趣味职场：偶尔偷偷懒，也能成为好员工

 　　Sometimes you’re at work and you just have to watch that one cute cat-/dog-/panda-playing-in-the-snow video. And then you spot that girl from high school on your Facebook feed and wonder what she’s been up to all these years … Would you look at that? It’s lunchtime! Time to skip out of work and wait in an obnoxiously¹ long cafeteria line with your co-workers and dissect² that cute animal video you just saw.

　　在工作中有时我们会在网上偷懒去看看小动物嬉戏打闹的有趣视频，有时Facebook上跳出提示让你去看看高中时候的那位女同学现在怎么样了，你会看吗？午餐时间到了，是时候停下手头工作去排那个糟心的午餐长队了，顺便和同事们聊聊刚才看的小动物视频。

　　But exactly how much time are we wasting at work? That’s what a group of economists³ — Michael Burda, Kaie Genadek, and Daniel Hamermersh — wanted to find out, and they’ve published their results in a new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper.

　　但工作中你到底会浪费多少时间呢？这正是Michael Burda，Kaie Genadek和Daniel Hamermersh这些经济学家们想知道的，他们已经把结论在发布在新一期的国家经济研究局刊物上了。

　　偶尔偷偷懒，也能成为好员工

　　Using the self-reported American Time Use Survey, the economists found that, on average, workers spent about 34 minutes per day not working. Doesn’t seem a lot, right? But when the economists got rid of the people who claimed they didn’t spend any time slacking off (uh-huh, right), the figure rose to 50 minutes. About half that time wasted was spent on eating, the other half on “leisure” activities (watercooler break!).

　　通过“美国人时间利用自我报告调查”数据，经济学家发现人均每天有34分钟时间不花在工作上。看上去并不多，是吗？但是当经济学家把那些自称没有偷懒的人排除后，结论变成了50分钟，其中一半花费在吃上面，另一半则是在“休闲”活动上（例如饮水休息）。

　　零基础直达职场英语全能

　　Perhaps unsurprisingly, not everyone wasted the same proportion of the workday. The authors explained that, all else being equal, the more someone worked, the higher the proportion of the time they slacked off — until about 42 hours a week. The more time in the office workers logged above this level, the less they slacked off, proportionally. Those eager-beaver, first-to-arrive-and-last-to-leave types seemed more capable of resisting the lure⁴ of internet cats than the rest of us.

　　不足为奇的是，工作日中每个人浪费的比例不同。作者解释说，在其他条件都相同的前提下，工作量越多，偷懒休息的比例就越大，直到超过一周42小时。超过这一比例后放松偷懒的比例又会下降。那些起早贪黑辛勤工作的小蜜蜂们比我们更能够抵御互联网的诱惑。

　　Like any research based on self-reported statistics, there are some limitations here, simply because there could be various biases⁵ to how people estimated or reported the amount of time they spent slacking. It’s also important to realize that slacking tendencies may vary a great deal over time, depending on the economy. In a section of the paper titled “To Loaf or Not to Loaf: That Is the Question,” the economists note that recessions make slacking off more of a luxury than during a “normal” economy, as worker jobs hang in the balance and are at risk of being axed. The data was from 2003 to 2012, so it captured much of the recession, meaning it may be that we’re slacking more these days than we were back then, given that the economy’s a bit stronger.

　　和其他自我统计报告一样，这份数据又有些不足，仅仅是因为人们对自己放松偷懒时间的统计估计方式存在差异。我们必须意识到，随着经济状况的变化，放松偷懒的趋势也会变化。在报道中有篇文章标题为“放松还是不放松，这是个问题”其中经济学家指出经济萧条时期相比经济正常的时候，人们认为工作中放松是件奢侈的事，因为萧条时期工作不努力就可能被裁员。2003年到2012年的数据包含了萧条时期，现在人们的偷懒时间更多也说明现在的经济状况比之前好些。

　　But maybe the simpler point to keep in mind here is that not all slacking is bad. In fact, as the Science of Us noted⁶ earlier this month in a video, taking breaks is a good thing, both for your mind and creative output. Afternoon naps are a treasured part of Japanese work culture, and working for more than four and a half hours at a time actually leads to a diminishing rate of productivity. In fact, some researchers think the ideal work/break balance comes out to 17 hard-earned minutes of fun time for every 52 minutes of work. If you calculate that for a ten-hour day, that comes out 147.8 minutes — or over two hours — of “loafing” time.

　　但也许我们需要记得的是，不是所有的偷懒都是坏事。事实上，正如Science of Us在月初的视频节目中提到的那样，休息放松对思考和创造力都有好处。在日本午睡也是种工作文化，连续不断工作超过4.5小时会降低生产力。研究表明每工作52分钟休息17分钟是比较理想的工作方式。如果以一天来计算，那么就得出一天可以休息2个多小时。

　　So take heart, worker: You’re not a lazy bum⁷ straight off the set of The Office. You’re merely taking a brain break.

　　所以请记住：你不是办公室懒人，你只是让大脑休息下而已。

 

1 obnoxiously   

adv. 可憎地 讨厌地

参考例句：

2 dissect   

v.分割；解剖

参考例句：

• In biology class we had to dissect a frog.上生物课时我们得解剖青蛙。
• Not everyone can dissect and digest the public information they receive.不是每个人都可以解析和消化他们得到的公共信息的。

3 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 lure   

n.吸引人的东西，诱惑物；vt.引诱，吸引

参考例句：

• Life in big cities is a lure for many country boys.大城市的生活吸引着许多乡下小伙子。
• He couldn't resist the lure of money.他不能抵制金钱的诱惑。

5 biases   

偏见( bias的名词复数 )； 偏爱； 特殊能力； 斜纹

参考例句：

• Stereotypes represent designer or researcher biases and assumptions, rather than factual data. 它代表设计师或者研究者的偏见和假设，而不是实际的数据。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• The net effect of biases on international comparisons is easily summarized. 偏差对国际比较的基本影响容易概括。

6 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

7 bum   

n.臀部；流浪汉，乞丐；vt.乞求，乞讨

参考例句：

• A man pinched her bum on the train so she hit him.在火车上有人捏她屁股，她打了那人。
• The penniless man had to bum a ride home.那个身无分文的人只好乞求搭车回家。