Now Tony saw his workplace as a factory.
现在,托尼把他的工作场所看作是工厂。
“It’s a profit factory where we’re doing piecework,” he said.
“这是一个利润工厂,我们在这里做计件工作,”他说。
All these decades after university, his working life was suddenly dictated by people who had little respect for his education or his profession.
大学毕业后的几十年里,他的工作生活突然被那些不尊重他的教育或职业的人主宰了。
“The standard of education of these managers … some of them can’t even spell prescription; they put ‘quiet’ when they mean quite.”
“这些管理者的教育水平...他们中的一些人甚至不会拼写‘处方’;他们分不清和“quiet”和“quite”。”
Tony was raised in Thatcher’s era; he had drunk in her values.
托尼在撒切尔时代长大;他陶醉在她的价值观中。
“I thought people should work hard, they shouldn’t claim benefits, they should be responsible for their own destiny.
“我认为人们应该努力工作,不应该索取福利,应该对自己的命运负责。
That was the politics in the household: that you work hard and get your just rewards.”
这就是王室政治:努力工作,得到应有的回报。”
For a long time that story rang true: first in the family to head off to university, a profession, a neat house and a car.
在很长一段时间里,这个故事听起来是真的:第一次在家里去上大学,有了一份工作,有了一所整洁的房子和一辆车。
Then came this job: the cuts, the crack-ups, the half-decade of unhappiness. The old faith had deserted him.
然后是这份工作:削减,崩溃,五年的不快乐。旧的信仰已经抛弃了他。
“Boots are showing me that you can work hard but you still won’t get your just rewards.”
“博姿告诉我,你可以努力工作,但你仍然得不到应有的回报。”
I looked around his small living room: the messages on the wall reading “If You Believe In Yourself Anything Is Possible” and “Live Every Moment, Laugh Every Day”,
我看了看他那狭小的客厅,墙上写着:“如果你相信自己,一切皆有可能”和“活在每一刻,笑对每一天”,
the framed pharmacy certificate among all the family photos, the drugs manuals stacked up by the CD rack.
装在镜框里的药房证明和所有的家庭照片,药品手册堆放在CD架上。
That male mingling of personal with professional pride.
那种个人和职业自豪感交织在一起的男性感觉。
Tony had a question. “How can Boots call itself a healthcare company when it’s done this to me?”
托尼有一个问题。“博姿对我做了这样的事,怎么能自称是医疗保健公司呢?”