電郵成爲被動攻擊型同事的武器

When Ray Tomlinson, the man credited with the invention of email, died 10 days ago, all sorts of people saw it as an excuse to complain about how his creation has messed up our office lives. It has prevented us getting things done, fried our brains and taught us to go on working even when in bed.

3月5日，當被譽爲“電郵之父”的雷•湯姆林森(Ray Tomlinson)去世時，各色人等都把這當做一個藉口，抱怨他的發明搞砸了我們的辦公室生活。它阻止我們完成任務，讓我們的大腦崩潰，並促使我們即使躺在牀上也要繼續工作。

I have a different accusation to level at email — it has made us all passive aggressive. It has encouraged us to sulk, to be falsely polite, sneaky and obstructive. It has stifled debate and made office life more stultifying and aggravating than it has ever been.

對於電郵，我有不同的指控，它讓我們都形成被動攻擊型人格。它鼓勵我們生悶氣、假模假樣的禮貌、愛耍花招和作梗。它扼殺了辯論，讓辦公室生活變得空前單調乏味和令人惱火。

Last week I sent a longish, careful message to someone who had come up with a proposal I didn’t agree with. All day I heard nothing, and then when I was at home making supper that evening, my phone bleeped.

上週，我向某人發送了一封篇幅較長、措辭謹慎的郵件，此人的一個提議是我不認同的。整整一天我都沒有聽到任何迴音，接着，當我那天晚上在家做晚飯時，我的手機響了。

The reply consisted of one word: Noted. This was the perfect passive aggressive response. It was just about polite enough for me to have no legitimate grounds for complaint. It shut down the discussion, and left me with only one sensible course of action — to pour myself a large glass of wine and seethe.

回覆郵件只有一個詞：知道了。這是一種完美的被動攻擊型回覆。它勉強足夠禮貌，讓我沒有任何正當理由去抱怨。它終結了討論，使我只有一條理智行動的出路：爲自己倒一大杯紅酒，讓自己強壓住怒火。

Email alone didn’t make the office passive aggressive — we were going that way anyway. It all started a couple of decades ago, when the four great forces of modern office life — political correctness, HR, PR and litigiousness — ruled that it was no longer acceptable to lose your rag. As working life remained at least as enraging as it always was, all anger, resentment and hostility were pushed underground, re-emerging in the even nastier form of passive aggression.

電郵本身不會讓辦公室變得被動攻擊——我們本來就在朝那個方向發展。它開始於20年前，當時現代辦公室生活的四大力量（政治正確、人力資源、公關和動輒訴訟）意味着，發脾氣是不可接受的。由於職場生活至少像以往那樣令人惱火，因此所有的憤怒、憎恨和敵意都轉到了表面下，以更惡毒的被動攻擊形式重新浮現。

At around the same time, we were introduced to email. At first, we saw it as a way of venting the rage that we could no longer show in person, and sent each other furious rants in block capitals. After a bit, people realised there was a problem with this. Anger doesn’t usually last but an angry email lasts forever. Now anyone who shows even the slightest ill humour in an email is deemed to have done something far less socially acceptable than breaking wind in public. They are likely to be punished by having their rage exposed and shared by everyone with an internet connection.

大約是在同時，電郵進入我們的生活。起初，我們把它視爲發泄無法當面表達的內心憤怒的一種方式，用大寫字母互相發送憤怒的咆哮語句。過了一段時間，人們發現這麼做是有問題的。憤怒通常不會持續很久，但憤怒的電郵會永遠存在。現在，如果有人在電郵中流露出哪怕一點點的壞脾氣，就會被認爲做了一件大逆不道的事情，其被社會認可的程度遠低於在公共場合放屁。暴露自己的憤怒並通過互聯網分享給所有人的人，很可能會吃虧。

While email is ill-suited to overt rage, it is perfect for communicating hostility passively, without getting caught. The first trick is silence. This is the easiest, most deniable and most effective passive aggressive ploy there is. All unwelcome emails can be simply ignored. Someone wants you to do something? Don’t reply. An email that is hard to write? Don’t write it.

