2023年经济学人 办公室烦心事的小小安慰（在线收听）

办公室烦心事的小小安慰

商业版块

Bartleby

巴托比专栏

Silver linings: The small consolations of office irritations.

一线光亮：办公室烦心事的小小安慰。

Even people who love their jobs have a few gripes.

即使是热爱工作的人也会有几句怨言。

Even people who excel at their work have their share of worries.

即使是工作表现出色的人也有自己的烦忧。

The office environment makes it hard to concentrate; their colleagues are annoying beyond belief; their career path within the organisation is not obvious.

办公室环境让人很难集中注意力，同事们难以置信地令人讨厌，自己在组织内的职业道路并不清晰。

There are aspects of the workplace, like “reply all” email threads and any kind of role-playing, which are completely beyond redemption.

工作中的某些方面，比如“回复全部”的一连串往来邮件和任何类型的角色扮演，都是没有办法补救的。

This column is here to administer the balm of consolation for some of work’s recurring irritations.

但对于工作中反复出现的一些烦心事，本专栏倒是可以提供一些慰藉的灵药。

Start with a pervasive problem: being interrupted.

首先是一个普遍存在的问题：被打断。

You have muted notifications on Slack and cleared your calendar; the Prelude from Bach’s Cello Suite No 1 is playing; your fingers are poised above the keyboard and a thought of world-altering profundity is gradually taking shape in your mind.

你将Slack上的通知静音，做完了日历上的待办事项，巴赫第一号大提琴组曲的前奏正在播放，你的手指悬于键盘上方，一个足以改变世界的深刻想法正在你的脑海中逐渐成形。

Then there is a knock at the door, and a colleague asks if you have a minute to discuss the air-conditioning.

然后有人敲门，一位同事问你是否有时间讨论一下空调的问题。

By the time they have gone, so has that momentous thought and any sense of well-being.

等他们离开了，那个重要想法和任何幸福感也都消失了。

Context-switching of this sort is more than simply annoying.

这种环境切换不仅仅是令人讨厌。

A survey conducted in 2021 found that it takes people nine and a half minutes to resume a focused state of mind after switching between apps.

2021年进行的一项调查发现，在不同应用之间切换后，人们需要九分半钟才能恢复专注的精神状态。

But there is a bright side to being interrupted.

但被打断也有积极的一面。

A paper by Harshad Puranik of the University of Illinois Chicago and his co-authors asked a sample of employees in America to record how often they were distracted by colleagues and to report their sense of belonging to their organisations.

伊利诺伊芝加哥大学的哈沙德·普拉尼克和其合著者发表了一篇论文，让被抽样的一些美国员工记录他们因同事而分心的频率，并报告他们在组织的归属感。

They found that being interrupted involves a social interaction with colleagues that can strengthen a worker’s feelings of connection.

他们发现，被打断涉及与同事之间的社交互动，这可以加强员工的与人连接之感。

The next time a knock comes, remind yourself that at least you are not lonely.

下次有人敲门时，提醒自己至少你并不孤独。

What about some of the characters who make office life so teeth-grinding?

对于那些让你在办公室生活中咬牙切齿的角色，又该怎么办呢？

Every company has its share of toadies who specialise in managing up: flattering the bosses and claiming more credit than is their due.

每家公司都有专会向上管理的马屁精：奉承老板，把多于他们应得的功劳揽在自己身上。

Unctuousness is undoubtedly irritating.

谄媚油滑无疑令人恼火。

But it, too, can sometimes have wider benefits.

但有时也可能有更大的好处。

Recent research by Wei Cai of Columbia Business School and her co-authors found that teams performed better when they had some crawlers among them.

哥伦比亚大学商学院的蔡薇和其合著者最近的研究发现，当团队中有一些马屁精时，团队的表现会更好。

People who got better assessments from their superiors than from their peers in performance-review processes were designated as “upward influencers” in the study.

在这项研究中，那些在绩效评估过程中，从上级那里比从同事那里得到更好评价的人被认定为“向上影响者”。

Too many characters of this sort is bad: at some point, team members will expend more effort competing for recognition than getting actual work done.

这类角色太多是不好的：到了某个阶段，团队成员将花费更多精力来争取认可，而不是完成实际工作。

But because these personality types are prepared to invest more time communicating with their managers, the presence of a handful of them ensures that a team does not become invisible to the bosses.

但由于这类性格的人准备好要投入更多时间与经理沟通，所以这一少部分人的存在确保了整个团队不会在老板眼中隐形。

A few suck-ups can be good for everyone.

有几个马屁精对每个人都有好处。

What of traits that workers find most irritating about themselves, the things that may be holding them back?

员工最恼火自己的什么特点？可能阻碍他们前进的是什么？

Impostor syndrome, the belief some people have that they do not deserve to be in positions of influence, is usually thought of as being bad for individuals and organisations alike.

冒名顶替者综合症，即一些人认为自己不配担任有影响力的职位，人们通常认为这种心态对个人和组织都不利。

But it can have an upside.

但它也有积极的一面。

Research by Basima Tewfik of the MIT Sloan School of Management found that people who worry about being an impostor are regarded by others as having better interpersonal skills than those who are untroubled by self-doubt.

麻省理工学院斯隆管理学院的巴西玛·图菲克的研究发现，在其他人看来，担心成为冒名顶替者的人比那些不为自我怀疑所困扰的人拥有更好的人际交往技巧。

It may be that a concern about lacking competence leads people to compensate by developing stronger relationships with others.

也许，因为担忧能力不足，人们会通过与他人建立更牢固的关系来进行补偿。

In a world that increasingly prizes collaboration and soft skills, that is not to be sniffed at.

在一个越来越重视合作和软技能的世界里，这一点不容忽视。

Weaknesses can turn into advantages in other ways, too.

弱点也可以在其他方面转化为优势。

The idealised entrepreneur may drip with confidence and charisma, for example.

例如，理想化的企业家可能洋溢着自信和魅力。

But not everyone fits that mould.

但并非每个人都是这种性格。

In a recent study, Lauren Howe and Jochen Menges of the University of Zurich asked participants in an investment game who had been asked about their own flaws to allocate funds to startups.

在最近的一项研究中，苏黎世大学的劳伦·霍韦和约亨·门格斯要求一项投资游戏的参与者为初创企业分配资金，这些参与者被问及自己有什么缺点。

They found that entrepreneurs who reveal a personal shortcoming, such as indecisiveness or insecurity, are more likely to attract funding from investors who share these same characteristics.

他们发现，展露出优柔寡断或缺乏安全感等个人缺点的创业者，更有可能从具有相同特点的投资者那里获得资金。

Some weaknesses are not to be admitted: stupidity, say, or narcolepsy.

有些弱点是不能承认的：比如愚蠢或嗜睡症。

But flaws can sometimes help people get ahead, not hinder them.

但缺点有时可以帮助人们取得进展，而不是阻碍他们。

The problem with silver linings is that they are attached to clouds.

一线光亮的问题在于它们附着在乌云之上。

You are still being interrupted all the time.

你仍然总是被人打断。

You are still surrounded by annoying colleagues.

你仍然被讨厌的同事包围。

Impostor syndrome still causes you unnecessary anxiety.

冒名顶替者综合症仍然给你带来不必要的焦虑。

Your weaknesses are still weaknesses.

你的弱点仍然是弱点。

But there are bright sides to most things in office life, and they go beyond the payslip.

但办公室生活中的大多数事情都有光明的一面，而且它们并不局限于工资条。