1、 Unit 2 The Company Man Ellen Goodman1 1 He worked himself to death, finally and precisely, at 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning. 2 The obituary didnt say that, of course. It said that he died of a coronary thrombosis I think that was it but everyone among his friends and acquaintances knew it instantly. He
2、was a perfect Type A2, a workaholic, a classic, they said to each other and shook their heads and thought for five or ten minutes about the way they lived. 3 This man who worked himself to death finally and precisely at 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning on his day off was fifty-one years old and a vice-presi
3、dent. He was, however, one of six vice-presidents, and one of three who might conceivably if the president died or retired soon enough have moved to the top spot. Phil knew that. 4 He worked six days a week, five of them until eight or nine at night, during a time when his own company had begun the
4、four-day week for everyone but the executives. He worked like the Important People3. He had no outside “extracurricular interests,” unless, of course, you think about a monthly golf game that way. To Phil, it was work. He always ate egg salad sandwiches at his desk. He was, of course, overweight, by
5、 20 or 25 pounds. He thought it was okay, though, because he didnt smoke. 5 On Saturdays, Phil wore a sports jacket to the office instead of a suit, because it was the weekend. 6 He had a lot of people working for him, maybe sixty, and most of them liked him most of the time. Three of them will be s
6、eriously considered for his job. The obituary didnt mention that. 7 But it did list his “survivors” quite accurately. He is survived by his wife, Helen, forty-eight years old, a good woman of no particular marketable skills, who worked in an office before marrying and mothering. She had, according t
7、o her daughter, given up trying to compete with his work years ago, when the children were small. A company friend said, “I know how much you will miss him.” And she answered, “I already have.” 8 “Missing him all these years,” she must have given up part of herself which had cared too much for the m
8、an. She would be “well taken care of.” 9 His “dearly beloved” eldest of the “dearly beloved” children is a hard-working executive in a manufacturing firm down South. In the day and a half before the funeral, he went around the neighborhood researching his father, asking the neighbors what he was lik
9、e. They were embarrassed. 10 His second child is a girl, who is twenty-four and newly married. She lives near her mother and they are close, but whenever she was alone with her father, in a car driving somewhere, they had nothing to say to each other. 11 The youngest is twenty, a boy, a high-school
10、graduate who has spent the last couple of years, like a lot of his friends, doing enough odd jobs to stay in grass and food4. He was the one who tried to grab at his father, and tried to mean enough to him to keep the man at home. He was his fathers favorite. Over the last two years, Phil stayed up
11、nights worrying about the boy. 12 The boy once said, “My father and I only board here5.” 13 At the funeral, the sixty-year-old company president told the forty-eight-year-old widow that the fifty-one-year-old deceased had meant much to the company and would be missed and would be hard to replace. Th
12、e widow didnt look him in the eye. She was afraid he would read her bitterness and, after all, she would need him to straighten out the finances the stock options6 and all that. 14 Phil was overweight and nervous and worked too hard. If he wasnt at the office he was worried about it. Phil was a Type
13、 A, a heart-attack natural. You could have picked him out in a minute from a lineup. 15 So when he finally worked himself to death, at precisely 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning, no one was really surprised. 16 By 5:00 p.m. the afternoon of the funeral, the company president had begun, discreetly of course,
14、 with care and taste, to make inquiries about his replacement. One of three men. He asked around: “Whos been working the hardest?” 工作狂 最终，他于星期天凌晨 3点工作致死。 当然，讣告上没有这样写。讣告上写的是死于冠状动脉血栓证，但他的好友和熟识的人都心知肚明。他们互相握着手，摇头叹息地说他是一个追求完美的 A 型血人，一个典型的工作狂，然后用几分钟时间来反思自己的生活方式。 这个男人最终在星期天凌晨三点整工作致死。星期天的早上，这天刚好是这个 51 岁的副总裁
15、的休息日。 他是公司六位副总裁之一，也是副总裁中三位最让人信任的人之一，如果总裁已经逝世或者退休的话，他已经成为了最高职位。菲尔清楚这一点。 他一周工作六 天，其中五天工作到夜里八九点，他的公司里除了高级官员，其他人都已经开始四天工作制。 他工作起来像一个重要人物。 当然，就像你想象中那样，他每月打一次高尔夫球，他没有其他的爱好。对菲尔而言，高尔夫是工作。他总是在他的桌前吃着吃鸡蛋沙拉三明治，他难免有点发福，超重了 20-25磅。他想这没什么关系，因为他从不抽烟。 星期六，菲尔换下西服，穿着运动衫去上班，因为这是周末。 他有大约 60个人为他效力，大部分人在大部分时候觉得他很不错。其中三位紧盯
16、着他的职位。讣告上没有提及这些。 但是讣告详细地介绍了他的遗孀。他的妻 子，海伦，一个 48岁的好女人，没有什么特别的市场能力，在结婚生子之前在一家公司上班。 她说，在女儿的记忆里，她很多年前，当孩子们还很小的时候，就放弃了和他工作的抗争。一个工作伙伴说， “我知道你将对他有多思念 ”，她回答到， “我一直都很想他。 ” “想了他这么多年了， ”她如此在乎的这个男人，必须放弃她，以后她将会被 “好好的照顾 ”。 他的 “最爱的 ”孩子们中 “最爱的 ”长子是南方某制造公司努力工作的经理。在葬礼前的一天半里，他走访邻居询问邻居们询问邻居对他的印象。他们很尴尬。 他的第二个孩子是一个女孩， 24
17、岁了，刚刚结婚。她和妈妈住的很近，很亲密，但是无论什么时候，当她和爸爸独处的时候，哪怕是在一辆车中，他们互相没有什么言语。 最小的是一个男孩， 20 岁，高中毕业生，像很多他的朋友一样，做一些零工，吃喝玩乐。他是唯一一个能够抓住父亲的人，尝试把父亲留到家里。 他是他父亲最喜欢的儿子，在生命的最后两年里，菲尔整夜担心这个孩子。 他曾说过， “父亲和我只是在这里寄宿 ” 在葬礼上， 60岁的总裁安慰 48岁的遗孀说，这位 51岁的死者对公司的贡献巨大，没有人可以替代他的位置。这位遗孀不敢直视他眼睛。她害怕他可以读出她的苦痛， 毕竟，她需要他帮忙清理丈夫的财政 股票什么的。 菲尔超重、焦虑、工作强度太大。如果他不在公司，就会担心公司的工作。菲尔是一个A型血，先天易发心脏病。在人群中，你可以一眼就把他认出来。 所以当他最终因工作死于星期天凌晨三点整，没人感到意外。 葬礼过后的下午 5点，公司总裁已经开始谨慎地，带着小心和鉴赏，审视着三位可以代替他职位的人。他问到 “谁工作最努力？ ”
