pbs高端访谈:为求创新雅虎会取消员工在家办公?

 　　GWEN IFILL:Now to another debate over where and how we work.

　　This week, Marissa Mayer, CEO of the tech giant Yahoo!, announced the company will stop its employees from working at home. The move made headlines around the country, sparking conversations about whether mobile technology helps or hurts productivity.

　　For our own debate on who benefits from flexible work schedules, we turn to John Sullivan, a professor of management at San Francisco State University. He advises employers on hiring and human resource practices. And Micheline Maynard, a regular writer for Forbes.com, she is a long-term—longtime reporter on American industry and its work force and, as it happens, has worked from home for more than a decade.

　　Welcome to you both.

　　John Sullivan, is Marissa Mayer's move all about getting all hands on deck, or is it about restricting flexibility¹, as critics say?

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　　JOHN SULLIVAN, San Francisco State University: Well, it's about innovation.

　　So, remember, Yahoo! competes against Apple and Google and Facebook. And in order to be what we would call a serial² innovator³, like an Apple, coming out with a new product that wows people, you need all hands on board. And so we know from the data—she came from Google. She's a computer scientist. She's very data-driven. It's not an emotional decision.

　　It turns out the more random⁴ interactions between people, the more collaboration⁵ you get, the faster decisions are made, and the more innovation you get. And innovation brings in much more money, much more revenue, much more profit. So, for example, Apple revenue per employee, the amount each employee produces every year is six-and-a-half times that of Yahoo!.

　　So this is really to save the company. This is to say we have to be an innovation machine. We used to be. The only way really around that is to get everyone on board to rebuild the culture.

　　GWEN IFILL:Micki Maynard, is this about administration? Is this about having all hands on deck? Is it impossible to have all hands on deck if everybody's not there?

　　MICHELINE MAYNARD, Forbes.com: Well, Gwen, there's a crisis at Yahoo!

　　Marissa Mayer is the fifth CEO in five years. As Professor Sullivan said, Apple is cleaning everybody's clock in Silicon⁶ Valley. But it's a cultural issue. When I visited Silicon Valley when I was a Hoover fellow at Stanford last fall, I saw all kinds of people with laptops all over the place in Palo Alto, and they weren't just sipping⁷ coffee and having conversations. They were innovating⁸. They were doing their jobs.

　　And so while we say work from home, I sort of think of it as work remotely, meaning you're not sitting in a cubicle⁹ staring at a screen. You're out someplace where you can be creative and do your work.

　　GWEN IFILL:You know, telecommuting—telecommuting is not new, Micki Maynard. Why are we having this argument now?

　　MICHELINE MAYNARD:Well, that's very—it's a very interesting argument right now, because in the stories that I have done for Forbes.com, the reaction to them was really vehement¹⁰ in both directions.

　　There were people who think of working at home as slackers sitting around in your bunny slippers¹¹ and your pajamas¹² and cooking casseroles at lunch, instead of doing your work. And then the folks who work from home say, hey, look, I'm online from 6:30 in the morning. Maybe I feed the kids, but then I go back online at night. So you're getting 16, 18 hours of work out of me.

　　GWEN IFILL:John Sullivan, how do you measure the innate¹³ value of socialization in order to create productivity? How do you know that that works?

　　JOHN SULLIVAN:Well, you do because it's data-driven.

　　So, at Google, for example, they measure the length of the cafe line to get their free food, because they found that, if the line's too long, people drop off the line. If the line's too short, son of a gun if people don't get their food and they don't collaborate¹⁴.

　　So it's a very scientific approach, and it's certainly not about productivity. So I would agree telecommuters are very productive. But it's just not true they're innovative¹⁵, because they don't interact. If I sent you 50 e-mails a day, you would be really upset, but human interaction when you meet 50 people, it isn't.

　　So there's plenty data of this. And certainly, because she's from Google, the CFO responded to Google's approach to working at home. They said, well, how many telecommuters would you like? And his answer was, as few as possible.

