今日导读

“摸鱼”，指的是在上班的时候偷偷摸摸干和工作无关的事情。有时“摸鱼”是死线就在眼前，依然不知悔改地走神；有时“摸鱼”是无所事事，毫无灵魂坐等下班的“坦然”。时至今日，上班“摸鱼”更是被上班族赋予了越来越多理所应当的正面意义。作为员工，我们为何越来越喜欢上班“摸鱼”了？作为管理者，又应该如何理解员工上班“摸鱼”的行为？让我们一起来看一下《经济学人》的这篇文章。

新闻原文

The joy of absence

 The Economist

Studies suggest that, after 50 hours a week, employee productivity falls sharply.

But that doesn’t stop some managers from demanding that workers stay chained to their desk for long periods. Presenteeism is the curse of the modern office worker.

There will be days when you do not have much to do; perhaps because you are waiting for someone else in a different department, or a different company, to respond to a request. But you can see your boss hard at work and, more important, they can see you. So you make an effort to look busy.

Some of this may be a self-perpetuating cycle. If bosses do not like to go home before their underlings, and underlings fear leaving before their bosses, everyone is trapped.

The consequence is often wasted effort. Rather than work hard, you toil to make bosses think that you are. Leaving a jacket on your office chair, walking around purposefully with a notebook or clipboard and sending out emails at odd hours are three of the best known tricks. After a while this can result in collective self-delusion that this pretence is actual work.

But presenteeism has more serious consequences. It is perhaps most prevalent in Japan, where people attend the office even when they are in discomfort. In doing so, they are doing neither themselves, nor their employers, any favours.

Turning an office into a prison, with inmates allowed home for the evenings, does nothing for the creativity that is increasingly demanded of office workers as routine tasks are automated. To be productive you need presence of mind, not being present in the flesh.

带着问题听讲解

如何理解“Presenteeism is the curse of the modern office worker.”这句话？

短语“in the flesh”是什么意思？

如何科学地提高工作效率？

新闻正文

The joy of absence

上班摸鱼（开小差）的乐趣

Studies suggest that, after 50 hours a week, employee productivity falls sharply.

研究表明，在一周工作 50 小时后，员工工作效率会急剧下降。

But that doesn’t stop some managers from demanding that workers stay chained to their desk for long periods. Presenteeism is the curse of the modern office worker.

但这并未阻止一些管理人员要求员工们长时间牢牢坐在他们的位置上。出勤主义可谓现代上班族的祸患之源。

There will be days when you do not have much to do; perhaps because you are waiting for someone else in a different department, or a different company, to respond to a request. But you can see your boss hard at work and, more important, they can see you. So you make an effort to look busy.

总有些时候你并没有许多事情要做，也许是因为你正在等待某个其他部门或其他公司的人来对某项请求作出回复。可你能看到你的老板在努力工作，而且，更重要的是，他们也能看到你。于是你努力让自己显得忙碌。

Some of this may be a self-perpetuating cycle. If bosses do not like to go home before their underlings, and underlings fear leaving before their bosses, everyone is trapped.

有时这种努力可能会带来一个永无休止的循环。如若老板们不喜欢比下属早回家，下属们也不敢先老板一步离开，那么每个人都被困在那儿了。

The consequence is often wasted effort. Rather than work hard, you toil to make bosses think that you are. Leaving a jacket on your office chair, walking around purposefully with a notebook or clipboard and sending out emails at odd hours are three of the best known tricks. After a while this can result in collective self-delusion that this pretence is actual work.

其后果通常是无用功。你千辛万苦地让老板们认为你在努力工作，而非真正地努力工作。在椅背上留下一件夹克，煞有介事地拿着笔记本或者写字板四处奔走，以及在非工作时间发送邮件，这是三个最有名的伎俩了。长此以往，它就会导致集体性的自我错觉，认为这种伪装就是真正的工作。

But presenteeism has more serious consequences. It is perhaps most prevalent in Japan, where people attend the office even when they are in discomfort. In doing so, they are doing neither themselves, nor their employers, any favours.

然而出勤主义还会导致更严重的后果。这种情况在日本也许最为普遍，在那里员工们甚至在自己不舒服的情况下还照常上班。而他们这样做，既对自己无益，又没给雇主带来什么好处。

Turning an office into a prison, with inmates allowed home for the evenings, does nothing for the creativity that is increasingly demanded of office workers as routine tasks are automated. To be productive you need presence of mind, not being present in the flesh.

