【英语生活】工作与生活真能划清界限？ Strategies for calling it a day

Grant Freeland began to worry about the amount of hours he put in at work when a number of talented consultants in his Boston office left. They were burnt out and desperate to have a life outside work. Serendipitously, he was contacted by Leslie Perlow, professor of leadership in organisational behaviour at Harvard Business School. She had a question that he too wanted answering: could consultants, at the beck and call of clients’ demands, ever have anything approaching a work-life balance?

For a year she studied his team at Boston Consulting Group and came back with the verdict that the biggest problem was a lack of predictability. “People could never make a plan because of client demands,” recalls Mr Freeland. So they came up with a scheme called “predictable time off”, or PTO. It gave employees an evening or a day between Mondays and Thursdays when they would not be contacted and could switch off the phone and email.

“Most efforts fail if we aim for work-life balance as it’s superficial unless you change how work is done”, says Mr Freeland, senior partner, today responsible for BCG’s people and organisation practice. It was a tricky sell, he reflects. “Some thought long hours were a rite of passage; others didn’t think we needed PTO.”

The most important aspect of the initiative, which was rolled out from 2008, was that it made people talk and plan. “It forced teams to prioritise. We found that teams that had predictable time off worked fewer hours overall and worked smarter. It had forced them to discuss behavioural norms,” he says. “If you promote people who work 20 hours a day, then people think to get a promotion you need to work 20 hours.”

Among those teams that adopt PTO, the retention rate has increased, he insists. On average he thinks he works 60 hours a week. However, if doing due diligence on a company, “all bets are off”, he says: people have to put the hours in.

Despite BCG’s ambitions to change working practices, the most common gripe on Glassdoor, a website that allows former employees to post reviews of companies and jobs, is long hours. As one reviewer writes: “There is a powerfully-entrenched long-hours culture?.?.?.?PTO sessions really just turn into grumbling sessions that don’t change expectations.”

Yet BCG is at least trying to tackle the issue, unusual in a sector that lionises long hours. Consultancy is far from unique: many bankers, lawyers and medics see excessive hours as a badge of honour. Alexandra Michel, a banker turned academic, found that even when bankers moved to other sectors for a better work-life balance, they had internalised banking’s ethos to such an extent that they increased the working day for their new colleagues.

In the technology industry, coders work around the clock. Moreover, the industry’s bias towards youth, says Jim Hart, chief executive of Senn Delaney, an organisational-culture consulting firm, “encourages people to think they can work hard while they are fit and young, and make money”.

While there is evidence that overworking hampers productivity – for example, a Stanford University study that showed that those doing 60-hour weeks produced less high-quality code than those doing 40 hours – there is also research by the Graduate School of Management, University of California, Davis, that shows the more one is seen at the office, the more others perceive you as “dependable” and “committed”.

A recent report by Oxford university identified the emergence of a new “super” working class of wealthy professionals who ratchet up hours in the office. The study says the best-educated used to work much shorter hours, yet by the start of the 21st century they were working the longest hours.

Some companies are experimenting with curbing the use of technologies that have blurred the lines between home and office. Volkswagen, the German carmaker, prevents emails being issued from 30 minutes after the end of an employee’s shift until the server is switched on the next day, issuing emails again half an hour before the new working day begins. Daimler recently announced that employees can opt to have any emails they receive while they are on holiday automatically deleted.

Dr Michel believes that even bankers can curb long hours if their employers give feedback on skills and abilities that decline with overwork, such as judgment and creativity. “Many firms interview clients informally about the creativity of a team’s solutions. This information is passed along to employees on a weekly basis and allows them to witness first-hand the correlation between overwork and the dimensions that are critical to high performance.” Such feedback, she says, is more effective than merely telling people what can happen when they work too much or rules about not working on weekends.

Almuth McDowall, an occupational psychologist who specialises in work-life balance, says it is possible to change a culture. She has worked with some British tech companies that peg bonuses to sensible hours. If a developer achieves his or her goal within prescribed hours, they are rewarded financially but not if they work excessively.