儘管電郵不適合表達明顯的憤怒，但它是被動表明敵意、而且不會被抓住把柄的絕佳方式。第一個訣竅是沉默。這是最容易、最可否認且最有效的被動攻擊手段。所有不受歡迎的電郵都可以索性被忽略。有人想讓你做點事？不要回復。郵件很難寫？乾脆別寫了。

The upshot of so much silence is devastating. Far from speeding work up, it slows it down. It means that the most comforting axiom for office workers — “no news is good news” — does not apply any more. Now no news could be very bad news indeed. Maybe you are about to be fired. Or maybe the person is just busy. You will never know, so you will always worry.

這麼多沉默的結果是毀滅性的。它不會提高工作速度，反而會阻礙工作。它意味着，最讓辦公室員工安心的格言（沒有消息就是好消息）已不再適用。如今，沒有消息實際上可能是非常糟糕的消息。或許你即將被炒魷魚。又或許對方只是很忙。你永遠無法知道，因此你會一直擔心。

Failing silence, the next best passive aggressive trick is extreme brevity, of the sort I was subjected to last week. Noted. OK. Fine. Thanks. Again the hostility can always be denied. Maybe the person genuinely thought your message fine. Or maybe they hate you. Not knowing is not pleasant.

如果做不到沉默，退而求其次的被動攻擊訣竅是極度簡潔，就像我上週遇到的那種。知道了。OK。好的。謝謝。同樣，這種敵意總能被抵賴。或許這個人真的認爲你的郵件不錯。又或者對方恨你。不瞭解實情的感覺令人不爽。

Copying bosses into emails is a gift for passive aggressive workers everywhere. In the old days you had to go out of your way to grass someone up, but now all it takes is two innocuous little letters: cc.

把老闆抄送到郵件裏是被動攻擊型員工獲得的一份禮物。過去，你必須費盡心機才能出賣某個人，如今，你需要的只是兩個無關痛癢的小字母：cc。

Passive aggressive email is also perfect for passing the buck. It is no longer acceptable to say “do so and so” to a colleague — as we all have to pretend everyone is equal — which means power is exerted passively by ending emails with “thanks in advance” or “I’ll leave it with you”.

被動攻擊型電郵還是踢皮球的絕佳方法。跟一位同事說“這麼做，再這樣做”不再可接受，因爲我們都不得不假裝大家都是平等的，這意味着，通過在電郵結尾寫上“先說聲謝謝”或“那就麻煩你了”，權力就被動施展出來了。

Even more annoying are emails that end, “Happy to discuss”. This almost certainly means: “there is no point in discussing as the decision has been taken”. Worse, is “Let me know if that makes sense”, which might be straight or might mean “You’re an idiot. I have no interest in what you think.”

更令人煩惱的是電郵結尾寫着“樂意討論”。它的意思幾乎肯定是：“已經做出了決定，討論毫無意義”。更糟糕的是，“如果這聽上去有道理的話，請告訴我”，這可能是大白話，也可能意味着“你是個白癡。我對你的想法沒興趣。”

Although all passive aggressive messages are by nature deniable, a good trick for spotting them is when they come with unnecessary politeness. The more someone admits to being “a little surprised” the more incandescent they probably are. When a sender who usually signs off with the uncharming “rgds”, types out “with my very best regards”, you are almost certainly in trouble.

儘管所有被動攻擊型郵件顧名思義都可被抵賴，但辨識它們的一個很好的方法是它們往往帶着不必要的客套。人們越承認“有一點意外”，他們的情緒就越可能激烈。如果某個發件人通常會在結尾處寫上毫無吸引力的“祝好”，今天卻寫出了“致以我最美好的祝願”，那麼幾乎可以肯定的是你有麻煩。

Sometimes it is possible to respond to passive aggression in kind. I have recently been ignoring a request to do something, which prompted first “a gentle reminder” and then the gloriously passive aggressive question: “Is your internet down?”.

有時，我們可以用同樣的方式來回應被動攻擊。我最近沒有理會一個讓我做些什麼的要求，這先是招致了“一個友情提醒”，接着招致了一個典型的被動攻擊型問題：“你的網斷了嗎？”

In case the sender is reading my column, let me assure her that it’s not down. I just don’t want to reply. Fortunately, in newspaper columns you can still say what you think. In email it is no longer possible.

如果這位發送人在閱讀我的專欄，我向她保證我的網絡沒有斷。我只是不想回復。幸運的是，在報紙專欄，你仍可以說你所想。在電郵中，就不可能再這樣了。