评论
打印
Silver linings: The small consolations of office irritations
一线光亮：办公室烦心事的小小安慰
Even people who love their jobs have a few gripes. Even people who excel at their work have their share of worries. The office environment makes it hard to concentrate; their colleagues are annoying beyond belief; their career path within the organisation is not obvious.
即使是热爱工作的人也会有几句怨言。即使是工作表现出色的人也有自己的烦忧。办公室环境让人很难集中注意力，同事们难以置信地令人讨厌，自己在组织内的职业道路并不清晰。
There are aspects of the workplace, like “reply all” email threads and any kind of role-playing, which are completely beyond redemption. This column is here to administer the balm of consolation for some of work’s recurring irritations.
工作中的某些方面，比如“回复全部”的一连串往来邮件和任何类型的角色扮演，都是没有办法补救的。但对于工作中反复出现的一些烦心事，本专栏倒是可以提供一些慰藉的灵药。
Start with a pervasive problem: being interrupted.
首先是一个普遍存在的问题：被打断。
You have muted notifications on Slack and cleared your calendar; the Prelude from Bach’s Cello Suite No 1 is playing; your fingers are poised above the keyboard and a thought of world-altering profundity is gradually taking shape in your mind.
你将Slack上的通知静音，做完了日历上的待办事项，巴赫第一号大提琴组曲的前奏正在播放，你的手指悬于键盘上方，一个足以改变世界的深刻想法正在你的脑海中逐渐成形。
Then there is a knock at the door, and a colleague asks if you have a minute to discuss the air-conditioning. By the time they have gone, so has that momentous thought and any sense of well-being.
然后有人敲门，一位同事问你是否有时间讨论一下空调的问题。等他们离开了，那个重要想法和任何幸福感也都消失了。
Context-switching of this sort is more than simply annoying. A survey conducted in 2021 found that it takes people nine and a half minutes to resume a focused state of mind after switching between apps.
这种环境切换不仅仅是令人讨厌。2021年进行的一项调查发现，在不同应用之间切换后，人们需要九分半钟才能恢复专注的精神状态。
But there is a bright side to being interrupted. A paper by Harshad Puranik of the University of Illinois Chicago and his co-authors asked a sample of employees in America to record how often they were distracted by colleagues and to report their sense of belonging to their organisations.
但被打断也有积极的一面。伊利诺伊芝加哥大学的哈沙德·普拉尼克和其合著者发表了一篇论文，让被抽样的一些美国员工记录他们因同事而分心的频率，并报告他们在组织的归属感。
They found that being interrupted involves a social interaction with colleagues that can strengthen a worker’s feelings of connection.
他们发现，被打断涉及与同事之间的社交互动，这可以加强员工的与人连接之感。
The next time a knock comes, remind yourself that at least you are not lonely.
下次有人敲门时，提醒自己至少你并不孤独。
What about some of the characters who make office life so teeth-grinding? Every company has its share of toadies who specialise in managing up: flattering the bosses and claiming more credit than is their due.
对于那些让你在办公室生活中咬牙切齿的角色，又该怎么办呢？每家公司都有专会向上管理的马屁精：奉承老板，把多于他们应得的功劳揽在自己身上。
Unctuousness is undoubtedly irritating. But it, too, can sometimes have wider benefits.
谄媚油滑无疑令人恼火，但有时也可能有更大的好处。
