靈活辦公的魅力與困惑

Like many an office novelty, agile working is becoming a corporate mantra. It has been on trend for at least 20 years and rather more commonplace since the arrival of the mobile phone and broadband.

如諸多職場新鮮事物一樣，靈活工作制正在成為企業(yè)流行詞。靈活工作制成為趨勢已有至少20年，自從移動電話和寬帶問世以來，靈活工作制變得愈加常見。

It seems like a win-win: employers measure employees’ output without sweating the time taken for a long lunch; employees gain a newfound autonomy that is unprecedented in postwar business practice. In some ways, it nostalgically mirrors student work styles: do it in your time, at your chosen place or indeed in your pyjamas.

這似乎是一場雙贏：雇主們評定員工績效時無需計較員工午飯時間過長;員工們也獲得了在戰(zhàn)后的職場中從未有過的全新自主權。在某些方面，它讓人仿佛回到了學生時代：功課何時做隨你，在哪做隨你，或實際上穿著睡衣做也行。

Agile working is increasingly popular. According to a recent UK Labour Force Survey, nearly 10m people work remotely some or all of the time, and a study in February 2016 by Lancaster University found that about half of all employers planned to adopt agile or flexible working by 2017. But it may also be the case that agile working has hit a tipping point.

靈活辦公如今越來越流行。最近一份英國勞動力調查(Labour Force Survey)顯示，有將近1000萬人有時或一直遠程工作，另外，蘭卡斯特大學(Lancaster University) 2016年2月的一項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，大約半數(shù)雇主計劃在2017年年底前采用靈活或彈性工作制。然而，靈活工作制也可能已經到了一個臨界點。

Today’s agile working is a far cry from the simple flexitime of the 1980s. Now it involves working wherever you like, including from home, while you are connected to the office via chat systems, intranets and emails; flexitime simply meant coming in later every so often.

當今的靈活工作制與上世紀80年代的彈性工作時間制已相差甚遠。現(xiàn)在你想在哪(包括在家)工作都行，工作時你可以通過聊天系統(tǒng)、內部網(wǎng)以及電子郵件與辦公室保持聯(lián)系;而彈性工作時間制僅僅是指時不時地晚來一會兒。

Agile working has attained more popularity based on the proposition that if you get your work done, you can take as much time off as you want. Compared to the old cumbersome mode of work, which involved commuting to an office, punching in, sitting at a desk, taking a break at an anointed hour and then the same in reverse, today work can be more flexible: arrive when you like, where you like, and leave when you want.

靈活工作制現(xiàn)已越發(fā)有人氣，在你完成工作的前提下，你想休息多久都可以。相比以前通勤、打卡、坐下工作、在規(guī)定時間工休、然后倒序重來一遍的機械工作模式，如今的工作可以更靈活：隨時隨地，來去自由。

But herein lies a contradiction: the ability to produce work that is inclusive, fit for purpose and aligned to group goals is not always easy when you are working by yourself. Yes, withdrawing into the home office without interruptions has advantages, not least that you can think deeply through a problem without being interrupted. But the structure, rigour and discipline of systematised collaboration in a team are a prerequisite to much work.

但這里存在一個矛盾：當你獨自工作時，拿出具有開放性、符合要求并與團隊目標相一致的工作成果并不總是容易的事情。誠然，回家心無旁騖地工作有其優(yōu)勢，尤其是可以深入思考一個問題而不受干擾。但在一個團隊中系統(tǒng)化協(xié)作的結構、嚴謹性以及規(guī)矩是很多工作的必要前提。

So, agile working by itself might not lead to agile thinking. Water-cooler disruptions can be annoying but they can also be creative. Workspaces can be oppressive, but a nomadic style that masquerades as agile work may lead to procrastination and thinking blocks. Regular encounters between colleagues in a safe space that is professional and nurturing can be the most productive. We call these offices.

因此，靈活工作制本身也許并不能導致敏捷的思維。飲水機旁的干擾或許令人討厭但也可能激發(fā)創(chuàng)意。工作場所或許很壓抑，但披著靈活辦公外衣的自由工作方式，或許會導致拖延和思維受阻。經常跟同事們在一個既專業(yè)又有益的安全場所見面，可能非常有利于提高工作效率。我們稱這些場所為辦公室。

Let us not forget that for all the braggadocio of agile working and autonomy, it can be equally hard not to burn out — because we don’t log out. Documents are electronic, devices pocket-sized, bandwidth plentiful. But with the perpetual access comes the perpetual workday. You need never leave the office because it is in the palm of your hand, and the calm moments before you drift off to sleep are snatched away by sending “one last work email”. The hard boundaries of rigid work at least kept it out of our homes and out of our beds.

我們也不要忘記，盡管靈活工作制和自主權受到大力吹捧，我們同樣也難免會心力交瘁——因為我們從不下班。文件是電子版的，辦公設備是便攜的，帶寬是充足的。然而，隨時隨地都能辦公，也就意味著工作時間沒有結束的時候。你永遠都不需要離開辦公室，因為它就在你的掌中;連入睡前的寧靜時光也被剝奪——你總是有“最后一封工作郵件”要發(fā)送。剛性工作制的嚴格界限至少會讓工作遠離我們的家和我們的床。

If a buzzing BlackBerry in bed is bad, unlimited paid vacation has its hurdles too. When Buffer, a software firm, introduced the policy for its employees in 2014, the founders came to a simple realisation: “It was only over time that we noticed, in our own experience, that we weren’t taking any.” And why not? For one reason, because a high achiever could always find one more thing to do, only in this case it was not an email at 11pm at night, it was working throughout the year. The solution at Buffer was to pay people $1,000 to have a vacation.

如果床上有只嗡嗡作響的黑莓(BlackBerry)手機是不好的，那無限的帶薪休假執(zhí)行起來也有障礙。軟件公司Buffer在2014年為員工們設立了這項制度，幾名創(chuàng)始人隨后發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個簡單的事實：“漸漸地我們才從自己的親身體會中發(fā)現(xiàn)，我們根本沒有休假。”為什么沒有呢?一個原因是，成功人士總能發(fā)現(xiàn)還有一件事要做，不過在這里，這導致的不是晚上11點還在發(fā)電子郵件，而是全年無休地工作。Buffer的解決方案是付給人們1000美元去休假。

This does highlight the limits of agility: we need to have some parameters, a recognition that shutting the office door behind you and turning off your email is a necessary discipline for employees. Otherwise, agility might lead to sclerosis and fatigue.

這確實突顯了靈活辦公的局限：我們需要有些界限，需要認識到，關門離開辦公室和關閉電子郵件對員工們來說是一條必要的規(guī)矩。否則，靈活辦公也許會讓你健康惡化、身心疲憊。