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The problem: Every night, your workaholic boss is still glued to the computer when you need to leave. How to go home without looking like a slacker?
问题：每天晚上你想下班时，工作狂老板都还粘在电脑前。怎么才能下班回家又不表现得像个懒鬼？
Should you sneak out, hoping to avoid a six o'clock showdown in the hall? Guiltily apologize, promising to be on email all night? Or just walk straight toward the door in the most professional way you can?
你是怀着不会在大厅被上司撞见的侥幸心偷偷溜走呢？还是充满歉意地道歉，承诺整晚都等着收电子邮件？还是以最职业的方式直接走向大门？
Many hard-working employees have an even harder-working boss who toils late into the night. Career coaches and employees who have been there say the first priority should be conveying that you are still working hard -- and good at your job. That requires communicating clearly and frequently about your progress and results. Ideally, you want to figure out what the boss really needs and deliver it consistently enough that your hours become a non-issue.
许多辛勤工作的员工都有一个更加辛勤工作、经常加班到深夜的老板。职业咨询师和老员工称，最重要的是表现出你仍在辛勤工作──并且表现出色。这需要经常明确地汇报你的工作进度和工作业绩。最理想的做法是，弄明白上司的真正需要并持续交出满意的答卷，这样你的工作时间就不再是个问题了。
Many employees assume managers value people for working day and night, and workplace trends support that belief: Two-thirds of workers are putting in much longer hours on the job than five years ago, according to a poll of 325 employees last fall by Right Management, Milwaukee, a talent and career-management company.
许多员工认为，上司青睐没日没夜工作的人，而职场趋势也证明了这个观点：根据密尔沃基(Milwaukee)的人才与职业管理公司Right Management去年秋天对325名员工进行的一项调查，三分之二员工的工作时间多于五年前。
But before you get too hung up on work hours, check your assumptions about what the boss wants, says Cali Williams Yost, chief executive officer of Flex + Strategy Group, a Madison, N.J., training and consulting firm. Managers work long hours for a variety of reasons: It may be a personal habit or preference, or perhaps they just don't want to go home. 'People make way too many guesses about managers' expectations that are just wrong,' Ms. Yost says.
但新泽西州麦迪逊(Madison)的培训与咨询公司Flex + Strategy Group的首席执行长卡利・威廉斯・约斯特(Cali Williams Yost)说，在你过度关注工作时间之前，请确认上司真正的期望。上司加班有各种原因：可能是个人习惯或偏好，也可能只是因为他们不想回家。约斯特说：“人们对上司期望的许多猜测都是错的。”
Bosses are often taken aback by employees' focus on their schedules. Betty Enyonam Kumahor often works 14-hour days, emailing and calling contacts around the world. 'My teams started tracking how many hours they thought I slept each night, based on my email 'send' times,' says Ms. Kumahor, a regional managing director in Atlanta for ThoughtWorks, a software-development company. 'They asked me jokingly, 'Do you ever sleep?'' She assured employees she would stop sending so many late-night and early-morning emails so they didn't have to extend their hours to respond.
上司们常常惊讶于员工对他们工作时间的关注。软件开发公司ThoughtWorks的亚特兰大区域总经理贝蒂・埃约纳姆・库马霍(Betty Enyonam Kumahor)经常每天工作14小时，通过电子邮件和电话与分处世界各地的其他人保持联系。她说：“我手下的各个团队开始根据我的电子邮件‘发送’时间猜测我每晚睡多少小时。他们开玩笑地问我：‘你睡觉吗？’”她向员工保证不会再频频在深夜或凌晨发送电子邮件，这样他们就不必熬夜等着回复她了。
When managers focus on employees' work hours, they are often looking for reassurance on other fronts: that their subordinates are meeting deadlines; that they can be reached when needed, and that they aren't creating extra work for colleagues, Ms. Yost says.
