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Business
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Bartleby
巴托比职场专栏
Working hard for the money
努力赚钱
A new study questions the effectiveness of remote working
一项新的研究质疑远程工作的有效性
The return to the office is well under way, just as summer in the northern hemisphere begins. Pretty soon, people will be able to resume the habit of staring wistfully out of the window, hoping it will still be sunny at the weekend. As many workers embrace a hybrid pattern, perhaps commuting 2-3 days a week, the experiment in full-time home-working is ending. At the same time, assessments of its effectiveness are proliferating.
就在北半球入夏之际，重返办公室的工作正如火如荼。人们很快就可以恢复往日的习惯，一边渴望地盯着窗外，一边盼望着周末还是阳光明媚。许多打工人如今已然接受了混合型工作模式，他们也许每周只通勤2到3天，但全职在家办公的实验即将结束。与此同时，越来越多的人开始评估远程工作的有效性。
Early surveys of employees and employers found that remote work did not reduce productivity. But a new study of more than 10,000 employees at an Asian technology company between April 2019 and August 2020 paints a different picture. The firm uses software installed on employees’ computers that tracked which applications or websites were active, and whether the employee was using the keyboard or a mouse. (Shopping online didn’t count.)
早期对雇员和雇主的调查发现，远程工作并没有降低生产率。但一项针对一家亚洲科技公司在2019年4月至2020年8月期间超过1万名员工的新研究得出了不同的结论。该公司通过员工电脑上的安装软件，追踪调查哪些应用程序或网页处于活跃状态，以及员工是否在使用键盘或鼠标(不包括网上购物。）
The research certainly concluded that the employees were working hard. Total hours worked were 30% higher than before the pandemic, including an 18% increase in working outside normal hours. But this extra effort did not translate into any rise in output. This may explain the earlier survey evidence; both employers and employees felt they were producing as much as before. But the correct way to measure productivity is output per working hour. With all that extra time on the job, this fell by 20%.
这项研究当然也得出了雇员们工作努力的结论。他们的总工作时间比新冠疫情前增加了30%，其中正常工作时间以外的工作时间增加了18%。但这一额外努力并没有转化为产出的任何增长。这可以解释早期的调查结果；雇主和雇员都觉得他们的生产力和以前一样多。但衡量生产力的正确方式是计算每工作小时的产出。加上所有的额外工作时间，每工作小时的产出实际下降了20%。
The interesting thing is why this happened. The academics were able to analyse how much time the employees spent in “collaboration hours”, defined as various types of meetings, and how much time they had as “focus hours”, uninterrupted by calls or emails, where they could concentrate on their tasks. Despite working longer hours, the employees had less focus time than before the pandemic. Instead, all their extra time was taken up by meetings. Long-time readers may recall Bartleby’s law: 80% of the time of 80% of the people in meetings is wasted. This study certainly offers evidence for the proposition.
造成这种现象的原因非常有趣。学者们能够分析员工在“协作时间”（定义为各种类型的会议）上花费了多少时间，以及他们在“专注时间”（员工们不受电话或电子邮件的干扰，可以集中精力完成任务）上花费了多少时间。尽管工作时间更长，但员工们注意力集中的时长比新冠疫情前要少。相反，他们所有的额外时间都被大大小小的会议占用了。长期读者可能会想起巴托比定律：80%的人在开会上浪费了80%的时间。这项研究无疑为巴托比命题提供了佐证。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
