VOA慢速英语--千禧一代正在改变美国的工作文化?

Are Millennials Changing U.S. Work Culture? 千禧一代正在改变美国的工作文化?

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

The latest generation of Americans to enter the labor² force may be reshaping the way the United States goes to work.

Millennials are the generation who reached adulthood⁴ around the year 2000. And many of them do not have the usual 9-to-5 work mentality⁵.

The Millennial¹ workforce⁶ wants to work a more flexible schedule. This could mean the end of the inflexible⁷ 40-hour work week.

A professor at Florida International College of Law in Miami, Florida explains that Millennials value their free time. They value their personal lives – their friends, hobbies and interests -- as much as they value work. That attitude may sound like a benefit to only the workers. But perhaps not.

Professor Kerri Stone says studies show that reducing working hours can actually result in better workplace productivity. Stone says that after working so many hours per week you reach the point of what she calls, “diminishing returns.”

Diminishing returns is an economic term. It refers to a “point at which the level of profits or benefits gained is less than the amount of money or energy invested.”

She adds that people need breaks during the day and during the work week. During a work day, they need “face time” to talk to a friend or colleague. Without planning it, they build this time into their work day.

During the week, people need time to relax, or down time. As a group, Stone says Millennials strongly believe that "people need a certain amount of down time and a certain amount of vacation" in order to be happy at home and at work.

Cost of imbalance

Employers are not often worried about work-life balance. They are concerned with the bottom line, the profits and results of the company. However, new studies show that a happy employee is good for the company’s bottom line.

An organization based in Seattle, Washington seeks to challenge what it calls the epidemic⁸ of overworking in the United States and Canada.

Take Back Your Time states that its goals are to change the work culture by:

reducing work hours,

guaranteeing paid vacation and

guaranteeing at least one week of sick leave.

The organization says that giving employees at least one week of sick leave will help to reduce damage to a person's health and relationships caused by working too much.

Ted³ Bililies is a psychologist and managing director of a company that advises other companies on how to work smarter. He agrees that in the U.S., there is a work epidemic or as he calls it, “workaholism."

He warns that “stress is not uncommon⁹ in the workplace, along with physical and mental health issues.” Bililies adds that stress often leads to heart disease and other sicknesses.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agree. The CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) states this on its website: “Stress is a prevalent and costly¹⁰ problem in today’s workplace. Additionally, periods of disability due to job stress tend to be much longer than disability periods for other occupational injuries and illnesses.”

Bililies says that to fix the problem of an over-stressed employee, companies can give employees greater choice regarding how they work.

Many companies have already started doing just that. 

Alternative answer

For the past year, a small company in San Diego, California, called Tower Paddleboards, has started a revolutionary substitute to the 40-hour-plus work week. They have started a five-hour workday for their 11 employees.

Stephan Aarstol is the founder¹¹ and CEO, chief executive officer. He challenged the 8-hour workday, calling it "something that was invented for factory workers 100 years ago." 

Aarstol defends his employee program, saying that it helps to keep his employees healthy. He says that these days, people are not active enough. He adds that “disease is on the rise.” Prescription¹² drug abuse and alcoholism are also on the rise.

He says he believes that making a little more money for many more hours does not make people happy. The five-hour work day, he suggests, gives people time to do other things in life, such as spending more time with family and friends.

So how has this affected¹³ his company’s bottom line? Aarstol’s company reports that it is more profitable than ever. 

What will people do less of?

But does a reduced work day result in more productivity? Dan Ariely is professor at Duke University in the southern state of North Carolina. Ariely says there are basically three things people do at work. They:

do productive, thoughtful, deep useful work,

do mindless work that has to be done, and

waste time.

If you decrease the work day from 8 hours to 5 hours, he says, what will be lost is the meaningful work.

Trend in America

There is a push by some workers to reduce their hours at the office. However, some of American's best-known companies are known for their highly-driven, "workaholic" culture.

Aarstol says that companies are trying many different things to see what works. He adds that Tesla, Apple and Amazon have teams of workers “that are super-high performers. These people are working around-the-clock, 24/7 with smartphones and computers, and they are accomplishing some amazing things."

This was his own firsthand experience. He warns that a person can easily work themselves into this unhealthy lifestyle of over-working. For Aarstol and some other corporate¹⁴ executives, the balance is to have happy, productive employees and a profitable bottom line.

Words in This Story

work-life balance – n. a concept including proper prioritizing between "work" (career and ambition) and "lifestyle" (health, pleasure, leisure, family and spiritual development/meditation)

flexible – adj. easily changed : able to change or to do different things

inflexible – adj. not easily changed

(law of) diminishing results – n. economics : used to refer to a point at which the level of profits or benefits gained is less than the amount of money or energy invested.

face time – n. time spent at the place where you work especially before or after normal working hours

downtime – n. time when you are not working or busy

bottom line – n. a company's profits or losses

epidemic – n. a sudden quickly spreading occurrence of something harmful or unwanted

workaholic – n. a person who chooses to work a lot : a person who is always working, thinking about work, etc.

prevalent – adj. accepted, done, or happening often or over a large area at a particular time : common or widespread

firsthand – adj. coming directly from actually experiencing or seeing something

1 millennial   

一千年的，千福年的

参考例句：

• Both Russia and America looked to the future to fulfill their millennial expectations. 俄国和美国都把实现他们黄金时代的希望寄托于未来。
• The millennial generation is celebrating the global commons every day, apparently unmindful of Hardin's warning. 千禧一代显然对哈丁的警告不以为然，每天都在颂扬全球“公地”。

2 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

3 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

4 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。

5 mentality   

n.心理，思想，脑力

参考例句：

• He has many years'experience of the criminal mentality.他研究犯罪心理有多年经验。
• Running a business requires a very different mentality from being a salaried employee.经营企业所要求具备的心态和上班族的心态截然不同。

6 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。

7 inflexible   

adj.不可改变的，不受影响的，不屈服的

参考例句：

• Charles was a man of settled habits and inflexible routine.查尔斯是一个恪守习惯、生活规律不容打乱的人。
• The new plastic is completely inflexible.这种新塑料是完全不可弯曲的。

8 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

9 uncommon   

adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的

参考例句：

• Such attitudes were not at all uncommon thirty years ago.这些看法在30年前很常见。
• Phil has uncommon intelligence.菲尔智力超群。

10 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

11 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

12 prescription   

n.处方，开药；指示，规定

参考例句：

• The physician made a prescription against sea- sickness for him.医生给他开了个治晕船的药方。
• The drug is available on prescription only.这种药只能凭处方购买。

13 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

14 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。