TE精读|free speech at work
今天精读的这篇文章很特别，关于free speech言论自由的，文章并没有给我非常多的信息，但却引起了我的很多思考。
众所周知，近来疫情的原因，言论自由这个话题又一次变得沸沸扬扬。这篇文章就是讲了关于工作过程中的free speech，探讨了一些员工因为一些言论不当被dismiss的现象。文章有一些思考，但大部分都在讲现象，但对于国人来讲确实一篇很好的了解文化差异（或者了解一些概念）的文章，我也会在文末说说我自己的一点点思考。
标题导读：
Free speech: Freedom of speech 言论 自由
nine to five：朝九晚五，有一首同名歌曲,放在下面，很嗨很有节奏，女性争取权利的剧情常常放这首歌。
小标题free speech at work 基本上就是全文的主旨了，但是通读全文下来我也没有明白为什么文章起了个working nine to five 的名字，是因为文章在讲我们的工作吗？
prevent ： / prɪvent / verb
to stop something from happening, or stop someone from doing something :
prevent somebody/something (from) doing something
eg: We were prevented from entering the site.
silence verb [ transitive ]
1 to make someone stop talking, or stop something making a noise :
She held up her hand to silence the children.
2 to make someone stop expressing opposition or criticisms – used especially in news reports :
attempts to silence the rumours
Barnes has failed to silence his critics.
整篇文章一共有7段，分为四部分来阐述主题。
1、2 段落直截了当的点明主旨：员工在社交媒体发表一些言论会导致被解雇。
3、4段用几个例子来说明原因，NBA的例子等，主要是因为背后的利益。
5、6段是和别国的法律做了个对比分析，立法者在制定一些规则是要注意一个度，工作内和工作外言论的内容要有所区别对待，自由是有范围的自由。
7段作者发出了感概，如今大家学会与不同言论的人交谈至关重要。
1
Can you really lose your job for posting an opinion on Twitter, or even for clicking “like” on somebody else’s message? Surprising though it may be to employees who expect firms to indulge their odd working hours, their tastes in coffee and their pets, the answer is often yes. Pascal Besselink, an employment lawyer in the Netherlands, reckons that about one in ten abrupt sackings there is connected to behaviour on social media.
posting an opinion on Twitter
click “like”点赞
Surprising though it may be to employees who expect firms to indulge their odd working hours, their tastes in coffee and their pets, the answer is often yes.
令人惊讶的是，尽管员工们希望公司能放纵自己的多变的工作时间、对咖啡的品味和宠物，但答案往往是肯定的。
sack verb 解雇
1 to dismiss someone from their job
They couldn’t sack me – I’d done nothing wrong.
One in ten 十分之一
Controversial opinions were once expressed in bars after work, and went no further. Today Twitter and other social media broadcast employees’ thoughts; they also make it easy for anyone who is offended to put together a mob and retaliate against the poster and their employer. Jittery firms respond by sacking the offender. Some, like General Motors, have introduced conduct codes which police workers’ speech even when they are not at work.
Controversial：有争议的
mob / mɒ / noun
a large noisy crowd, especially one that is angry and violent
mob of
a mob of a few hundred demonstrators
flash mob 快闪一族
retaliate / rɪˈtælieɪt / verb
to do something bad to someone because they have done something bad to you → hit back
retaliate against 报复
The army began to retaliate against the civilian population.
jittery / ˈdʒɪtəri / l风声鹤唳的
anxious or nervous
It was probably the tension that made him jittery.
这里指形势比较紧张的公司
Conduct codes ：行为规范
a code of conduct (= a set of rules stating how you must behave )
All professions have a code of conduct.
police verb
to keep control over a particular area in order to make sure that laws are obeyed and that people and property are protected, using a police or military force :
The army was brought in to police the city centre.
这里是指通用公司出了一套不工作时管控员工的行为规范。
A firm may judge its self-interest correctly when it punishes workers who speak out. America’s National Basketball Association probably lost hundreds of millions of dollars this season because of a Chinese blackout imposed after the general manager of the Houston Rockets tweeted in support of democracy in Hong Kong. Sacking him would have been costly, too—but not that costly.
Though it is not necessarily in companies’ interests to allow the free expression of opinion, it is clearly in society’s interest. Free speech, including by employees, is a cornerstone of democracy. At the moment workers are too easily gagged.
blackout / ˈblækaʊt / noun
1 a period of darkness caused by a failure of the electricity supply
2 a situation in which particular pieces of news or information are not allowed to be reported :
As the crisis worsened, the authorities imposed a news blackout .
