cuyoo-working.doc

为什么要拼命工作？摘要: What do the Bushmen of the Kalahari have in common with John Maynard Keynes? In a visionary essay entitled “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren” (1930), Keynes made two prophecies: first, t .What do the Bushmen of the Kalahari have in common with John Maynard Keynes? In a visionary essay entitled “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren” (1930), Keynes made two prophecies: first, that the Great Depression would prove to be “only a temporary period of adjustment” and that prosperity would increase for the next two generations and more. On this his prediction that living standards “one hundred years hence will be between four and eight times as high” was correct; we are five times better off than our grandparents or great-grandparents were in 1930 and our children may be eight times better off than them by 2030.His second prediction was that by the early 21st century the working week would have been cut to 15 hours. Here he was dead wrong. The number of hours worked in both the US and Europe has remained pretty steady for decades, at more than 40 hours a week, with Americans working much harder than Europeans. But the 15-hour working week is not a pure pipe dream; for millennia, until the possibilities for their hunter-gatherer lifestyle were taken away, the San (Bushmen) people of southern Africa thrived, with a good diet (2,500 calories a day), on little work (two to three hours a day) and much play.This provocative comparison was made by the anthropologist Dr James Suzman in a recent lecture for Protimos, a charitable organisation committed to providing legal assistance to marginalised communities in the developing world. The traditional lifestyle of the San, he argued, represented a kind of “primitive affluence”. Our narratives of progress, starting with Hobbess lines about life in the state of nature being “nasty, brutish and short”, have assumed a steady improvement in the human lot as hunter-gathering, under threat from sabre-toothed tigers, has given way to farming and then industry (under threat from sabre-toothed bosses).For some time now anthropologists and others have cast doubt on this over-simple story. Farming did not immediately bring improvements in health and longevity. Indeed, in 1987 the geographer Jared Diamond wrote an article outlining why agriculture was the “Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race”. With it came “the gross social and sexual inequality, the disease and despotism, that curse our existence”. Skeletons uncovered in Greece and Turkey show that the average height for men dropped from 5ft 9in at the end of the last Ice Age to 5ft 3in in 3000BC, after the invention of agriculture.So the myths of a golden age were not just nostalgic fantasy. Unfortunately, the San do not live in a golden age. Their condition is, in Suzmans words, “truly grim”; they have been enveloped as governments and other entities have acquired ownership of what was once their land, turned into indentured serfs and ravaged by ill health and alcoholism. The lecture, introduced by Lord Justice Laws, had the ulterior purpose of raising funds for a legal centre dedicated to protecting the Sans intellectual property rights, which are in effect their only assets.Helping to protect the San certainly seems a worthy cause: perhaps the most amazing moment in the evening was some footage from the BBCs Life of Mammals showing the hunting of a kudu by a lone San