実践ビジネス英語 ディクテーション (12/13, 14)
NHKラジオ「実践ビジネス英語」”Talk the Talk”のディクテーションです。
Lesson 17のテーマは、’Corporate Kindness’（企業が示す優しさ）でした。Vignetteでは、献血キャンペーンの話題に始まり、A&A社の社風だという「優しさ」の職場での重要性と、マネジャーの役割などが取り上げられました。
Talk the Talkでは、この時代にある企業の優しさの重要性や効果、Heatherさんの個人的な体験などについて話されています。
Corporate Kindness
（S: 杉田敏先生 H: Heather Howardさん）
S: Our current vignette starts with the A&A staff talking about a corporate blood drive that took place the previous month.
Have you ever donated blood, Heather?
H: Not since high school, actually.
My school in Oregon had a blood drive, and I remember being very excited about being able to donate for the first time.
But when the day actually came, I was only able to give about half the standard amount. I started to feel sick midway through and the staff said I had to stop.
I don’t know if that would happen again but I’ve always been too afraid to try since.
S: But at least you were able to give some blood.
Every little bit helps, I’m sure.
The vignette then turns to the importance of kindness in the workplace.
You know, some cynics may say that the title of our current vignette is a contradiction in terms, an oxymoron.
Because corporations, almost by definition, seek to be profitable to stay afloat.
Well, corporate kindness isn’t just about pampering the workers and letting them have their way at the cost of profitability.
Companies will be profitable and productive if they treat not only their employees, but also their customers and other stakeholders, with kindness and dignity.
H: That makes sense even if companies approach the issue from a purely mercenary point of view.
Things like social media and smartphones are so ubiquitous now, information about bad companies―heck, even textual and video evidence―can spread around the world like wildfire.
So not only does it help you hire and keep good employees, kindness in the workplace will help prevent companies from getting a terrible reputation online.
And I can personally attest to the truth that kindness attracts and keeps good workers.
I’ve mentioned the terrible coworker I used to have, the one who seemed to relish tearing other people down.
Another one of my colleagues at the time quit solely to get away from that office bully.
He was a skilled, hardworking employee and his departure was a real loss.
But he told me later on the phone, “I just couldn’t stand being around her anymore.”
S: The importance of kindness is more widely recognized today, but there are still “money, money, money companies” that are holdouts from the Decade of Greed of the 1980s.
No matter what type of business you are in, you have to enjoy making money on behalf of the company rather than providing the service or manufacturing the products the company is meant to exists for.
I’ve worked for different kinds of companies in my career, and I feel that corporate culture is very important in determining whether you fit into a certain environment or not.
Culture is often shaped by the founders or top leaders of the company, and I think A&A’s founders were guided by an admirable management philosophy.
H: They were.
You know, Salmans says that kindness and courtesy don’t require much time or effort.
That’s true, but I would say they take a bit more time and effort than the opposite approach.
It’s easy to be bossy and self-absorbed, to not take into account other people’s feelings and situations, especially when other people are making mistakes.
Condemning others out of hand, again, is easy and can make us feel superior.
It’s important to remember that everybody’s human, and that we should treat others as we would like to be treated.
Words and Expressions
oxymoron: 矛盾した表現
mercenary: 金（報酬）目当ての、欲得ずくの
ubiquitous: どこにでもある、偏在する
holdout: 抵抗する人、妥協（協力）しない人、条件に応じない人
お読み下さり、ありがとうございました♪