把办公室变成监狱，在晚上放“犯人”回家，对创造力毫无益处，而由于现在的常规工作高度自动化，创造力对于办公室员工来说变得越来越不可或缺。想要高效办公，你需要保持思想在线，而非肉体出勤。

重点词汇

productivity
/ˌprɑːdʌkˈtɪvəti/
n. 工作效率，生产率
词性拓展：productive（adj. 富有生产力的）
例句：His productivity is the highest.
productive 例句：He is the most productiveemployee.

chain
/tʃeɪn/
v. 用链子捆住，把…栓起来
例句：I chained my bike to the railings.
搭配短语：A stays chained to B
搭配短语：A is chained to B

presenteeism
/ˌpreznˈtiːɪzəm/
n. 全勤主义（指为讨好老板不请病假、不休假的行为）
相关词汇：present（adj. 在场的，出席的）
词根词缀：-ism（主义）
文化补充：At work but out of it.

curse
/kɜːrs/
n. 祸因，祸根
英文释义：a cause of harm and misery
例句：Noise is the curse of modern city life.

self-perpetuating
/ˌself pərˈpetʃueɪtɪŋ/
adj. 自我持续的
相关词汇：self（自己本身）；perpetuate（使某事延续、延长）
例句：Revenge leads to a self-perpetuatingcycle of violence.

underling
/ˈʌndərlɪŋ/
n. 下属，部下
词根词缀：-ling（小）

toil
/tɔɪl/
v. 辛勤劳动
搭配短语：toil away（忙个不停）

self-delusion
/ˌself dɪˈluːʒn/
n. 自我错觉，自欺欺人
相关词汇：self（自我）；delusion（欺骗）

prevalent
/ˈprevələnt/
adj. 普遍的；盛行的
词义辨析
prevalent, popular
prevalent 通常不拿来修饰人。
例句：The disease is prevalent.（某种疾病传播性很强）
搭配短语：the social ills prevalent in society today（社会上的不良风气很普遍）

inmate
/ˈɪnmeɪt/
n.（机构）入住者, 居住者（如监狱犯人）
例句：He is a former prison inmate.

automate
/ˈɔːtəmeɪt/
v. 使自动化
搭配短语：a fully automated process（全自动化流程）

in the flesh
以肉体形式；本人，亲自

拓展阅读

刘慈欣的上班“摸鱼”

刘慈欣近几年凭借《三体》和《流浪地球》一跃成为国内最知名的科幻小说家。可你知道吗？他的小说，很大一部分都是在上班“摸鱼”时写出的，其中就包括了《流浪地球》和《三体》的前两部。

当时，刘慈欣在电力系统上班，职位比较清闲，他便利用起了上班的时间来写作。他甚至说道：“在岗位上写作，有一种占便宜的感觉。”他还分享了“摸鱼”的套路，表示特别喜欢那种质量很差的液晶屏，因为这样只要稍微转个角度，别人就完全看不见你在屏幕上打什么字了。

当然，刘慈欣也说了，因为工作内容的特殊性，他才能这样写作。他当时负责的是处理系统运行中出现的故障，也就是说当系统运行正常时，他其实只能在那里干坐着。于是他就用这些空闲的时间开始写作。刘慈欣还在采访中强调了，他并没有耽误本职工作。

什么时间段的工作效率最高？

著名项目管理软件 Redbooth 与数据分析公司 Priceonomics 合作研究了 180 万个项目和其中产生的 2800 万个任务之后，发现了 4 条规律：

1、一天之中，我们的工作效率会在上午 11 点左右达到峰值，午饭之后工作效率开始缓慢下降，而到了下午 4 点之后，工作效率会呈现出跳水式的下降。

2、每周周一，我们的工作效率是最高的，之后每日完成的工作量逐日递减，到了周五的时候会达到最低点，平均只能完成每周工作总量的 16.7%。

3、从月份上来看，9、10、11 月都是效率很高的月份，其中，10 月份能完成全年总任务的 9.5%，是效率最高的月份；而寒冷的 1 月，仅能完成 7.2%的工作量，是全年效率最差的月份。

4、从季节上来看，气候舒适的秋季是工作效率最高的季节，而寒冬则是效率最低的季节，不过这也和冬季的假期最多有关。