If you have a high temperature or are recovering from heart surgery, it is difficult to use machine tools. And if you are having a nervous breakdown, machine tools are best avoided. Sick days are the remedy. They are meant to prevent people from hurting themselves, their co-workers, customers or passers-by on the job. Working from home has flipped this logic on its head. If you can work from the kitchen table, today’s hybrid workers increasingly conclude, then why not from bed—so long as the brain is on and the Zoom camera off??

如果你有高燒或正處于心臟手術后的恢復期，就很難使用機床。如果你精神失常，最好避免使用機床。請病假是良藥。它們是為了防止人們在工作中傷害自己、同事、顧客或路人。在家工作顛覆了這一邏輯。如今的混合辦公的員工越來越多地得出這樣的結論: 如果你可以在廚房的桌子上工作，那么為什么不能在床上工作呢——只要大腦還在工作，Zoom攝像機關閉。

The work-from-home revolution has raised the bar for what counts as being sick. At the height of the pandemic people worked from home even with nasty symptoms such as fever, shortness of breath or nausea. Many still do. Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University has been tracking work-from-home habits since before the corona-crisis popularised them. In a recent working paper he presents the results of a randomised controlled trial at a large Chinese multinational company, where sick days fell by 12% for employees working from home two days a week relative to those coming in full time.?

在家工作的革命提高了“生病”的標準。在疫情最嚴重的時候，人們即使出現(xiàn)發(fā)燒、呼吸短促或惡心等惡心癥狀，也會在家工作。很多人仍在這樣做。斯坦福大學的尼古拉斯·布魯姆從冠狀病毒危機開始普及在家工作習慣之前就一直在追蹤這種習慣。在最近的一篇工作論文中，他介紹了在中國一家大型跨國公司進行的隨機對照試驗的結果。在這家公司，每周在家工作兩天的員工，請病假天數(shù)比全職員工減少了12%。

Your columnist, a guest Bartleby, can sympathise. In the past, while convalescing, she had no qualms about wrapping herself in a blanket with a hot toddy, toast and some tissues. When she got covid-19 early this summer, by contrast, she kept going with her phone and laptop sunk in the duvet. Her managers strongly urged that her work should be passed on to a colleague. For her, this was unthinkable, at least until she almost passed out.?

你的專欄作家，特邀嘉賓巴托比，可以表示同情。過去，在康復期間，她會毫不猶豫地把自己裹在毯子里，配上一杯熱托迪酒、吐司和一些紙巾。相比之下，當她今年初夏感染covid-19時，她一直把手機和筆記本電腦埋在羽絨被里。她的經理們強烈要求把她的工作交給一位同事。對她來說，這是難以想象的，至少在她差點昏過去之前是這樣。

To be in bed not doing anything connotes not only physical discomfort but also cognitive impairment. Salaried workers, who are often evaluated on the basis of their input rather than output, find it hard to say they are off the game for a few days now that they don’t need to worry about spreading germs in the office. For high-achievers, putting in the hours is not a chore but a way of life. Unplanned breaks are antithetical to the pervasive anxiety to perform. As recession looms and puts future job security into question, showing yourself to be useful becomes even more important. Hybrid-work etiquette is fluid and many companies have yet to update their sick-leave rules for the new era.?

躺在床上什么都不做不僅意味著身體不適，還意味著認知障礙。對領薪水員工的評估通常是基于他們的投入而不是產出，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)很難說因為他們不用擔心在辦公室里傳播細菌，而幾天狀態(tài)不佳。對于成功人士來說，投入時間不是一件苦差事，而是一種生活方式。計劃外的休息與普遍存在的表演焦慮是對立的。隨著經濟衰退的臨近，未來的工作保障成為問題，展示自己的有用性變得更加重要?；旌限k公的禮節(jié)是不固定的，許多公司還沒有針對新時代更新病假規(guī)定。

Though all this is understandable, it is also troubling. Tapping away at a laptop and smartphone from the discomfort of a sick person’s bedroom is not as dangerous as driving a forklift. It nevertheless carries risks—both for the ill-disposed individual and their employer. And it isn’t just covid, whose common symptoms include brain fog. Any bug brings fatigue.

盡管這一切都是可以理解的，但也令人不安。在病人不舒服的臥室里敲擊筆記本電腦和智能手機，并不像駕駛叉車那么危險。盡管如此，這種做法還是有風險的——不管是對不友好的個人還是他們的雇主。就連新冠病毒，其常見癥狀包括腦霧在內。任何小病都會帶來疲勞。

Being even mildly sick can impair brain function as much as high altitude, whose effect can feel like a bad hangover. It is difficult to exercise proper judgment if one cannot focus on the task at hand. It is why people with lower oxygen concentration sometimes remove protective clothes atop Mount Everest; some freeze to death. Firing off emails while feeling dizzy and depleted will put the body under further stress and also risk being incoherent. Soldiering on may make the employee both sicker and less productive for longer. Digital presenteeism, for that is what such persisting amounts to, is in no one’s interest.

即使是輕微的疾病也會損害大腦功能，就像在高海拔地區(qū)一樣，它的影響就像嚴重的宿醉。如果一個人不能專注于手頭的工作，就很難做出正確的判斷。這就是為什么氧氣濃度較低的人有時會在珠穆朗瑪峰上脫掉防護服; 有些人會被凍死。在感到頭暈和疲憊的時候收發(fā)郵件會讓身體承受更大的壓力，還可能會語無倫次。堅持下去可能會讓員工病得更重，工作效率更低。數(shù)字出勤主義(指這種堅持辦公)不符合任何人的利益。

Resisting it is therefore important. You don’t need to have had a blood transfusion or liver transplant to feel that you have earned a bit of time off. Sleeping soundly can restore body and spirit. Staring at the ceiling gives you time to take stock of your harried life. Do not worry about being judged to be shirking. True laziness cannot be disguised—if someone is malingering, chances are that their bosses already know.

因此，抵制它是很重要的。你不需要通過輸血或肝移植來感覺你贏得了一些假期。睡個好覺可以恢復身心。盯著天花板讓你有時間審視自己忙碌的生活。不要擔心別人會認為你在逃避。真正的懶惰是掩飾不了的，如果有人在裝病，很可能他們的老板已經知道了。

In the world of flexible working, managers can lead by example, taking the occasional day off when suffering from a cold. Why not use it as an opportunity to delegate tasks? This tends to build trust in a team and helps appraise subordinates’ strengths and weaknesses.

在彈性工作制的世界里，管理者可以以身作則，在感冒時偶爾休息一天。為什么不把它作為一個委派任務的機會呢? 這有助于在團隊中建立信任，并有助于評估下屬的長處和短處。

The dust will eventually settle on work habits in the hybrid era. When it comes to illness, they will hopefully settle somewhere close to where they were in pre-covid days. Being sick is part of the human condition. It is not going away. Nor should sick days. Bartleby remembers lying on the sofa recovering from a stomach bug in New York 17 years ago, undisturbed by colleagues and untroubled by thoughts of work. The next time she is ailing, she will not be on Slack. Instead, she will listen to her managers and sign off.

混合辦公時代的工作習慣最終會塵埃落定。在疾病方面，他們希望能接近新冠疫情前的水平。生病是人類健康狀態(tài)的一部分。它不會消失。病假也不應該消殺。巴托比記得，17年前在紐約，他得了胃病，躺在沙發(fā)上養(yǎng)病，沒有受到同事的打擾，也沒有想著工作。下次她生病的時候，就不會再用Slack了。相反，她會聽從經理的意見，然后寫病假條。