今天才知道，《IT经理世界》竟把我那浅薄的《CIO故事》译成英文，发表在它的英文网站http://www.cbfeature.com上，并且仍然署我的名字，而没有出现译者。非常之受宠若惊。感动之余，把它搬过来，也算为它的传播添一份力吧。
原文URL（须注册）：http://www.cbfeature.com/article/show.php?itemid-33/page-1.html
While Hu’s friend was on the way, Chen sat opposite Hu and they started chatting.
At the beginning of her appointment as the CIO, some of her subordinates were quite scornful and regarded her as nothing but a “little woman”. Even her boss was not fully confident in her capabilities. With Hu’s patient and meticulous instructions, Chen rapidly “incorporated” those troublemakers, consolidated the disunited IT team into a crack unit, and transformed the computer on the boss’s desk from a decoration to practical use. Chen won the boss’s trust and support in this way, which was of paramount importance in her early period in the saddle. She developed a sincere gratitude towards Hu, and thanked him every time they met.
“That’s because of your own capabilities. You are becoming a great CIO,” Hu said with a smile. A veteran CIO himself, Hu appreciated the difficulty for IT women at work. Of IT personnel, no more than 20% were women, and a female CIO like Chen was even rarer. But Chen could ride the whirlwind at work and seemed never to believe her sex was an obstacle, and never came across the formidable “invisible ceiling”.
Much to Hu’s surprise, however, Chen said, “Invisible ceilings are everywhere.” The first “ceiling” after her assumption of CIO was the “men’s room”. At that time she had secured a firm foothold in the enterprise, and proposed an overall re-arrangement of the company’s information system. She had obtained verbal support from the boss in advance, and most leaders expressed their agreement at the CEO conference as well. But after a short break, the tables quickly turned and her plan was rejected. She couldn’t figure out why, and secretly asked a male manager, who was on good terms with her, what happened. To her surprise, the proposal was voted down in the men’s room during the break.
Hu kept nodding his head. He admitted it was absolutely true that quite a few problems were discussed and preliminarily resolved in restrooms. As a matter of fact, “sauna meetings” and “KTV meetings” were also the places where men formulated resolutions of grave importance.
“So how did you solve that kind of problem?” asked Hu.
Chen blushed slightly, and said, “I did not fear them at all and joined the ‘men’s club’.” With this lesson in mind, she intentionally spent much time merging with male colleagues and groomed some influential ones as her confidants. During each recess, she would ask her “spies” for information or directly ask about the secrets of the “men’s room” in a humorous way when the meeting resumed.
“With you, the ‘ceiling’ has holes in it,” Hu said jokingly.
Chen smiled complacently. Her passion for IT prevented her from compromising with pressures related to sex. Just like most women, she had experienced helplessness and pondered over the difficulty in balancing job and family. But these problems were never an insurmountable gulf in her eyes. She was confident in her ability, and believed that women were more sensitive and talented by nature with regards to teamwork and the allocation of assignments, which were advantages over men.
Chen said, “There is a prevalent saying that CIO stands for ‘Career Is Over’. To you it’s only a joke, but to female CIOs, it’s almost a fact.” A mutual acquaintance of Hu and Chen, Wen Hua who’s a celebrated heroine in CIO circles, collapsed from overwork on the frontline of the project after years of service as the CIO of a foreign firm. Seeing no hope of promotion after years of toil, two other female CIOs in the same trade as Chen left their offices.
On account of all these, Chen was even more reluctant to give the battle. Thanks to her extraordinary vigor and valor, and with the support from the “men’s club” and trust from the boss, this female CIO eventually succeeded in implementing the all-inclusive information system, which enabled the company to be the epitome of information management in the industry. Her achievement also turned her into a heroine who ushered the company into the information age.
“I have just been appointed vice-president of the company this week,” said Chen delightedly. “So I’m here celebrating with my female friends.”
Being an engaged carder of a state-owned enterprise, Chen broke through the system obstacle and got promoted as an exception to the management core. Seeing this, she was filled with unutterable joy.
“Congratulations!” Hu praised with a heartfelt gratification.