约斯特说，上司关注员工的工作时间，往往是为了保证其他方面的需要：比如，下属能在最后期限前完成工作，他们可以在需要时随叫随到，他们不会给同事增加额外工作，等等。
Rich Gee's boss on a former job took him aside and criticized him for leaving the office at 5 p.m., says Mr. Gee, a Stamford, Conn., executive coach. The manager acknowledged that Mr. Gee was meeting deadlines and delivering good work; he arrived at the office at 6:30 a.m., two hours before his co-workers. The boss seemed nervous, however, that Mr. Gee wouldn't be available when needed. Mr. Gee said he could be reached 24/7 by cellphone, and pointed out that he always responded quickly to emergency requests.
康涅狄格州斯坦福德(Stamford)的高管培训师里奇・吉(Rich Gee)说，在以前的一份工作中，上司曾把他叫到一边，批评他下午五点就下班。这位上司承认，吉在最后期限前完成了工作并且表现出色，他早上6:30就到了办公室，比同事早两个小时。但是，上司似乎担心吉不能在需要时随叫随到。吉说，随时都可以打电话找到他，并指出他对紧急要求的反应一直很迅速。
He continued to leave the office at 5 p.m., but updated his boss often on his progress and results and checked in every evening before he left. In time, he says, his boss 'saw that it wasn't hours that mattered -- it was how hard I worked.'
他仍然在下午五点下班，但经常向上司汇报工作进展和工作业绩，而且每晚下班前都会知会一声。他说，他的上司终于“发现工作时间并不重要──重要的是我工作有多努力”。
One key to Mr. Gee's solution: healthy communication. Employees should sit down with their bosses and ask them to define job objectives and time lines for reaching them, says Pat Katepoo, the Kaneohe, Hawaii-based owner of WorkOptions, a consulting firm. Then 'look for natural times to communicate about your progress, when you have a staff meeting or you're walking by or writing an email,' says Ms. Katepoo.
吉的解决方案的一个关键是：健康的沟通。咨询公司WorkOptions的老板、夏威夷卡内奥赫(Kaneohe)的帕特・凯特普(Pat Katepoo)说，员工应该和上司一起坐下来，请他们明确工作目标和完成期限，然后“寻找汇报工作进展的合适时间，可以是开员工会议时，也可以是和上司碰面时或者是通过电子邮件”。
There are many ways to project a hard-working image. If a manager speaks about a project in an intense, focused way, answer with similar intensity, acknowledging its importance and repeating the deadline, says Anne Brown, an advertising executive who has written about how young employees can deal with workaholic bosses in a book, 'Grad to Great,' and on a website she co-founded, GradtoGreat. Manage time well in one-on-one meetings, moving quickly through your agenda, adds Ms. Brown, of Kansas City, Mo. And, of course, be prepared to work long hours during a crisis or busy season, or when a major project deadline is looming.
给上司留下努力工作的印象有许多方法。密苏里州堪萨斯城(Kansas City)的广告业高管安妮・布朗(Anne Brown)说，如果上司热情而专注地谈论某个项目，那么就以同样程度的热情作答，承认其重要性并重复最后期限。她在一本叫《职场成功之路》(Grad to Great)的书中以及她与别人共同创建的网站GradtoGreat上写到了年轻员工如何应对工作狂上司。布朗补充道，在一对一会议中应该掌握好时间，快速完成议程。当然，在紧要关头或旺季时节，或重大项目的最后期限临近时也应该做好加班准备。
In some cases, shifting your work hours can help. At companies where managers focus on face time, employees who work 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. -- when more people are present -- are more likely to get noticed than those who work 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Executive coach Michael Melcher was told in a previous job at an investment bank that 'I wasn't working long enough hours,' he says. 'I started coming in later and staying later,' he says. 'A couple of months later, my boss said, 'It hasn't gone unnoticed that you're putting in additional hours.' '
在某些情况下，变更工作时段也是一种方法。在上司关注员工露面时间的公司中，上午10点到晚上八点工作的员工──多数人上班的时间──比上午七点到下午五点工作的员工更容易得到注意。纽约Next Step Partners的高管培训师迈克尔・梅尔彻(Michael Melcher)说，以前在一家投资银行工作时，曾被告知“我的工作时间不够长，我开始晚到并工作到更晚。几个月后，我的上司说：‘我注意到你的工作时间变长了。’”
Faking a presence at the office, however, doesn't work. Throwing your coat over your chair as if you just stepped away, then leaving for the day, is likely to backfire, Ms. Yost says. Colleagues will 'think you're there and run around like crazy people trying to find you.'
