2023年经济学人 居家办公的效率还是不如坐班(2)

 

 

    Some of the co-ordination costs of remote work might reasonably be expected to fall as people get used to it.

    随着人们习惯远程工作，有理由认为远程工作的一些协调成本可能会下降。

    Since 2020, many will have become adept¹ at using Zoom², Webex, Teams or Slack.

    自2020年以来，许多人都能熟练使用Zoom、Webex、Teams或Slack。

    But another cost may rise over time: the underdevelopment of human capital.

    但随着时间的推移，另一个成本可能会上升：人力资本的发展不足。

    In a study of software engineers published in April, Drs Emanuel and Harrington, along with Amanda Pallais, also of Harvard, found that feedback exchanged between colleagues dropped sharply after the move to remote work.

    在4月份发表的一项针对软件工程师的研究中，伊曼纽尔和哈林顿博士以及同样来自哈佛大学的阿曼达·帕莱斯发现，在转向远程工作后，同事之间的反馈大幅下降。

    Drs Atkin, Schoar and Shinde documented a relative decline in learning for workers at home.

    阿特金、斯科尔和辛德博士也发现在家工作的人的学习能力会相对下降。

    Those in offices picked up skills more quickly.

    那些在办公室工作的人掌握技能的速度更快。

    The origins of the view that, contrary to the above, remote working boosts productivity can be traced to an experiment nearly a decade before the pandemic, which was reported by Nicholas Bloom of Stanford and others in 2013.

    与上述观点相反，认为远程工作能提高效率的观点可以追溯到疫情暴发前近10年的一项实验，斯坦福大学的尼古拉斯·布鲁姆和其他人在2013年发表了这一实验结果。

    Call-centre workers for a Chinese online travel agency now known as Trip.com increased their performance by 13% when remote—a figure that continues to appear in media coverage³ today.

    现在名为携程的一家中国在线旅行社的电话服务中心的工作人员在远程办公时，他们的工作表现提高了13%。这一数字如今依然出现在媒体报道中。

    But two big wrinkles are often neglected: first, more than two-thirds of the improved performance came from employees working longer hours, not more efficiently⁴; second, the Chinese firm eventually halted remote work because off-site employees struggled to get promoted.

    但有两大问题经常被忽视：首先，超过三分之二的表现提高是因为工作时间更长，而非效率更高；其次，这家中国企业最终停止了远程办公，因为远程员工很难获得晋升。

    In 2022 Dr Bloom visited Trip.com again, this time to investigate the effects of a hybrid⁵-working trial.

    2022年，布鲁姆博士再次访问了携程，这一次是为了调查尝试混合办公的效果。

    The outcomes of this experiment were less striking: it had a negligible impact on productivity, though workers put in longer days and wrote more code when in the office.

    这次实验的结果不那么引人注目：混合办公对工作效率的影响微乎其微，尽管员工在办公室工作的时间更长，编写的代码也更多。

    There is more to work (and life) than productivity.

    但效率不是工作(和生活)的全部。

    Perhaps the greatest virtue⁶ of remote work is that it leads to happier employees.

    远程办公的最大优点或许是能让员工更快乐。

    People spend less time commuting⁷, which from their vantage-point might feel like an increase in productivity, even if conventional measures fail to detect it.

    人们花在通勤上的时间减少了，从他们的角度来看，这可能会让他们感觉到效率提高，虽然传统的衡量标准无法检测到这一点。

    They can more easily fit in school pickups and doctor appointments, not to mention the occasional lie-in or midmorning jog.

    他们可以更方便地接送孩子上学和看医生，更不用说偶尔睡个懒觉或早上10点左右去慢跑。

    And some tasks—notably, those requiring unbroken concentration for long periods—can often be done more smoothly⁸ from home than in open-plan offices.

    一些任务--尤其是那些需要长时间不间断地集中注意力的任务--往往在家比在敞开式办公室里更容易完成。

    All this explains why so many workers have become so office-shy.

    所有这些都解释了为什么如此多的员工变得如此不愿在办公室上班。

    Indeed, several surveys have found employees are willing to accept pay cuts for the option of working from home.

    事实上，几项调查发现，如果可以选择居家办公，员工愿意接受降薪。

    Having satisfied employees on slightly lower pay, in turn, might be a good deal for corporate⁹ managers.

    以略低的薪酬招到对工作满意的员工，这对公司经理来说可能是一笔不错的买卖。

    For many people, then, the future of work will remain hybrid.

    因此，对许多人来说，未来的工作仍将是混合型的。

    Nevertheless, the balance of the work week is likely to tilt¹⁰ back to the office and away from home—not because bosses are sadomasochists with a kink for rush-hour traffic, but because better productivity lies in that direction.

    然而，每周的工作可能会向办公室而非居家倾斜--这不是因为老板们是施虐受虐狂，对早晚高峰的交通有变态的癖好，而是因为在办公室里会有更高的工作效率。

1 adept   

adj.老练的，精通的

参考例句：

• When it comes to photography,I'm not an adept.要说照相，我不是内行。
• He was highly adept at avoiding trouble.他十分善于避开麻烦。

2 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。

3 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

4 efficiently   

adv.高效率地，有能力地

参考例句：

• The worker oils the machine to operate it more efficiently.工人给机器上油以使机器运转更有效。
• Local authorities have to learn to allocate resources efficiently.地方政府必须学会有效地分配资源。

5 hybrid   

n.(动，植）杂种，混合物

参考例句：

• That is a hybrid perpetual rose.那是一株杂交的四季开花的蔷薇。
• The hybrid was tall,handsome,and intelligent.那混血儿高大、英俊、又聪明。

6 virtue   

n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力

参考例句：

• He was considered to be a paragon of virtue.他被认为是品德尽善尽美的典范。
• You need to decorate your mind with virtue.你应该用德行美化心灵。

7 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。

8 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。

9 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

10 tilt   

v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜

参考例句：

• She wore her hat at a tilt over her left eye.她歪戴着帽子遮住左眼。
• The table is at a slight tilt.这张桌子没放平，有点儿歪.