hunter. The coup degrace seemed to have a kind of grace, as an act of love as well as killing.The lecture got me thinking as it was designed to not just about the San but about matters closer to home; that is, about supposedly advanced societies in the early 21st century. Why are we all so addicted to work? Why do we assume that working harder and harder is an unquestionable virtue?This tendency reached its apogee in the recent Tory party conference in the UK with its motto “for hardworking people” (though I liked the Private Eye cover with a speech-bubble coming out of David Camerons mouth saying, “I thought of the slogan while I was on holiday” Cameron being famed for his skill at chillaxing). For “hardworking” you might read “desperately overworked”. Madeleine Buntings disturbing 2004 book Willing Slaves revealed an epidemic of work-related stress and depression among British white-collar workers. One correspondent described the effects of “work overload” as “poor sleep quality, an inability to engage in evening conversation, a Fuck it attitude to bills, shopping, parent phoning, friend phoning, eating and sex.” But the addiction to work goes deeper than the very real external compulsion as workforces are squeezed. There is also, as Bunting recognises, a voluntary aspect to the plague of overwork; people associate work with status and money, though if they work all the time when will they have time to enjoy it?At the Geneva Congress in 1866, the International Association of Working Men set down its demand for an eight-hour day: “We require eight hours work, eight hours for our own instruction and eight hours for repose.” Cultivating ourselves and caring for others is also a kind of work.喀拉哈里沙漠(Kalahari)的布希曼人(Bushmen)与经济学家约翰?梅纳德?凯恩斯(John Maynard Keynes)有何共通之处？在1930年发表的前瞻性文章我们后代的经济前景(Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren)中，凯恩斯作了两大预测：第一是大萧条最终“只是短暂的调整期”，以及孙子辈（甚至更多代）的人将更加富足。他基于此所作的“一百年后（2030年）英国的人均收入将再要提高四至八倍”的预测准确无误；我们比1930年祖父辈及高祖辈的收入增加了五倍，到2030年，我们下一代的收入将是他们的8倍。凯恩斯所作的第二个预测是：到21世纪初，每周工作时间将缩减至15小时。这一点他大错特错。美国与欧洲的周工作时间几十年依然雷打不动超过40小时，美国人比欧洲人工作时间还要长。但每周工作15小时并非白日做梦；几千年来，居住在南部非洲的桑人（San People，即布希曼人）生活得颐然自得，他们吃得好（每天2500大卡热量）、干得少（每天只有2、3个小时）、玩得high，除非他们这种狩猎采摘的生活方式有朝一日被取而代之。这种比较容易引发争论，它是人类学家詹姆士?苏兹曼博士(Dr James Suzman)在为Protimos在最近的讲座中所提及的，Protimos是一家慈善机构，致力于为发展中国家生活边缘化的团体提供法律援助。苏兹曼博士说，桑人传统的生活方式代表了某种“原始富足”。我们对社会进步的叙述始于霍布斯(Hobbes)的著作，他称自然状态下的生活“卑污、残忍而又短寿”。随着狩猎采摘的原始生活方式（此时威胁来自凶恶的猛虎）渐趋让位于农耕文明以及随后的工业文明（此时威胁来自凶神恶煞的老板），我们自认为人类的命运大为改观了。长期以来，人类学家以及其他学者都对这个过于简单的阐述持怀疑态度。农耕文明不会顷刻之间让人类实现健康长寿。勿庸置疑，1987年，地理学家戴蒙德(Jared Diamond)撰写了一篇文章，概述了为何农业是“人类有史以来所犯的最大错误”。随之而来的就是“社会及性别总体不平等、疾病以及专制，它们如影随形、挥之不去。”希腊以及土耳其所发掘的骨骼遗骸表明：人类的平均身高从最后一次冰川末期的5.9英尺降至公元前3000年（农业发明之后）时的5.3英尺。”因此黄金时代的种种神奇故事并非只是怀旧版的白日做梦。不幸的是，如今的桑人并非生活在黄金时代。按照苏兹曼的说法，桑人的生活境况“确实糟糕”；随着政府以及其它机构获得了原先属于他们的土地所有权后，他们穷途末路，沦落为契约奴，深受每况愈下的健康及酗酒问题摧残。劳斯大法官(Lord Justice Laws)发起的讲座，蕴含着高远的目标：即为保护桑人的知识产权而设立的法律中心筹措资金，这些知识产权实际上是桑人仅存的资产。帮助保护桑人当属正义事业：当晚的讲座活动中，也许最为诧异的时刻当属播放BBC纪录片哺乳类全传(BBCs Life of Mammals)，它放映了一位孤独的桑族猎手如何捕猎非洲大羚羊的场景。猎手致命一击的动作似乎带着某种优雅怜爱之情与捕杀之意兼而有之。这个讲座不仅让我对桑人的生存境况、而且对攸关自身家国的各种大事、即21世纪初的所谓先进社会深思（这也是发起者的本意）。我们为何如此沉溺于工作？为何觉得忘我工作是无可非议的美德？在英国保守党(Tory)最近举行的年会上，此种倾向性达到了登峰造极的地步，年会推出的信条就是“为忘我工作者服务”（尽管我很喜欢Private Eye杂志封面刊登的卡梅伦首相(David Cameron)嘴巴喋喋不休讲话的漫画：“我是在度假时想出的这个口号，”卡梅伦以危机关头沉着冷静而著称）。所谓“忘我工作”，或许就可理解成“超负荷工作”。玛德琳?布廷(Madeleine Bunting)2004年引发争议的著作心甘情愿的奴隶(Willing Slaves)揭露了英国白领阶层中弥漫着因工作而产生的紧张及低落情绪。某记者把“超负荷工作”的影响形容为“睡眠质量差、晚上无法倾心交谈，对待账单、购物、亲朋好友来电、用餐以及性爱都持极不耐烦的态度。但随着就业大军不断缩减，沉溺于工作变本加厉、难以自拔。