Countering the tyranny of the clock

對抗時(shí)鐘的專橫

詞匯

Tyranny/ 暴政；專橫

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How flexible working is changing workers’ relationship with time

彈性工作制如何改變了員工與時(shí)間的關(guān)系

Oct 17th 2020 |?

TWO HUNDRED?years ago, a device began to dominate the world of work. No, not the steam engine—the gadget was the clock. With the arrival of the factory, people were paid on the basis of how many hours they worked, rather than their material output.

兩百年前，一種設(shè)備開始主宰世界的工作。不，不是蒸汽機(jī)，而是時(shí)鐘這件小玩意。隨著工廠的到來，工人們的工資是根據(jù)他們工作的小時(shí)數(shù)而不是他們的物質(zhì)產(chǎn)出來支付的。

詞匯

Gadget/.小玩意；小器具

In the “putting out” system that prevailed before the factory era, merchants would deliver cloth to be woven,?spun, stitched or cut to a worker’s home. Each worker would then be paid for the items they produced. That gave the weavers and spinners freedom to work when it was convenient. At the factory, in contrast, workers were required by the owner to turn up for a set shift.

在工廠時(shí)代之前盛行的“散工制”制度中，商人將布送到工人家中進(jìn)行織、紡、縫制或裁剪。每個(gè)工人生產(chǎn)的產(chǎn)品都會(huì)得到報(bào)酬。這給了織布工和紡紗工在方便的時(shí)候自由地工作。相比之下，在工廠里，老板要求工人按規(guī)定輪班。

詞匯

putting-out system/ 散工制

Woven/ 編織

Spun/紡制的

Stitched/縫紉

The tyranny of time was marked by a number of innovations. As few workers owned watches or clocks in the 19th century, people known as “knocker-uppers” would roam the streets rapping on doors and windows to wake workers at the right time. Later, factories would use hooters and whistles to signal the start and end of shifts, and employees would punch in and out using a time clock. Eventually, as workers moved farther away from their place of employment, the power of the clock led to daily rush hours, as millions headed to and from work. Often they paid a penalty in terms of time wasted in traffic jams or awaiting delayed trains.

時(shí)間的專橫表現(xiàn)在一系列的革新上。在19世紀(jì)，很少有工人擁有鐘表，所以那些被稱為“敲門者”的人會(huì)在大街上晃悠，到點(diǎn)了就敲著門窗叫醒工人。后來，工廠會(huì)用鳴笛和哨聲來表示輪班的開始和結(jié)束，員工也會(huì)用時(shí)鐘打卡上下班。最終，隨著工人們搬離工作地點(diǎn)越來越遠(yuǎn)，時(shí)鐘的力量導(dǎo)致了每天上下班的高峰時(shí)間，數(shù)百萬人上下班。他們通常會(huì)因?yàn)榻煌ǘ氯虻却疖囃睃c(diǎn)而付出代價(jià)。

詞匯

tyranny /暴政；專橫

Hooter/汽笛，警笛

The clock’s authoritarian rule may at last be weakening. Flexible working existed well before the pandemic. But it only offered employees the ability to choose when in the day they worked their?allotted hours. Remote working has brought a greater degree of freedom. A survey of 4,700 home-workers across six countries commissioned by Slack, a corporate-messaging firm, found that flexible working was viewed very positively, improving both people’s work-life balance and productivity. Flexible workers even scored more highly on a sense of “belonging” to their organisation than those on a nine-to-five schedule.

時(shí)鐘下的獨(dú)裁統(tǒng)治可能最終會(huì)弱化。但靈活工作制度早在疫情之前就存在了。但它只向員工提供了選擇一天中工作時(shí)間的權(quán)利。遠(yuǎn)程工作帶來了更大程度的自由。企業(yè)通信公司Slack委托對來自六個(gè)國家的4700名在家辦公的員工進(jìn)行了一項(xiàng)調(diào)查。調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，彈性工作制被人們視為非常積極的做法，因?yàn)樗芷胶夤ぷ髋c生活，提高工作效率。彈性工作制的員工甚至比朝九晚五的員工在對公司的“歸屬感”上得分更高。

It is hardly surprising that workers prefer flexibility. Working a rigid eight-hour schedule is incredibly restricting. Those are also the hours when most shops are open, when doctors and dentists will take appointments, and when repairmen are willing to visit. Parents on a conventional routine may be able to take their children to school in the morning but are unlikely to be able to pick them up in the afternoon. Many families find themselves constantly juggling schedules and giving up precious holiday time to deal with domestic emergencies.