　　So this is a—not a productivity issue. It's an innovation issue. If you are going to be productive and efficient, work at home. It certainly saves gas and the environment. But if you want innovation, the answer is no. Look at the best innovators in the world, Apple and Google. You come to work every day. You come in early, you stay late, and the interaction—and, incidentally, it's serendipitous¹⁶.

　　It's not scheduled meetings. It's walking down the hall and someone from H.R. talking to someone they don't know in engineering and going, hey, what are you doing? And when you say, I just got a Nobel Prize, it forces to people to say, I need to innovate¹⁷, too.

　　GWEN IFILL:Let me ask Micki Maynard this, and then I want you to respond to it as well, which is that part of the concern has been from women who believe that the flexibility allows especially working mothers to be able to work from home and be part of the work force.

　　We even had Gloria Steinem take a shot at that last night on this program. Micki, is that what this is about as well, or is that completely off the point?

　　MICHELINE MAYNARD:You know, I was reading a lot of comments about this. And I'm trying to stay kind of in the middle about it for what Ms. Mayer's motivations are.

　　But people are saying, this is a way to get us to quit. This is a way to cut jobs. This is a layoff¹⁸ by telling us to come into the office. I mean, first of all, I thought that this working from home battle was done. I thought this was something that 10 or 12 years ago, everybody got kind of comfortable with.

　　But it is a tough economy. And there are a certain number of jobs out there. And employers can say, look, I want to see you. I want to know that you're at your desk. But folks also would say, look, I might be at my desk, I might be playing solitary¹⁹, and those meetings that you want me to participate in, those are time-killers, and I am much better off in an environment of my choosing. I will come into the office. I will do off-sites. I will Skype with you. I can see you on my computer screen. I can interact with you on a conference bridge.

　　So just sitting in a room together, I have sat in a lot of silent rooms where we were supposed to be innovating, and nobody had any ideas, and we broke up and went and got some ideas and came back.

　　GWEN IFILL:John Sullivan, does it disproportionately affect women in the workplace?

　　JOHN SULLIVAN:No.

　　The average telecommuter is actually a 40-year-old male. So what it affects is the shareholders²⁰ have children, the shareholders have grandparents. This is about money. This company is not going to survive unless it gets back to serial innovation mode.

　　So the answer is, no, this is about data and Micki's wrong. Most firms do it well. They do telecommuting. These are five firms that have to be serial commuters. You're competing against Apple. It's a machine, Google the same way. So, they have no choice.

　　And, by the way, Yahoo! knows how to lay off people. They have done it five times in the last four years or whatever. It's not a way to avoid layoffs²¹. It's a way to save the company. And the stock is at $20 dollars. Apple and Google is at $800 dollars. The answer is no. If that stock goes up to $800 dollars, everyone, women included, will be treated better, they will have a secure job, and they will be rich. That's what this is about.

　　GWEN IFILL:I have to ask you both a final question, and I have to ask you to keep it brief. Is this a trend that we're seeing? Is this—Yahoo! unique, Micki Maynard, or are they an outlier?

　　MICHELINE MAYNARD:The reaction to Yahoo! will tell what happens with this issue. I happen to believe that Yahoo! will have to modify this policy because they have upset the apple cart, no pun intended.

　　GWEN IFILL:John Sullivan?

　　JOHN SULLIVAN:Every comment you see is not from a Yahoo! employee.

　　No, they're not going to modify this, and, no, it's not a trend. This is only for serial innovators. There's five, six firms in the world that need to innovate like this. No, it's not a trend.

　　GWEN IFILL:OK. John Sullivan of San Francisco State University, Micki Maynard of Forbes.com, thank you both very much.

