Shouts & Murmurs

We Need Fewer Influencers and More Bullshit E-Mail Jobs

我们需要更少网红,更多“狗屁”邮件工作
April 17, 2026
Figures sit at cubicles in an office
Photograph by Bill Varie / Getty

Growing up, I had these childlike dreams of being an astronaut, a firefighter, or an N.F.L. player with twenty concussions. But because of my state-school education that my parents paid for with their grandparents’ money, I was lucky enough to dream bigger. So, with just a 2.5 G.P.A., a few called-in favors from Dad’s golf buddy, and luck, I became a person with a bullshit e-mail job.

小时候,我做过那些天真的梦:当宇航员、消防员,或是被撞出二十次脑震荡的NFL球员。但多亏了父母用祖辈积蓄供我上的州立大学教育,我有幸能梦想得更大些。于是,凭着区区2.5的平均绩点、老爸高尔夫球友的几通人情电话,再加上一点运气,我成了个靠发废话邮件混饭吃的家伙。

But now it seems as if no one even wants to come into an office as an Innovation and Design Experience Assistant two days a week in the name of justifying real estate. Instead, everybody wants to be an influencer who demands that I, the average scroller, buy some lymphatic-drainage vibration plate that makes my balls shake even though I’m not on that side of TikTok, you know?

但如今,似乎连每周两天以"创新与设计体验助理"名义坐班、为公司地产价值背书的人都不复存在。取而代之的是,人人都想当网红,要求我这个普通刷屏用户购买什么淋巴排毒振动板——哪怕我压根不在那个圈层的抖音用户之列,明白吗?那玩意儿震得连蛋蛋都在发颤。

We need to go back to the old days, to before we asked sexy people to sell us things. There need to be fewer influencers and significantly more people breaking their backs doing bullshit e-mail jobs, as the Global Market Influence Architects of the world.

我们需要回到过去,回到那个不需要性感尤物推销商品的时代。这世上应当少些网红,多些在无聊邮件工作中累断脊梁的全球市场影响力架构师。

The bullshit e-mail job isn’t just about making billions of dollars for people who don’t care if you live or die. It’s a higher calling. It’s bigger than spreadsheets and K.P.O.s, don’t you see? I’m not just selling technology that will eventually replace me, I’m selling dreams—dreams of automation, revenue, and other buzzwords I’ve been trained to say. When I signed on the dotted line after being offered the role of Business Development Energy Software Analyst, I took an oath: do no harm to the bottom line.

这份狗屁邮件工作,可不只是为那些不在乎你死活的人赚取数十亿美元。它是一项更高尚的召唤。它比电子表格和关键绩效指标更重要,难道你看不出来吗?我推销的不仅是最终会取代我的技术,我推销的是梦想——关于自动化、营收以及其他我被训练要挂在嘴边的时髦词汇的梦想。当我签下那份商业发展能源软件分析师职位的录用函时,我立下了誓言:绝不对利润底线造成损害。

Influencers don’t know what ethics are—heck, they don’t even say #ad when it clearly is one. They’re liars, while what I do is lie in my very own, corporate way, like when I say, “I’m taking fifteen,” when really I’m doing a three-hour boozy brunch with the boys on a random Tuesday. I bet influencers don’t understand what it’s like to survive a fire drill when you’re an Account Executive Manager of Consumer Solutions Engineer. You don’t know if you’re going to make it home by 5:30 P.M.! But let me tell you, when you get a compliment from your superior, and the ultimate bonus (more work)—there’s no better feeling.

网红们根本不懂什么叫职业道德——老天,他们连在明显是广告的时候都不标注#广告。他们就是骗子,而我呢,我撒谎可是有我们企业自己的方式,比如我说"我休息十五分钟",其实是在某个莫名其妙的周二和哥们儿喝了三小时早午餐酒。我敢打赌网红们绝对无法理解,当你身为消费解决方案工程师的客户执行经理时,如何在紧急任务中求生。你根本不知道能不能在下午五点半前到家!但让我告诉你,当上司夸你一句,再给你终极奖励(更多的工作)——那种感觉真是无与伦比。

No one wants to pretend to do their jobs anymore. While everyone aspires to become the next big influencer who writes, films, and edits their own videos, we need Principal Web Optimization and Synergy Managers who want to get their hands dirty by moving their computer mouses every few minutes so it appears as if they’re online as they binge “Real Housewives of Rhode Island” in their pajamas.