工人們更喜歡靈活性，這并不奇怪。嚴(yán)格的八小時(shí)工作時(shí)間是難以置信的限制。這段時(shí)間也是大多數(shù)商店開門的時(shí)間，也是醫(yī)生和牙醫(yī)預(yù)約的時(shí)間，也是修理工愿意光顧的時(shí)間。按常規(guī)生活的父母也許能在早上把孩子送到學(xué)校，但下午就不太可能去接他們了。許多家庭發(fā)現(xiàn)他們經(jīng)常忙于安排日程，放棄寶貴的假期時(shí)間來處理家庭緊急事件。

On reflection, it is also not too shocking that home-workers feel they are more productive. After all, few people have the ability to concentrate solidly for eight hours at a stretch. There are points in the day where people are tempted to stare out of the window or go for a walk; these may be moments when they find inspiration or recharge themselves for the next task. When they do this in an office, they risk the boss’s disapproval; at home, they can work when they are most motivated.

仔細(xì)想想，在家工作的人覺得自己的工作效率更高，這一點(diǎn)也不太令人震驚。畢竟，很少有人能連續(xù)8小時(shí)全神貫注。一天中總有那么幾個(gè)時(shí)候，人們?nèi)滩蛔∠胪巴饪?，或者出去散散?這些可能是他們?yōu)橄乱粋€(gè)任務(wù)找到靈感或充電的時(shí)刻。當(dāng)他們在辦公室這么做時(shí)，他們冒著令老板不快活的風(fēng)險(xiǎn);在家里，他們可以在最有動(dòng)力的時(shí)候工作。

Remote working is not possible for everyone, of course. There is a long list of industries, from emergency services to hospitality and retail, where people need to turn up to their place of work. But for many office workers, remote working is perfectly sensible. They may maintain some fixed points in the week (staff meetings, for example) but perform many of their tasks at any time of the day—or night. Office workers can now be paid for the tasks they complete rather than the time they spend (which firms would have to monitor by spying on people at home).

當(dāng)然，遠(yuǎn)程工作不可能對每個(gè)人都適用。有一長串行業(yè)，從緊急服務(wù)到酒店和零售，人們需要到他們的工作地點(diǎn)。但對于許多上班族來說，遠(yuǎn)程辦公是完全明智的。他們可能在一周中保持一些固定的時(shí)間點(diǎn)(例如員工會(huì)議)，但在白天或晚上的任何時(shí)間執(zhí)行他們的許多任務(wù)。辦公室職員現(xiàn)在可以根據(jù)他們完成的任務(wù)而不是“工作”的時(shí)間來獲得報(bào)酬(公司將不得不通過監(jiān)視在家的人來監(jiān)視他們)。

What is striking about Slack’s study is the widespread nature of support for home-working. Overall, just 12% of the workers surveyed wanted to return to a normal office schedule. In America black, Asian and Hispanic employees were even more enthusiastic than their white colleagues. Women with children were generally keen, reporting an improvement in their work-life balance—though a gap exists between discontented American women and those in other countries, who are much happier (the availability of state-subsidised child care helps explain the difference).

Slack的研究中引人注目的一點(diǎn)是，人們普遍支持在家工作。總體而言，只有12%的受訪者希望恢復(fù)正常的辦公時(shí)間安排。在美國，黑人、亞裔和西班牙裔員工甚至比他們的白人同事更熱情。一般來說，有孩子的女性都很期望如此，她們的工作與生活平衡有所改善——盡管不滿的美國女性和其他國家的女性之間存在差距，后者要快樂得多(國家補(bǔ)貼的托兒服務(wù)能夠解釋這種差異)。

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Of course, the new schedule carries dangers: people may lose all separation between work and home life, and succumb to stress. To inject some human contact, companies may embrace a hybrid model in which workers go into the office for part of the week. But overall office-workers’ freedom from time’s yoke is to be welcomed. The clock was a cruel master and many people will be happy to escape its dominion.

當(dāng)然，新的時(shí)間表也帶來了危險(xiǎn):人們可能會(huì)失去工作和家庭生活之間的所有分離，屈服于壓力。為了注入一些人際關(guān)系，公司可能會(huì)采用一種混合模式，即員工每周有一部分時(shí)間到辦公室工作。但是總的來說，辦公室職員擺脫時(shí)間枷鎖的自由是受歡迎的。時(shí)鐘是一個(gè)殘忍的主人，許多人會(huì)很高興擺脫它的統(tǒng)治。

詞匯

Yoke/軛；束縛