畫大餅計畫
May and Jack are friends. Jack is complaining about his new manager.
梅跟傑克是朋友，傑克在抱怨他的新主管。
whine(v.)無病呻吟、碎念
Jack: Guess what? My boss hired a new manager to take over the marketing department.
傑克：你知道嗎？我們老闆居然雇一個新主管接手行銷部。
hire(v.)雇用take over接管
May: So you have a new supervisor now.
梅：所以你有新上司了。
supervisor(n.)主管
Jack: Things have just been downright awful since the new manager arrived. He’s bossy and domineering. He thinks he’s right about everything, and won’t even consider our opinions. And the worst part is, if we fail to achieve our monthly target, it’s like – he won’t take any responsibility for his bad decision-making.
傑克：他來了之後一切都變糟了。他很愛發號司令、控制慾很強，覺得自己永遠是對的，根本不聽我們的想法，最糟糕的是，如果我們沒達成每月目標，他也不會覺得要為自己的爛決策扛起責任。
downright(adj.)極端的awful(adj.)糟糕的bossy(adj.)專橫的、愛指揮的domineering(adj.)控制欲強的consider(v.)思考opinion(n.)看法fail to無法做到⋯⋯achieve(v.)達成responsibility(n.)責任
May: He sounds like a typical narcissist who never admits they’re wrong.
梅：他聽起來像典型的自戀狂，絕不承認自己的錯誤。
typical(adj.)典型的narcissist(n.)自戀者admit(v.)承認
Jack: He so is! He’s always making excuses for himself.
傑克：他就是！他總是幫自己編一堆藉口。
excuse(n.)藉口
May: A person like this usually doesn’t deal well with pressure. You shouldn’t count on him to be the backbone of your department.
梅：這種人無法處理壓力，你不能依賴他當你們部門的支柱了。
pressure(n.)壓力count on依賴backbone(n.)支柱
Jack: Exactly. The plans he sets for us are not exactly feasible.
傑克：沒錯，他規劃的計畫都是在畫大餅。
feasible(adj.)行得通的
May: My advice to you is to try your best to ignore him. Don’t let him drain you mentally or energetically. He sounds like a really toxic person who might end up affecting your work performance negatively.
梅：我的建議是盡可能忽略他，不要讓他消耗你的精神和力氣。我覺得他就是那種「有毒的」主管，最後可能會對你的工作表現有負面的影響。
advice(n.)建議ignore(v.)忽略drain(v.)榨乾mentally(adv.)心理上、精神上energetically(adv.)體力上toxic(adj.)有毒的、造成陰影的end up最後affect(v.)影響negatively(adv.)負面地
Jack: You’re right. I’ll try to focus on my work. In the meantime, I really need to figure out what my next step is going to be.
傑克：你說得對，我要試著專注在我的職責，同時也認真想想我的下一步。
focus on專注figure out想出