名篇背诵：The Company Man 公司人

The Company Man 公司人

埃伦·古德曼(Ellen Goodman)

He worked himself to death, finally and precisely, at 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning.

The obituary didn't 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 was a perfect Type A, 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.

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-president. 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.

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 four-day week for everyone but the executives. He worked like the Important People. 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 20 or 25 pounds. He thought it was okay, though, because he didn't smoke.

On Saturdays, Phil wore a sports jacket to the office instead of a suit, because it was the weekend.

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 seriously considered for his job. The obituary didn't mention that.

- obituary [əˈbɪtʃuərɪ] n. 讣告

coronary thrombosis 冠状动脉血栓形成

- workaholic [ˌwɜːkəˈhɒlɪk] n. 工作狂

- classic [ˈklæsɪk] n. 老派人物，遵循传统的人

- conceivably [kənˈsiːvəblɪ] ad. 可想象地，可能

extracurricular interest 业余爱好

星期天的凌晨3点整，他终于以身殉职，累死了。

当然，讣告没有这样写。上面写的是他死于冠状动脉血栓——我想是写的这个病——但他的朋友和熟人很快就知道了实际死因。他们说他是不折不扣的A型血人，工作狂，老典型；他们边摇头，边交谈，而且还用了五到十分钟时间，联想到自己的生活方式。

这个因为工作过度劳累而在星期天的凌晨3点整离世的人，是个副总裁，51岁，那天在休假。然而，他是六个副总裁之一，而且如果总裁能够及时地去世或退休，可以想见他也是三个可以提拔到顶层的人选之一。菲尔对此心知肚明。

他每周工作六天，其中五天工作到夜晚八九点，在此期间，在他的公司里，除了主管人以外，都开始实行一周四天工作制。他工作起来像个“要人”。他没有户外的“业余兴趣爱好”，当然，除非你认为每月一次的高尔夫球赛算是那种爱好。对菲尔来说，打高尔夫球也是工作。他总是在办公桌前吃鸡蛋色拉三明治，都超重20或25磅，该减肥了。还说反正不抽烟，体重重点没有啥。

每逢周六，菲尔上办公室穿的是运动服而不是西装，因为这是周末。

有好多人在他手下工作，也许有60个吧，而且其中大多数人在大多数时候也是喜欢他的。其中三个人将被认真考虑接替他的职位。这一点讣告上没有提到。