原文标题BartlebyTime managementFlexible working is about schedules as well as locations巴托比专栏时间管理弹性工作包含了时间和地点的灵活性

(资料图片仅供参考)

Getting it right depends on what kind of role you are in

要做对取决于你所从事的职业

[Paragraph 1]THE WORDS “flexible schedule” have an attractiveringto them.   “弹性时间表”这个词听起来很有吸引力。Theyconjure up a post-pandemic workplace full of motivated workers, organising their time in the most productive and family-friendly way, and of enlightened bosses, attracting and retaining talented employees. 它让人们想到后疫情时代的工作场所，那里的员工们以最高效率、最有利于家庭的方式安排工作时间，那里的老板们具有先见之明，能够吸引并留住人才。But flexibility is in the eye of the beholder.Its appeal can vary depending on the type of job someone is in, and on whose interests are being served.但弹性工作因人而异。它的吸引力取决于人们所从事的职业类型，以及受益者是哪一方。

[Paragraph 2]If you are a blue-collar worker in an industry that operates in shifts, for example, flexibility sounds less like nirvanaand more like chaos. 例如，如果你是一名从事轮班制工作的蓝领工人，弹性工作听起来就不像是极乐世界，而更像是混沌世界。For low-wage employees in restaurants and call centres, predictability is much more important than flexibility.  对于餐馆和呼叫中心的低薪员工而言，可预见性比灵活性更为重要。Various American cities have introduced laws that, among other things, require employers to give workers a set amount of notice when setting their shift rotas.美国的一些城市已经颁布了法律，要求雇主在制定员工轮班表时提前告知员工。[Paragraph 3]Recent research by Kristen Harknett of the University of California, San Francisco, and her co-authors into the effect of “fair workweek” legislation in Seattle found that the requirement for two weeks’ notice of schedules improved workers’ reported sense of well-being. It can also improve performance. 最近，加州大学旧金山分校的克里斯汀·哈克尼特及其合著者进行了一项研究，研究了《公平工作周》法案在西雅图的影响。研究发现，要求提前2周通知员工的轮班表可以改善员工的幸福感，还可以提高员工的绩效。A study conducted by Joan Williams of the University of California College of the Law, also in San Francisco, and others concluded that introducing more stable employee schedules increased sales and productivity at The Gap, a retailer.加州大学旧金山分校法学院的琼·威廉姆斯及其合著者所进行的一项研究得出结论：在The Gap零售商店推行更加稳定的员工轮班表可以增加销售额和生产力。[Paragraph 4]Certainty matters less for other workers. 可预见性对其他职业工作者不那么重要。Research conducted by Donald Sull at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his co-authors found that predictable schedules had a marked effect on retention for blue-collar employees but did not affect white-collar ones. 麻省理工学院的唐纳德·萨尔及其合著者进行的研究发现，可预测的工作表对蓝领员工的留存率有显著影响，但对白领员工没有影响。For desk-bound workers, the question is different: less whether flexible scheduling is appealing, more whose version of it prevails.对于坐办公室的员工来说，问题不在于弹性工作时间是否吸引人，而在于哪一方的时间安排占主导地位。[Paragraph 5]In the minds of some bosses, flexibility means that the work week has no defined boundaries. 在一些老板的心目中，弹性意味着工作周没有明确的界限。If their day starts at 4:30am on a Peloton, so can yours (minus the Peloton). If there is a blank space in your calendar, they grab it. 如果他们的一天从早上4:30在Peloton锻炼开始，那么你也必须跟上（除非没有Peloton）。如果你的日历上有空档，他们会赶紧填上。If they have a question on a Sunday, they send it over by email—and then text, WhatsApp and voicemail, just to make sure that the weekend is genuinely disturbed. It is a wonder they don’t turn up at the doorstep. 如果他们在星期天有问题，他们会通过电子邮件、短信、WhatsApp和语音邮件联系你，想方设法来打扰你的周末。他们没到你家门口就谢天谢地了。A recent paper by Maria Ibanez of Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University found that offering schedule flexibility on job adverts increases the likelihood that people will apply. 西北大学凯洛格管理学院的玛丽亚·伊巴内兹最近发表的一篇论文发现，招聘广告中提供弹性工作时间会增加人们申请工作的可能性。But it also discovered that applications decrease markedly when adverts require workers to work at managers’ discretion.但研究也发现，当招聘广告中要求服从经理安排的工作时，申请人数会显著减少。[Paragraph 6]If workers balk atthe boss’s version of flexible scheduling, managers have a different worry: that giving employees too much control over their hours can backfire.如果员工不满意老板的弹性安排，老板们也会有不同的担忧：给员工太多的自由安排时间可能会适得其反。Asynchronousworking, which involves individuals contributing to a project in their own time, is all very well. But if teams are to function effectively then they sometimes have to work as a group. 非同步工作，即个人在自己的时间内为项目做出贡献，是好事。但为了使团队能够有效运作，有时他们必须一起协作。Managers can have perfectly legitimate reasons to contact employees at odd hours and to expect an immediate response. 老板们可能完全有合理的理由在不同寻常的时间联系员工，并期望得到即时回复。Compressing work weeks into four days might well give workers more time to pursue their love ofkayakingbut be less brilliant for customers.将工作周压缩到4天可能会让员工有更多时间追求他们喜欢的事情（如皮划艇），但对客户来说可能不是最好的。[Paragraph 7]Just as a blend of home and office is a sensible answer to demands for flexibility in location, a mixed approach is the right way to think about flexible schedules. 对于工作地点灵活性的需求，家庭和办公室的混合模式是一个明智的选择，同样，混合模式也是弹性工作的正确思考方式。Brian Elliott runs research into the future of work for Slack, a messaging firm. He specifies “core collaboration hours” for his own team, which is when most meetings and group activities happen. 布莱恩·艾略特是Slack（一家消息公司）未来论坛的负责人。他为自己的团队设定了“核心协作时间”，即大多数会议和团队活动发生的时间段。The company has instituted “focus Fridays”, a day when there are no internal meetings and employees get on with their own tasks. 该公司设立了“专注星期五”，这是一个没有内部会议的日子，员工可以专心处理自己的任务。If Mr Elliott does need to contact people outside working hours, he does so by text so they are not logged in all the time.如果艾略特需要在工作以外的时间联系员工，他会通过短信联系，这样员工不必一直在线。[Paragraph 8]Boundaries of this sort will upset the absolutists.