1 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。

2 serial   

n.连本影片，连本电视节目；adj.连续的

参考例句：

• A new serial is starting on television tonight.今晚电视开播一部新的电视连续剧。
• Can you account for the serial failures in our experiment?你能解释我们实验屡屡失败的原因吗？

3 innovator   

n.改革者；创新者

参考例句：

• The young technical innovator didn't lose heart though the new system was not yet brought into a workable condition. 尽管这种新方法尚未达到切实可行的状况，这位青年技术革新者也没有泄气。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Caesar planned vast projects and emerged as a great innovator. 恺撒制定了庞大的革新计划。 来自英汉非文学 - 文明史

4 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

5 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

6 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

7 sipping   

v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• She sat in the sun, idly sipping a cool drink. 她坐在阳光下懒洋洋地抿着冷饮。
• She sat there, sipping at her tea. 她坐在那儿抿着茶。

8 innovating   

v.改革，创新( innovate的现在分词 )；引入（新事物、思想或方法），

参考例句：

• In this new century, the company keeps innovating and developing new products. 新世纪伊始，公司全面实施形象工程及整合营销，不断改革创新，开发高新产品。 来自互联网
• Beijing is backward most prime cause is innovating at system lack. 北京落后的最根本原因在于制度缺乏创新。 来自互联网

9 cubicle   

n.大房间中隔出的小室

参考例句：

• She studies in a cubicle in the school library.她在学校图书馆的小自习室里学习。
• A technical sergeant hunches in a cubicle.一位技术军士在一间小屋里弯腰坐着。

10 vehement   

adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的

参考例句：

• She made a vehement attack on the government's policies.她强烈谴责政府的政策。
• His proposal met with vehement opposition.他的倡导遭到了激烈的反对。

11 slippers   

n. 拖鞋

参考例句：

• a pair of slippers 一双拖鞋
• He kicked his slippers off and dropped on to the bed. 他踢掉了拖鞋，倒在床上。

12 pajamas   

n.睡衣裤

参考例句：

• At bedtime,I take off my clothes and put on my pajamas.睡觉时，我脱去衣服，换上睡衣。
• He was wearing striped pajamas.他穿着带条纹的睡衣裤。

13 innate   

adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的

参考例句：

• You obviously have an innate talent for music.你显然有天生的音乐才能。
• Correct ideas are not innate in the mind.人的正确思想不是自己头脑中固有的。

14 collaborate   

vi.协作，合作；协调

参考例句：

• The work gets done more quickly when we collaborate.我们一旦合作，工作做起来就更快了。
• I would ask you to collaborate with us in this work.我们愿意请你们在这项工作中和我们合作。

15 innovative   

adj.革新的，新颖的，富有革新精神的

参考例句：

• Discover an innovative way of marketing.发现一个创新的营销方式。
• He was one of the most creative and innovative engineers of his generation.他是他那代人当中最富创造性与革新精神的工程师之一。

16 serendipitous   

adj.偶然发现的

参考例句：

• There was a serendipitous second advantage working with a library of equations. 利用方程库有个意外收获的附带好处。 来自互联网
• Strategic networking prepares us for serendipitous moments. 战略性人际交往让我们为不时之需做好准备。 来自互联网

17 innovate   

v.革新，变革，创始

参考例句：

• We must innovate in order to make progress.我们必须改革以便取得进步。
• It is necessary to innovate and develop military theories.创新和发展军事理论是必要的。

18 layoff   

n.临时解雇，操作停止，活动停止期间，失业期

参考例句：

• Finally, prepare an explanation about what led to your layoff.最后，要准备好一套说辞来解释你被解雇的原因。
• Workers were re-employed after the layoff.在暂时解雇不久后工人们又被再度雇用了。

19 solitary   

adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士

参考例句：

• I am rather fond of a solitary stroll in the country.我颇喜欢在乡间独自徜徉。
• The castle rises in solitary splendour on the fringe of the desert.这座城堡巍然耸立在沙漠的边际，显得十分壮美。

20 shareholders   

n.股东( shareholder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The meeting was attended by 90% of shareholders. 90%的股东出席了会议。
• the company's fiduciary duty to its shareholders 公司对股东负有的受托责任

21 layoffs   

临时解雇( layoff的名词复数 )； 停工，停止活动

参考例句：

• Textile companies announced 2000 fresh layoffs last week. 各纺织公司上周宣布再次裁员两千人。
• Stock prices broke when the firm suddenly announced layoffs. 当公司突然宣布裁员时，股票价格便大跌