Why don't companies act? Some fear it would lower morale, which is nonsense. McKinsey asked thousands of employees whether they'd be "delighted" if their company got rid of underperformers, and 59% strongly agreed --- yet only 7% believed their companies were actually doing it. Executives often say they leave poor performers in place because they want the company to be seen as humane. That's just more evasion of reality, of course. As Ed Michaels of McKinsey says, "The attitude is, 'Let's be fair to Charlie. He's been here 21 years.' But we say, ' what about the eight people who work for Charlie? You're not being fair to them. '" Debra Duna, a senior executive at Hewlett-Packard, puts it like this: " I feel there is no greater disrespect you can do to a person than to let them hang out in a job where they are not respected by their peers, not viewed as successful, and probably losing their self-esteem. To do that under the guise of respect for people is, to me, ridiculous."

Most companies have serious work to do here. Where to start? That's easy: at the top. Dealing systematically with underperformers is hard - emotionally always, and sometimes legally as well - and like most good things, it doesn't just happen. Helen Handfield-Jones of McKinsey says, " The top executives have to model this behavior. They have to look at their own direct reports and start taking action. Once they've made progress, they should expect other leaders in the business to do the same."

The very-best-performing companies know this and practice it. The McKinsey study bears it out, but we've had enough statistics. Just accept the point: Successful companies deal with underperformers systematically, every day; unsuccessful companies don't. As the economy slows, a company does absolutely no one any favor by showing it can fire 1,000 at a time but can't one by one.

（全译略）

译述： 尽管各大公司纷纷裁员，可是另一个普遍存在的有害现象是，大多数公司不懂得如何裁员。（突出主题）

在当今企业经营中，人是第一重要的因素，甚至是企业惟一的竟争优势，这就意味着，必须调离或辞退表现不佳的雇员、尤其是不擅经营的管理人员。但这在大多数公司却成了大问题。麦肯锡公司的调查表明了回避这个问题的恶果：不辞退表现不佳的人，会影响有才干的雇员的情绪，导致劳动生产率下降、人才外流，进而使公司的整个经营状况日益恶化。最高管理层如果不去处理这个问题，就说明他们无能。（总结不懂得如何裁员的恶果）

公司不采取行动，是因为担心会打击雇员的情绪，但这种担心没有道理。麦肯锡公司调查过好几千个雇员，其中59%的人表示欢迎公司这样做。高层经理们说，他们不辞退表现不佳者是出于人道，这是在回避现实。惠普公司的德布拉·邓恩认为，保留无能的人，会使他得不到同事的尊重，从而使他失去自尊，这本身就是不人道的做法。（说明辞退无能者的好处）

大多数公司不知从哪儿下手。作者认为，应从最高层做起。他们必须以身作则，下面的经理就会仿效。企业成功与否，取决于它能否合理、有效地对待表现不佳的雇员。（提出方法与结论）

在这篇译述中，我们对原文内容进行了较大的删节，对于保留下来的部分（核心信息），有些是（摘）译，有些是述（重写）；同时，对原文的顺序和结构也作了较大的调整，把内容相关的句子或段落压缩到一起，措辞也有所改动（如运用概括性词语）。最后形成的几个段落层次分明，各有重心，但都紧紧围绕着同一个主题展开。与原文或全译相比，译述的篇幅大为减少，但主要信息基本保留了下来，从内容和结构上都自成一篇短文。

责任编辑：admin