總在憂天的“杞人”

?“我今天遲到了1分鐘，老板會不會炒我魷魚啊？”“剛才老板經(jīng)過我這里的時候看了我一眼，我是不是做錯什么事情了啊？”……你身邊有這樣的同事嗎？他們成天有擔(dān)不完的心，做不完的惡夢，簡直就是那個成天擔(dān)心天會掉下來的“杞人”。

Some people can be especially neurotic or nervous by nature, living out their lives in a state of excessive worry. These obsessive concerns may either be global or amazingly minor in scope. Such a person is often said to be a worry wart, also rendered as worrywart or worry-wart in some literary references. A worry wart's fears are generally viewed by others as irrational or completely out of proportion to the actual situation.
有些人可能天生就特別神經(jīng)質(zhì)或者緊張，成天生活在極度憂慮中。這些過度的擔(dān)憂可能是宏觀的大事也可能是芝麻小事。這種極度憂慮的人就被稱為是“憂天的豈人”（拼寫為worry wart、worrywart或worry-wart都可以）。他們這些人的擔(dān)憂通常會被別人看作自尋煩惱或者跟現(xiàn)實情況完全不符。

A worry wart in an office environment, for example, may spend most of his or her time fretting over getting laid off or fired. While the actual chances of a worry wart actually becoming unemployed may be remote at best, a neurotic employee often seeks out advice from co-workers on how to handle his or her inevitable dismissal. Others may worry excessively about job performance or customer complaints or minor conflicts with their superiors.
比如說，辦公室里杞人憂天的那些人大部分時間可能都在擔(dān)心會被裁員或解雇。雖然他們真正被裁的幾率很小，但是這類有點神經(jīng)質(zhì)的員工經(jīng)常會找同事求教怎樣才能避免被裁員。還有一些人可能會對工作表現(xiàn)、客戶投訴或者與上司之間的小矛盾而過度擔(dān)憂。

（中國日報網(wǎng)英語點津 Helen）