这种边界感会让绝对主义者不安。

Managers have to think harder about interrupting people. Workers cannot pick and choose their hours at will. But a bit of thought can stop people from being their own worst enemies. 老板们需要认真考虑要不要打扰员工的问题。员工也不能随心所欲地选择工作时间。但是一些思考可以避免人们成为自己最大的敌人。For bosses, getting a swift answer to an unimportant question causes more trouble than it is worth. 对于老板来说，因为一个不重要的问题打扰员工，即使员工立马回复也得不偿失。For employees, the flexibility to work outside standard hours is double-edged: Laura Giurge of London School of Economics and Kaitlin Woolley of Cornell University have found that choosing to work at a weekend or on a bank holiday reduces motivation precisely because these days are associated in their minds with non-work activities. 对于员工来说，自由选择标准工作时间外的时间也是一把双刃剑：伦敦经济学院的劳拉·朱尔吉和康奈尔大学的凯特琳·伍利发现，选择在周末或银行假日工作会降低员工的积极性，因为在他们的头脑中，这些日子与非工作活动相关。For flexibility to be genuinely useful, it requires a firm skeleton.

真正有用的灵活性，需要一个坚实的框架。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量763左右）原文出自：2023年3月25日《The Economist》Business版块。

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Irene

本文编辑校对: Irene仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）西雅图的《公平工作周》法案是一项旨在保护低收入工人的法律，它要求雇主为他们提供更稳定、更可预测的工作时间。该法案于2016年由西雅图市议会通过，并在同年9月生效。该法案要求雇主在每周工作安排中提前14天通知员工工作时间表，并在此期间内不得更改员工的工作时间。如果雇主需要在14天内更改工作时间，必须向员工支付额外的“稳定性补偿金”。Peloton是一家总部位于纽约市的健身科技公司，提供在线室内骑行、跑步、瑜伽等健身课程和设备。核心产品是智能室内健身自行车和跑步机，用户可以通过互联网和公司提供的应用程序订阅和参加直播或录播的健身课程，同时跟踪自己的健身数据和进度。Slack是一种商务即时通讯工具，旨在帮助团队更加高效地沟通、协作和组织工作。主要特点是聊天室和频道，允许用户通过组织话题、频道和讨论来更好地组织和管理团队的沟通。【重点句子】（3 个）But flexibility is in the eye of the beholder. Its appeal can vary depending on the type of job someone is in, and on whose interests are being served.但弹性工作因人而异。它的吸引力取决于人们所从事的职业类型，以及受益者是哪一方。For desk-bound workers, the question is different: less whether flexible scheduling is appealing, more whose version of it prevails.对于坐办公室的员工来说，问题不在于弹性工作时间是否吸引人，而在于哪一方的时间安排占主导地位。Managers have to think harder about interrupting people. Workers cannot pick and choose their hours at will. But a bit of thought can stop people from being their own worst enemies. 老板们需要认真考虑要不要打扰员工的问题。员工也不能随心所欲地选择工作时间。但是一些思考可以避免人们成为自己最大的敌人。