適得其反的加班文化

09 適得其反的加班文化

人們總將不辭辛苦長時間工作的人當作模范予以表揚，但研究表明，長時間工作并不是什么好主意，它會導致疲勞，讓人更容易出錯，結(jié)果不得不花更多時間去清理爛攤子。

工程師經(jīng)常談到的“資產(chǎn)完整性”通常是指在設備損壞前維護和修理的好習慣。使用大量機器的企業(yè)非常重視這一點；而主要只使用人力的公司則鮮少重視此事。上個月，日本電通的年輕員工因過勞而自殺又把過度工作的現(xiàn)象推上風口浪尖。

Although to my knowledge no other nation than Japan has a word for death by overwork—karoshi—we probably need one.For while it is tempting to imagine the phenomenon is unique to Japan, it may simply be that it is the first country to look deeply enough to identify it.

盡管據(jù)我所知，除日本以外，沒有哪個國家有專門指代工作過度勞累所致死亡的詞語——“Karoshi”（過勞死），我們很可能需要一個這樣的詞。人們傾向于認為這種現(xiàn)象是日本獨有的，事實上，也許日本是第一個看得足夠深入從而認識到這個問題的國家。

Coined in the 1970s, the word returned to Japanese newspapers last month when the Tokyo Labour bureau ruled that the suicide of Matsuri Takahashi, a young employee of the advertising agency Dentsu, had been caused by overwork.She had worked 105 hours of overtime in a single month.

這個在上世紀70年代發(fā)明的詞語上個月重現(xiàn)于日本報端，東京勞動局裁定，廣告公司電通的年輕雇員高橋まつり自殺是因工作過度勞累導致。她生前曾在一個月里加班了105個小時。

Most of the chief executives I know routinely work a 12 or 15-hour day, six or seven days a week.Few of them are familiar with studies that routinely show that productivity is not linear.After about 40 hours a week fatigue sets in, provoking mistakes.Any extra hours spent are needed to clear up the mess: reversing poor decisions, soothing ruffled feathers.

我認識的大多數(shù)首席執(zhí)行官通常每天工作12或者15個小時，每周工作6天或者7天。研究通常表明工作效率是非線性的，但很少有人熟知這一點。在一周工作約40個小時以后，人就會開始感到疲勞，導致人出錯，然后又需要花時間來收拾爛攤子：修正錯誤的決定，平復憤怒的情緒——到頭來是白忙活一場。

The classic, but comic, expression of this was produced by the efficiency expert, Frank Gilbreth.He found he could shave faster if he used two razors but then wasted all the time he saved covering the cuts with plasters.

有關(guān)這一點，效率專家弗蘭克·吉爾布雷思有一個經(jīng)典又好笑的描述。他發(fā)現(xiàn)如果他同時使用兩片刀片刮胡子，刮得會更快，但之后他不得不把節(jié)省出來的全部時間，浪費在用創(chuàng)口貼處理刀片留下的小傷口上。

While a few chief executives love to boast of their powers of endurance, many insist their jobs simply require long days, weeks and months.But the speed with which the death, in 2013, of a Bank of America intern working in the City of London was interpreted as death by overwork showed how fully everyone knew that the economic crisis and relative scarcity of good jobs was taking its toll on those at the bottom of the heap.

盡管有少數(shù)首席執(zhí)行官喜歡吹噓自己的忍耐力，很多首席官都堅稱，他們的崗位就是需要長時間工作。但2013年在倫敦金融城工作的那名美國銀行實習生的死，如此快地被理解為過勞死，表明每個人都完全清楚，經(jīng)濟危機和好工作的相對稀缺正在摧殘那些處于金字塔底層的人。

This mirrors what Professor Michael Marmot, the British epidemiologist, discovered when he conducted a longitudinal study of 10,000 Whitehall civil servants: that stress tended to concentrate at the top and the bottom of the pyramid.But when Marianna Virtanen continued the study to look at the long-term consequences of that stress, she found working 11 or more hours a day doubled the risk of a “major depressive episode”.A lifetime of long hours was also associated with cognitive loss in middle years.

這與英國流行病學家邁克爾·馬爾莫教授對1萬名白廳公務員進行的縱向研究的發(fā)現(xiàn)一致：壓力似乎集中于金字塔的頂端和底層。但當瑪麗安娜·弗塔嫩繼續(xù)研究這種壓力的長期后果時，她發(fā)現(xiàn)每天工作11個小時或者更久，會使人出現(xiàn)“重度抑郁期”的風險加倍。一輩子長時間工作也與中年時期認知能力下降存在相關(guān)性。

All of this damage is invisible.If some of the wear and tear resulted in visible injury—perhaps companies would take more care.Thinking is a physical activity, performed by the brain—which, like every organ, has limits to its capacity.We can see machinery break down, we notice broken arms and legs.We do not see broken minds—until it is too late.

這些損害都是看不見的。如果一些損害會導致可見的傷害，也許企業(yè)會更加注意。思維活動是由大腦完成的一種生理活動，而大腦，就像每一個器官一樣，它的能力是有限度的。我們可以看到機械損壞，我們可以注意到斷胳膊斷腿。我們看不到破碎的心靈——直到已經(jīng)為時太晚。

近些年來，冥想、韌性訓練等人們以為可以消除過勞的項目頗為流行。這些訓練或許能帶來一些暫時的緩解，但很難稱得上治本之策。我們知道機器有極限，但我們卻喜歡想象我們自身沒有極限。

靠工作時間來衡量員工表現(xiàn)的嚴酷企業(yè)文化不可避免地會導致疲勞和視野狹窄，不利于解決問題。這樣的企業(yè)文化很危險。如果我們想要創(chuàng)造性、原創(chuàng)性以及掌握復雜問題，我們必須接受人腦存在生理極限這一事實。如果我們無視100多年來對人類工作效率的研究，把人當做配備著有缺陷的電池的機器人一樣去管理，我們就浪費了人的才能，也犧牲了我們自身的健康。

詞匯總結(jié)

razor ['re?z?]

n.刀片；剃刀

He found he could shave faster if he used two razors but then wasted all the time he saved covering the cuts with plasters.

他發(fā)現(xiàn)如果他同時使用兩片刀片刮胡子，刮得會更快，但之后他不得不把節(jié)省出來的全部時間，浪費在用創(chuàng)口貼處理刀片留下的小傷口上。

major depressive episode

重度抑郁期

She found working 11 or more hours a day doubled the risk of a “major depressive episode”.

她發(fā)現(xiàn)每天工作11個小時或者更久，會使人出現(xiàn)“重度抑郁期”的風險加倍。

interpret [?n't??pr?t]

v.理解；說明；口譯

But the speed with which the death, in 2013, of a Bank of America intern working in the City of London was interpreted as death by overwork showed how fully everyone knew that the economic crisis and relative scarcity of good jobs was taking its toll on those at the bottom of the heap.

但2013年在倫敦金融城工作的那名美國銀行實習生的死，如此快地被理解為過勞死，表明每個人都完全清楚，經(jīng)濟危機和好工作的相對稀缺正在摧殘那些處于金字塔底層的人。