近日，新西兰的一家公司在全球火了。为什么？他们给员工做了一个试验——每周工作四天制，做四休三。然后发现...
A New Zealand company ismaking headlines across the globe for a recent experiment that it conducted among its staff.(Business Insider)
据了解，这是一家名为Perpetual Guardian的提供遗嘱、信托基金服务的公司，在今年三四月份开展了为期8周的试验，让员工一周只需工作四天，休息三天（一天8小时），并且工资还按原来工作五天的发！
In March and April, the 240 employeesat Perpetual Guardian, whichdeals with wills andtrust funds,worked four-day workweeks (32 hours instead of 40) — and were paid for five.(Business Insider)
○ will这里作为名词，表示“遗嘱”(a legal document that says who you want your money and property to be given to after you die)
○ trust fund 信托基金
- ◆ -
卫报(The Guardian)对此的介绍：
Two-hundred-and-forty staffatPerpetual Guardian, a company whichmanagestrusts,wills andestate planning,trialled a four-day working week over March and April,working four, eight-hour days but getting paid for five.
○ trial作为动词，意思是“测试，试验，试用”to thoroughly test something to see if it works correctly or is effective.
举个🌰，These techniques weretrialled by teachers in 300 schools. 这些方法经过了300所学校老师的试用。
trial用作名词时，有个短语“(by/through) trial and error”意思是“反复试验，试错法”，除了“试验，试用”的意思，它还有在法庭上“审判，审理”的意思，🌰：New evidence showed he lied at thetrial. 新的证据表明他在审判时撒了谎。
- ◆ -
It saw its240-strongworkforce, in 16 offices across the country,retain full pay alongside a three-day weekend.
○ strong用于数字后，表示“人数达...”used to give the number of people in a crowd or organization.
举个🌰，The crowd was10,000 strong. 人群达10,000人。
○ 三个词 employee / staff / workforce 都是在指公司的“员工”。
- ◆ -
当该公司CEO(Andrew Barnes)宣布开始一周工作四天的尝试后，全体员工一片懵...沉默了两三秒钟、怀疑...??? 随后，现场一片欢笑hhh
At first, employees are gathered around Barnes for what must have seemed like a typicalstaff meeting — but when Barnes makes his announcement, eyes widen and you can hearmurmuring andgiggling.
○ murmur /'mɜːmə/ 作动词，意思是“小声说，低语，咕哝”
○ giggle则是“咯咯笑，傻笑”的意思。
- ◆ -
那么，试验的结果，他们发现了什么呢？
Academics studied the trial before, during and after its implementation, collecting qualitative and quantitative data.
○ qualitative 和quantitative，分别是“定性的”和“定量的”
1) qualitative: relating to the quality or standard of something rather than the quantity质量的；定性的；性质的
🌰 「定性分析/研究」a qualitative analysis/study
2) quantitative: relating to amounts rather than to the quality or standard of something (数)量的；与数量有关的；定量的
🌰 「定量分析」quantitative analysis
- ◆ -
结果在这里：
In November last year just over half (54%) of staff felt they couldeffectively balance their work and home commitments, while after the trial this number jumped to 78%.
试验前，只有54%的员工对自身的工作和生活平衡状况表示满意，而试验后，这项数据一下子提升了24%，达到78%。
Jarrod Haar, a human resources professor at Auckland University of Technology, said employees reported a 24 percent improvement in work-life balance, and came back to workenergized after their days off.
此外，员工们工作起来也更加有活力、更敬业、更努力了；压力感下降了7%，整体生活满意度提高了5%。
Staff stress levels decreased by 7 percentage points across the board as a result of the trial, whilestimulation,commitment anda sense of empowermentat workall improved significantly, with overall life satisfaction increasing by 5 percentage points.
甚至，员工更有创造力了，上班更准时了，不会迟到早退了...
最重要的是，虽然一周只工作四天，但是和五天比起来，工作表现和工作效率并没有变化，甚至会更好！
“Supervisors said staff were more creative, their attendance was better, they were on time, and they didn't leave early or take long breaks,” Mr. Haar said. “Theiractual job performancedidn't change when doing it over four days instead of five.”
卫报称这一举措为「an 'unmitigated' success」,
○ unmitigated 意思是“十足的，全然的”something that is completely bad or good.
🌰 anunmitigated disaster/failure/pleasure etc十足的灾难/失败/快乐等
- ◆ -
于是，这个CEO表示，准备跟公司董事会(The Board)商量，干脆以后永久施行四天工作制(making the change permanent)得了！
Andrew Barnes said he would take the results of the trial to the board to open up a discussion on how a four-day work week could be implementedlong-termin his company.
