被趕出辦公室的上班族

I’m writing this from the makeshift quarantine bunker in my dining room — sweatpants on, hand sanitizer nearby, snacking my way through my emergency rations. I’m getting plenty of work done, but I’m starting to get unnerved by the lack of stimulation. It’s been hours (days?) since I interacted face to face with a human who is not related to me, and cabin fever is setting in.

這些是我在我家飯廳臨時改造的隔離區(qū)寫下的——穿著運動褲，洗手消毒液就在手邊，時不時地吃兩口我的緊急口糧配給，也就是零食。我完成了很多工作，但由于缺乏刺激，我開始感到不安。我已經(jīng)有幾個小時了(或是幾天?)沒有與任何非親非故的人面對面互動了，幽閉煩躁開始襲來。

Among the coronavirus’s many effects is a boom in people like me: office workers, shooed away from the office, trying to acclimate to a work-from-home lifestyle.

冠狀病毒的諸多影響之一，就是讓我這樣的人激增：被趕出辦公室的上班族，試圖適應(yīng)在家工作的生活方式。

While the outbreak has already created inconveniences (and much worse) for millions of people in the form of travel restrictions, health scares and stock market turmoil, it has been an exciting time for some fans of remote work. They argue that quarantined workers are getting a glimpse of our glorious, office-free future.

盡管因為出行限制、健康恐慌和股市動蕩，疫情已經(jīng)給數(shù)以百萬計的人們帶來了不便(以及比這更糟糕的結(jié)果)，但對于一些喜歡遠(yuǎn)程工作的人說，這是一個令人興奮的時刻。他們認(rèn)為，被隔離的員工得以一窺無需辦公室的光輝未來。

“This is not how I envisioned the distributed work revolution taking hold,” wrote Matt Mullenweg, chief executive of Automattic, the software company that owns the WordPress blogging platform.

軟件公司Automattic的首席執(zhí)行官馬特·馬倫韋格(Matt Mullenweg)寫道：“這不是我設(shè)想的分布式工作革命的方式。”該公司是博客平臺WordPress的所有者。

Mr. Mullenweg, whose company’s work force is fully distributed, sees a silver lining in the coronavirus. In his blog post last week, he wrote that it “might also offer an opportunity for many companies to finally build a culture that allows long-overdue work flexibility.”

馬倫韋格——其公司員工完全不用集中辦公——看到了冠狀病毒中的一線光明。他上周在博客中寫道：“它還可能為許多公司提供機會，最終建立一種備受期待的靈活工作文化。”

I get where he’s coming from. I was a remote worker for two years a while back. For most of that time, I was a work-from-home evangelist who told everyone within earshot about the benefits of avoiding the office. No commute! No distracting co-workers! Home-cooked lunch! What’s not to love?

我知道他的初衷。過去我也曾做過兩年的遠(yuǎn)程工作。那個時候的大多數(shù)時間里，我狂熱鼓吹在家工作，告訴身邊的每個人避開辦公室的好處。不用通勤!沒有同事來打擾你!在家吃飯!讓人怎能不愛?

But I’ve been researching the pros and cons of remote work for my upcoming book about human survival in the age of artificial intelligence and automation. And I’ve now come to a very different conclusion: Most people should work in an office, or near other people, and avoid solitary work-from-home arrangements whenever possible.

不過，為了我即將出版的一本關(guān)于在人工智能和自動化時代人類生存的書，我一直在研究遠(yuǎn)程工作的利弊。我現(xiàn)在得出一個截然不同的結(jié)論：大多數(shù)人應(yīng)該在辦公室或在其他人周圍工作，并盡量避免獨自在家工作的安排。

Don’t get me wrong: Working from home is a good option for new parents, people with disabilities and others who aren’t well served by a traditional office setup. I don’t think we should ignore health guidelines and force people to work in an office during a pandemic. And I’m sympathetic to the millions of teachers, restaurant workers and other professionals for whom working from home has never been a viable option.

別誤會：在家工作對于新晉父母、殘障人士和其他不適合傳統(tǒng)辦公方式的人來說，是一個很好的選擇。我認(rèn)為我們不應(yīng)該忽視健康指南，并在疫情期間強迫人們?nèi)マk公室工作。并且，對于成千上萬的教師、餐廳員工和其他行業(yè)從業(yè)者來說，在家工作無法成為一個選項，我對他們深表同情。

But for those of us lucky enough to be able to work from home, coronavirus or no, a few words of caution are in order.