She believes that we are not good at recognising “what good work looks like?.?.?.?[working] long hours has become a proxy for good performance”. Some banks have attempted to curb the long hours for junior employees by doing more than giving clear days off. They are also engaging the juniors with meaningful work to display their ability, so they do not feel they can only prove their worth by slogging away until dawn.

Moreover, tasks need to be realistic and allocated coherently. “We need to see duty of care as part of the role of manager,” says Ms McDowall. “And sensible hours needs to be championed by middle managers as well as senior leaders.”

Don Serratt, who left banking to start a company treating behavioural health problems, says blanket policies do not work. “It has to start with the individual. Some people have more stamina and get energy from working more than others. Others continue to work hard in spite of the negative consequences.” The warning signs, he says, are if you are neglecting your health, missing your children growing up or ignoring your partner.

Google’s long-term study of working cultures has revealed that some people are better equipped than others to leave the office behind at the end of the working day. Laszlo Bock, who heads the tech company’s people operations division, describes two types of working personality: “segmentors”, a minority who are able to draw a psychological line between work stress and home, and “integrators”, for whom work lurks constantly in their heads, leading them to check their emails constantly.

As Mr Serratt acknowledges: ultimately, knowing when to call it a day comes down to self-awareness.

当许多才华横溢的咨询顾问离开其在波士顿的办事处时，格兰特?弗里兰(Grant Freeland)也开始对自己投到这么多时间到工作中感到担忧。他们感到疲惫不堪，拼命想在工作之外拥有自己的生活。偶然间，哈佛商学院(Harvard Business School)研究组织行为中领导方法的莱斯莉?珀洛(Leslie Perlow)教授联系到了他。

珀洛有个弗里兰也想回答的问题：需要随时待命回应客户需求的咨询顾问，真有办法实现工作与生活的平衡吗？

珀洛用了一年时间研究弗里兰在波士顿咨询公司(BCG)的团队，之后得出的结论是，最大问题在于缺乏可预测性。“由于客户的需求，咨询顾问们根本不可能制定什么计划，”弗里兰回忆道。所以，他们推出了一项名为“可预测性休假”(PTO)的计划：员工在周一至周四之间的某个晚上或某一天休假，外人不会联系到他们，他们也可以关掉手机、不看电邮。

“如果我们的目标是工作和生活平衡，那么大多数努力都会失败，因为如果工作方式不改变，这根本就是个伪命题，”弗里兰说。他是BCG的资深合伙人，如今负责公司的人力与组织行为。他回忆称，PTO计划当年推广得很艰难。“当时有些人认为，长时间加班是一种‘成人仪式’，还有些人认为我们不需要PTO。”

2008年启动的PTO计划最重要成果是，它使人们开始讨论并做计划。“它迫使团队分清轻重缓急。我们发现，那些实施PTO计划的团队总体上工作时间更短，效率更高。它迫使人们讨论行为标准。”他说，“如果每天工作20小时的员工得到了晋升，那么大家就会认为，要想获得晋升，每天需要工作20小时。”

弗里兰坚称，在那些实行了PTO计划的团队，员工保留率有所增加。现在他觉得自己平均而言每周工作60小时。然而，如果赶上对一家公司做尽职调查，“一切计划就都不作数了”。他说，这时大家必须加班加点地工作。

尽管BCG希望改变工作行为，但在允许曾经的员工点评前雇主和职位的网站Glassdoor上，最常见的负面评论当然是工作时间太长。正如一位用户所评论的那样：“加班文化根深蒂固……PTO时间实际上只是变成了抱怨时间，改变不了期待。”

不过，BCG起码在尝试解决这一问题，这在崇尚加班的咨询行业并不多见。这种现象远非咨询公司独有：许多银行家、律师和医护人员都把加班加点工作视为光荣的事情。由银行家转行当了学者的亚力山德拉?米歇尔(Alexandra Michel)发现，银行家已把银行业的风气深深内化了，甚至在为求得工作与生活平衡而转行之后，他们又增加了新同事每天的工作时长。

