英语阅读：Water cooler
Reader question:What does this sentence – Now, these are not events that will create crowds
at water coolers – mean? Particularly, "water coolers"?
My comments:
That sentence means "these events" will not draw much interest from people.
Water coolers stand for gossip.
How come? Well, the water coolers are the place where office workers come
to fetch cold water during office hours. Here colleagues meet and what do they
do? They chatter. They say hey, how are you doing, haven't seen you for awhile
and stuff like that. And of course they talk about the weather, promotions,
bosses and their secretaries... That's how water coolers come to stand for
gossip at the workplace.
Next time you hear water cooler (or watercooler, water-cooler) gossip, you
know it's just chatter at the water coolers. It is American English – in China,
especially in big organizations in the old days, more often we see water heaters
instead, or boilers, 锅炉房, 水房that is.
No water heaters or boilers though when you speak English, only water
coolers. Here are examples:
1. BOOK VALUE; Learning to CelebrateWater-Cooler Gossip
Laurence Prusak and Don Cohen, two lifelong students of business learning,
are champions of the chance encounter. They believe that people in business
learn most effectively (and most often) from their colleagues, typically in
unplanned exchanges that are as likely to occur on a staircase as in a
conference room.
Most vitally, they say, newcomers adapt like pups entering a pack. They
absorb a company's values and identity from experienced colleagues, who speak
with unmatched credibility. Bonding happens over beers after work.
In their earnest new book, "In Good Company: How Social Capital Makes
Organizations Work" (Harvard Business School Press, $27.50), Mr. Prusak and Mr.
Cohen make a familiar case that successful businesses rely on foundations of
trust, commitment and community. The book's novelty and appeal lie in the loving
attention to the power of commonplace conversations and everyday life.
- New York Times, February 25, 2001.
2. MSU Psychologist Takes Workplace Romance from Water Coolers to
Scientific Journals
Ah, spring. Time for a young man's heart to turn to ... the woman sitting
at the next computer.
According to one of the foremost scientists studying such workplace
romances, that may not be such a bad thing.
Charles A. Pierce, a professor of psychology at Montana State
University-Bozeman specializing in industrial and organizational psychology,
says scientific data shows workplace romances can result in productive
employees. Instead of a blanket policy forbidding them, Pierce recommends
workplace romances be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
"In certain circumstances, workplace romances can be okay. In fact, they
can be beneficial," Pierce said. "Employees often channel romantic energy to
work tasks. They bring enthusiasm and energy to their work."
As one of the few psychologists in the country studying workplace romance,
Pierce is taking workplace romance out of the realm of water cooler gossip and
into the pages of scientific journals. The MSU professor's work has recently
appeared in a number of scholastic publications, including a recent article in
the Journal of Organizational Behavior.
- www.montana.edu, May 3, 1996.
3. White House used 'gossip' to build case for war
The controversy in America over pre-war intelligence has intensified, with
revelations that the Bush administration exaggerated the claims of a key source
on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, despite repeated warnings before
the invasion that his information was at best dubious, if not downright
wrong.
...
But by summer 2002, his claims had been thrown into grave doubt. Five
senior BND officials told the newspaper they warned the CIA that Curveball never
claimed to have been involved in germ weapons production, and never saw anyone
else do so. His information was mostly vague, secondhand and impossible to
confirm, they told the Americans – "watercooler gossip" according to one
source.
- Independent, UK, November 21, 2005.
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