拒绝帮忙请求难以启齿（上）_职场英语

拒绝帮忙请求难以启齿（上）

“帮忙”的涵义难以捉摸，这也解释了为何一些同事会将履行最简单的本职工作视为英雄主义行径。凯伦•马尔金(Karen Markin)是一位大学管理人员，她跟一些工作中可以轻易获取信息的同事打过交道。当她要求他们提供信息时，却好像并不容易。

"They can act like it's moving a mountain" says Ms. Markin. "People think they're doing this enormous favor."

马尔金说：“他们那副样子好像上刀山一样，觉得自己是帮了你天大的忙。”

In his study of customer-service agents, Frank Flynn, an associate professor at Stanford's Graduate School of Business who studies favor exchange, found that soon after the completion of a favor, its recipient thought it was more valuable than the person who granted it. Over time, however, they reversed roles: "The person who received it didn't think it was that big a deal, but the person who granted the favor thought it was a bigger deal."

斯坦福商学院(Stanford's Graduate School of Business)的副教授、研究人情往来的弗兰克•弗林(Frank Flynn)在对客户服务代理进行研究时发现，在接受人家帮忙之后的短时间内，接受者比施与者对之看得更重。不过，随着时间的推移，二者会交换角色：接受帮忙的人不再认为那是什么了不得的事，但施与者却觉得它的意义更重大了。

Understanding the shelf life of a favor granted, some colleagues require immediate favor redemption. Richard Vandagriff occasionally worked with a contractor who was one of those favor accountants. 'He doesn't keep a book, but might as well,' he says. Once, the man even counterfeited a favor -- resetting furnace controls that didn't need resetting.