特别广播英语第 202 课：The Workman's Compensation 工作者的补偿-1

How can someone, hour after hour, day after day, year in and year out, tighten approximately the same nut to the same bolt and not go mad? 一个人怎么能时复一时，年复一年地把几乎相同的螺帽拧到相同的螺栓上而不发疯的呢？

That most working people do not, in fact, go mad is due in large measure to a phenomenon so common that it is found wherever people labor in industry: taking it easy. 事实上，多数劳动者并不发疯多半是由于"不紧不慢"的现象很平常，在企业中只要有人工作的地方随处可见这种现象。

It would take some kind of real mental case to do all the work one could all day long. 一个人恐怕要有某种真正的精神病才能一整天竭尽全力地干活。

No one expects it. Taking it easy on the job while someone else covers your work, or "working on and off," as it is usually called in America, is an established part of the working life. 没人希望这样。在别人帮你干活时，你就不紧不慢地干，也就是像美国人常说的那种"干干停停"是工作生涯的一个既定部分。

Working on and off, however, has its limits. The rules are infinitely varied, subtle, and flexible, and, of course, they are always changing. 然而，干干停停有它的局限性。这些惯例的变化无休无止，很微妙、很有弹性。当然，它们总在变。

Management, up to a certain level at least, is aware of the practice, and in some industries employs entire cadres of people to curtail or put an end to it. 至少在一定程度上管理部门知道这种做法。一些企业雇佣干部以减少或结束这种做法。

Simultaneously, the workers are subtly doing their best to keep it going and to extend it wherever possible. 同时，工人们巧妙地、尽全力使之继续下去并使之触及到可能的任何地方。

Every worker has a highly developed sense of how much work is expected of him. 每个工人对自己干多少活都是高度敏感的。

When he feels that the expectation is excessive, he tries to do something about it. 当他感到希望他做的事过多时，就会采取某些措施。