Twenty years ago I started work as the FT’s most junior employee. I was on the foreign desk. Every day I had to phone an angry middle-aged foreign correspondent, based in a faraway city that he hated. I was straight out of university, didn’t know how to talk to adults, and swiftly got up this man’s nose. He’d shout at me. One day, when he was telling me again how stupid I was, I said, “Yes, but you needn’t shout.” He shouted some more, then told me to put him through to my boss, where he really let go.
二十年前我進入《金融時報》工作,成爲一名最初級的員工。我被分到國際部,每天都得給一個憤怒的駐外中年記者打電話,這位記者駐守在一個遙遠的城市,他非常討厭那座城市。那會兒我剛離開大學校園,不懂該怎麼跟成年人說話,於是很快就惹怒了這位中年人,他便開始訓斥我。有一天,當他又對我說我有多麼愚蠢時,我答道:「你說得沒錯,但你不必這樣大呼小叫。」結果他罵得更兇了,他還讓我把電話轉到我上司那裏,對我上司徹底發了一通光火。