上周，我安排了一场考试，一个学生迟到了25分钟。考试结束时，我去收卷。这个学生坐在座位上，抬头可怜巴巴地望着我，嘴里嘟哝：“求求您了，我来晚了，能再给我 20分钟吗?”详细请看下面的双语信息：

　　I shook my head and said, “Can’t do that.” His request echoed in my head all the way back to my of?fice. Where in the world did he get the idea that an exam doesn’t begin and end at a set time?

　　我摇了摇头说：“不行。”在回办公室的路上，他的要求不停地在我脑海里回响。他怎么会认为考试不会准点开始和结束呢?

　　Employers call it an “employ?ability skill” – work ethic, timeliness, attendance and so on – and they deal with it every day. Whenever the Na?tional Association of Manufacturers administers its “Skills Gap” surveys to members, failings in this area are as likely to be cited as complaints about inadequate technical and verbal skills.

　　雇主把守时称为“就业技能”，“就业技能”包括职业道德、守时、出勤等。雇主每天都和这些技能打交道。无论何时，全国制造商协会对其会员开展 “技能缺失”的调查，结果都是：和糟糕的专业技能、语言技能一样，就业技能的缺失也招致抱怨。

　　In 2001 and 2005, the associa?tion’s members rated employability skills as a crushing diciency in their workforce, and more respondents urged schools to instill better behavior than did those who demanded more training in reading and math.

　　在 2001年和 2005年，全国制造商协会的会员认为员工们严重缺乏就业技能。有些调查对象要求在阅读和数学方面加强训练，但更多的调查对象力主学校培养学生更好的行为。

　　Even after the 2008 financial crisis, poor conduct remains a top complaint. In the 2011 survey, 40 percent of employers cited “inad?equate basic employability skills” as a reason for why they can’t hire and keep workers.

　　即使在 2008年金融危机之后，雇主抱怨最多的仍是不良的工作行为。2011年的调查显示，40%的雇主将“缺乏基本的就业技能”列为他们不雇用和不留用员工的一个理由。

　　Employability skills aren’t only a blue-collar failing, as shown by the “Professionalism in the Workplace” survey from York College of Pennsyl?vania released earlier this year. The college’s project asked 401 human-resource people about the profession?alism of recent college graduates.

　　今年早些时候，宾夕法尼亚约克学院发布的一项“职场素养”的调查显示，就业技能的欠缺不仅限于蓝领。本次调查向 401名人力资源职员询问了当下大学毕业生的职业素养状况。

　　Casual Attitudes

　　漫不经心的态度

　　Forty-nine percent of them stated that less than half of new em?ployees “exhibit professionalism in their first year.” More than half (53 percent) have noticed “a sense of entitlement” rising among younger workers; almost 45 percent have seen a “worsening of the work ethic,” including “too casual of an attitude toward work” and “not understanding what hard work is.”

　　49%的调查对象表示，不到一半的新员工“在第一年表现出了职业素养”。超过一半的人(53%)注意到年轻员工中出现了“理所应得”的思想;将近 45%的人看到了“职业道德日益恶化”，包括“过于随便的工作态度”和“不明白努力工作是什么”。

　　Younger workers believe they can multitask and remain productive, the human-resources people told the York researchers. Thirty-eight percent of respondents blamed multitasking for the lack of “focus” among younger workers. The authors of the study explained that the younger generation “believes that it is possible to multi-task fectively” and that using social media, for example, is an ficient way to communicate. In interviews, the applicants check their phones for texts and calls, dress inappropriately and overrate their talents. “The sad fact is some of these persons probably do not understand what is wrong with this,” the authors note.

　　人力资源职员告诉约克学院的研究者，年轻的员工认为自己能够一心多用并保持高效。而 38%的调查对象批评年轻员工一心多用会缺乏“专注”。本研究的发起人解释说，年轻一代“认为高效地一心多用是可能的”，比如，使用社交媒体进行交流很有效。在面试中，面试者会查短信，看电话，穿着也不得体，还会高估自己的才能。发起人注意到：“令人难过的是，有的面试者可能压根儿就不明白他们的表现有什么问题。”

　　……

　　Faculty members identify parents as the main cause, though American culture in general and grade inflation in high school also re?ceive blame.

　　尽管总体的美国文化和高中阶段的分数膨胀都应该为学生的不专注负责，教职工认为学生家长还是主要原因。

　　Let’s agree that everyone is at fault, more or less. The burden falls heaviest on the workplace. High-school teachers have few direct incen?tives to toughen up their classrooms. The steady drag of uninterested stu?dents and school bureaucracy beats them down to the point where using higher grades and lax discipline are the easiest ways to make it through the week.

　　我们姑且承认，每一方或多或少都有责任。负担重重落在了职场上。高中老师没有直接的动力在课堂上对学生严格要求。对学习不感兴趣的学生的拖沓作风和校方的官僚作风，彻底击败了高中老师，他们凭借较高的分数和松散的纪律就能最轻松地混过每一周。

　　College professors, too, have no direct incentive to raise the bar on behavior, given the influence of student ratings of their performance and pressure from administrators and parents. Most of all, poor behavior by students doesn’t immediately threaten the livelihood of teachers.

　　大学教授会受到学生评教的影响，还要承受来自学校行政机构和学生家长两方面的压力，因此，也没有直接的动力去提高行为标准。最重要的是，学生的不良表现并不会直接威胁到老师的饭碗。

　　A bad worker, however, jeop?ardizes a whole unit’s productivity, and a manager can’t simply pass a low performer to the next level. Teachers who allow delinquent students to slide merely compromise their own integ?rity. Dereliction in the workplace puts profits at risk.

　　然而，差的员工会危及整个团队的效率。经理不会让差劲的员工轻松过关。让拖欠作业的学生过关的老师只是违背了自己的操守;而工作中的玩忽职守则会威胁到利润。

　　This, then, is the real transition into adulthood in the U.S. today – not graduating from high school, leaving home or learning how to succeed in college, but performing full-time work for bosses who can’t compromise, and all too often must say, “Your work isn’t up to par, you’re not as great as you think, and if you don’t improve, you’re fired.”

　　这就是当下美国年轻人迈向成年的真正转折点：不是高中毕业，不是离开家，也不是学会如何在大学取得成功;而是成为从不妥协的雇主聘用的全职雇员。他们通常会说：“你的工作没有达标;你没有自己想象得那么好;如果不改进，你就会被解雇。”

　　As employers and govern?ment officials put more pressure on colleges to produce employable graduates, this message should reach students bore they collect their di?ploma.

　　雇主和政府官员对学校大幅施压，以期培养出可雇用的毕业生，因此，学生们在拿到学位之前，就应当充分认识到职业素养的重要性。

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