Bartleby
巴托比
Pssst! Want to read something about rumour and innuendo?
嘘！想不想听点流言蜚语的事儿？
- innuendo 暗指；影射
Gossip in the workplace
职场八卦
GOSSIP IS EVERYWHERE. On one estimate, from Megan Robbins and Alexander Karan of University of California, Riverside, people spend 52 minutes a day on average talking about other people. Gossip pervades the workplace. You hear it in conversations among colleagues; you know who to go to for the latest round of it. You can tell when gossip is imminent: voices suddenly lower and there may well be some theatrical looking around to check that the target is not in earshot. Sometimes it is offered up explicitly, like a vol-au-vent at a drinks party: “Do you want to hear a bit of gossip?” And yes, you almost certainly do.
八卦无处不在。据加州大学河滨分校（University of California, Riverside）的梅根·罗宾斯（Megan Robbins）和亚历山大·卡兰（Alexander Karan）估计，人们每天平均花52分钟谈论其他人。职场里到处都是八卦。你总是能在同事的谈话里听到，也知道该找谁去打听最新的八卦。开始八卦之前往往有迹可循：突然压低嗓门，可能还会夸张地左顾右盼，确认目标人物不在附近。有时候它会来得毫不掩饰，就像鸡尾酒会上的小点心：“想听点八卦吗？”而你基本上肯定会想听。
- pervade 渗透；弥漫；遍及
- imminent 表示“即将发生的、临近的、迫近的、逼近的”（参见：小词详解 | imminent）
- earshot 听力所及的范围；听得见的；可听距离
Managers have grapevines, too. Scholars of gossip (what happens when these people all get together at a conference is a subject for future research) tend to describe it as informal exchanges of evaluative information about people who aren’t there. Those exchanges can be complimentary as well as critical. By that definition, bosses who do not gossip about employees may not be doing their job properly.
管理者也有自己的小道消息渠道。研究八卦的学者（这些人聚在一起开会该是何等光景，这是个有待未来去研究的课题）往往称之为对不在场者的评价信息的非正式交流。或褒或贬的信息都可以交流。按这个定义，不谈论员工八卦的老板或许并不称职。
- grapevine 小道消息；传闻
- complimentary 表示钦佩的；赞美的
