讀《FT·金融時(shí)報(bào)》學(xué)英語(yǔ)：適得其反的加班文化

Although to my knowledge no other nation than Japan has a word for death by overwork—karoshi—we probably need one.For while it is tempting to imagine the phenomenon is unique to Japan, it may simply be that it is the first country to look deeply enough to identify it.
盡管據(jù)我所知，除日本以外，沒(méi)有哪個(gè)國(guó)家有專(zhuān)門(mén)指代工作過(guò)度勞累所致死亡的詞語(yǔ)——“Karoshi”（過(guò)勞死），我們很可能需要一個(gè)這樣的詞。人們傾向于認(rèn)為這種現(xiàn)象是日本獨(dú)有的，事實(shí)上，也許日本是第一個(gè)看得足夠深入從而認(rèn)識(shí)到這個(gè)問(wèn)題的國(guó)家。

Coined in the 1970s, the word returned to Japanese newspapers last month when the Tokyo Labour bureau ruled that the suicide of Matsuri Takahashi, a young employee of the advertising agency Dentsu, had been caused by overwork.She had worked 105 hours of overtime in a single month.
這個(gè)在上世紀(jì)70年代發(fā)明的詞語(yǔ)上個(gè)月重現(xiàn)于日本報(bào)端，東京勞動(dòng)局裁定，廣告公司電通的年輕雇員高橋まつり自殺是因工作過(guò)度勞累導(dǎo)致。她生前曾在一個(gè)月里加班了105個(gè)小時(shí)。

Most of the chief executives I know routinely work a 12 or 15-hour day, six or seven days a week.Few of them are familiar with studies that routinely show that productivity is not linear.After about 40 hours a week fatigue sets in, provoking mistakes.Any extra hours spent are needed to clear up the mess: reversing poor decisions, soothing ruffled feathers.
我認(rèn)識(shí)的大多數(shù)首席執(zhí)行官通常每天工作12或者15個(gè)小時(shí)，每周工作6天或者7天。研究通常表明工作效率是非線性的，但很少有人熟知這一點(diǎn)。在一周工作約40個(gè)小時(shí)以后，人就會(huì)開(kāi)始感到疲勞，導(dǎo)致人出錯(cuò)，然后又需要花時(shí)間來(lái)收拾爛攤子：修正錯(cuò)誤的決定，平復(fù)憤怒的情緒——到頭來(lái)是白忙活一場(chǎng)。



The classic, but comic, expression of this was produced by the efficiency expert, Frank Gilbreth.He found he could shave faster if he used two razors but then wasted all the time he saved covering the cuts with plasters.
有關(guān)這一點(diǎn)，效率專(zhuān)家弗蘭克·吉爾布雷思有一個(gè)經(jīng)典又好笑的描述。他發(fā)現(xiàn)如果他同時(shí)使用兩片刀片刮胡子，刮得會(huì)更快，但之后他不得不把節(jié)省出來(lái)的全部時(shí)間，浪費(fèi)在用創(chuàng)口貼處理刀片留下的小傷口上。

While a few chief executives love to boast of their powers of endurance, many insist their jobs simply require long days, weeks and months.But the speed with which the death, in 2013, of a Bank of America intern working in the City of London was interpreted as death by overwork showed how fully everyone knew that the economic crisis and relative scarcity of good jobs was taking its toll on those at the bottom of the heap.
盡管有少數(shù)首席執(zhí)行官喜歡吹噓自己的忍耐力，很多首席官都堅(jiān)稱(chēng)，他們的崗位就是需要長(zhǎng)時(shí)間工作。但2013年在倫敦金融城工作的那名美國(guó)銀行實(shí)習(xí)生的死，如此快地被理解為過(guò)勞死，表明每個(gè)人都完全清楚，經(jīng)濟(jì)危機(jī)和好工作的相對(duì)稀缺正在摧殘那些處于金字塔底層的人。

This mirrors what Professor Michael Marmot, the British epidemiologist, discovered when he conducted a longitudinal study of 10,000 Whitehall civil servants: that stress tended to concentrate at the top and the bottom of the pyramid.But when Marianna Virtanen continued the study to look at the long-term consequences of that stress, she found working 11 or more hours a day doubled the risk of a “major depressive episode”.A lifetime of long hours was also associated with cognitive loss in middle years.
這與英國(guó)流行病學(xué)家邁克爾·馬爾莫教授對(duì)1萬(wàn)名白廳公務(wù)員進(jìn)行的縱向研究的發(fā)現(xiàn)一致：壓力似乎集中于金字塔的頂端和底層。但當(dāng)瑪麗安娜·弗塔嫩繼續(xù)研究這種壓力的長(zhǎng)期后果時(shí)，她發(fā)現(xiàn)每天工作11個(gè)小時(shí)或者更久，會(huì)使人出現(xiàn)“重度抑郁期”的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)加倍。一輩子長(zhǎng)時(shí)間工作也與中年時(shí)期認(rèn)知能力下降存在相關(guān)性。

All of this damage is invisible.If some of the wear and tear resulted in visible injury—perhaps companies would take more care.Thinking is a physical activity, performed by the brain—which, like every organ, has limits to its capacity.We can see machinery break down, we notice broken arms and legs.We do not see broken minds—until it is too late.
這些損害都是看不見(jiàn)的。如果一些損害會(huì)導(dǎo)致可見(jiàn)的傷害，也許企業(yè)會(huì)更加注意。思維活動(dòng)是由大腦完成的一種生理活動(dòng)，而大腦，就像每一個(gè)器官一樣，它的能力是有限度的。我們可以看到機(jī)械損壞，我們可以注意到斷胳膊斷腿。我們看不到破碎的心靈——直到已經(jīng)為時(shí)太晚。