不过，伪造在上班的假象是行不通的。约斯特说，将外套扔在椅子上，好像你在上班、只不过离开一小会儿，其效果只会事与愿违。同事们可能会“认为你在，并疯了样地到处找你”。
Another nonstarter, says Mr. Melcher, an executive coach with Next Step Partners, New York, is 'being a whiny complainer, with a lot of exasperated sighs, saying you're working your fingers to the bone. Nobody wants to hear that.'
梅尔彻说，另一个不可取的做法是“爱发牢骚，总是唉声叹气，说你已经忙得四脚朝天了。没人想听这种话”。
In some professions, working long hours is unavoidable. Certain firms' cultures breed intense competition and long hours among new hires, says Julie Cohen, a Philadelphia career and personal coach. Others have unwritten cultural rules, such as, 'Nobody leaves the office before the boss leaves,' she says. It is wise to prove yourself on the job for at least six months and ask a mentor for advice before exploring shorter hours, Ms. Cohen says. 'You might be stepping into a minefield if you don't understand the ins and outs of the organization.'
在某些行业，加班是不可避免的。费城职业与私人培训师朱莉・科恩(Julie Cohen)说，某些公司的文化鼓励新人激烈竞争和加班。还有些公司有不成文的企业文化，例如“上司下班前大家都不能下班”。科恩说，明智的做法是，至少在六个月中证明自己胜任这份工作，并在希望缩短工作时间之前征求导师的建议。“如果你不了解公司的规则，可能会踏入雷区。”
To get the most out of a negotiation about hours, Mr. Melcher says, think in advance about the boss's needs, and bring specifics documenting your own performance. Start on a positive note, talking about what's going well. Ask what the boss expects of employees when it comes to work hours and responding to email. To propose solutions, Mr. Melcher recommends the 'yes . . . and' technique: Affirm the boss's point, and then state your own. For example: 'Yes, I want you to be able to rely on me after hours. And since I have young twins, it is important to me to be home between 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. and spend that time with family. I could respond to you between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. How does that sound?'
梅尔彻说，为了在关于工作时间的协商中争取最有利的结果，不妨提前考虑上司的需要，并提供证明自己工作业绩的详细资料。你可以从一张措辞积极、谈论进展顺利工作的字条开始。也可以询问上司对员工工作时间和回复邮件时间的期望。梅尔彻推荐的解决方法是“是的……然后”技巧：肯定上司的观点，然后阐述你自己的观点。例如：“是的，我希望您在下班后也能找到我。然后我有两个双胞胎小孩，下午5:30到晚上8:00这段时间在家与家人度过对我来说很重要。我可以在晚上9:00到11:00处理工作。这样如何？”
Such conversations can open a dialogue -- or expose a brick wall. When project manager Ashanti Stanford raised the issue with a boss at a previous job, the manager rolled her eyes and sighed. 'The expectation was, 'I have to work these hours, so why are you complaining?'' Ms. Stanford says. She has since moved on to a job with better hours.
这样的谈话可以开启意见交换──也可能会碰壁。项目经理阿珊提・斯坦福(Ashanti Stanford)说，她在以前的一份工作中跟上司提出这个问题时，那位上司转转眼珠，叹了口气，说道：“我的想法是，‘既然我得在这些时间加班，你还抱怨什么呢？’”在那之后，斯坦福换了个上班时间更合适的工作。
