An employee at a small company feels overwhelmed by work pressure, receives encouragement from a colleague, regains confidence, and is praised by her boss for her well-thought-out plan.
鼓励
小美是一家小公司的员工。她每天都很努力地工作，可是她觉得工作压力很大。她的同事王先生也在这家公司工作了很多年。有一天，小美要做一个很重要的企划，但是她想了很久，还是想不出好的办法。她开始担心，怕自己做不好。
王先生看到小美的样子，就走过来问她怎么了。小美说：”我压力太大了，这个企划我真的想不出来。”王先生笑着对她说：”你别担心，你行的。振作起来，不要放弃！”他还说，如果小美有问题，可以随时来找他，他会帮助她一起解决。
听了王先生的话，小美觉得好一点了。她说：”谢谢你，我再试试。”她坐在电脑前，慢慢地写她的企划。她想到公司最近的客人喜欢简单又方便的东西，所以她决定把企划写得更清楚、更简单。她一边工作，一边告诉自己：”我可以的，我可以的！”
第二天，小美把企划给老板看。老板看完以后很高兴，他对小美说：”做得好！你这次的企划想得很周到，问题也处理得很恰当，继续保持。”小美听了很开心，她说：”老板过奖了，这是我应该做的。”老板笑着说：”不，你真的很棒，公司有你这样的员工，我很放心。”
从这件事以后，小美明白了一个道理：工作的时候，压力是正常的，但是不要害怕，也不要一个人面对困难。只要有同事和老板的鼓励和帮助，什么问题都能慢慢解决。小美现在也常常鼓励别的同事，她会对他们说：”加油，你们一定可以的！”公司里的大家因为互相鼓励，工作也变得更开心、更有信心了。
gǔ lì
Xiǎo Měi shì yì jiā xiǎo gōng sī de yuán gōng. Tā měi tiān dōu hěn nǔ lì de gōng zuò, kě shì tā jué de gōng zuò yā lì hěn dà. Tā de tóng shì Wáng xiān sheng yě zài zhè jiā gōng sī gōng zuò le hěn duō nián. Yǒu yì tiān, Xiǎo Měi yào zuò yí gè hěn zhòng yào de qǐ huà, dàn shì tā xiǎng le hěn jiǔ, hái shì xiǎng bù chū hǎo de bàn fǎ. Tā kāi shǐ dān xīn, pà zì jǐ zuò bù hǎo.
Wáng xiān sheng kàn dào Xiǎo Měi de yàng zi, jiù zǒu guò lái wèn tā zěn me le. Xiǎo Měi shuō: “Wǒ yā lì tài dà le, zhè ge qǐ huà wǒ zhēn de xiǎng bù chū lái.” Wáng xiān sheng xiào zhe duì tā shuō: “Nǐ bié dān xīn, nǐ xíng de. Zhèn zuò qǐ lái, bú yào fàng qì!” Tā hái shuō, rú guǒ Xiǎo Měi yǒu wèn tí, kě yǐ suí shí lái zhǎo tā, tā huì bāng zhù tā yì qǐ jiě jué.
Tīng le Wáng xiān sheng de huà, Xiǎo Měi jué de hǎo yì diǎn le. Tā shuō: “Xiè xie nǐ, wǒ zài shì shi.” Tā zuò zài diàn nǎo qián, màn màn de xiě tā de qǐ huà. Tā xiǎng dào gōng sī zuì jìn de kè rén xǐ huan jiǎn dān yòu fāng biàn de dōng xi, suǒ yǐ tā jué dìng bǎ qǐ huà xiě de gèng qīng chu, gèng jiǎn dān. Tā yì biān gōng zuò, yì biān gào su zì jǐ: “Wǒ kě yǐ de, wǒ kě yǐ de!”
Dì èr tiān, Xiǎo Měi bǎ qǐ huà gěi lǎo bǎn kàn. Lǎo bǎn kàn wán yǐ hòu hěn gāo xìng, tā duì Xiǎo Měi shuō: “Zuò de hǎo! Nǐ zhè cì de qǐ huà xiǎng de hěn zhōu dào, wèn tí yě chǔ lǐ de hěn qià dàng, jì xù bǎo chí.” Xiǎo Měi tīng le hěn kāi xīn, tā shuō: “Lǎo bǎn guò jiǎng le, zhè shì wǒ yīng gāi zuò de.” Lǎo bǎn xiào zhe shuō: “Bù, nǐ zhēn de hěn bàng, gōng sī yǒu nǐ zhè yàng de yuán gōng, wǒ hěn fàng xīn.”
