will leave a role if there is a CEO-slash-enabler in the leadership chair that refuses to do their job, because it’s their job to hire great people on their executive team and to make sure that every single executive that’s at the table is empowering every single employee at the company. That’s why they’re there.”
She continues: “So there’s so many great things that come along with being an HR person: coaching, seeing people grow. And then, when you have the situation where you have a CEO enabler who’s just enabling really, really toxic behavior in the workplace, you wind up spending less time growing the workforce and less time doing the good work with people, and instead you’re doing investigations. Instead you’re interviewing people about all of the complaints that you’re getting. And that is a very miserable place to be and a very unnecessary place to be.” (Laurel has left jobs because of this.)
My advice? Talk to someone. Oh, and leave a paper trail. In fact, I’d suggest that you reach out to your supervisor—assuming, again, that you feel able to do so—via email, asking for a meeting to address a serious concern. Then, after talking to them one-on-one, be sure to send a follow-up email reviewing and repeating what was said between the two of you and what your supervisor says their next steps will be. You might consider cc’ing HR on that email, just to make sure everyone who’s affected knows not only that there’s a toxic employee but that they’re undermining the business and causing consternation among other workers.
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