2019年经济学人 缺勤的快乐(1)（在线收听）

Ronald Reagan famously quipped that "it's true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?"

罗纳德·里根曾说过一句著名的俏皮话，“努力工作不会导致死亡，不过我觉得干嘛要冒这个险呢？”

Beyond a certain level, extra effort seems to be self-defeating.

超过一定水平后，额外的努力似乎会弄巧成拙。

Studies suggest that, after 50 hours a week, employee productivity falls sharply.

研究表明，一周工作50个小时后，员工生产力会急剧下滑。

But that doesn't stop some managers from demanding that workers stay chained to their desk for long periods.

但这也无法阻止经理要求员工长时间守在工位上。

At the blood-testing firm Theranos, Sunny Balwani, then boyfriend of the founder, Elizabeth Holmes,

血液检测公司Theranos创始人伊丽莎白·霍尔姆斯当时的男朋友桑尼·巴尔瓦尼

had an obsession with employee hours, and would tour the engineering department at 7.30pm to check people were at their desks.

痴迷于雇员工时数，并会在七点半的时候巡视技术科，检查在岗人数。

All those hours were wasted when the company eventually collapsed (prosecutors have charged Ms Holmes and Mr Balwani with fraud).

当公司最终倒闭，所有这些时间都被浪费了（检察官指控霍尔姆斯和巴尔瓦尼犯有欺诈罪）。

Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce group, recently praised the "996" model,

中国电商集团阿里巴巴的创始人马云近期称赞“996”模式—

where employees work from 9am to 9pm, six days a week, as a "huge blessing".

即员工上班时间为早上9点到晚上9点，一周工作6天— 是一种巨大的福气。

To be fair, Mr Ma said employers should not mandate such hours. Still, presenteeism is the curse of the modern office worker.

公平地说，马云称雇主不应强制“996”。然而出勤是现代上班族的诅咒。

There will be days when you do not have much to do,

总有些时候你会无事可做，

perhaps because you are waiting for someone else in a different department, or a different company, to respond to a request.

因为你可能在等待其他部门，或其他公司某个人的回复。

As the clock ticks past 5pm, there may be no purpose in staying at your desk.

下午5点后，守在工位上或许没有任何意义。

But you can see your boss hard at work and, more important, they can see you. So you make an effort to look busy.

但你可以看到老板还在刻苦工作，更重要的是，他们也能看见你。所以你努力让自己看起来很忙。

Some of this may be a self-perpetuating cycle. If bosses do not like to go home before their underlings,

其中一些可能是一个自我延续的循环。如果老板不喜欢在下属之前下班，

and underlings fear leaving before their bosses, everyone is trapped.

并且下属害怕在老板之前离开，每个人都被困住了。

Staff may feel that they will not get a pay rise, or a promotion, if they are not seen to be putting in maximum effort.

员工可能觉得如果上级没看见他们付出最大的努力，他们就不能加薪或升职。

This is easily confused with long hours.

这很容易和长时间工作弄混淆。

Managers, who are often no good at judging employees' performance, use time in the office as a proxy.

通常不擅于评判员工表现的经理们会把呆在办公室的时间作为替代。

The consequence is often wasted effort. To adjust the old joke about the Soviet Union:

结果往往是白费力气。修改一下关于工会的老笑话：

"We pretend to work and managers pretend to believe us."

“我们假装工作，经理们假装信任我们。”

Rather than work hard, you toil to make bosses think that you are.

你不是努力工作，而是努力让老板认为你很努力。

Leaving a jacket on your office chair, walking around purposefully with a notebook or clipboard

把夹克放在办公椅上，故意拿着笔记本或笔记板走来走去

and sending out emails at odd hours are three of the best-known tricks.

以及在空闲时间发送电子邮件是三个最著名的把戏。