原文標(biāo)題
Bartleby
Time management
Flexible working is about schedules as well as locations
巴托比專欄
時(shí)間管理
彈性工作包含了時(shí)間和地點(diǎn)的靈活性

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

要做對(duì)取決于你所從事的職業(yè)

[Paragraph 1]
THE WORDS “flexible schedule”?have an attractive ring to them.
? “彈性時(shí)間表”這個(gè)詞聽起來很有吸引力。

They conjure 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.
它讓人們想到后疫情時(shí)代的工作場(chǎng)所，那里的員工們以最高效率、最有利于家庭的方式安排工作時(shí)間，那里的老板們具有先見之明，能夠吸引并留住人才。

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.
但彈性工作因人而異。它的吸引力取決于人們所從事的職業(yè)類型，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 nirvana and more like chaos.
例如，如果你是一名從事輪班制工作的藍(lán)領(lǐng)工人，彈性工作聽起來就不像是極樂世界，而更像是混沌世界。

For low-wage employees in restaurants and call centres, predictability is much more important than flexibility.
?對(duì)于餐館和呼叫中心的低薪員工而言，可預(yù)見性比靈活性更為重要。

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.
美國的一些城市已經(jīng)頒布了法律，要求雇主在制定員工輪班表時(shí)提前告知員工。

[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，加州大學(xué)舊金山分校的克里斯汀·哈克尼特及其合著者進(jìn)行了一項(xiàng)研究，研究了《公平工作周》法案在西雅圖的影響。研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，要求提前2周通知員工的輪班表可以改善員工的幸福感，還可以提高員工的績效。

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.
加州大學(xué)舊金山分校法學(xué)院的瓊·威廉姆斯及其合著者所進(jìn)行的一項(xiàng)研究得出結(jié)論：在The Gap零售商店推行更加穩(wěn)定的員工輪班表可以增加銷售額和生產(chǎn)力。

[Paragraph 4]
Certainty matters less for other workers.
可預(yù)見性對(duì)其他職業(yè)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.
麻省理工學(xué)院的唐納德·薩爾及其合著者進(jìn)行的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，可預(yù)測(cè)的工作表對(duì)藍(lán)領(lǐng)員工的留存率有顯著影響，但對(duì)白領(lǐng)員工沒有影響。

For desk-bound workers, the question is different: less whether flexible scheduling is appealing, more whose version of it prevails.
對(duì)于坐辦公室的員工來說，問題不在于彈性工作時(shí)間是否吸引人，而在于哪一方的時(shí)間安排占主導(dǎo)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，彈性意味著工作周沒有明確的界限。

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.
如果他們的一天從早上4:30在Peloton鍛煉開始，那么你也必須跟上（除非沒有Peloton）。如果你的日歷上有空檔，他們會(huì)趕緊填上。

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.
如果他們?cè)谛瞧谔煊袉栴}，他們會(huì)通過電子郵件、短信、WhatsApp和語音郵件聯(lián)系你，想方設(shè)法來打擾你的周末。他們沒到你家門口就謝天謝地了。

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.
西北大學(xué)凱洛格管理學(xué)院的瑪麗亞·伊巴內(nèi)茲最近發(fā)表的一篇論文發(fā)現(xiàn)，招聘廣告中提供彈性工作時(shí)間會(huì)增加人們申請(qǐng)工作的可能性。

But it also discovered that applications decrease markedly when adverts require workers to work at managers’ discretion.
但研究也發(fā)現(xiàn)，當(dāng)招聘廣告中要求服從經(jīng)理安排的工作時(shí)，申請(qǐng)人數(shù)會(huì)顯著減少。

[Paragraph 6]
If workers balk at the boss’s version of flexible scheduling, managers have a different worry: that giving employees too much control over their hours can backfire.
如果員工不滿意老板的彈性安排，老板們也會(huì)有不同的擔(dān)憂：給員工太多的自由安排時(shí)間可能會(huì)適得其反。

Asynchronous working, 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，即個(gè)人在自己的時(shí)間內(nèi)為項(xiàng)目做出貢獻(xiàn)，是好事。但為了使團(tuán)隊(duì)能夠有效運(yùn)作，有時(shí)他們必須一起協(xié)作。

Managers can have perfectly legitimate reasons to contact employees at odd hours and to expect an immediate response.
老板們可能完全有合理的理由在不同尋常的時(shí)間聯(lián)系員工，并期望得到即時(shí)回復(fù)。

