Who's the boss? Many workers say they have more than one, and that's causing frustration and confusion in the office.

　　誰才是老板?許多員工表示自己的老板不止一個，這造成了職場中的困惑以及沮喪。

　　More than two-thirds of employees around the world say they have to consult with more than one boss to get their jobs done, according to a Gartner survey, and nearly as many waste significant amounts of time waiting for guidance from senior leaders.

　　Gartner Inc.的一項調(diào)查結(jié)果顯示，在來自世界各地的受訪者中，逾三分之二的公司職員表示自己在完成工作任務(wù)時必須向不止一個老板征詢意見，而認(rèn)為自己在等待上級領(lǐng)導(dǎo)指示時，浪費(fèi)了大量時間的職員占比也接近這一水平。

　　The lack of clear goals has caused some employees to try to manage their managers.

　　由于缺乏清晰的目標(biāo)，部分職員必須反過來嘗試“管理”他們的管理者。

　　A few years ago at a prior job, Girish Rishi had a boss who got distracted by every minor crisis or triumph, leading to "whiplash" for his subordinates, says Mr. Rishi, now chief executive of JDA Software.

　　JDA軟件集團(tuán)高管吉里什·瑞希稱，在幾年前的上一份工作中，他的老板總是因一些小得小失而分心，導(dǎo)致下屬們忽東忽西，無所適從。

　　"If there was news about a competitor, it would take up half your day," he says. "If there was a customer win, the celebration would go on too long. Focusing on structure and priorities was missing."

　　他表示：“如果出現(xiàn)了關(guān)于某個競爭對手的新聞報道，這會耗上你半天時間。如果簽下了一個客戶，慶祝的時間往往持續(xù)得過長。對架構(gòu)和優(yōu)先次序的關(guān)注不復(fù)存在。”

　　Mr. Rishi says he tried his best to insulate his team from the chaos. He also developed his own management system based around efficiency.

　　瑞希稱，當(dāng)時他盡全力讓自己的團(tuán)隊避開這種混亂局面。他還圍繞效率的提升創(chuàng)建了一套自己的管理體系。

　　At JDA, a maker of supply-chain software, he requires meetings to be intensely focused and only eight or 30 minutes long, and he asks participants to submit materials 48 hours in advance.

　　在JDA公司，他要求各會議高度緊湊，且只持續(xù)8分鐘或30分鐘，同時他要求與會者提前48小時提交材料。

　　While that isn't always possible, Mr. Rishi says, he finds that for roughly 70% of all meetings, "people come prepared, they've summarized their thoughts and they've given us adequate information."

　　雖然不可能次次盡善盡美，但瑞希表示，他發(fā)現(xiàn)在約70%的會議上，“大家都有備而來、闡述核 心觀點且言簡意賅。”

　　Bosses now manage, on average, nine direct reports, up from five in 2008, according to Gartner, which can spread leaders so thin that they don't have a close grasp of what their employees are doing.

　　根據(jù)Gartner提供的數(shù)據(jù)，目前各企業(yè)管理人員平均每人管理九名直接下屬，較2008年的五名大幅增長。在這種情況下，管理者們分身乏術(shù)，無法詳細(xì)掌握下屬們工作情況。

　　Only about 35% of employees surveyed in the Gartner poll last year say their manager understands their day-to-day work.

　　在接受Gartner調(diào)查的企業(yè)職員中，僅有約35%的人認(rèn)為上司了解自己的日常工作情況。

　　"Managers are less likely to provide good feedback and coaching when they don't understand what that employee's workflow is," says Brian Kropp, human-resources-practice leader at Gartner.

　　Gartner公司人力資源管理實踐負(fù)責(zé)人布萊恩·克洛普指出：“在不了解員工日常工作流程的情況下，管理者們提供有效反饋和指導(dǎo)的可能性有所降低�！