附中文原文：CIO故事之十四：突破天花板
周末，老胡去茶馆会朋友，竟意外遇见了陈丽。在国企任CIO的陈丽向来衣着干练素净，老胡从未见她穿着如此靓丽时尚，一时之间还真没敢相认。
老胡的朋友还在途中，陈丽便先坐到老胡对面，与他闲聊起来。
陈 丽出任CIO初期，手下的一些员工对她这个”空降女兵”颇不以为然，当她是”小女人”，当时就连老板对她的能力也是将信将疑。经过老胡的悉心指点，她迅速 “收编”了那些捣蛋鬼，将一盘散沙似的IT部门整顿得兵精将强，又把老板办公桌上的电脑从摆设变成有用的工具。陈丽”降服”老板的同时也获得了他的信任和 支持，这对她上任之初”难踢的头三脚”，起到了至关重要的作用。陈丽因此对老胡心怀感激，每次见面都免不了把”谢”字挂在嘴边。
老胡微笑 道：”还是你自己能干，CIO做得有声有色。”他的语气透出对陈丽的欣赏。作为”老资格”的CIO，老胡深知IT女性在职场中的不易，IT从业人员中，女 性人数不超过20%，像陈丽这样的做到CIO的更是少见。可是陈丽却能在职场上叱咤风云，好像从来不认为性别是障碍，似乎也从未遭遇女性难以逾越的职业 “玻璃天花板”。
陈丽却说：”‘玻璃天花板’无处不在。”她担任CIO后遇到的第一块”天花板”竟然是”男洗手间”。当时，她已经在公司 初步站稳脚跟，便提出通盘重整公司信息系统的计划。事先她已经争取到老板的口头支持，在CEO办公会上多数领导也表示赞许。然而”中场休息”之后，风向却 突然逆转，她的计划最终惨遭否决。她百思不得其解，私下向一位关系较好的男经理打听之后才恍然大悟，他们竟然是在会间休息的时候，在卫生间里否决了她的提 议。
老胡频频点头，他知道尽管这很滑稽，却是千真万确的事实：有很多问题正是在卫生间里进行讨论并初步得到解决的。其实，除了洗手间之外，”桑拿会议””K歌会议”也都是男性们形成重大决议的场所。
“那你是怎么解决这类问题的？”老胡问。
陈 丽略微脸红了一下：”我才不怕他们呢，我加入‘男性俱乐部’。”有了这次的教训，她特别注意花时间与男性同事们打成一片，把其中有影响力的培养成”自己 人”。每次会间休息时，陈丽都向男性团队中”密探”打听情况，或者在会议重新开始之后，用幽默的方式直接询问”男洗手间”的秘密。
“在你这儿，‘天花板’上有孔。”老胡打趣道。
陈 丽有几分得意地笑着。她热爱IT，喜欢这一行，就不能和与性别有关的无奈、压力妥协。她不是没有遇到到性别无奈、工作与家庭平衡等难题，只是从来没有将它 们视为不可跨越的鸿沟。她相信自己的能力，她认为女性更细腻、在人员协作和任务分配上更有天赋，这都是胜于男性的优势。
陈丽说：”都说 CIO是Career Is Over，在你不过是笑谈，但对于女CIO而言，简直这就是事实。”他们两人共同认识的文华–CIO圈里著名的女杰，任职外企CIO多年，在即将获得升 职之际，却累倒在项目实施的第一线。陈丽公司所在的行业，除她之外仅有两位女CIO，多年劳作升迁无望，先后都选择以提前退休的方式离开了CIO岗位。
但越是这样，陈丽就越是不服输。凭着这股劲头，这位女CIO在”男性俱乐部”的支持下，在老板的信任之下，她终于成功地实施了涵盖公司各业务环节的信息系统，使企业成为行业内信息化管理的典范，她本人也被视为把企业带入信息时代的功臣。
“这不，这周我刚被正式任命为公司副总裁。”陈丽高兴地告诉老胡，”今天来这里，就是想跟我那些女朋友们庆贺一番。”
作为国企的聘用制干部，突破体制障碍，得到破格提拔，成为公司最高管理层的核心小组成员，陈丽显得格外高兴。老胡由衷地说：”祝贺你啊！”