“我今天遲到了30秒，老板會不會炒我魷魚啊？”“剛才老板經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？他們成天有擔不完的心，做不完的惡夢，簡直就是那個成天擔心天會掉下來的“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質或者緊張，成天生活在極度憂慮中。這些過度的擔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“杞人憂天”（拼寫為worry wart、worrywart或worry-wart都可以）。他們這些人的擔憂通常會被別人看作自尋煩惱或者跟現實情況完全不符。

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，但是這類有點神經質的員工經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、客戶投訴或者與上司之間的小矛盾而過度擔憂。

相關閱讀

磨洋工 warm-chair attrition

動力不足綜合癥 underload syndrome

無手機焦慮癥 nomophobia

放假就得“休閑病” leisure sickness

（英語點津 Helen 編輯）

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