经济学人商业 || 回到流水线

原文:http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzU1MDQwNTgzMg==&mid=2247491283&idx=1&sn=75a037625137e4ae47f7174794a72c41&chksm=fba04d74ccd7c462d0261e7fb44ddb5c416b5f5eec1a163765dab7efe7b23621359bbd220dea#rd

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导读


感谢思维导图作者

Rena,坐标墨尔本的留学生,爱笑爱摄影爱看书


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听力|精读|翻译|词组

Back on the chain gang

回到流水线

英文部分选自经济学人20200801期Business版块

Employees and employers both face trade-offs as offices reopen

线下办公重启,雇主员工都面临权衡


Back on the chain gang

回到流水线


注:
chain gang :a
 group of prisoners chained together and forced to work

一群被链子拴在一起服劳役的囚犯


Remember the 7am alarm? The rushed goodbye with spouse and children as you dash out of the house? The nervous patting of pockets to check for keys, season ticket, security pass and phone? And the clogged traffic or crowded train carriage?


还记得早上7点的闹钟吗?冲出家门前与配偶和孩子匆匆告别?紧张地拍了拍口袋,检查落没落钥匙、通勤票、门禁卡以及手机?还记得堵塞的交通或拥挤的列车车厢吗?


Most office workers have escaped those familiar rituals for the past four months. But offices are slowly reopening again. And governments are keen to lure workers into the cities, where they can spend their money and help to revive battered economies.


过去的四个月里,大多数上班族都暂时告别了这些熟悉的流程,但随着办公室逐渐重新开放,政府也热衷于将人们吸引回城市,因为人们可以在此进行消费并帮助重振受损的经济。


A group of academics led by Ethan Bernstein of Harvard Business School has been surveying American workers during the crisis*. It found that many felt they could be just as productive at home as they had been at the office. In terms of job satisfaction, a small wobble in the first few weeks of lockdown eased as workers adjusted to new routines. But once that adjustment was made, satisfaction increased. Stress levels have fallen by more than 10%. That despite the fact that workers toil for longer: an analysis of one technology company showed that working hours have increased by 10-20% during the pandemic.


哈佛商学院伊桑·伯恩斯坦(Ethan Bernsein)领导一组学者在疫情危机期间对美国工人进行了一项调查。调查发现,许多人觉得自己在家办公和在办公室同样高效。在工作满意度方面,封锁的前几周有所波动,随着人们适应新的工作日常,满意度有所回升。尽管员工工作时长相对增加——一家技术公司的分析表明,新冠疫情期间员工的工作时间增加了10-20%——工作压力水平下降了10%以上。


That contrasts with less positive results of previous case studies of home-working. Mr Bernstein and his colleagues suggest that the main difference this time is that all employees have been forced into the same situation. In the past, those who worked at home were in the minority, often felt excluded from the group, and so were less likely to identify with the company.


这与之前在家办公不太积极的研究结果形成了反差。伯恩斯坦先生和他的同事表示这次的主要区别在于所有员工均被迫进入在家办公状态。过去,在家办公的只占少数,因此经常感到和团队格格不入,也就不太可能对公司有认同感。


If they were right, then this problem may reassert itself when office work resumes. At the moment, those who have returned to the office are in a minority, comprising those who find it most difficult to work at home. But the balance may shift as time goes on, perhaps because people become more relaxed about the virus, or because people will miss the fellowship of their colleagues. At that point those who remain at home may start to feel isolated.


如果学者的分析正确,那么恢复去办公室上班时这个问题会再次出现。目前,回到办公室工作的是少数,主要是那些无法在家办公的员工。但随着时间的推移,这种平衡可能改变。或许人们对病毒更加放松,又或者人们怀念同事之间的感情。这时,独自在家办公的人可能开始感到被孤立了。


The emotion that is most likely to lure workers back to the office is paranoia. The pandemic may have caused managers to realise who is indispensable and who isn’t. Bartleby realises he is entirely dispensable: an amuse bouche between the meaty stuff of structural reform and vaccines. Fail to amuse enough bouches and he will be shuffled into retirement. Millions may reason the same way. When the number of those back at work reaches a critical mass, the rest may be obliged to follow suit.


最有可能诱惑员工回到办公室的是疑心病。这次疫情或许已经让管理者意识到谁不可或缺,而谁又是可有可无的。笔者感到他完全就是后者,就只是那份结构性改革和疫苗这两道大菜之间的开胃小吃罢了。如果这道开胃点心不能够让老板们满意,则可能会被辞退滚蛋。数百万的人也有这个想法。当重返岗位的人数达到工作所需的最低人数时,剩余的人也不得不照搬效仿。


注:

Bouch:这里代指人

Bouch(noun) a mouth. Bouch(noun) an allowance of meat and drink for the tables of inferior officers or servants in a nobleman's palace or at court.