Cóng zhè jiàn shì yǐ hòu, Xiǎo Měi míng bai le yí gè dào lǐ: gōng zuò de shí hou, yā lì shì zhèng cháng de, dàn shì bú yào hài pà, yě bú yào yí gè rén miàn duì kùn nan. Zhǐ yào yǒu tóng shì hé lǎo bǎn de gǔ lì hé bāng zhù, shén me wèn tí dōu néng màn màn jiě jué. Xiǎo Měi xiàn zài yě cháng cháng gǔ lì bié de tóng shì, tā huì duì tā men shuō: “Jiā yóu, nǐ men yí dìng kě yǐ de!” Gōng sī lǐ de dà jiā yīn wèi hù xiāng gǔ lì, gōng zuò yě biàn de gèng kāi xīn, gèng yǒu xìn xīn le.
Encouragement
Xiao Mei is an employee at a small company. She works hard every day, but she feels a lot of pressure at work. Her colleague Mr. Wang has also worked at this company for many years. One day, Xiao Mei needed to complete a very important plan, but after thinking for a long time, she still couldn’t come up with a good idea. She began to worry, afraid that she wouldn’t do a good job.
Mr. Wang saw how Xiao Mei looked and came over to ask what was wrong. Xiao Mei said, “I have too much pressure, I really can’t think of an idea for this plan.” Mr. Wang smiled and said to her, “Don’t worry, you can do it. Cheer up, don’t give up!” He also said that if Xiao Mei had any problems, she could come find him anytime, and he would help her solve them together.
After hearing Mr. Wang’s words, Xiao Mei felt a little better. She said, “Thank you, I’ll try again.” She sat in front of the computer and slowly wrote her plan. She thought about how the company’s recent customers liked things that were simple and convenient, so she decided to make the plan clearer and simpler. As she worked, she kept telling herself, “I can do this, I can do this!”
The next day, Xiao Mei showed the plan to her boss. After the boss finished reading it, he was very happy and said to Xiao Mei, “Well done! You thought through this plan very thoroughly, and you handled the problem very appropriately too. Keep it up.” Xiao Mei was very happy to hear this and said, “Boss, you’re too kind, this is what I should do.” The boss smiled and said, “No, you’re really great. It gives me peace of mind that the company has an employee like you.”
After this experience, Xiao Mei understood a truth: feeling pressure at work is normal, but you shouldn’t be afraid, and you shouldn’t face difficulties alone. As long as there is encouragement and help from colleagues and bosses, any problem can slowly be solved. Xiao Mei now often encourages her other colleagues too, telling them, “Keep going, you can definitely do it!” Because everyone in the company encourages each other, work has become happier and more confident for all of them.
音频
Audio recording for this story will be available here.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 鼓励 | gǔ lì | to encourage; encouragement |
| 员工 | yuán gōng | employee; staff |
| 上级 | shàng jí | superior; higher-up |
| 加油 | jiā yóu | keep going! (lit. add oil) |
| 加班 | jiā bān | to work overtime |
| 压力 | yā lì | pressure; stress |
| 振作起来 | zhèn zuò qǐ lái | cheer up; pull yourself together |
| 不要放弃 | bú yào fàng qì | don’t give up |
| 努力 | nǔ lì | hard work; to work hard |
| 加把力 | jiā bǎ lì | put in more effort; power on |
| 做得好 | zuò de hǎo | well done |
| 干得好 | gàn de hǎo | well done |
| 想得很周到 | xiǎng de hěn zhōu dào | thought through very thoroughly |
| 处理得很恰当 | chǔ lǐ de hěn qià dàng | handled very appropriately |
| 继续保持 | jì xù bǎo chí | keep it up; keep maintaining |
| 过奖 | guò jiǎng | you flatter me; overpraised |
| 应该 | yīng gāi | should; ought to |
| 责任 | zé rèn | responsibility |
| 团队 | tuán duì | team |
| 环境 | huán jìng | environment |
| 解决 | jiě jué | to resolve; to solve |
| 问题 | wèn tí | problem; question |
| 企划 | qǐ huà | plan; proposal |
| 表现 | biǎo xiàn | performance; to perform |
不要 + Verb (bú yào) — “don’t”
不要 before a verb tells someone not to do something, often used to give encouragement or advice.
不要放弃。
不要害怕。
Verb + 得 + Adjective (de) — describing how an action is done
得 links a verb to a description of how well or how the action was carried out.
想得很周到。
处理得很恰当。
No idiomatic expressions in this story.
Encouragement in Chinese Workplaces
In Chinese workplace culture, direct praise from a boss is often considered valuable and somewhat rare, so phrases like 做得好 (well done) or 继续保持 (keep it up) carry real weight. Peer encouragement, such as saying 加油 (jiā yóu, “keep going”) to a stressed colleague, is a common and warm way to support teammates without undermining hierarchy.
