2020年经济学人 巴托比专栏--回到流水线(1)（在线收听）

Business

商业版块

Bartleby

巴托比专栏

Back on the chain gang

回到流水线

Employees and employers both face trade-offs as offices reopen

随着办公室重新开放，雇员和雇主都面临着权衡。

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？还记得冲出家门时与配偶和孩子们的匆忙道别吗？还记得你会紧张地拍打口袋，检查落没落下钥匙、通勤票、门禁卡和手机吗？还记得堵塞的交通或拥挤的火车车厢吗？

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.

在过去的四个月里，大多数上班族都摆脱了那些熟悉的习惯。但是办公室又逐渐重新开放了。政府也热衷于吸引工作人员们进入城市，因为他们在城市里可以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 adjustmentwas 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.

哈佛商学院的伊森·伯恩斯坦领导着一组学者对疫情期间的美国工人们展开了调查。调查发现，许多人觉得在家里办公和在办公室里一样高效。在停工的最初几周里，工人们的工作满意度有小范围的波动，但随着他们适应了新的工作习惯，波动减缓。他们一旦做出了调整，满意度开始回升。压力水平下降了10%以上。尽管工人们的工作时间相对增加：一家科技公司的分析显示，在新冠肺炎疫情期间，工作时间增加了10-20%。

That contrasts with less positive results of previous case studies of homeworking. 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结果形成了对比。伯恩斯坦和他的同事们认为，这一次的主要区别在于，所有员工都被迫进入在家办公的状态。在过去，那些在家工作的人只占少数，他们常常感到被排除在群体之外，因此不太可能对公司产生认同感。

If they were right, then this problem may reassert itself whenoffice work resumes. At the moment, those who have returned to theoffice 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.

如果学者们分析正确，那么当恢复去办公室办公时，这个问题可能会再次出现。目前，那些回到办公室办公的人占少数，包括那些觉得难以在家工作的人。但随着时间的推移，这种平衡可能会改变，也许是因为人们对病毒变得更加放松，或者是因为人们会怀念同事们的友谊。到那时，那些仍然在家办公的人可能会开始感到被孤立了。