5 Misconceptions About Remote Work對遠程辦工的五個誤解

文/卡拉·L.米勒 譯/張梓晴

By Karla L. Miller

I used to fit my life around my job.Now I’m accustomed to fitting my job into my life.

2 Two years of working remotely has caused that shift, and I don’t know if I’m even able to go back to the way I juggled work and life before. I guarantee I’m not the only person feeling that way.

3 According to the Pew Research Center, only 23 percent of workers in jobs that could be done from home were frequently working remotely before the coronavirus pandemic. During the pandemic, that number peaked at 71 percent and is currently at 59 percent.While a majority of those workers early in the pandemic said they were working from home because their offices were closed, the proportion has flipped, and now the majority say they’re working from home because they want to. Remote work has evolved from a rare ad-hoc accommodation to a preferred way of life.

4 Of course, certain concerns about the downsides of remote work keep surfacing.

我過去總是在工作中生活。但現在我更習慣于在生活中工作。

2 兩年的遠程辦公促成了這一轉變，我甚至不知道自己能否再次像之前那樣兼顧工作和生活。我敢保證我不是唯一有這種感覺的人。

3 根據皮尤研究中心的數據，在新冠疫情之前，可以在家完成工作的人，只有23%經常性地遠程辦公。疫情期間，這個數字達到了71%的峰值，而目前為59%。雖然他們其中的大部分人在疫情初期表示，他們在家工作是因為辦公室關閉，但是這個比例反過來了，現在大部分人說他們在家工作是因為想在家工作。遠程辦公已經從一種少見的臨時通融方案演變為一種首選的生活方式。

4 當然，對遠程辦公弊端的擔憂也不斷浮現。

Remote work makes it too hard to manage and measure performance.

5 As with most managerial challenges, the solution comes down to training. In a report for the New America Better Life Lab, formerjournalist Brigid Schulte, author of “Overwhelmed: How to Work, Love,and Play When No One Has the Time,”offers an extensively researched toolkit to help managers and businesses adapt to a “corona-normal” way of work that is effective and equitable.

6 Instead of focusing on employee—face time and attendance—Schulte says managers need to be trained to focus on performanceto measure performance. As we’re learning from discussions of shorter workweeks, time spent on the clock is not necessarily the most accurate indicator of productivity. “This is a pivotal moment for business executives,organizational leaders, and managers to reimagine work,” says Schulte.

In-person work is crucial for facilitating random encounters that lead to innovation.

7 It may seem that inspiration, like lightning, strikes unpredictably. But there are ways to create favorable conditions for inspiration besides physically herding everyone into one location for days on end and hoping for sparks.

遠程辦公讓績效難以管理和衡量。

5 和大多數管理難題一樣，最終的解決方案還是培訓。前《華盛頓郵報》記者布里吉德·舒爾特，同時也是《不堪重負：如何在有限的時間里好好工作、戀愛和玩耍》的作者，在為新美國美好生活實驗室撰寫的一份報告中提出了一套經過廣泛研究的方法，幫助管理者和企業適應一種公正有效的“新冠常態”工作方式。

6 舒爾特認為管理者需要接受培訓，把衡量績效的關注重點放在員工的產出，而不是員工的投入——坐班時間和出勤。正如我們從縮短一周工作時間的討論中了解到的，工作時長不一定是衡量生產力最準確的指標。“對于企業高管、組織領導和管理者來說，這是重構工作的關鍵時刻。”舒爾特說道。

到崗工作是促使創新靈感迸發的關鍵。

7 靈感似乎像閃電一樣，突如其來。但是除了讓所有人聚攏在一個地方一連幾天，還有一些方法可以為產生靈感創造有利條件。

8Defined, intentional brainstorming sessions with a structured agenda create space to focus and build on ideas that might otherwise flare out. Open chat time before or after virtual meetings offers everyone informal access to leaders. Internal communication channels and discussion boards like Slack can stand in as virtual hallways and water coolers. This opens the floor to everyone who has ideas—not justthosewith the loudest voicesor thechutzpahto buttonholeleadersin passing topitch their ideas.

Truly committed workers will want to return to the office. Those who don’t are less engaged or don’t want to work hard.

9 Multiple studies showing at-home workers put in more hours than they did at the office would suggest otherwise.

10 It’s not that people don’t want to work hard. It’s that they don’t want to work harder than is necessary to get the job done. Getting up early for work has a purpose if you’re speaking with people in a different time zone or if that’s when you’re at your sharpest. But having flexible hours serves a purpose, too: minimizing fatigue and schedule conflicts.

