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经济学人 | 打破时钟的枷锁,做回时间的主人


打破时钟的枷锁

How flexible working is changing workers’ relationship with time
 

两百年前,一种设备开始主宰着工作的世界。不,我指的不是蒸汽机,而是时钟这个小玩意儿。随着工厂的出现,工人们开始按工作时长而非实际产出拿工资。

In the “putting out” system that prevailed before the factory era, merchants would deliver cloth to be woven, spun, stitched or cut to a worker’s home. Each worker would then be paid for the items they produced. That gave the weavers and spinners freedom to work when it was convenient. At the factory, in contrast, workers were required by the owner to turn up for a set shift.
 

时间的统治以一系列发明创造为标志。19世纪,很少有工人拥有钟表,因此那些“叫醒工”会走过大街小巷,在适当的时间敲打工人的门窗,以叫醒他们。后来,工厂开始使用鸣笛声和口哨声分别作为一轮班次开始和结束的提示,工人们则利用考勤钟来上下班打卡。

Eventually, as workers moved farther away from their place of employment, the power of the clock led to daily rush hours, as millions headed to and from work. Often they paid a penalty in terms of time wasted in traffic jams or awaiting delayed trains.
 

时钟的束缚或将日渐削弱。早在新冠肺炎疫情爆发前,弹性工作制就已存在。但它仅为员工提供了选择一天之中何时工作的权利。而远程办公则给予了更大的自由。

A survey of 4,700 home-workers across six countries commissioned by Slack, a corporate-messaging firm, found that flexible working was viewed very positively, improving both people’s work-life balance and productivity. Flexible workers even scored more highly on a sense of “belonging” to their organisation than those on a nine-to-five schedule.
 

工人们更喜欢灵活的工作模式,这不足为奇。严格的八小时工作制也使人深受束缚。这段时间是大多数商店营业的时间,是能够预约到医生和牙医的时间,同时也是维修师傅愿意上门服务的时间。

Parents on a conventional routine may be able to take their children to school in the morning but are unlikely to be able to pick them up in the afternoon. Many families find themselves constantly juggling schedules and giving up precious holiday time to deal with domestic emergencies.
 

仔细想想,如果那些在家办公者觉得在家办公的效率更高,这同样不足为奇。毕竟,很少有人能够连续8小时全神贯注地工作。一天之中总有些时候,人们会忍不住地想往窗外看,或是想出去散散步;这时候,他们或是在寻找灵感,或是在恢复精力以完成下一项工作任务。而在办公室这么做将会冒着被老板批评的风险;但在家中,人们可以在自己精力最充沛的时候工作。

Remote working is not possible for everyone, of course. There is a long list of industries, from emergency services to hospitality and retail, where people need to turn up to their place of work. But for many office workers, remote working is perfectly sensible. 
 

他们可能只需要每周抽出几个固定的时间前往办公室(例如开会),但可以自由选择在白天或晚上的任何时间来完成工作任务。这样一来,这些上班族便可以根据工作完成量而非工作时长计算薪酬(如果按工作时长来计,那么公司将不得不对员工进行监视)。

What is striking about Slack’s study is the widespread nature of support for home-working. Overall, just 12% of the workers surveyed wanted to return to a normal office schedule. In America black, Asian and Hispanic employees were even more enthusiastic than their white colleagues. 
 

育有子女的女性员工也是如此,她们表示,在家办公有助于维持工作与生活的平衡——尽管心存不满的美国女性与其他国家的女性仍然存在差距,后者对工作与生活的平衡更为满意(原因可能在于国家的育儿补贴政策)。

Of course, the new schedule carries dangers: people may lose all separation between work and home life, and succumb to stress. To inject some human contact, companies may embrace a hybrid model in which workers go into the office for part of the week. But overall office-workers’ freedom from time’s yoke is to be welcomed. The clock was a cruel master and many people will be happy to escape its dominion.
(红色标注词为重难点词汇) 
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