如今没人再愿意假装认真工作了。人人都渴望成为下一个网红大V,自己写脚本、拍摄、剪辑视频;但我们仍然需要首席网络优化与协同经理——他们得时不时挪动鼠标,好让自己看起来在线,同时穿着睡衣狂追《罗德岛娇妻》。

While influencers are being threatened in the comments sections of videos about their morning routines, we need Directors of Manual Automation Sales Development to roll up their sleeves and type one singular e-mail every day in which they pass off their work to a different department.

当网红们因分享晨间日常而遭受评论区威胁时,我们却需要手动自动化销售开发总监们挽起袖子,每天敲一封邮件,把活儿甩给另一个部门。

We used to be a proper country. A country in which people pulled up their bootstraps (that were not sent to them for free by a publicist) and worked tirelessly to add yet another corporate buzzword to their title in order to seem more important. (So far, I’m up to eight: Senior B2B, C2C, and D2D Solutions Research Content Specialist.)

我们曾经是个正经国家。一个人们会自力更生(靴带可不是公关公司免费寄来的)的国家,大家不知疲倦地往自己头衔里塞进又一个企业流行词,好让自己显得更重要。(截至目前,我已经攒了八个:高级B2B、C2C及D2D解决方案研究内容专员。)

But I’m not giving up hope just yet on this generation. There’s still time to build a healthy pipeline and train the future leaders of bullshit e-mail jobs to join the existing group of rock stars. It starts at home. Parents, when your child is on their phone at the dinner table, ignoring you, make sure that they’re scrolling Outlook, not Reddit.

但我对这个世代尚未完全放弃希望。我们仍有时间建立健康的人才输送管道,培养未来那些从事"废话邮件工作"的领导者,让他们加入现有的职场精英行列。这需要从家庭做起。各位家长,当孩子在餐桌上埋头看手机无视你时,请务必确认他们正在滑动的是Outlook邮箱,而不是Reddit论坛。

Picture, for just a moment, what our society would look like without those brave men and women with bullshit e-mail jobs. Without the hardworking Principal International Hardware and Software Relationship Managers of the world, let’s just say that Japan would have one less tourist maximizing their unlimited P.T.O.

试想一下,倘若没有那些勇敢的男女们从事着毫无意义的电子邮件工作,我们的社会将会变成什么模样。如果没有世界各地勤勤恳恳的"首席国际软硬件关系经理",打个比方,日本恐怕就要少一位利用无限带薪休假来旅游的游客了。

Take away the courteous Quality Print Ink Cartridge Response Consultants in this country, and suddenly your company is left with an additional hundred and ten thousand dollars in the bank each year to spend on better snacks at the office, more swag that no one will ever wear, and increased parental leave for the employees who actually do work.

倘若撤去国内那些彬彬有礼的"优质打印墨盒响应顾问",贵公司账上每年便能凭空多出十一万美元——这笔钱可以用来升级办公室零食、添置无人会穿的品牌文化衫,或是为真正干活的员工延长育儿假。

Without heroes like me, you can say goodbye to my great-aunt Susan looking confused and saying, “How nice, dear,” whenever she asks me what I do, and I reply, “I’m a Lead Group Functionality and Web Excellence Administrator, Water Cooler Division, and my job is to optimize processes within the product space to insure that the synergy drives collaboration.”

要是没有我这样的英雄,你们就再也听不到我的苏珊姑婆一脸困惑地说"真不错啊,亲爱的"了——每当她问起我的工作,我总是回答:"我是饮水机部门的首席集团功能与网络卓越管理员,主要负责优化产品空间内的流程,确保协同效应能促进协作。"

Could an influencer do that?

网红能做到吗?

America, wake up. We don’t need more influencers. We need more bullshit e-mail jobs. Specifically, we need more of them so that I can get hired to do another one, because I just got let go last week.

美国,醒醒吧。我们不需要更多网红了。我们需要更多狗屁邮件工作。具体来说,我们需要更多这样的岗位,这样我才能再找一份——因为我上周刚被解雇。

So, spread the word and maybe put in a referral for me for the open Chief Boss’s Son Resource Contribution Officer at Capital Enterpriselytics Partners & Co. That way I can continue fighting the good fight of going idle on Teams while I play video games in my underwear and not putting my business degree to work. For the time being, use the code EMAIL10 to get ten per cent off the lymphatic-drainage vibration plate. ♦

那么,请帮忙传个话,或许还能为我在Capital Enterpriselytics Partners & Co.公司那个"首席老板之子资源贡献官"的职位空缺递个推荐信。这样一来,我就能继续穿着内裤打游戏、在Teams上摸鱼、让我的商科学位继续闲置——这可是一场正义之战啊。眼下,使用优惠码EMAIL10购买淋巴引流振动板可享九折优惠。♦

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