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Ronald Reagan famously quipped that "it's true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?"
羅納德·里根曾說過一句著名的俏皮話，“努力工作不會導致死亡，不過我覺得干嘛要冒這個險呢？”
Beyond a certain level, extra effort seems to be self-defeating.
超過一定水平后，額外的努力似乎會弄巧成拙。
Studies suggest that, after 50 hours a week, employee productivity falls sharply.
研究表明，一周工作50個小時后，員工生產力會急劇下滑。
But that doesn't stop some managers from demanding that workers stay chained to their desk for long periods.
但這也無法阻止經理要求員工長時間守在工位上。
At the blood-testing firm Theranos, Sunny Balwani, then boyfriend of the founder, Elizabeth Holmes,
血液檢測公司Theranos創始人伊麗莎白·霍爾姆斯當時的男朋友桑尼·巴爾瓦尼
had an obsession with employee hours, and would tour the engineering department at 7.30pm to check people were at their desks.
癡迷于雇員工時數，并會在七點半的時候巡視技術科，檢查在崗人數。
All those hours were wasted when the company eventually collapsed (prosecutors have charged Ms Holmes and Mr Balwani with fraud).
當公司最終倒閉，所有這些時間都被浪費了（檢察官指控霍爾姆斯和巴爾瓦尼犯有欺詐罪）。
Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce group, recently praised the "996" model,
中國電商集團阿里巴巴的創始人馬云近期稱贊“996”模式—
where employees work from 9am to 9pm, six days a week, as a "huge blessing".
即員工上班時間為早上9點到晚上9點，一周工作6天— 是一種巨大的福氣。
To be fair, Mr Ma said employers should not mandate such hours. Still, presenteeism is the curse of the modern office worker.
公平地說，馬云稱雇主不應強制“996”。然而出勤是現代上班族的詛咒。
There will be days when you do not have much to do,
總有些時候你會無事可做，
perhaps because you are waiting for someone else in a different department, or a different company, to respond to a request.
因為你可能在等待其他部門，或其他公司某個人的回復。
As the clock ticks past 5pm, there may be no purpose in staying at your desk.
下午5點后，守在工位上或許沒有任何意義。
But you can see your boss hard at work and, more important, they can see you. So you make an effort to look busy.
但你可以看到老板還在刻苦工作，更重要的是，他們也能看見你。所以你努力讓自己看起來很忙。
Some of this may be a self-perpetuating cycle. If bosses do not like to go home before their underlings,
其中一些可能是一個自我延續的循環。如果老板不喜歡在下屬之前下班，
and underlings fear leaving before their bosses, everyone is trapped.
并且下屬害怕在老板之前離開，每個人都被困住了。
Staff may feel that they will not get a pay rise, or a promotion, if they are not seen to be putting in maximum effort.
員工可能覺得如果上級沒看見他們付出最大的努力，他們就不能加薪或升職。
This is easily confused with long hours.
這很容易和長時間工作弄混淆。
Managers, who are often no good at judging employees' performance, use time in the office as a proxy.
通常不擅于評判員工表現的經理們會把呆在辦公室的時間作為替代。
The consequence is often wasted effort. To adjust the old joke about the Soviet Union:
結果往往是白費力氣。修改一下關于工會的老笑話：
"We pretend to work and managers pretend to believe us."
“我們假裝工作，經理們假裝信任我們。”
Rather than work hard, you toil to make bosses think that you are.
你不是努力工作，而是努力讓老板認為你很努力。
Leaving a jacket on your office chair, walking around purposefully with a notebook or clipboard
把夾克放在辦公椅上，故意拿著筆記本或筆記板走來走去
and sending out emails at odd hours are three of the best-known tricks.
以及在空閑時間發送電子郵件是三個最著名的把戲。
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