当世下,你挣钱太多?

Eventually I tracked down one of wealthiest men there, to whom I had to repeat the question several times before he got the drift. Overpaid?
最后我找到了派对现场最富有大亨中的一位。我向他重复了好几遍问题才使他明白了我的意思。薪酬过高？

No way. He had created jobs and delivered value.
绝无可能。要知道他创造了工作岗位并且带来了巨大的价值。

Only one of the poorest guests, a journalist on another paper, said that she felt grossly overpaid when she thought of the interns doing the same work for nothing at all.
一位为另一份报纸工作的记者是现场最穷的来宾之一。只有她表示，当她想到做着同样工作却没有分文酬劳的实习生时，她会觉得自己的薪酬水平实在高得过分。

My impertinent cross-questioning left me with two tentative conclusions. First, the more money people make the more they think they deserve it. And second, people are extraordinarily skilled at finding arguments to stop them feeling bad.
通过莽撞的盘问，我得到了两个试探性结论。第一点是，人们挣得越多，就越感到自己理应得到高额报酬。第二点是，人们极为擅长找到理由让自己不再有负罪感。

My own story (which I’m still sure is more common than people admit) is that I feel vertigo when my estimation of my market value is far less than is being offered. I once turned down a job with another company mainly because the size of the salary filled me with terror.
就我自己而言，当我对于自己市场价值的估计远远低于我所得到的报酬时，我会感到不知所措（我相信自己的这种情况远比人们愿意承认的更加普遍）。我曾经拒绝过另一家公司提供的一个工作机会，主要原因就在于那份工作的薪酬水平高得让我害怕。

I’ve done some unpacking of this pathetic, girly response and think there are four reasons for it. The first is a general sense of: because I’m not worth it. This is a version of the imposter syndrome, which I’ve flirted with for decades though recently seem to have shaken off.
我曾分析过自己这种小女生气的可怜反应，并找出了四点可能的原因。原因之一是一种认为自己不值这么多钱的笼统感觉。这是冒充者综合征(imposter syndrome)的一种表现，在过去的几十年里我一直都有这种心理，直到最近似乎才真正摆脱。

It has nothing to recommend it.
这种想法没有任何值得推荐的地方。

The second is that earning too much is a burden, as it sets the bar too high. When you pay footballers more, they sometimes get so stressed by what is expected of them that they forget how to kick the ball.
原因之二是，挣得太多是一种负担，因为随之而来的将是过高的绩效标准。如果你提高足球运动员的薪酬，他们有时会因为肩上背负的沉重期望而感到压力过大，以至于忘记如何踢球。

The third is feeling that you don’t want to be disliked and resented by worse-paid colleagues.
原因之三是一种不希望被收入较低的同事们讨厌和憎恶的感觉。

And the fourth is not wanting too much now, as it’s nice to feel there is more for later.
原因之四则是不想现在就拥有太多，未来还有更多可以期待之事的感觉很好。

Even though reasons two to four are fairly sane, in describing them I am talking myself out of the whole thing. Increasingly, I’m wondering if the man with the mirror didn’t have a point: get over it.
虽然第二至第四条理由看起来非常合理，但我把它们表述出来，是在说服自己完全抛开这件事。我越来越强烈地感到，之前照剃须镜的那位男士的做法或许是正确的：把这件事置之脑后。

Though, as a PS, I was right about that job. The organisation quickly fell on hard times and all the tall poppies got cut down.
不过最后附带一句，我拒绝那份工作是正确的。那家机构在形势恶化时迅速受创，所有高薪雇员都遭到了解雇。