THE PROBLEM 問題
I head a small financial services company. We do not employ many women and would like to employ more. However, one of our female analysts is poor at her job and unpopular. If I fire her, I'm concerned she is the type to sue on discrimination grounds - even though she doesn't have a case. Also, firing her might make it look as if this is a bad place for women to work. Any ideas?
Chairman, male, 58
我掌管著一家小型金融服務(wù)公司。我們公司的女性員工并不多，也愿意雇用更多女職員。然而，我們有一位女性分析師，工作表現(xiàn)很差，又不招人喜歡。如果我解雇她，我擔(dān)心她會(huì)以性別歧視為由提出訴訟--雖然根本沒有這回事。同時(shí)，如果把她解雇，可能會(huì)使我們公司看起來很不適合女性工作。您有何高見？
董事長(zhǎng)，男性，58歲
THE ANSWER 回答
This woman is both feeble and unpleasant. If she were just the first, then you might consider keeping her. All but the smallest companies can tolerate a dog or two. But as she is also unpopular, there is nothing for it: she must go.
這個(gè)女人工作又差，又令人討厭。如果她只占第一條，那你或許可以考慮留著她。除了小的公司以外，幾乎所有公司都能容忍一兩個(gè)沒用的人。但是，如果她同時(shí)還令人討厭，那就沒有什么好說的了：她必須走。
However, you are right to be worried about the vindictive legal action she could take, and also right that her sex makes a big difference. If she were a man, you would simply risk being sued for unfair dismissal - and those cases do not make the headlines and the payouts they command are small.
不過，你是對(duì)的，她的確可能采取報(bào)復(fù)性法律手段，而她的性別問題也的確關(guān)系重大。如果她是一個(gè)男人，你頂多會(huì)遭遇"不公平解雇"的指控--這種案子不會(huì)成為重大新聞，而且他們索要的補(bǔ)償也很少。
In any event, protecting yourself against such a case is relatively easy. You can't fire anyone out of the blue for poor performance but, as long as you issue warnings and give the person a chance to get better, you can fire them after a few months when they don't.
無論如何，防止自己攤上這種官司相對(duì)比較容易。你不能因?yàn)槟澄粏T工表現(xiàn)差勁就突然宣布解雇，但是，只要你提出了警告，給這位員工一個(gè)改進(jìn)的機(jī)會(huì)，如果幾個(gè)月之后還沒有改進(jìn)，你就可以解雇了。把商務(wù)英語頁面加入收藏夾
The woman thing makes it much more risky. All she needs is to show that there might be a case for discrimination and you could find the onus of proof is on you. You would then have to show that you had not discriminated - which is almost impossible to do.
女性問題使這種做法的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)大了很多。她所要做的，就是表明你的行動(dòng)可能存在歧視，而你則會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)，所有取證的責(zé)任都在你身上。于是，你就不得不表明你沒有歧視過她--要做到這點(diǎn)，幾乎不可能。
There are three things that make me fear your case is weak. You hardly employ any women, which isn't a good start. The fact that yours is a small company means you are unlikely to have sent your people on tedious, costly, diversity awareness courses, which are a legal insurance policy against this sort of thing. And if in the past you have given this woman positive appraisals then that will count against you too.
我擔(dān)心，有三點(diǎn)對(duì)你很不利。首先一點(diǎn)，你幾乎沒有雇用過女性員工。你的公司規(guī)模很小，這個(gè)事實(shí)意味著你以前不太可能對(duì)員工推行冗長(zhǎng)乏味、成本高昂的多元化培訓(xùn)課，而這種路線乃是對(duì)抗這類事情合法而保險(xiǎn)的政策。而且，如果過去你曾給過這個(gè)女人某些積極的評(píng)價(jià)，也會(huì)成為對(duì)你不利的證據(jù)。
You might get away with it; you might not. If you don't and she wins her case it could not only be expensive (in the UK, at least, there is no cap on payouts in these cases), it would not look pretty to have a sex discrimination story in the pages of this newspaper.
你也許可以僥幸逃脫處罰，也許逃不掉。如果你沒不幸讓她贏了官司，則不僅可能會(huì)很費(fèi)錢（至少在英國(guó)，這種案子的支出可沒有上限），而且還會(huì)成為本報(bào)某篇性別歧視案例報(bào)道的主角，從而顏面盡失。
If I were you, I would do what employers are doing quietly behind the scenes all the time. Take her to one side and offer her a lot of money, a face-saving story and a great reference, and usher her gently out of the door.
如果我是你，我就會(huì)采用雇主們經(jīng)常偷偷摸摸做的勾當(dāng)。把她叫到一邊，給她一大筆錢，編造一些為她保留顏面的話，再寫一些很棒的評(píng)語，和顏悅色地把她送出門。
This may be costly (and distasteful in that incompetence is being rewarded) but at least you get rid of her with no ugliness and no risk.
這么做也許成本很高（而且看到無能的人受到犒賞，也會(huì)讓人惡心），但是，至少你除掉了她，沒鬧任何別扭，也不會(huì)帶來任何風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。
The moral is that employers should think twice before hiring women and be sure to waste time and money on diversity courses. The whole system is less than ideal but that isn't your immediate problem.