布廷也承认：深陷难以自拔的超负荷工作状态，也不乏心甘情愿的意味；大家都把工作与身份与收入相提并论，尽管他们真地全身心投入工作后，何来时间去放松享受？在1866年的日内瓦代表大会(Geneva Congress)上，国际工人协会(International Association of Working Men)要求确立8小时制度：“8小时工作，8小时自己支配，8小时休息。”要知道，培养自己兴趣、关心他人也属工作范畴。不妨把工作烦恼带回家 It can help to bring work stress home摘要: Googles Larry Page recently suggested abandoning the 40-hour week altogether, kicking off another round of the work-life balance debate. But even if you do put in your eight hours a day without chec .It can help to bring work stress homeGoogles Larry Page recently suggested abandoning the 40-hour week altogether, kicking off another round of the work-life balance debate. But even if you do put in your eight hours a day without checking your smartphone over dinner and taking calls in the evening, work can still prey on your mind and eat into personal time.谷歌(Google)的拉里?佩奇(Larry Page)最近建议干脆放弃40小时工作制，从而掀起了新一轮有关平衡工作与生活的辩论。但就算你每天勤勤恳恳工作8个小时，不在晚餐时查手机，不在晚上接电话，工作仍然会萦绕在你心头，侵占你的私人时间。So, can you leave workplace worries at the office door and is it desirable to do so?那么，能否将工作中的烦恼留在办公室里？这样做又是否有益？Fergus OConnell, author of The Power of Doing Less says that if you are good at compartmentalising, it is possible to keep office anxiety out of home life. He suggests using your commute to decompress, think through your problems and get a sense of proportion. “You unwind, you realise youve built these things up to be bigger than they are and pretty soon you realise that all your worries are first world worries.”少做的力量(The Power of Doing Less)一书作者弗格斯?奥康奈尔(Fergus OConnell)表示，如果你善于把生活的不同部分划分得清清楚楚，便有可能将工作中的焦虑锁在家门外。他建议利用通勤时间为自己减压，把自己遇到的问题想清楚，分清事情的轻重缓急。“放松下来，你就会意识到，事情其实没有你想象的那么严重然后你很快就会发现，你的一切烦恼都不过是幸福的烦恼。”You could also provide yourself with a “buffer” activity after work. The classic is going to the gym (or running or cycling home) and using exercise to work through stress, but other options include having a drink with friends or colleagues. The latter can work particularly well as a bar gives everyone a chance to speak more freely than at work.你还可以在工作后进行“缓冲”活动。通常的做法是去健身房（也可以跑步或骑车回家），通过锻炼来化解压力。也可以选择与朋友或同事喝上一杯。后者可能尤其管用，因为比起在办公室里，酒吧可以让人更加畅所欲言。A final possibility is a trusted confidant at the office. However, the competitive and insecure nature of modern work means that people can be uncomfortable sharing with their peers. Think of the stereotypical boss who will discuss his deepest worries only with his PA.最后一个选择是向交好的同事倾诉。然而，如今的工作竞争激烈且不稳定，意味着人们可能不太情愿与同事分享秘密。想想大多数老板是怎么做的就知道了他们只会与私人助理探讨自己最担心的问题。While there are plenty of coping strategies, Sir Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University, says that some anxiety-creep is inevitable: “If you work in a professional role, it is very hard to leave all your worries at work.” However, he adds, this may not be a bad thing. In the majority of professional couples both partners work, so sharing work concerns can be a kind of reciprocal support arrangement.虽然有不少方法可应对工作烦恼，但兰卡斯特大学(Lancaster University)组织心理与健康学教授卡里?库珀爵士(Sir Cary Cooper)表示，焦虑感缠身是难以避免的：“身处职场，很难将工作中所有的烦恼全部抛诸脑后。”但他补充道，这可能并非坏事。夫妻都是专业人士的情况下，夫妻双方大多都工作，因此分享工作中的烦心事或许能成为夫妻相互支持的一种方式。In fact discussing your worries and confiding in each other can be cathartic for both of you and help forge stronger bonds. Moreover, your partner will bring their knowledge of work to your situation and may be able to offer fresh insights to your problems.事实上，讨论自己的烦恼，向彼此吐露心事，对夫妻双方都能起到很好的心理疏导作用，也有助于巩固夫妻关系。此外，你的伴侣会将自己对工作的见解应用于你的情况，或许还能为你带来解决问题的新思路。You should ensure you pick the right time, though. “Dont do it when youre putting the kids to bed or just before you go to bed,” advises Prof Cooper. “Do it when you are both in a state to talk and listen.”