在科技行业，程序员们24小时连轴转地工作。更有甚者，组织文化咨询公司Senn Delaney的首席执行官吉姆?哈特(Jim Hart)说，该行业偏爱年轻人的风气，“鼓励人们这样认为——年轻、健康的时候可以拼命工作、赚点钱”。

尽管有证据表明，过度工作会损害效率——例如，斯坦福大学(Stanford University)的一项研究显示，每周工作60小时的员工所编出程序的质量不如每周工作40小时的员工——但加州大学戴维斯分校管理学院(Graduate School of Management, University of California, Davis)的研究也表明，你呆在办公室的时间越长，其他人越认为你“可靠”且“忠诚”。

牛津大学(Oxford University)最近一项研究报告证实，出现了一个由富裕专业人士构成的新“超级”工人阶级，他们工作的时间越来越长。该研究显示，受教育水平最高的群体过去的工作时间比现在短很多，但到了21世纪初，他们的工作时间变成了最长的。

有些公司在尝试对如何使用那些模糊了家庭与公司界限的技术加以限制。在德国汽车生产商大众(Volkswagen)，员工下班30分钟之后、直至次日服务器打开这段时间内发送给员工的电邮将被暂扣，到员工次日上班前半小时的时候再投递。戴姆勒(Daimler)近日宣布，员工可以选择让系统自动删掉他们在休假时收到的任何电邮。

米歇尔教授认为，就连银行家也有办法减少加班——如果雇主对判断力和创造力等随着加班时间延长而下降的技能和能力，做出反馈的话。“许多公司会非正式地询问客户，某个团队的创造力如何。这一信息每周传达给员工一次，让他们亲眼见证过度工作，与对高绩效至关重要的因素之间的关联。”她说，比起仅仅告诉员工工作过度有何后果，或规定周末不能加班，这种反馈更有效果。

专门研究工作与生活平衡的职业心理学家阿尔穆特?麦克道尔(Almuth McDowall)表示，改变一种文化是可能的。与她合作过的有一些英国科技公司，把奖金跟合理的工作时间挂钩。如果一名开发者在规定时间内达成目标，就会得到奖励；但如果工作时间过长，就没有奖励。

她认为，我们不善于识别“好工作是什么样子……加班加点（工作）已成了工作表现好的代名词”。有些银行已尝试不让初级员工加班，办法不限于给予明确的假期。同时，这些银行也让初级员工参与有意义的工作，以使其才华得到展示，这样他们就不会觉得只有通过通宵达旦地苦干，才能证明自己的价值了。

另外，任务得切合实际，并且得协调分配。“我们须将勤勉义务视为经理职责的一部分，”麦克道尔说。“合理工作时间必须同时得到中层经理以及高级领导人的倡导。”

堂?塞拉特(Don Serratt)离开银行业后创立了一家处理职业健康问题的公司。他表示，一刀切政策不管用。“必须从个人入手。有些人的耐力更强，比起其他人更容易越干越有劲儿。也有些人，即便工作太辛苦已经产生不良后果，仍拼命工作。”他说，如果你忽略了自身健康，缺席了孩子的成长，或忽视了身边的伴侣，那么你就应该警惕了。

谷歌(Google)对工作文化的长期研究显示，有些人比其他人更善于一下班后就将工作抛在身后。拉斯洛?博克(Laszlo Bock)是这家科技公司的人力运营部门主管，他说，在工作中有两种人，一种是“分门别类者”(Segmentor)，一种是“混为一谈者”(Integrator)，前者是少数，他们能够在工作和家庭之间画下一条心理界线，不会把工作中的压力带回家，后者则始终想着工作，因此会时不时查看电邮。

正如塞拉特所承认那样：归根结底，清楚何时收工要靠自觉。

译者/邢嵬