Compressing work weeks into four days might well give workers more time to pursue their love of kayaking but be less brilliant for customers.
將工作周壓縮到4天可能會(huì)讓員工有更多時(shí)間追求他們喜歡的事情（如皮劃艇），但對(duì)客戶來說可能不是最好的。

[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.
對(duì)于工作地點(diǎn)靈活性的需求，家庭和辦公室的混合模式是一個(gè)明智的選擇，同樣，混合模式也是彈性工作的正確思考方式。

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.
布萊恩·艾略特是Slack（一家消息公司）未來論壇的負(fù)責(zé)人。他為自己的團(tuán)隊(duì)設(shè)定了“核心協(xié)作時(shí)間”，即大多數(shù)會(huì)議和團(tuán)隊(duì)活動(dòng)發(fā)生的時(shí)間段。

The company has instituted “focus Fridays”, a day when there are no internal meetings and employees get on with their own tasks.
該公司設(shè)立了“專注星期五”，這是一個(gè)沒有內(nèi)部會(huì)議的日子，員工可以專心處理自己的任務(wù)。

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時(shí)間聯(lián)系員工，他會(huì)通過短信聯(lián)系，這樣員工不必一直在線。

[Paragraph 8]
Boundaries of this sort will upset the absolutists.

這種邊界感會(huì)讓絕對(duì)主義者不安。

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.
老板們需要認(rèn)真考慮要不要打擾員工的問題。員工也不能隨心所欲地選擇工作時(shí)間。但是一些思考可以避免人們成為自己最大的敵人。

For bosses, getting a swift answer to an unimportant question causes more trouble than it is worth.
對(duì)于老板來說，因?yàn)橐粋€(gè)不重要的問題打擾員工，即使員工立馬回復(fù)也得不償失。

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.
對(duì)于員工來說，自由選擇標(biāo)準(zhǔn)工作時(shí)間外的時(shí)間也是一把雙刃劍：倫敦經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)院的勞拉·朱爾吉和康奈爾大學(xué)的凱特琳·伍利發(fā)現(xiàn)，選擇在周末或銀行假日工作會(huì)降低員工的積極性，因?yàn)樵谒麄兊念^腦中，這些日子與非工作活動(dòng)相關(guān)。

For flexibility to be genuinely useful, it requires a firm skeleton.

真正有用的靈活性，需要一個(gè)堅(jiān)實(shí)的框架。

（恭喜讀完，本篇英語詞匯量763左右）
原文出自：2023年3月25日《The Economist》Business版塊。

精讀筆記來源于：自由英語之路

本文翻譯整理: Irene

本文編輯校對(duì): Irene
僅供個(gè)人英語學(xué)習(xí)交流使用。

【補(bǔ)充資料】（來自于網(wǎng)絡(luò)）
西雅圖的《公平工作周》法案是一項(xiàng)旨在保護(hù)低收入工人的法律，它要求雇主為他們提供更穩(wěn)定、更可預(yù)測(cè)的工作時(shí)間。該法案于2016年由西雅圖市議會(huì)通過，并在同年9月生效。該法案要求雇主在每周工作安排中提前14天通知員工工作時(shí)間表，并在此期間內(nèi)不得更改員工的工作時(shí)間。如果雇主需要在14天內(nèi)更改工作時(shí)間，必須向員工支付額外的“穩(wěn)定性補(bǔ)償金”。

Peloton是一家總部位于紐約市的健身科技公司，提供在線室內(nèi)騎行、跑步、瑜伽等健身課程和設(shè)備。核心產(chǎn)品是智能室內(nèi)健身自行車和跑步機(jī)，用戶可以通過互聯(lián)網(wǎng)和公司提供的應(yīng)用程序訂閱和參加直播或錄播的健身課程，同時(shí)跟蹤自己的健身數(shù)據(jù)和進(jìn)度。

Slack是一種商務(wù)即時(shí)通訊工具，旨在幫助團(tuán)隊(duì)更加高效地溝通、協(xié)作和組織工作。主要特點(diǎn)是聊天室和頻道，允許用戶通過組織話題、頻道和討論來更好地組織和管理團(tuán)隊(duì)的溝通。

【重點(diǎn)句子】（3?個(gè)）
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.
但彈性工作因人而異。它的吸引力取決于人們所從事的職業(yè)類型，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.
對(duì)于坐辦公室的員工來說，問題不在于彈性工作時(shí)間是否吸引人，而在于哪一方的時(shí)間安排占主導(dǎo)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.
老板們需要認(rèn)真考慮要不要打擾員工的問題。員工也不能隨心所欲地選擇工作時(shí)間。但是一些思考可以避免人們成為自己最大的敵人。