8 界定明確、有目的的頭腦風暴加上條理清晰的議程可創造空間讓人集中捕捉和拓展可能轉瞬即逝的種種點子。虛擬會議前后的開放式聊天時間讓每個人都能以這種非正式的形式接觸到領導者。內部的溝通渠道和討論區（例如Slack）可以作為虛擬走廊和茶水間取代現實環境。這讓每個有想法的人都能自由發言——不只是那些嗓門最大或不管不顧攔著領導推銷自己想法的人。

真正盡心盡力的員工會想重返辦公室，而不想回辦公室的人沒有那么敬業或者不想努力工作。

9 多項研究表明，員工在家工作時投入的時間比他們在辦公室要多。

10 不是人們不想努力工作，而是只想付出必要的努力完成工作。如果你要和不同時區的人交談，或者早上是你頭腦最敏銳的時候，那么早起上班是有意義的。但是靈活的上班時間也有意義：最大程度地減少疲勞和日程沖突。

11 給工作施加無助于提高績效的不必要的設想和期望（通勤、早起、領帶、高跟鞋、無議程的周會）會削弱員工的積極性。

11 Tacking unnecessary constructsand expectations onto a job that do nothing to enhance performance (commute,early start time, neckties, high-heeled shoes, agenda-less weekly meetings) is what sapsengagement.

Hybrid workplaces create a multi-tier reward structure where in-person workers receive more opportunities than remote workers.

12 Not if you don’t let them. It’s true that promotions and opportunities are often heavily influenced by proximity bias and familiarity bias, relying on subjective measures like “visibility”and “cultural fit.” But that’s passive,lazy management. Good management means quantifying expectations, measuring output rather than input, and getting to know workers well enough to match them with appropriate projects and goals regardless of how often you see their faces.

13 Multi-tier structures already existed in the pre-pandemic office. Workers who were being talked over in meetings, subjected to microaggressions,or having their time and concentration hijacked by passersby were already at a functional disadvantage. Hybrid and remote work can help minimize those disruptions, and virtual interactions can help put workers on more equal footing.As Schulte puts it: “Everyone’s head is the same size in a virtual window.”

混合工作場所創造了一個多層級的獎勵結構，到崗員工能比遠程辦公的員工獲得更多的機會。

12 如果你不讓這樣的事情發生，就不會發生。確實，晉升和機會往往深受鄰近性偏見和熟悉度偏見的影響，依賴于主觀的評判標準，例如“可見度”和“文化契合度”。但這是被動、懶惰的管理。良好的管理意味著量化期望，衡量員工的產出而不是投入，充分了解員工，使他們與合適的項目和目標相匹配，不管你多久見到他們一次。

13 多層級的獎勵結構在疫情前就存在于職場了。那些在會議上被討論、受到微歧視、時間和注意力被旁人占用的員工已經處于工作劣勢。混合和遠程辦公有助于最大程度地減少這些干擾，虛擬互動有助于員工處于更平等的地位。正如舒爾特所說：“在虛擬窗口中，每個人的頭像都是一樣的大小。”

Remote workers become disconnected from their colleagues.

14 Digital communication channels can compensate for much of the day-to-day hallway and water-cooler chatter, and they are accessible to everyone regardless of location, status, mobility or other obstacles. But they can’t provide the full 4D immersion of nonverbal human communication, and they don’t work as well for new hires who lack established connections.

15 Periodic, planned in-person gatherings (under coronavirus-safe conditions) can help revive or kick-start connections that solidify over time through follow-up conversations, collaborations and one-on-one meetups—much the same way pre-pandemic networking events and conventions did.

16 In many cases, the problems cited with remote work—“presenteeism,” inequality, disengagement, lack of visibility—existed with the in-person model.Remote work, properly implemented, is increasingly an essential feature of the workplace. We just need to learn to use it properly. ■

遠程辦公者漸漸與同事脫節。

14 數字通信渠道可以很大程度上彌補無法在走廊和茶水間日常閑聊帶來的影響，而且每個人都可以使用，無論他們的位置、身份、活動能力或者其他障礙如何。但是這些數字通信渠道無法提供人類非語言交流的完整4D沉浸感，而且對尚未建立起人脈的新員工來說不太管用。

15 定期、有計劃的面對面相聚（在保證防疫安全的情況下）有助于恢復或建立聯系，通過后續的對話、合作和一對一會面，隨著時間的推移，這些聯系得以鞏固——和疫情前的社交活動和會議產生的效果幾乎一樣。

16 在很多情況下，針對遠程辦公提到的問題——“假性出勤”、不平等、不積極、缺乏可視性——在到崗工作中也存在。妥善執行的遠程辦公正在成為職場的基本特征。我們只需要學會正確地利用它。 □