2020年经济学人 巴托比专栏--被疫情颠覆的日常,远程办公是我们最后的倔强(1)

Business

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Bartleby

巴托比专栏

Managing by Zooming² around

无处不在的Zoom¹远程管理

The pandemic is forcing executives to work harder

新冠大流行迫使高管们更加努力地工作

Businesses are still struggling to understand which of the pandemic’s effects will be temporary and which will turn out to be permanent. Three new reports attempt to analyse these longerterm trends. One is from Glassdoor, a website that allows workers to rank their employers. Another is from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a management consultancy. The third is from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), a British professional body. Read together, they imply that firms stand to benefit— but that managers’ lives are about to get more difficult.

企业仍在努力消化大流行带来的影响中，哪些是暂时的，哪些将是永久性的。新发布的三份报告试图分析这些长远影响。其中一份报告来自Glassdoor，这是一个允许员工对公司进行评级的网站。另一份报告来自管理咨询公司波士顿咨询集团。第三份报告来自英国专业机构特许管理学会。将三份报告放在一起阅读，就会发现它们都暗示着公司将从中受益，但管理者的生活将变得更加艰难。

One change that is all but certain to last is employees spending more of their time working at home. The Glassdoor report finds that less commuting³ has improved employee health and morale⁴. Splitting the week between the home and the office is also overwhelmingly popular with workers: 70% of those surveyed wanted such a combination, 26% wanted to stay at home and just 4% desired a full-time⁵ return to the office. Perhaps as a consequence, remote work has not dented⁶ productivity—and indeed improved it in some areas. Flexible work schedules can be a cheap way to retain employees who have child-care and other home responsibilities.

一个几乎肯定的持续性变化是，员工居家办公的时间将增多。Glassdoor的报告发现，减少通勤有助于提高员工的健康状况和士气。居家办公和办公室办公的组合方式也受到了绝大多数员工的青睐：70%的受访者希望采取这样的组合方式，26%的人希望居家办公，只有4%的人希望回到办公室全职办公。或许结果会是，远程工作并没有降低生产率，反而在某些领域确实提高了生产率。灵活的工作时间安排可能是一种较为划算的方式，让公司能够留住那些有孩子要照顾并承担其他家庭责任的员工。

Telecommuting offers other potential cost savings⁷, and not just the reduced need for office space. Remote workers do not need to live in big cities where property is expensive. If they live in cheaper towns and suburbs, companies need not pay them as much. Glassdoor estimates that software engineers and developers who leave San Francisco could eventually face salary cuts of 21-25%; those quitting New York could expect reductions of 10-12%. As the report points out, remote employees are, in essence, competing with a global workforce⁸ and are thus in a much weaker bargaining position.

远程办公节省了其他的潜在成本，而不仅仅是减少了对办公空间的需求。远程员工不需要住在房价昂贵的大城市。如果他们住在房价低廉的城镇和郊区，公司就不必支付那么多的工资。Glassdoor估计，离开旧金山的软件工程师和开发人员最终可能面临21-25%的降薪；而那些离开纽约的工程师和开发人员则可能会面临10-12%的降薪。正如报告指出的那样，远程员工本质上是在与全球劳动力竞争，因此，他们的谈判地位非常不利。

This point is reinforced by the BCG report, which finds that the pandemic has increased the willingness of companies to work with freelancers⁹. Previously¹⁰, many managers worried that legal and compliance¹¹ issues prevented them from using outside staff. The pandemic forced firms to adjust their business models rapidly, and simultaneously¹² led to growth in the pool of talented freelancers, as full-time employees had to be laid off. BCG says that “by embracing flexibility¹³ in whom they hire, internally or externally, companies can finally speed up operations and deliver faster on strategy.”

波士顿咨询公司的报告进一步证实了这一点。该报告显示，新冠大流行让公司更愿意与自由职业者合作。此前，出于对法律和合规问题的担忧，许多管理者不愿雇佣外部员工。这次的大流行迫使公司迅速调整其商业模式，大量全职员工遭到解雇，同时自由职业者人才库正在壮大。波士顿咨询公司表示，“通过在公司内部或外部灵活聘用员工，公司最终可以加快运营速度，更快地实施战略。”

1 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。

2 zooming   

adj.快速上升的v.（飞机、汽车等）急速移动( zoom的过去分词 )；（价格、费用等）急升，猛涨

参考例句：

• Zooming and panning are navigational tools for exploring 2D and 3D information. 缩放和平移是浏览二维和三维信息的导航工具。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Panning and zooming, especially when paired together, create navigation difficulties for users. 对于用户来说，平移和缩放一起使用时，产生了更多的导航困难。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

3 commuting   

交换（的）

参考例句：

• I used the commuting time to read and answer my mail. 我利用上下班在汽车中的时间来阅读和答复给我的函电。
• Noncommuting objects are as real to the mathematicians as commuting objects. 对于数学家来说，不可交换的对象与可交换的对象是一样真实的。

4 morale   

n.道德准则，士气，斗志

参考例句：

• The morale of the enemy troops is sinking lower every day.敌军的士气日益低落。
• He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。

5 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。

6 dented   

v.使产生凹痕( dent的过去式和过去分词 )；损害；伤害；挫伤（信心、名誉等）

参考例句：

• The back of the car was badly dented in the collision. 汽车尾部被撞后严重凹陷。
• I'm afraid I've dented the car. 恐怕我把车子撞瘪了一些。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

8 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

9 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

10 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

11 compliance   

n.顺从；服从；附和；屈从

参考例句：

• I was surprised by his compliance with these terms.我对他竟然依从了这些条件而感到吃惊。
• She gave up the idea in compliance with his desire.她顺从他的愿望而放弃自己的主意。

12 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。

13 flexibility   

n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性

参考例句：

• Her great strength lies in her flexibility.她的优势在于她灵活变通。
• The flexibility of a man's muscles will lessen as he becomes old.人老了肌肉的柔韧性将降低。