第300期：too many cooks in the kitchen

今天应胖鹿之邀，专门来谈一个英语成语：too many cooks in the kitchen. 估计也是每个职场中人都面临过的问题。

这个成语的英语解释很简单，写得极为准确。我们来欣赏几个字典的解释。

Too many people are trying to control, influence, or work on something, with the quality of the final product suffering as a result.

Too
many people working together on something may cause problems and the
final product (the thing that’s being worked on) can be negatively
impacted as a result.

Especially in business, when there are too many people in charge of a job or project, they all tend to make their own changes/opinions and it just ends up ruining it.

这种说法其实是另一个更有名的英语成语的一个变体。Too many cooks spoil the broth(肉汤). 这是最正式最老的英语成语。有好几种变体说法。我们今天讲的这个只是一种变体而已。翻译成汉语大概可以说是“人多了坏事”，或者“越帮越忙”。

(A variation of the more common phrase, “Too many cooks spoil the broth/stew/soup.”)

这个成语的出处应该不难推测，肯定是厨房里来的。想象一下五六个大厨一起做一锅汤的情形。每个大厨都有自己的想法，手法流派不一，上海厨师加一勺糖，四川厨师放一勺辣椒油，新疆厨师撒把孜然，山东厨师添一勺盐……这锅汤就算是毁了。

这就是这个成语的来源。

来看个例句吧。

That project failed miserably, there were 5 people in charge of it and no one could come to an agreement, just too many cooks in the kitchen.

在职场中，其实“厨子太多”是一个很普遍的现象，几乎每个公司都存在。如何在厨子太多的情况下manage multiple bosses的确是个职场难题。

今早佛老读了篇文章：Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen? How to Co-Manage Better

文中的某些建议有点意思。有兴趣的读者可自行阅读。（题目已加超链）