但是對于我們這些能在家工作的幸運兒，無論有沒有冠狀病毒，有必要注意以下幾點。

Fans of remote work often cite studies showing that people who work from home are more productive, like a 2014 study led by the Stanford professor Nicholas Bloom. The study examined remote workers at a Chinese travel agency and found that they were 13 percent more efficient than their office-based peers.

喜歡遠(yuǎn)程工作的人經(jīng)常引用一些研究，表明在家工作的人效率更高，例如由斯坦福大學(xué)教授尼古拉斯·布魯姆(Nicholas Bloom)的2014年的一項研究。該研究對中國一家在線旅行服務(wù)公司的遠(yuǎn)程工作人員進行了調(diào)查，發(fā)現(xiàn)他們的效率比辦公室同事高13%。

But research also shows that what remote workers gain in productivity, they often miss in harder-to-measure benefits like creativity and innovative thinking. Studies have found that people working together in the same room tend to solve problems more quickly than remote collaborators, and that team cohesion suffers in remote work arrangements.

但是研究也表明，雖然遠(yuǎn)程工作者效率更高，但他們也錯失了創(chuàng)造力和創(chuàng)新思維這些難以衡量的收益。研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，在同一個房間里一起工作的人比遠(yuǎn)程協(xié)作者更容易解決問題，而且遠(yuǎn)程工作會影響團隊凝聚力。

Remote workers also tend to take shorter breaks and fewer sick days than office-based ones, and in studies, many report finding it hard to separate their work from their home lives. That’s a good thing if you’re a boss looking to squeeze extra efficiency out of your employees, but less ideal if you’re someone trying to achieve some work-life balance.

與辦公室員工相比，遠(yuǎn)程工作者的休息時間更短，病假時間也更少，而且在研究中，許多人報告，很難將工作與家庭生活區(qū)分開。如果你是一個希望員工提升效率的老板，這是一件好事;但如果你是一個希望實現(xiàn)工作與生活平衡的人，這種方式就不太理想了。

Working in isolation can be lonely, which explains the popularity of co-working spaces like WeWork and The Wing. Even in Silicon Valley, where the tools that allow for remote work are being built, many companies are strict about requiring their workers to come into the office.

獨自工作可能會很孤獨，這解釋了WeWork和The Wing這樣的聯(lián)合辦公空間何以大受歡迎。即使在為遠(yuǎn)程工作制造各種工具的硅谷，許多公司也嚴(yán)格要求員工在辦公室辦公。

Steve Jobs, for one, was a famous opponent of remote work, believing that Apple employees’ best work came from accidentally bumping into other people, not sitting at home in front of an email inbox.

史蒂夫·喬布斯(Steve Jobs)就是著名的遠(yuǎn)程工作反對者，他認(rèn)為蘋果員工最好的工作表現(xiàn)來自于偶然的碰撞，而不是坐在家里面對收件箱。

“Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions,” Mr. Jobs said. “You run into someone, you ask what they’re doing, you say ‘Wow,’ and soon you’re cooking up all sorts of ideas.”

“創(chuàng)造力源于自發(fā)的會議，來自隨機的討論，”喬布斯說。“你遇到一個人，問問他在做什么，聽了就說‘哇’，然后很快就有各種各樣的點子冒出來。”

I’ll grant that office work has its downsides, even in healthy times. Commuting has been shown to make us less happy, and the open-plan office, a truly cursed workplace design trend that emphasizes airy spaces with rows of desks and little privacy, has made distraction-free focus nearly impossible.

我承認(rèn)，即使是在健康的時期，在辦公室工作也有它的缺點。事實證明，通勤會讓我們不那么開心，開放式辦公室真是一種令人討厭的辦公室設(shè)計趨勢，它強調(diào)通風(fēng)的空間，帶有一排排的辦公桌，幾乎沒有隱私，讓人幾乎不可能不受干擾地專心工作。

But being near other people also allows us to express our most human qualities, like empathy and collaboration. Those are the skills that can’t be automated. And they’re what produces the kind of meaningful interpersonal contact we miss out on when we’re stuck at home.

