每个职场人都会经历入职、离职。很多人还会经历“离职谈话”。
离职谈话，这个说法还有个英文名称：exit interview
你觉得这种谈话有必要吗？
离职谈话都是怎么进行的呢？
离职员工要如何回答呢？
Bartleby告诉你答案！
Is there a point to exit interviews?
离职谈话有意义吗？
What to say when you are quitting your job
当你离职时，你该说些什么
通过本文，你会学到以下表达：
员工流动率；挖墙脚；对簿公堂，过河拆桥
1. “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?
“你觉得从你进公司以来，工作内容有变化吗？”“你为什么打算换个工作？”这些是“离职谈话”中的典型问题。在你提交离职申请后，HR会给你发送邮件，邀请你谈谈这些问题。你会接受这些问题吗？如果准备回答这些问题，那么你会对即将成为你前任老板实话实说吗？
这里：how honest…… 可以不译作有多诚实……的句型。
2. 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.
一个公司和一个人一样，都不愿承认自己的错误，所以，很多公司对待离职员工很差劲。离职谈话也许会帮助公司改善自己。更重要的是，如果想要阻止公司员工大出逃，那么，理解员工离职的原因就至关重要。招聘和培训高级员工对公司来说需要付出巨大的成本，尤其对那些服务行业的公司来说，所以只要能够降低员工流动率，任何方法都是非常值得的。“挖墙脚是竞争行业的一部分，所以，想知道员工为什么被挖走对公司来说很有用。”“心满意足离职”的员工在未来也许会成为两个公司的桥梁。
这里：so knowing what drew an employee…… 在翻译的时候，可以关联上文poaching 挖墙脚，即为什么被挖走……，就不要再翻译成吸引员工到另一个公司。
3. 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.
对公司来说，离职谈话是其最不想进行的事。《哈佛商业评论》进行的一项调查表明“离职谈话”应该是一系列常规挽留谈话的终点。这些尝试并不是每次都奏效，有时甚至起到反作用，让员工搅乱了公司的现状。对于那些下定决心要走的人，公司会安排离职员工的上司进行一对一的谈话。其他公司则会提供一个在线表格，虽然私人化不强，但能够轻松收到反馈。这样的交流最好安排在员工流露出离职想法，但还没下定决心离职的时候。谈话得到的信息很有用。在某些公司，这些信息会直接传达到董事会。
这里：For firms the best exit interview…… 乍看不难理解，但千万不要直译。其实，它的含义就是：公司最不希望看到有人离职，所以，离职谈话是他们最不想进行的事。
Exchange 有交流的含义，比如exchange student 交换生。
Such exchanges are best scheduled……这一句还是有点难度。
难点在于initial rush of emotion, checked out mentally 其实，离过职的人都知道，都要经历一个一开始有离职想法，到最后下决心离职的过程。
还有，the information 指的就是初次谈话时得到的员工想离职想法的信息。
4. 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.
员工离职的原因不甚清晰。（如果你打算和公司对簿公堂，你的律师可能会告诉你不要和公司进行任何离职谈话。）忽视所有人，直接走人当然很好，或者反其道，将苦水全盘脱出。Dylan Thomas 说“当你过河拆桥时，你拆得多好。”把所有曾经让你心情不爽的经历全部倾倒出来其实是非常肤浅的回应。
5. 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.
你无从知道他人的底线。公司可能不会给你写推荐信，或者扰乱你的股票期权和退休金计划。或者，你可能失去一个潜在的客户。Bartleby专栏客邀作家没有离开当前工作的计划。但是，如果她打算离职，被邀请进行离职谈话，她会欣然接受，也会建议你这样做。
6. 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.
和任何分手场景一样，员工和雇主也会说些客套话（不是您的原因，是我自己……）或者结束时（谢谢您所做的一切！）。这些话也是礼仪之道，所以，不要太过坦率。无论是电话谈话，视频会议，私下谈或是在线表格形式，不要自由发挥。最好说些对新工作的期待，而不是背后抨击这些年对你不好的同事们。
7. 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.
保持外交客套是安全之策，但也不要说些不真诚的陈词滥调。“这地方不是人待得”不好，“领导团队长远的眼光让我很敬佩”可能更糟。想要恰到好处，那你要把离职谈话看作是一种表现评价。大概说出你最喜欢公司的地方（薪水、同事或咖啡），这是个不错的开头。向公司解释自己为什么去了其他公司非常有帮助性。 给自己需要提升提出一些建议也很好。记住，离职谈话中的内容会被记录在正式文件中。无论你做什么，不要在社交媒体上说前任老板的坏话。
8. 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?
在Michael Lewis的书《撒谎者的扑克牌》（Liar’s Poker）中，作者讲了一个故事。所罗门兄弟公司的一位高级交易员被高盛投资公司以高价挖走。这位交易员的领导恳求他留下来，希望他能对公司忠诚；而交易员反驳道想要忠诚，那他们应该雇一只可卡犬。好的离职谈话应该亲切祥和，惠及双方。拒绝离职谈话的员工会显得很小气，也反映了他的愤恨。而对公司来说，这是最后一个留下好印象的机会。如果你决定分开，为什么不友善地谈谈呢？