每天一篇经济学人 | Talking it over 尚待商榷（2022年...
“Do you feel your job description has changed since you were hired?” “What prompted you to start looking for another position?” Such questions are typical of the exit interview, to which an email from hr may invite you after you have handed in your notice. Do you accept? And if so, how honest should you be with your soon-to-be-ex-employer during the discussion?
“你觉得自从你被聘用以来，你的工作职责有变化吗?”“是什么促使你开始寻找另一份工作的?” 这样的问题是离职面谈的典型问题，在你递交离职通知后，hr可能会发邮件邀请你。你接受吗? 如果是这样，在讨论过程中，你应该对即将成为前雇主的人诚实吗？
Just like humans, corporate entities do not want to admit their faults. As such, many companies deal with resignations badly. Exit interviews may help them do better. More important, understanding why workers leave is critical if you want to stop more of them heading for the exit. Recruiting and training top talent is a big cost for firms, particularly those in the service sector, so anything that can be done to reduce staff turnover is valuable. Poaching is part of any competitive industry, so knowing what drew an employee to a different firm can be useful, too. Former employees who leave happy can in future fill a role as corporate ambassadors.
企业实体就像人类一样，不愿意承认自己的错误。因此，许多公司对员工辞职处理得很糟糕。离职面谈可能会帮助他们做得更好。更重要的是，如果你想阻止更多员工离职，了解员工离职的原因至关重要。招聘和培训顶尖人才对企业来说是一笔巨大的成本，尤其是服务行业的企业，因此任何能够降低员工流动率的措施都是有价值的。挖人是任何竞争行业的一部分，所以了解是什么吸引员工去不同的公司也是有用的。快乐离职的前员工将来可以担任企业大使的角色。
For firms the best exit interview is the one that doesn’t happen. A study conducted by the Harvard Business Review concluded that they should be “the culmination of a series of regular retention conversations”. Such attempts will not work every time, or even often—staff churn is a fact of corporate life. For unsalvageable cases, some firms arrange a one-to-one conversation with the leaver’s manager. Others offer an online form, which is less personal but provides the opportunity to collate feedback easily. Such exchanges are best scheduled after the initial rush of emotion has passed but before the employee has checked out mentally. The information gleaned can be revealing. In some firms, it travels all the way up to the board.
对于公司来说，最好的离职面谈是不会发生的。《哈佛商业评论》进行的一项研究得出结论，这应该是“一系列定期保留谈话的告终”。这样的尝试不会每次都奏效，甚至不会经常奏效——员工变动是企业生活中的一个事实。对于无法挽回的情况，一些公司会安排与离职者的经理进行一对一的谈话。还有一些提供在线表单，虽然不那么个人化，但可以方便地整理反馈。这样的交流最好安排在最初的情绪波动过去之后，但在员工精神上离开之前。收集到的信息可以揭示真相。在一些公司，它会一直传到董事会。
The incentives for a departing employee are less clear. (If you are pursuing legal action against your employer, your lawyer is likely to tell you to avoid the interview altogether.) It is tempting either to ignore everyone and just walk away or, conversely, to really let rip. “When one burns one’s bridges,” wrote Dylan Thomas, “what a very nice fire it makes.” But letting off steam by unburdening yourself of all the wrongs and little things that ever upset you is a shallow game.
对于离职员工的激励则不那么明确。（如果你正在对你的雇主提起法律诉讼，你的律师很可能会告诉你要完全避开面谈。）人们往往要么无视所有人，直接一走了之，要么相反地，尽情发泄。迪伦·托马斯写道:“当一个人烧掉自己的桥梁时，燃起的火焰是那么美好。” 但是，把所有的错误和让你心烦的小事都发泄出来则是一种肤浅的把戏。
The bottom line is, you never know. You can be denied a reference or unnecessarily complicate the paperwork related to your stock options and pension plan. Or you could miss a chance to turn a former employer into a client. Your columnist, a guest Bartleby, has no immediate plans to leave her current job. But if she ever did, and was asked to participate in an exit interview, she would agree to do so—and would advise you to do the same.
关键是你永远不会知道。你可能会被拒绝提供推荐信，或者把与你的股票期权和养老金计划有关的文件复杂化。或者你可能会错过一个把前雇主变成客户的机会。你的专栏作家巴托比客户，最近没有离开目前工作的计划。但如果她曾经这样做过，并且被要求参加离职面谈，她会同意这样做，而且会建议你也这样做。
As in any break-up, the one with an employer involves dealing with elusive concepts such as decorum (“It’s not you, it’s me”) or closure (“Thank you for everything”). It is also transactional. As such, it pays not to be too candid. Whether the process happens over the phone, on Zoom, in person or in an online form, refrain from speaking your mind too freely. It is better to be excited about your new chapter than to unleash vitriol on colleagues who were unkind or censorious over the years.
在任何“分手”中，与雇主的“分手”都涉及到一些难以捉摸的概念，比如礼貌(“不是你的问题，是我的问题”)或结束(“谢谢你所做的一切”)。它也是事务性的。因此，不要太坦率是有好处的。无论这个过程是通过电话、Zoom、面对面还是在线表格进行的，都不要太自由地表达自己的想法。与其对那些多年来不友善或吹毛求疵的同事进行刻薄的批评，不如为自己的新篇章感到兴奋。
Being too diplomatic is safer, unless it devolves into insincere platitudes. “This place is toxic” is bad; “the thing I admire about the leadership team is their long-term vision” may be worse. To strike the right balance it is useful to think of the exit interview as a performance appraisal in reverse. Outlining what you enjoyed most about the place (the pay, the camaraderie or the coffee) is a good place to start. Explaining what drew you to another employer can be particularly instructive. Gentle suggestions about what you would improve are fair game. Always remember that notes from the interview are official documentation that can be reviewed. Whatever you do, do not post rude comments about your former employer on social media.
过于圆滑会更安全，除非它演变成不真诚的陈词滥调。“这个地方有毒”是不好的；“我欣赏领导团队的一点是他们的长远眼光”可能更糟糕。为了达到恰当的平衡，把离职面谈视为反过来的绩效评估是有用的。列出你在这个地方最喜欢的东西(薪水、友情或咖啡)是一个很好的开始。解释是什么吸引你去找另一个雇主会特别有启发意义。关于你要改进什么方面的温和建议是合理的。记住，面谈笔记是可以查阅的正式文件。无论你做什么，都不要在社交媒体上发表对前雇主的粗鲁评论。
In his book “Liar’s Poker”, Michael Lewis tells the story of a senior trader quitting Salomon Brothers after being offered much more money by Goldman Sachs. His managers pleaded for him to stay, invoking loyalty to the firm; the trader retorted that if they wanted loyalty they should have hired a cocker spaniel. But a good exit interview should be about mutual graciousness when neither party has anything else to lose. For an employee to deny such a conference shows pettiness and resentment. For a company it is one last chance to leave a good impression. If you decide to part ways, why not do so on amicable terms?
迈克尔•刘易斯在《说谎者的扑克》一书中讲述了这样一个故事：一位资深交易员在高盛开出更高的薪酬后，离开了所罗门兄弟。他的经理恳求他留下来，以表示对公司的忠诚；这位交易员反驳说，如果他们想要忠诚，就应该雇佣一只可卡犬。但是，一个好的离职面谈应该是双方都不会有任何损失的情况下，双方都保持礼貌。如果一个员工拒绝这样的会议，那就显示出他的小气和怨恨。对于一个公司来说，这是留下好印象的最后一次机会。如果你们决定“分手”，为什么不友好地“分手”呢?
