【明報專訊】Lanre: So Vernon's no longer with us. I missed him at the water cooler this morning.
蘭雷：弗農終於離開我們公司了。今天早上在飲水機前見不到他。
David: I think we're all missing him. He was such a nice man and so good at his job.
大衛：看來人人都捨不得他離去。他對人很好，工作也很出色。
Lanre: Do you know why he left?
蘭雷：你知道他為什麼離去嗎？
David: Well, from what I can gather, the pressure of work was getting too much for him.
大衛：據我所知，他捱不住工作的壓力。
Lanre: He certainly used to work long hours. And he's got a young family, two girls and a boy I think, and only saw them at weekends.
蘭雷：他向來工作時間實在很長，而兒女還年幼，應是有兩個女兒、一個兒子，只能在周末見到他們。
David: Didn't he work staggered hours for a time to give him more time at home?
大衛：他不是曾經提早或延遲上下班，以便多點時間留在家裏嗎？
Lanre: He did for a time, but it didn't work. So in the end he came to the conclusion that he was never going to find a happy medium between the demands of work and his family's needs, so he decided to quit.
蘭雷：他是試過的，但沒有用，所以，終於認為不可能兼顧工作與家庭需要，決定辭職。
David: Well I can understand that. But where has he gone?
大衛：這個可以理解。但他現在去了哪裏？
Lanre: He's gone to a company where he can work much more flexible hours and also work from home on two days a week.
蘭雷：他去了一家工作時間靈活得多的公司，而且每星期有兩天可以在家辦公。
David: Seems like the ideal solution.
大衛：那似乎是個最好的解決辦法。
Water cooler 是辦公室的飲水機。辦公室職員在飲水機前相遇的閒聊，英文叫 water cooler gossip，也指辦公室裏的閒話。He never spreads water cooler gossip 即「他從不散播辦公室裏的閒言閒語」。
Medium 是「中間的位置」，to hit/strike/find a happy medium 即「找到折衷之道」，例如：A good teacher knows how to strike a/the happy medium between too much and too little homework（好的教師懂得折衷，不會給學生太多或太少家庭作業）。
作者簡介︰專研中英文，著有時事評論、英語學習、散文等書籍。
