第二季 大英三阅读教程 文章翻译.docVIP

第二季 大英三阅读教程 文章翻译 第二季 大英三阅读教程 文章翻译 White-collar sweatshops batter young workers By Laura Vanderkam Nancy Collins remembers when she hit rock bottom. She was in Australia for her investment-banking job at JP Morgan, trying to seal deals on two projects at once. She thought she could handle the stress. After all, co-workers had dubbed her previous boss the Prince of Darkness for making people work until 3 a.m., and she knew she was good at what she did. But then, one night after weeks of 18-hour days and constant travel, she staggered home at 7 a.m. Not to sleep. To shower. As she stood in the water, she started crying. At age 25, she was having a midlife crisis. I started thinking, theres got to be more to life than this, she says. JP Morgan isnt the only firm driving its young employees insane. Salomon Smith Barney. Goldman Sachs. High-end consulting firms such as McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group and many tech companies do the same. All hire the brightest Ivy League grads and make them a deal: We will pay you $60,000 or more a year and give you glimpses of corporate luxury, from ritzy hotels to jaunts on the jet. In exchange, you must work 70, 80, 100 hours a week through the best years of your life. Forget accounting, these white-collar sweatshops are corporate Americas most successful scam. Give a kid a signing bonus and a $500 bottle of champagne, and he doesnt notice that hes working for $12 an hour. For years, exclusive firms have kept labor costs low by squeezing blood out of their hires. Its not exploitation. These kids are savvy enough to know what theyre getting into. But theyre also smart enough to wonder whether the lifestyles worth the cost. As massive layoffs force the question, corporate bean counters should shiver at what the answer could do to their bottom line. Since moving to New York a few months ago, Ive marveled at Wall Streets and consulting companies work-til-you-drop attitude. A friend still in a meeting at 10:30 p.m. asks whe