“我今天迟到了30秒，老板会不会炒我鱿鱼啊？”“刚才老板经过我这里的时候看了我一眼，我是不是做错什么事情了啊？”……你身边有这样的同事吗？他们成天有担不完的心，做不完的恶梦，简直就是那个成天担心天会掉下来的“杞人”。

Some people can be especially neurotic¹ or nervous by nature, living out their lives in a state of excessive worry. These obsessive² concerns may either be global or amazingly minor³ in scope. Such a person is often said to be a worry wart⁴, also rendered as worrywart or worry-wart in some literary references. A worry wart's fears are generally viewed by others as irrational⁵ or completely out of proportion to the actual situation.

有些人可能天生就特别神经质或者紧张，成天生活在极度忧虑中。这些过度的担忧可能是宏观的大事也可能是芝麻小事。这种极度忧虑的人就被称为是“杞人忧天”（拼写为worry wart、worrywart或worry-wart都可以）。他们这些人的担忧通常会被别人看作自寻烦恼或者跟现实情况完全不符。

A worry wart in an office environment, for example, may spend most of his or her time fretting⁶ over getting laid off or fired. While the actual chances of a worry wart actually becoming unemployed⁷ may be remote at best, a neurotic employee often seeks out advice from co-workers on how to handle his or her inevitable⁸ dismissal. Others may worry excessively about job performance or customer complaints or minor conflicts with their superiors.

比如说，办公室里杞人忧天的那些人大部分时间可能都在担心会被裁员或解雇。虽然他们真正被裁的几率很小，但是这类有点神经质的员工经常会找同事求教怎样才能避免被裁员。还有一些人可能会对工作表现、客户投诉或者与上司之间的小矛盾而过度担忧。