The trade-off for employers is rather different. Most companies will be thinking about whether they need all that expensive office space. If they do want to lure back their employees, they may have to spend a lot on contactless, socially distant office design to keep their workers safe, such as doors that open automatically.


雇主权衡的点则截然不同。多数公司会考虑是否需要高价租赁办公场所。如果想要吸引员工回来,可能需要花费许多钱在譬如自动门等零接触和保持社交距离的办公场所设计上,以确保员工的安全。


Some firms may be worried about security. On July 27th a British standard-setting board issued guidance for financial firms about the security risks of fixed-income and currency traders working at home. Other companies may worry about the long-term impact of home working on productivity. One missing element may be the casual interaction that occurs between employees outside formal meetings—those chats by the fridge may spark ideas or suggest new ways of co-operating. Indeed, employees may find it more difficult to build relationships throughout the company without meeting colleagues in person.


有些公司或许会担心安全问题。727日,英国标准制定委员会发布了针对金融公司固定收益和货币交易员在家工作安全风险的指南。有的公司可能担心在家办公对效率的长期影响。缺失的其中一环可能就是除了正式会议外,员工之间缺少轻松互动。这些在茶水间的交流可能会激发新想法或提出新的合作方式。事实上,员工们发现没有了面对面的接触,在公司里想要建立同事关系愈发困难


This will be particularly difficult for new employees. It is not always easy even for those who have been doing their job for a while to perform the same tasks at home. And newcomers must adjust to a firm’s culture, which usually happens by picking up subtle cues from the people around them. Companies may bombard them with training modules and video chats—“onboarding”, in the jargon of human-resources departments. But that may be no more useful than reading a manual as your only preparation for trying to ride the winning horse in the Kentucky Derby.


对新员工而言,面对这一切尤其困难。即使对那些已经工作了一段时间的人而言,在家办公,做同样的工作也并不总是容易的。新员工必须适应公司的文化,而这通常从周围人微妙的暗示中获得。用人力资源部门的行话来说,公司可能会用培训模块和视频聊天这种入职培训来轰炸新员工。但是这种做法就如同仅仅靠阅读手册就试图驾驭肯塔基德比的冠军马匹一样,对员工来说没有多大帮助。


注:

Kentucky Derby:肯塔基德比是每年于美国肯塔基州路易斯维尔邱吉尔园马场举行的赛马比赛。


Given the state of the global economy it will take time before most companies hire a lot more employees or lower employee interaction weighs on corporate performance. With many employees happy to work from home, that may mean no great rush to repopulate the office. You may not have to resume your morning routine until 2021.


鉴于全球经济现状,大多数公司需要一定时间才能招聘到更多员工或者降低员工互动在公司表现中的分量。多数员工都乐于在家办公,这意味着可能不必急于回到办公室。2021年之前,你可能都不必恢复早起通勤的作息了。


翻译组:

Humi,女,CATerCatti二笔

Yao,男,不想做翻译的翻译学硕士

Sophie,女,HR让我做自己,券商带我看世界

校对组:

VeRy,男,电气民工,经济学人资浅爱好者

Monica,女,MTIer,死不悔改的理想主义者

Rena,坐标墨尔本的留学生,爱笑爱摄影爱看书


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观点|评论|思考


本次感想

Alan,男,金融工程硕士,经文史哲爱好者,喜爱小动物

有人觉得COVID-19的爆发会成为一次意义重要的实验,用于试验人群对于居家办公和出勤办公的不同工作效率,一些行业可能会因为这次疫情爆发意识到居家办公反而提高了人们的工作效率,从而居家办公慢慢扩散。

我觉得结论并不成立。本身居家办公在任何时候都没有障碍,如果老板意识到居家办公对员工的效率提升更好的话,理应允许员工们居家办公。一些行业本身其实非常适合居家办公,如码农、编辑创作、在线教育等等。有人反对居家办公,正如文中提到的观点,同事之间的偶尔交谈往往可以迸发灵感,但那样的前提是有一个宽松和睦的工作环境,大多数工作环境是否有这样的条件恐怕需要打个问号。

我个人认为,疫情过后人们的工作方式、出行方式并不会因此发生很大的改变。各行各业适不适合居家办公取决于各自的工作特征,改变工作方式的因素恐怕是城市发展状况、租金高低、各行各业发明的生产方式(如车间的发明、现代教室的发明等)等。


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愿景


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