但是，與他人的近距離接觸，也讓我們得以表達(dá)我們最有人情味的品質(zhì)，比如同情心和合作精神。這些都是無法實現(xiàn)自動化的技能。它們會產(chǎn)生有意義的人際接觸，困在家里，我們就會錯過它。

“There’s an element of social interaction that’s really important,” said Laszlo Bock, the chief executive of Humu, a Silicon Valley human resources start-up.

“社交活動之中有一種非常重要的元素，”硅谷人力資源初創(chuàng)企業(yè)Humu的首席執(zhí)行官拉斯洛·博克(Laszlo Bock)說。

Mr. Bock, who was previously Google’s top human resources officer, said that for most people, balancing office work with remote work is ideal. His company’s research has found that the ideal amount of work-from-home time is one and a half days per week — enough to participate in office culture, with some time reserved for deep, focused work.

曾任谷歌首席人力資源官的博克說，對大多數(shù)人來說，在辦公室工作和遠(yuǎn)程工作之間取得平衡是最理想的。他的公司的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，理想的在家工作時間是每周1天半——這樣員工足以參與辦公室文化，還有一些時間可以留給深入、專注的工作。

“The reason tech companies have micro-kitchens and free snacks is not because they think people are going to starve between 9 a.m. and noon,” he said. “It’s because that’s where you get those moments of serendipity.”

“科技企業(yè)之所以配備袖珍廚房、提供免費零食，并不是因為他們覺得人們會在上午9點到中午之間肚子餓，”他說。“是因為你在那里可以得到意外的發(fā)現(xiàn)。”

In recent years, some companies with sizable remote workforces have experimented with ways to create office culture over a distance.

近年來，一些擁有大量遠(yuǎn)程工作人員的公司嘗試了創(chuàng)建遠(yuǎn)程辦公文化的方法。

Automattic, Mr. Mullenweg’s all-remote company, holds an annual weeklong staff retreat called the “grand meetup,” at which workers gather in the same place to socialize and work on group projects. At GitLab, an open-source collaboration platform, remote workers are encouraged to schedule “virtual coffee breaks” — purely social video conferences — with colleagues they don’t know well.

馬倫韋格的公司Automattic是一家全員遠(yuǎn)程辦公的企業(yè)，它每年都會舉辦為期一周的員工活動，名為“大聚會”，員工們聚集在同一個地方，進行社交活動，參與集體項目。在開源協(xié)作平臺GitLab，遠(yuǎn)程工作人員被鼓勵與他們不太熟悉的同事一起安排“虛擬咖啡休息時間”，也就是純粹的社交視頻會議。

If the coronavirus continues preventing people from going to the office, more companies may need to try tactics like these to help keep their workers happy and connected.

如果冠狀病毒繼續(xù)令人無法去辦公室，更多企業(yè)可能需要嘗試這些策略來幫助員工保持聯(lián)系和愉快的心情。

But some people may never be content with virtual water coolers.

但有些人可能永遠(yuǎn)不會滿足于虛擬的飲水機。

“It’s a very personal decision that works for some and doesn’t work for others,” said Julia Austin, a former tech executive and professor at Harvard Business School. “Some people are more productive and happy and find other ways to get social contact if they work from home. And some people aren’t happy working alone.”

“這是一種非常個人化的決定，對一些人適用，對另一些人不適用，”前科技高管、哈佛商學(xué)院(Harvard Business School)教授朱莉婭·奧斯汀(Julia Austin)說。“有些人在家工作效率更高，也更快樂，他們會找到其他方式進行社交。有些人不喜歡獨自工作。”

As a white-collar millennial, I’m supposed to be cheering on the remote work revolution. But I’ve realized that I can’t be my best, most human self in sweatpants, pretending to pay attention on video conferences between trips to the fridge.

作為一名千禧一代的白領(lǐng)，我應(yīng)該為遠(yuǎn)程工作革命歡呼。但我已經(jīng)意識到，穿著運動褲，假裝專心參加視頻會議，時不時去冰箱拿東西，這并不是我最好、最有人情味的狀態(tài)。

I’ll stay home as long as my bosses and the health authorities advise. But honestly, I can’t wait to go back to work.

只要我的老板和衛(wèi)生當(dāng)局建議，我就呆在家里。但說實話，我等不及想回去工作了。