2020年经济学人 巴托比专栏--办公室恋情为何越来越少(1)

Business

商业版块

Bartleby

巴托比专栏

Labour’s lost love

职员们遗失的爱情

The decline of the office romance

办公室恋情的减少

Their eyes met across the office photocopier¹. At long last, each of them had found someone who could push their buttons. Eventually, they settled down and decided² to reproduce. Read more in “Fifty Sheets of Grey Paper”, out soon in paperback³.

他们的目光在办公室的复印机上交汇。最后，他们每个人都找到了一个能够让自己心动的人。最终，他们安定下来，决定生儿育女。阅读《Fifty Sheets of Grey Paper》了解更多内容，该书很快就会推出平装本。

Romance is a long-established sideeffect of office life. After all, people may spend almost half their waking hours at work, and their colleagues will frequently have something in common with them, even if it is only complaining about the manager. Some relationships are inevitably⁴ bound to result.

浪漫是办公室生活中的一个长期存在的副效应。毕竟，人们可能会把醒着的几乎一半的时间花在工作上，他们的同事也经常会和他们有一些共同话题，即使大家只是抱怨经理。不可避免的就会产生一些关系。

But the lockdown has made the forming of new romances much more difficult. Although online dating has thrived in the pandemic, the number of people who have met their soulmate via a work Zoom⁵ meeting must be vanishingly small. It is hard to flirt⁶ while your facial expressions are being observed by a dozen colleagues. And how private is company videoconferencing software’s private-chat function, really?

但封锁使职员们更难产生新的恋情。尽管在疫情期间，线上约会蓬勃发展，但是能够通过“Zoom会议”平台结识灵魂伴侣的人却少之又少。有十几个同事观察到你的表情时，你很难去打情骂俏。公司视频会议软件的私人聊天功能到底有多私密，真的能做到很私密吗？

Even before the pandemic, however, office romances were in decline. In 1995, 19% of (heterosexual) people met their partner at work, according to a study by Stanford University. By 2017 this had fallen to 11%. It will be even lower now. As white-collar employees toil⁷ more hours at home and fewer at the office—which seems likely even after the virus recedes— opportunities for workplace romantic connections will dwindle⁸.

然而，即使在疫情爆发之前，办公室恋情也在减少。根据斯坦福大学的一项研究，1995年，19%的异性恋者在工作中遇到了他们的伴侣。到2017年，这一比例已降至11%。现在的这一比例更低。随着白领们在家办公的时间越来越长，而在办公室工作的时间却越来越少，即使病毒消退，办公室恋情的机会也会减少。

One reason for the decline is that companies have realised that work relationships give rise to all kinds of ethical⁹ questions. The idea of a boss marrying his secretary (or a doctor dating a nurse) is one of the oldest clichés around. Sadly, the trope is so well established that secretaries and nurses have spent decades fending¹⁰ off the unwanted attentions of their superiors. As the #MeToo movement has demonstrated, some men use their positions of power to harass¹¹ women who work for them.

办公室恋情减少的一个原因是，公司已经意识到工作关系会引发各种各样的道德问题。老板和他的秘书结婚（或者医生和护士约会）是人们对于办公室恋情最老套的看法之一。可悲的是，这一指代已经根深蒂固，以至于秘书和护士花了几十年的时间来避开上级不必要的关注。正如“我也是”运动证明的那样，一些男人利用他们的权力地位骚扰为他们工作的女性。

Consensual relationships can cause problems as well. A relationship with a subordinate makes it hard for a manager to be objective about their performance.Colleagues may understandably suspect the manager of favouritism. Things may be as bad if the romance breaks down. Hurt feelings may make it hard for the ex-partners to work together and will also make it awkward for everyone else in the office.

两厢情愿的关系也会引发问题。与下属产生恋爱关系会让管理者很难客观地评价他们的表现。同事们可能会怀疑管理者徇私，这种情况可以理解。如果恋情破裂，情况可能会同样糟糕。伤痛可能会让前伴侣难以在一起工作，也会让办公室里的其他人感到尴尬。

The result of this is that many companies have policies that discourage or forbid managers from flings with someone who works for them. Office relationships were blamed for the departure of Steve Easterbrook from his role as chief executive of McDonald’s last year; the fast-food company launched a lawsuit¹² against Mr Easterbrook this week.

由于这样的情况，许多公司会制定一些政策，不鼓励或禁止管理者与下属交往。去年，由于办公室恋情，史蒂夫·伊斯特布鲁克从麦当劳首席执行官的位置上引咎离职，这家快餐公司本周对伊斯特布鲁克提起诉讼。

1 photocopier   

n.复印机

参考例句：

• You've left your master in the photocopier.你把原件留在影印机里了。
• If the photocopier stops working,just give it a clout.如果那部影印机停止运转的话就敲它一下。

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 paperback   

n.平装本，简装本

参考例句：

• A paperback edition is now available at bookshops.平装本现在在书店可以买到。
• Many books that are out of print are reissued in paperback form.许多绝版的书籍又以平装本形式重新出现。

4 inevitably   

adv.不可避免地；必然发生地

参考例句：

• In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去，毫无疑问是会散伙的。
• Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。

5 zoom   

n.急速上升；v.突然扩大，急速上升

参考例句：

• The airplane's zoom carried it above the clouds.飞机的陡直上升使它飞到云层之上。
• I live near an airport and the zoom of passing planes can be heard night and day.我住在一个飞机场附近，昼夜都能听到飞机飞过的嗡嗡声。

6 flirt   

v.调情，挑逗，调戏；n.调情者，卖俏者

参考例句：

• He used to flirt with every girl he met.过去他总是看到一个姑娘便跟她调情。
• He watched the stranger flirt with his girlfriend and got fighting mad.看着那个陌生人和他女朋友调情，他都要抓狂了。

7 toil   

vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事

参考例句：

• The wealth comes from the toil of the masses.财富来自大众的辛勤劳动。
• Every single grain is the result of toil.每一粒粮食都来之不易。

8 dwindle   

v.逐渐变小（或减少）

参考例句：

• The factory's workforce has dwindled from over 4,000 to a few hundred.工厂雇员总数已经从4,000多人减少到几百人。
• He is struggling to come to terms with his dwindling authority.他正努力适应自己权力被削弱这一局面。

9 ethical   

adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的

参考例句：

• It is necessary to get the youth to have a high ethical concept.必须使青年具有高度的道德观念。
• It was a debate which aroused fervent ethical arguments.那是一场引发强烈的伦理道德争论的辩论。

10 fending   

v.独立生活，照料自己( fend的现在分词 )；挡开，避开

参考例句：

• He is always spending his time fending with the neighbors. 他总是与邻里们吵架。 来自互联网
• Fifth, it is to build safeguarding system and enhance the competence in fending off the risk. 五是建立政策保障体系，提高防范和抵御风险的能力。 来自互联网

11 harass   

vt.使烦恼，折磨，骚扰

参考例句：

• Our mission is to harass the landing of the main Japaness expeditionary force.我们的任务是骚乱日本远征军主力的登陆。
• They received the order to harass the enemy's rear.他们接到骚扰敌人后方的命令。

12 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。