道德問題是雇主在雇用女性之前應(yīng)該三思的問題，而且，一定要浪費(fèi)些時(shí)間和金錢搞一搞多樣化路線。整個(gè)體系也許不那么理想，但那不是你迫切需要解決的問題。
I head a small financial services company. We do not employ many women and would like to employ more. However, one of our female analysts is poor at her job and unpopular. If I fire her, I'm concerned she is the type to sue on discrimination grounds - even though she doesn't have a case. Also, firing her might make it look as if this is a bad place for women to work. Any ideas?
Chairman, male, 58
我掌管著一家小型金融服務(wù)公司。我們公司的女性員工并不多，也愿意雇用更多女職員。然而，我們有一位女性分析師，工作表現(xiàn)很差，又不招人喜歡。如果我解雇她，我擔(dān)心她會(huì)以性別歧視為由提出訴訟--雖然根本沒有這回事。同時(shí)，如果把她解雇，可能會(huì)使我們公司看起來很不適合女性工作。您有何高見？
董事長(zhǎng)，男性，58歲
THE ANSWER 回答
This woman is both feeble and unpleasant. If she were just the first, then you might consider keeping her. All but the smallest companies can tolerate a dog or two. But as she is also unpopular, there is nothing for it: she must go.
這個(gè)女人工作又差，又令人討厭。如果她只占第一條，那你或許可以考慮留著她。除了小的公司以外，幾乎所有公司都能容忍一兩個(gè)沒用的人。但是，如果她同時(shí)還令人討厭，那就沒有什么好說的了：她必須走。
However, you are right to be worried about the vindictive legal action she could take, and also right that her sex makes a big difference. If she were a man, you would simply risk being sued for unfair dismissal - and those cases do not make the headlines and the payouts they command are small.
不過，你是對(duì)的，她的確可能采取報(bào)復(fù)性法律手段，而她的性別問題也的確關(guān)系重大。如果她是一個(gè)男人，你頂多會(huì)遭遇"不公平解雇"的指控--這種案子不會(huì)成為重大新聞，而且他們索要的補(bǔ)償也很少。
In any event, protecting yourself against such a case is relatively easy. You can't fire anyone out of the blue for poor performance but, as long as you issue warnings and give the person a chance to get better, you can fire them after a few months when they don't.
無論如何，防止自己攤上這種官司相對(duì)比較容易。你不能因?yàn)槟澄粏T工表現(xiàn)差勁就突然宣布解雇，但是，只要你提出了警告，給這位員工一個(gè)改進(jìn)的機(jī)會(huì)，如果幾個(gè)月之后還沒有改進(jìn)，你就可以解雇了。把商務(wù)英語頁面加入收藏夾
The woman thing makes it much more risky. All she needs is to show that there might be a case for discrimination and you could find the onus of proof is on you. You would then have to show that you had not discriminated - which is almost impossible to do.
女性問題使這種做法的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)大了很多。她所要做的，就是表明你的行動(dòng)可能存在歧視，而你則會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)，所有取證的責(zé)任都在你身上。于是，你就不得不表明你沒有歧視過她--要做到這點(diǎn)，幾乎不可能。
There are three things that make me fear your case is weak. You hardly employ any women, which isn't a good start. The fact that yours is a small company means you are unlikely to have sent your people on tedious, costly, diversity awareness courses, which are a legal insurance policy against this sort of thing. And if in the past you have given this woman positive appraisals then that will count against you too.
我擔(dān)心，有三點(diǎn)對(duì)你很不利。首先一點(diǎn)，你幾乎沒有雇用過女性員工。你的公司規(guī)模很小，這個(gè)事實(shí)意味著你以前不太可能對(duì)員工推行冗長(zhǎng)乏味、成本高昂的多元化培訓(xùn)課，而這種路線乃是對(duì)抗這類事情合法而保險(xiǎn)的政策。而且，如果過去你曾給過這個(gè)女人某些積極的評(píng)價(jià)，也會(huì)成為對(duì)你不利的證據(jù)。
You might get away with it; you might not. If you don't and she wins her case it could not only be expensive (in the UK, at least, there is no cap on payouts in these cases), it would not look pretty to have a sex discrimination story in the pages of this newspaper.
你也許可以僥幸逃脫處罰，也許逃不掉。如果你沒不幸讓她贏了官司，則不僅可能會(huì)很費(fèi)錢（至少在英國(guó)，這種案子的支出可沒有上限），而且還會(huì)成為本報(bào)某篇性別歧視案例報(bào)道的主角，從而顏面盡失。
If I were you, I would do what employers are doing quietly behind the scenes all the time. Take her to one side and offer her a lot of money, a face-saving story and a great reference, and usher her gently out of the door.
如果我是你，我就會(huì)采用雇主們經(jīng)常偷偷摸摸做的勾當(dāng)。把她叫到一邊，給她一大筆錢，編造一些為她保留顏面的話，再寫一些很棒的評(píng)語，和顏悅色地把她送出門。
This may be costly (and distasteful in that incompetence is being rewarded) but at least you get rid of her with no ugliness and no risk.
這么做也許成本很高（而且看到無能的人受到犒賞，也會(huì)讓人惡心），但是，至少你除掉了她，沒鬧任何別扭，也不會(huì)帶來任何風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。
The moral is that employers should think twice before hiring women and be sure to waste time and money on diversity courses. The whole system is less than ideal but that isn't your immediate problem.
道德問題是雇主在雇用女性之前應(yīng)該三思的問題，而且，一定要浪費(fèi)些時(shí)間和金錢搞一搞多樣化路線。整個(gè)體系也許不那么理想，但那不是你迫切需要解決的問題。