但要保证选对谈话时机。“不要在哄孩子睡觉或是在即将睡觉之前说这些，”库珀教授建议，“要在你们俩的状态都适合谈话和倾听时提起这个话题。”You should also take care not to moan all the time or to let it get too one-sided. It is fine to gripe one evening, but the next day, try to come home with something positive to say. You do not want your partner to associate your arrival with endless carping.还应当注意，不要老是抱怨，也不要让一方老是倾听。抱怨一个晚上没什么问题，但第二天回家时，应努力找些积极的东西说。你肯定不希望让伴侣觉得，只要你一回家，无休无止的抱怨就会开始。Mr OConnell says: “Many people take their partners for granted but you dont have the right to endlessly complain to them.” In fact, he suggests: “You might say, Ive had a really tough day. Do you mind if I moan about it?”欧康奈尔表示：“许多人想当然地认为自己可以无休无止地向伴侣抱怨，但其实你无权这么做。”他的建议是：“你可以说，我这一天过得糟透了。你介不介意我抱怨一下？”墨西哥电信大亨提倡一周三天工作制 Carlos Slim calls for a three-day working week摘要: Weve got it all wrong, says Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecoms tycoon and worlds second-richest man: we should be working only three days a week.Attending a business conference in Paraguay, Mr Slim .Carlos Slim calls for a three-day working weekWeve got it all wrong, says Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecoms tycoon and worlds second-richest man: we should be working only three days a week.墨西哥电信业大亨、全球第二大富豪卡洛斯?斯利姆(Carlos Slim)表示：我们都错了，我们一周应该只工作三天。Attending a business conference in Paraguay, Mr Slim said it was time for a “radical overhaul” of peoples working lives. Instead of being able to retire at 50 or 60, he says, we should work until we are older but take more time off as we do so.在巴拉圭参加一次商业会议时，斯利姆表示，是时候“彻底返修”一下人们的职业生活大厦了，我们不应在50或60岁退休，而应工作至年纪更大一些同时延长休息时间。“People are going to have to work for more years, until they are 70 or 75, and just work three days a week perhaps 11 hours a day,” he told the conference, according to P news agency.根据新闻机构P的报道，他在大会上说：“人们将不得不工作更多年头直到70或75岁。同时每周只工作三天 ，每天也许是11个小时。“With three work days a week, we would have more time to relax; for quality of life. Having four days off would be very important to generate new entertainment activities and other ways of being occupied.”“如果一周只有三个工作日，我们就会有更多休息时间来提高生活品质。对于创造新的娱乐活动以及消磨时间的新方法来说，每周休息四天或许非常重要。”The 74-year-old self-made magnate believes that such a move would generate a healthier and more productive labour force, while tackling financial challenges linked to longevity.这位白手起家的74岁富豪相信，此举将会催生更健康、生产效率更高的劳动力，同时还能应对与长寿现象相伴随的财务挑战。He is putting his money where his mouth is. In his Telmex fixed-line phone company in Mexico, where workers on a collective labour contract who joined the company in their late teens are eligible to retire before they are 50, he has instituted a voluntary scheme allowing such workers to keep working, on full pay, but for only four days a week.目前，他正在动用资金践行他所说的话。在他位于墨西哥的固定电话公司Telmex中，那些在早在19岁之前加入公司、与公司签订了集体用工合同的人可以在50岁之前退休。他还设立了一个自愿项目，该项目令以上员工能够以每周只需工作四天的方式全薪工作。Mr Slim stunned the Mexican business world this month with plans to break up his Amrica Mvil empire, selling about a fifth of its assets, in order to avoid regulatory sanctions. His companies dominate 80 per cent of the fixed-line and 70 per cent of the mobile markets in Mexico above a new 50 per cent threshold.他深深怀有的另一个信念是：人们对于教育也应该加以反思。他在乌拉圭的会议上表示，教育“不应该是无聊的，而应该是有趣的”，应该教会人们“推理而不是记忆；应该是一种训练而不是驯养”。除此以外，他还提倡开展更多职业培训。The magnate is a keen strategist and philanthropist, who has often said what he likes to do best is to think. He has cultivated interests outside the corporate world: his passion for Rodin sculpture and art collecting is evident in the Soumaya museum in Mexico City dedicated to his late wife.