男性会对自己工作量撒谎

 　　Men Lie About How Much They Work in Order to Have Work-Life Balance

　　男性会对自己工作量撒谎

　　When we think about work-life balance, it's easy to default to imagining a working mother trying to balance the demands of home and family with her commitment to her professional growth. But, men yearn¹ for work-life balance too. However, the methods they use to achieve this balance differ from the strategies employed by women.

　　当我们谈到工作与生活平衡的话题，自然而然会联想到在职妈妈竭力去平衡家庭的需要和自己职场晋升的决心。但是，男性也渴望工作与生活的平衡，只是他们为之努力的方法与女性不同。

　　Erin Reid, an assistant professor at Boston University's Questrom School of business recently conducted a fascinating study on the topic. Let's take a closer look at the findings.

　　来自波士顿大学商学院的副教授Erin Reid最近做了一项有关这个问题的研究。让我们来看下研究的结果：

　　男性会对自己工作量撒谎

　　1. The pressure is on for everyone.

　　男性和女性都会有工作压力

　　Reid conducted her study at a global strategy consulting firm. As is typical in the industry, consultants² were expected to travel and work evenings and weekends on short notice, they were also expected to put in long hours and demonstrate an abundant and unrelenting devotion to the firm, one that supersedes³ other life commitments.

　　Reid在一个全球性的战略咨询公司开展的这项实验。众所周知，这行的顾问经常因为临时通知，就要去出差或者在晚上和周末加班。公司总是希望他们花尽量多的时间在工作上，为公司鞠躬尽瘁，认为这比生活中其他东西都重要。

　　2. Men and women cope differently.

　　2.男人和女人处理压力的方法不同。

　　Reid found that women tended to take accommodations such as reducing their hours, therefore revealing that they weren't always hitting the high mark expected by the firm. Men, on the other hand, found ways around the expectations, cultivating mostly local clients in order to avoid travel, or leaning on others to cover for them when they were away from the office.

　　Reid发现女性会稍微减少自己的工作时长，但这样显得她们的行为似乎与公司的期望相悖。而男性则会找机会打擦边球，为了避免出差找当地的客户，不在公司时也会让其他人帮忙打掩护。

　　3. Women's honesty didn't help them professionally, and the men's tactics made it worse.

　　职场上女性的诚实对她们并无帮助，男性的小伎俩也使女性更加不利

　　Reid found that women were far more likely to seek accommodations or ask for greater flexibility⁴ in order to help them achieve the work-life balance their personal lives demanded. Men, on the other hand, were much more apt to find ways around the system without revealing that they were falling short of expectations.

　　Reid发现职场女性更希望工作时间更弹性以满足她们平衡个人工作与生活的需求。男性则总是借助其他方法打擦边球，从来不显露自己并不符合公司期望的方面。

　　So, what can we take away from this? The most immediate⁵ idea might be that either men have to stop lying about when and how they're working, or women need to adopt the habit of fudging the facts a little on their end.

　　那么，我们该怎么解决这个现状？最现成的方法是男性不要在他们工作上夸大其词，女性也不要养成这种捏造工作量的习惯。

1 yearn   

v.想念；怀念；渴望

参考例句：

• We yearn to surrender our entire being.我们渴望着放纵我们整个的生命。
• Many people living in big cities yearn for an idyllic country life.现在的很多都市人向往那种田园化的生活。

2 consultants   

顾问( consultant的名词复数 )； 高级顾问医生，会诊医生

参考例句：

• a firm of management consultants 管理咨询公司
• There're many consultants in hospital. 医院里有很多会诊医生。

3 supersedes   

取代，接替( supersede的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The new supersedes the old. 新陈代谢。
• No sooner do you buy a computer than they bring out a new one which supersedes it. 你买电脑后不久他们就会推出新产品取代它。

4 flexibility   

n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性

参考例句：

• Her great strength lies in her flexibility.她的优势在于她灵活变通。
• The flexibility of a man's muscles will lessen as he becomes old.人老了肌肉的柔韧性将降低。

5 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。