Older staff are more productive than their younger colleagues, say researchers.

　　有研究顯示，與年輕的員工相比，年長的員工的工作效率更高。

　　More mature members of staff may be weaker and less agile than their junior counterparts, but they more than compensate with their greater experience, ability to work in teams, and success at coping when things go wrong.

　　更加成熟的員工在反應的敏捷度上可能弱于資歷淺的年輕員工，但他們豐富的經驗卻彌補了這一點，這點在與團隊的合作上，以及在處理工作發生錯誤時表現得尤為明顯。

　　The researchers say: ‘While older workers make more errors, perhaps due to declining physical attributes, they hardly make any severe errors, perhaps due to more experience.

　　研究者說：“盡管年長的員工或許會犯更多的錯誤，這也許是與他們體能下降有關，但他們卻很少犯錯，這又與他們豐富的工作經驗不無關系。”

　　‘It is experience that prevents severe errors.’

　　“正是工作經驗防止了錯誤的發生。”

　　The scientists who studied production lines at a Mercedes-Benz truck factory in southern Germany also found that younger, more highly educated workers were less productive than those who had fewer qualifications – perhaps because the educated workers got bored more easily.

　　科學家們在位于德國南部的奔馳汽車生產工廠中發現，那些年輕的受教育程度更高的工人其實在生產效率上海不如那些條件并不這樣有效的員工，盡管有教育的員工對工作上手更快。

　　The researchers, from the University of Mannheim, said their findings debunked the idea that older workers should be made redundant to boost productivity.

　　從曼海姆大學的研究人員表示，他們的發現證明了年長員工的工作效率其實更高。

　　They write: ‘In many countries, lower productivity among older workers is used as a motivation for early retirement policies.

　　他們說，“在世界上的很多國家，抱怨年老員工工作效率低下通常是勸道他們提前退休的理由。”

　　‘If this were true, the ageing populations in many developed countries would have negative effects on overall productivity. These results cast doubt on such beliefs.’

　　“如果我們的想法是正確的，那么在很多發達國家中的老齡人口將對于社會的整體創造力產生負面影響。但研究的結果卻與這樣的觀點背道而馳。”

　　The researchers argue that in sectors where physical strength is less important than in manufacturing, such as in the service sector, it is likely that older workers are even more productive.

　　研究者們認為，體能再現在生產中所占的重要性正在降低，例如在服務業中，年長員工的工作效率更高。

　　The researchers also found that a higher proportion of women in the workforce is bad for productivity in young teams and good in old teams.

　　研究者們還發現，在年輕的團隊中，女性所占比例過高將對效率產生反作用，但這樣的情況在年長的團隊中剛好相反。

　　They say women make fewer errors, but young male workers get distracted, and are likely to make more errors, if women are in the team.

　　他們表示，女性出錯的幾率更低，但卻會使得年輕的男性員工分心，團隊中若有女性的存在，會使得他們更容易出錯。