同时，现年74岁的他似乎也毫无退休计划。Another of his deep-held beliefs is that education should be rethought. He told the conference in Paraguay that it should “not be boring, but should be fun” and should teach people “not to memorise but to reason; not to domesticate but to train”. He also called for more vocational training.Mr Slim, meanwhile, appears to have no plans to retire.“Look at who he respects: the Mexican banker Manuel Espinosa Yglesias was something of a mentor, and he was still working in his late 80s,” said Andrew Paxman, a British historian who is writing a book about Mr Slim.每周工作三天是个好主意 Why Slims three-day week is a great idea摘要: Carlos Slims proposal that we work a three-day week sounds crazy. But many, in 1922, thought Henry Ford crazy when he announced that his staff would work a five-day week.Our working week seems norma .Why Slims three-day week is a great idea Carlos Slims proposal that we work a three-day week sounds crazy. But many, in 1922, thought Henry Ford crazy when he announced that his staff would work a five-day week.卡洛斯?斯利姆(Carlos Slim)建议，我们应该每周工作3天。这听上去有些疯狂。但1922年，当亨利?福特(Henry Ford)宣布他的员工将每周工作5天时，很多人也以为他疯了。Our working week seems normal to us because it is what we have always known and what everyone else does. In much, but not all, of the world, Saturdays and Sundays are days off. But if you are old enough, you can remember when it was normal for people to work on Saturday mornings too.对我们而言，我们的工作周似乎再正常不过了，因为我们一直知道这样的工作制度，而且其他所有人也都知道。在这个世界的很多地方（而非所有地方），周六和周日是休息日。但如果你的岁数足够大的话，你可能还记得周六早晨上班曾经也是一件很正常的事情。So could Mr Slim, the Mexican telecoms boss and the worlds second- richest man, be heralding a change in working life to match Fords?那么，这位墨西哥电信业大亨、全球第二大富豪是否将与福特一样，开启职场生活的大变革？He certainly could be for those he was most concerned about when he made his three-day-week statement at a business conference in Paraguay: the workers who are not ready to retire.对于那些他最担心的人不愿意退休的员工而言，他的建议肯定可以与福特改革相比。斯利姆关于每周工作3天的声明是在巴拉圭的一次商业会议上发表的。As Mr Slim said, it no longer makes sense for people to stop working in their fifties or sixties when they may still have up to a third of their lives ahead of them.正如斯利姆所言，人们在五、六十岁退休是不明智的，他们未来可能还有三分之一的寿命。“People are going to have to work for more years, until they are 70 or 75, and just work three days a week perhaps 11 hours a day,” he said.他表示：“人们有必要工作更多年头直到70或75岁，每周只工作三天 ，每天也许是11个小时。”Keeping older employees at work makes sense for societies, especially those with a diminishing number of young people who are expected to support long-living pensioners.让年岁较大的员工继续工作对社会是合理的，特别是在年轻人数量正不断减少的社会，这些年轻人将需要供养还有很长寿命的退休人员。It also makes sense for older employees: a mix of work and leisure is what many want. “With three work days a week, we would have more time to relax; for quality of life. Having four days off would be very important to generate new entertainment activities and other ways of being occupied,” the 74- year- old Mr Slim said.这对于年岁较大的员工也很合理：工作与休闲相结合是很多人所希望的。74岁的斯利姆表示：“如果一周只工作3天，我们就会有更多的时间来放松；提高生活品质。每周休息4天对于培养新的娱乐活动以及其他消磨时间的方式将非常重要。”He appeared to be suggesting that these short-week workers earn the same as they did full-time. That is what happens at Telmex, his Mexican fixed-line phone company, where those eligible for retirement can opt to work four-day weeks on full pay.他似乎认为，减少每周工作日的员工的收入应与全职工作时一样。这就是他的墨西哥固定电话公司Telmex所发生的事情：符合退休资格的人可以选择以每周工作四天的方式全薪工作。Older workers elsewhere might prefer shorter weeks at reduced p