評論
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Business
商業版塊
Bartleby
巴托比專欄
Labour’s lost love
職員們遺失的愛情
The decline of the office romance
辦公室戀情的減少
Their eyes met across the office photocopier. At long last, each of them had found someone who could push their buttons. Eventually, they settled down and decided to reproduce. Read more in “Fifty Sheets of Grey Paper”, out soon in paperback.
他們的目光在辦公室的復印機上交匯。最后，他們每個人都找到了一個能夠讓自己心動的人。最終，他們安定下來，決定生兒育女。閱讀《Fifty Sheets of Grey Paper》了解更多內容，該書很快就會推出平裝本。
Romance is a long-established sideeffect of office life. After all, people may spend almost half their waking hours at work, and their colleagues will frequently have something in common with them, even if it is only complaining about the manager. Some relationships are inevitably bound to result.
浪漫是辦公室生活中的一個長期存在的副效應。畢竟，人們可能會把醒著的幾乎一半的時間花在工作上，他們的同事也經常會和他們有一些共同話題，即使大家只是抱怨經理。不可避免的就會產生一些關系。
But the lockdown has made the forming of new romances much more difficult. Although online dating has thrived in the pandemic, the number of people who have met their soulmate via a work Zoom meeting must be vanishingly small. It is hard to flirt while your facial expressions are being observed by a dozen colleagues. And how private is company videoconferencing software’s private-chat function, really?
但封鎖使職員們更難產生新的戀情。盡管在疫情期間，線上約會蓬勃發展，但是能夠通過“Zoom會議”平臺結識靈魂伴侶的人卻少之又少。有十幾個同事觀察到你的表情時，你很難去打情罵俏。公司視頻會議軟件的私人聊天功能到底有多私密，真的能做到很私密嗎？
Even before the pandemic, however, office romances were in decline. In 1995, 19% of (heterosexual) people met their partner at work, according to a study by Stanford University. By 2017 this had fallen to 11%. It will be even lower now. As white-collar employees toil more hours at home and fewer at the office—which seems likely even after the virus recedes— opportunities for workplace romantic connections will dwindle.
然而，即使在疫情爆發之前，辦公室戀情也在減少。根據斯坦福大學的一項研究，1995年，19%的異性戀者在工作中遇到了他們的伴侶。到2017年，這一比例已降至11%。現在的這一比例更低。隨著白領們在家辦公的時間越來越長，而在辦公室工作的時間卻越來越少，即使病毒消退，辦公室戀情的機會也會減少。
One reason for the decline is that companies have realised that work relationships give rise to all kinds of ethical questions. The idea of a boss marrying his secretary (or a doctor dating a nurse) is one of the oldest clichés around. Sadly, the trope is so well established that secretaries and nurses have spent decades fending off the unwanted attentions of their superiors. As the #MeToo movement has demonstrated, some men use their positions of power to harass women who work for them.
辦公室戀情減少的一個原因是，公司已經意識到工作關系會引發各種各樣的道德問題。老板和他的秘書結婚（或者醫生和護士約會）是人們對于辦公室戀情最老套的看法之一。可悲的是，這一指代已經根深蒂固，以至于秘書和護士花了幾十年的時間來避開上級不必要的關注。正如“我也是”運動證明的那樣，一些男人利用他們的權力地位騷擾為他們工作的女性。
Consensual relationships can cause problems as well. A relationship with a subordinate makes it hard for a manager to be objective about their performance.Colleagues may understandably suspect the manager of favouritism. Things may be as bad if the romance breaks down. Hurt feelings may make it hard for the ex-partners to work together and will also make it awkward for everyone else in the office.
兩廂情愿的關系也會引發問題。與下屬產生戀愛關系會讓管理者很難客觀地評價他們的表現。同事們可能會懷疑管理者徇私，這種情況可以理解。如果戀情破裂，情況可能會同樣糟糕。傷痛可能會讓前伴侶難以在一起工作，也會讓辦公室里的其他人感到尷尬。
The result of this is that many companies have policies that discourage or forbid managers from flings with someone who works for them. Office relationships were blamed for the departure of Steve Easterbrook from his role as chief executive of McDonald’s last year; the fast-food company launched a lawsuit against Mr Easterbrook this week.
由于這樣的情況，許多公司會制定一些政策，不鼓勵或禁止管理者與下屬交往。去年，由于辦公室戀情，史蒂夫·伊斯特布魯克從麥當勞首席執行官的位置上引咎離職，這家快餐公司本周對伊斯特布魯克提起訴訟。
譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
