2020年经济学人 巴托比职场专栏--疫情将加速人们工作方式的变化(1)

Business

来源于《商业》版块

Bartleby

巴托比职场专栏

It’s cold outside

外面很冷

The pandemic will accelerate changes in the way people work

疫情将加速人们工作方式的变化

Crises offer the ultimate test for organisations. Under the pressure of a pandemic, many ?rms will change the way they operate. Three trends that were already in train may be accelerated. First, the way that meetings are undertaken. Second, the way that teams are organised. Third, the widening divide between company insiders, namely full-time² employees, and outsiders, such as freelancers³ and contractors⁴.

危机是对组织的终极考验。在疫情的压力下，许多公司将改变其经营方式。已经在酝酿中的三个趋势可能会加速。第一，开会的方式。第二，团队的组织方式。第三，公司内部人员（即全职员工）和外部人员（如自由职业者和承包商）之间的鸿沟日益扩大。

So many meetings have been conducted via Zoom⁵ and other apps that bosses may decide that this is a better approach than gathering⁶ everyone together in one fusty room. One estimate is that 2.1m people downloaded the Zoom app on March 23rd, the day Britain went into lockdown and the World Health Organisation¹ warned that the pandemic was “accelerating”. Even when people start returning to o?ces, many of those who did not catch the virus will be nervous about being in close proximity⁷ to their colleagues.

许多会议都是通过Zoom和其他应用程序进行的，老板们可能会认为这比把所有人都聚集在一个破旧房间里更好。据估计，有210万人在3月23日下载了Zoom应用程序，这一天，英国进入了禁闭状态，世界卫生组织警告称，新冠病毒大流行正在“加速”。即使当人们开始返回办公室办公时，许多没有感染病毒的人也会在与同事亲密接触时感到紧张。

Remote meetings have drawbacks. Conversations can be clunky and stilted⁸, and not everyone (including Bartleby) welcomes the need to be on camera. So physical meetings will not disappear altogether, but they will be a smaller proportion of the total.

远程会议有不足之处。交谈可能显得笨拙、生硬，不是每个人(包括本专栏记者在内)都不喜欢面对镜头。因此，实体会议不会完全消失，但在总数中所占的比例会更小。

Another change will be a greater focus on communication between key employees. Worker interaction involves a lot more than meetings. Traditionally, people have popped over to each other’s desks for a brief chat. Often, these exchanges are all the more useful when they involve someone from a di?erent department. Such informal interactions are not currently possible.

另一个变化将是更加注重关键员工之间的沟通。员工之间的交流不仅仅是开会。传统的形式是，人们会匆匆走到彼此的办公桌前进行简短的交谈。通常，当涉及到来自不同部门的人员时，这些交流就更有用了。这种非正式的交流目前是不可能的。

Email chains are an imperfect and cumbersome⁹ substitute. In the crisis, many ?rms have turned to apps like Slack, which allow teams to communicate on a dedicated¹⁰ forum¹¹. Stewart Butter?eld, Slack’s chief executive, says the company started to detect a signi?cant¹² pickup¹³ in teams being created in South Korea and Japan in the middle of February. A bigger surge in business began in the week of March 9th, a hint that companies were beginning to take social distancing seriously. All told, use of Slack increased approximately 20% between February 1st and March 25th, while simultaneously¹⁴ connected users increased from 10.5m on March 16th to 12.5m on March 25th.

电子邮件链是一种不完美且笨重的候选产品。在危机中，许多公司转而通过使用像Slack这样的应用程序实现团队在一个专门的平台上交流。Slack首席执行官斯图尔特?巴特菲尔德表示，公司从2月中旬开始发现，韩国和日本正在组建的团队数量显著增加。3月9日那一周，公司的业务量出现了更大的增长，这暗示着公司开始认真对待社交疏远的情况。总的来说，在2月1日到3月25日之间，Slack的用户增加了约20%，同时已连接用户从3月16日的1050万增加到3月25日的1250万。

1 organisation   

n.组织，安排，团体，有机休

参考例句：

• The method of his organisation work is worth commending.他的组织工作的方法值得称道。
• His application for membership of the organisation was rejected.他想要加入该组织的申请遭到了拒绝。

2 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

3 freelancers   

n.自由作家，自由记者( freelancer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A lot of proof-reading is put out to freelancers. 校对工作有很多是请外人做的。 来自辞典例句
• Its benefits plan for freelancers is highly competitive in the industry. 在本行业内它的福利方案是很有竞争力的。 来自互联网

4 contractors   

n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Contractors winning construction jobs had to kick back 2 per cent of the contract price to the mafia. 赢得建筑工作的承包商得抽出合同价格的百分之二的回扣给黑手党。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 zoom   

n.急速上升；v.突然扩大，急速上升

参考例句：

• The airplane's zoom carried it above the clouds.飞机的陡直上升使它飞到云层之上。
• I live near an airport and the zoom of passing planes can be heard night and day.我住在一个飞机场附近，昼夜都能听到飞机飞过的嗡嗡声。

6 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

7 proximity   

n.接近，邻近

参考例句：

• Marriages in proximity of blood are forbidden by the law.法律规定禁止近亲结婚。
• Their house is in close proximity to ours.他们的房子很接近我们的。

8 stilted   

adj.虚饰的；夸张的

参考例句：

• All too soon the stilted conversation ran out.很快这种做作的交谈就结束了。
• His delivery was stilted and occasionally stumbling.他的发言很生硬，有时还打结巴。

9 cumbersome   

adj.笨重的，不便携带的

参考例句：

• Although the machine looks cumbersome,it is actually easy to use.尽管这台机器看上去很笨重，操作起来却很容易。
• The furniture is too cumbersome to move.家具太笨，搬起来很不方便。

10 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

11 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

12 cant   

n.斜穿，黑话，猛扔

参考例句：

• The ship took on a dangerous cant to port.船只出现向左舷危险倾斜。
• He knows thieves'cant.他懂盗贼的黑话。

13 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

14 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。