3 a period during a war when all the lights in a town or city must be turned off
这里指中国对NBA的封锁
National Basketball Association全国篮球协会; 缩写词为NBA
cornerstone / ˈkɔːnəstəʊn / noun
1 something that is extremely important because everything else depends on it
这里是指言论自由是民主的前提。
gag / ɡæɡ / verb
to stop people saying what they want to say and expressing their opinions :
an attempt to gag political activists
这里是指工人们如今很容易就被堵住嘴。
就NBA事件来讲，站在言论自由的角度那个经理没有错，但是公司站在利益的角度上，解雇这个经理确实需要一些费用，但是不会那么费钱。
归根究底还是利益为王。
In countries such as America most employees have scant protection against punitive employers. In others, laws written to protect religious freedom are being extended to govern other beliefs and views. British judges have decided that ethical veganism deserves legal protection. A think-tank was ruled to have acted legally when it did not renew the contract of a researcher after she tweeted that biological sex is immutable (see International section). This case-by-case evolution leaves employees and employers unsure which views are acceptable and where.
scant / skænt / adjective [ only before noun ]
not enough :
The story has received scant attention in the press.
这里指在美国对于反对这种惩罚性的雇主的雇员有很少的保护。
punitive / ˈpjuːnətɪv,/ adjective [ usually before noun ]
intended to punish someone
The agency sent a letter, but took no punitive action.
Punitive employers:这里是指那种因言论而解雇员工的惩罚性老板
ethical veganism：伦理素食主义者
ˈthink-tank noun 这里指智囊团
a group of people with experience or knowledge of a particular subject, who work to produce ideas and give advice
right-wing/liberal/economic etc think-tank
Renew the contract续约
renew / rɪˈnjuː / verb
to arrange for an agreement or official document to continue for a further period of time
renew sb’s contract/licence/membership etc
I need to renew my passport this year.
immutable / ɪˈmjuːtəb ə l / adjective formal
never changing or impossible to change :
This decision should not be seen as immutable.
case-by-case逐案；具体分析；个例
关于文中说的这个新闻如下：
In laying down clearer rules, legislators should remember that offending and harassing are different. It is not reasonable for companies to try to prevent their employees from expressing displeasure at gay marriage, no matter how strongly others disagree—at least if that is not relevant to the job they do. But an employee who repeatedly says at work that gays are damned, even after being told to stop, has crossed the line into harassment. That should be grounds for dismissal.
legislator / ˈledʒəsleɪtə / noun 立法者
someone who has the power to make laws or belongs to an institution that makes laws
offend / əfend / verb
to make someone angry or upset by doing or saying something that they think is rude, unkind etc :
harass / ˈhærəs/ verb
1 to make someone’s life unpleasant, for example by frequently saying offensive things to them or threatening them :
sexually/racially harass somebody (= harass someone because of their sex or race )
One woman claimed that she had been sexually harassed by a male manager.
2 to keep attacking an enemy again and again
offend常常用于冒犯别人，使别人不愉快，
而harass常用于性骚然之类的情节严重的行为。
damn / dæm /
1 used when you are very annoyed or disappointed :
Damn! I’ve left my keys in the office.
2 used when something is impressive or surprising :
Damn, she’s old.
Grounds:这里的grounds表原因
ground 1 / ɡraʊnd / noun
a good reason for doing, believing, or saying something
grounds for (doing) something
eg. There are strong grounds for believing his statement.
There is also a difference between what people do at work and what they do outside. Speech is like a dress code. Just as companies can demand that their employees look the part while at work, they should be able to restrict what they say there, provided they are clear and fair about it. After people go home, though, they should be able to express their opinions freely, just as they are free to change into jeans and a t-shirt. A woman fired in 2004 by a housing firm for displaying a sticker backing John Kerry on her car was poorly treated. The situation is more complicated when it comes to public figures such as sports stars, who in effectsell their image as well as their labour.
dress code:穿衣规则，code常用于规则的意思。
Display a sticker:贴贴纸
Back john:支持John，back常用于表示支持某人。
In effect means effectively,事实上
sell：在这里是推销的意思。
Firms will lobby to preserve their freedoms. But robust laws against unfair dismissal that protect speech would help them stand up to complaints from angry mobs and the Chinese government. Politicians should hold their nerve. Many complain that their constituents have become so ideological and tribal that they have forgotten how to talk to those with opposing views. Geographical and technological spaces are increasingly segregated. That makes it all the more important that people encounter different views at work—and especially outside it.
Lobby verb 游说
to try to persuade the government or someone with political power that a law or situation should be changed
constituent / kənˈstɪtʃuənt / noun 选民
1 someone who votes in a particular area
公司将尽力维护他们的自由。但那些发对不公平解雇、保护自由言论的强有力的法律，将有助于他们经得起愤怒暴民和中国政府的投诉。政治家们应该保持冷静。许多人抱怨说，他们的选民已经变得如此意识形态化和部落化，以至于他们忘记了如何与持相反观点的人交谈。地理和技术空间日益隔离，这使得人们在工作中，尤其是在工作之外，遇到不同的观点变得更加重要。
很明显的就可以看出来言论自由是有一定的界限的，但在现实操作中又会有很多不同，比如文中当free speech 与interest相遇之时，又是不一样的结果。
在查询这个话题时我也看到了网上很多关于国内这个话题的分析，特别是最近的疫情原因，它又成了一个hot，（图片应该违规发不出去……）