Boss crush refers to the situation when an executive falls for someone, loses all judgment¹, refuses to listen and ensures that trouble will follow.

“老板错爱综合症”是指当一个高管迷上某个员工时，失去所有判断力，拒绝听取旁人意见，然后麻烦肯定随之而来。

 

The syndrome², which is a major character flaw of some of the world's finest managers.

这种综合征是一种性格缺陷，在全世界最优秀的一些经理人身上也很严重。

 

A version of this was played out recently between David Cameron and Camila Batmanghelidjh. The prime minister developed a crush on the mesmerising, rainbow-turbaned head of Kids Company; large quantities of cash were shovelled³ into her charity; civil servants asked questions, but nothing happened -- until things went so spectacularly wrong the plug had to be pulled.

最近戴维·卡梅伦与卡米拉·巴特曼海利迪之间就上演了这么一出“老板错爱综合症”。我们的英国首相迷上了这位魅力四射、包着五彩头巾的慈善团体“儿童公司”负责人，为她的慈善机构提供了大量政府拨款。公务员们对此提出质疑，但一点儿都不管用，直到这家慈善机构问题严重到不可收拾的境地，政府才停止对其拨款。

 

Like real love, the boss crush is blind. Worse than that, once the boss has publicly singled out the love-object as worthy⁴ of promotion⁵, his pride is on the line. The crush object simply has to be good; nothing else will do. All warning signs are ignored, the truth only outs when it is too late. Then the after-effects of the crush are brutal⁶ -- the former loved one is treated to rage and disdain⁷ and usually in the end is fired.

像真正的爱恋一样，老板的迷恋也是盲目的。更糟糕的是，一旦老板公开对自己喜爱的对象另眼相待，声称其值得提拔，他就搭上了自己的自尊。他喜爱的对象必须优秀；否则就不行。一切预警信号都被无视，真相只有在为时已晚的时候才会暴露出来。之后，这种迷恋的后续影响十分残酷——此前被迷恋的人会领教暴怒和蔑视，通常最终还会被炒鱿鱼。