高管新時尚：休假時不工作

09 高管新時尚：休假時不工作

又到“黃金周”。此時的你，是不是正在享受一個完全屬于自己的愜意假期？還是身在沙灘、心在工作，用電話和郵件填滿整個休假行程？FT專欄作家露西·凱拉韋告訴你：休假不工作，這才是高管圈的新時尚。

When I was at university I spent a summer travelling around Europe with some friends, and one of them suggested we drop in on his parents' place in the south of France.

大學(xué)時的一個夏天，我和一群朋友一起環(huán)游歐洲，其中一個朋友邀請我們到法國南部他的父母家做客。

There are two things I remember about that visit.There was the mortification of being greeted by a butler who ceremoniously carried my tatty luggage — a few things stuffed into a plastic bag — to the suite of rooms to which I'd been allocated.

說起那次拜訪，有兩件事我至今記憶猶新。首先讓我覺得很沒面子的是，一名管家彬彬有禮地將我寒酸的行李——一只塞了許多東西的塑料包——送到為我安排的套房。

But what stays in my mind even more was the image of his father — who turned out to be a famous tycoon — clad in small swimming trunks with cigar clamped between teeth, holding a gin and tonic in one hand and a telephone receiver in the other.

而讓我印象更為深刻的是我朋友父親的樣子——他原來是位有名的大亨——只見他穿著窄小的泳褲，嘴里叼著雪茄，一手端著杯金湯力，一手握著電話聽筒。

The year was 1979 and this was what power looked like.The man was too important to be out of touch with the deals he was doing.So he had installed a telephone line by the swimming pool and passed his summers issuing instructions from a lounger by the water.

那時是1979年，當(dāng)時大人物就是這樣。這個男人位高權(quán)重，沒法將自己的生意放手不管。所以他在泳池邊也裝上了電話，于是他在水邊的躺椅上發(fā)號施令，度過了一個個夏日。

A quarter of a century later, technology allowed all of us to pretend to be tycoons.We might not have had the butler or the pool house but everyone could head to the beach with a BlackBerry packed along with their towels.And because we could, we did.Only for most of us, what we were doing was not deals, it was responding to mundane inquiries that could have waited two weeks — or forever.

25年過去了，技術(shù)使我們?nèi)巳硕寄苎b成大亨。也許我們沒有管家或是帶泳池的房子，但都能帶著浴巾和黑莓(BlackBerry)手機去海灘。正因為我們能這樣做，我們就這樣做。只不過我們多數(shù)人都不是在做生意，而是在回復(fù)雞毛蒜皮的小事，這些事可以兩周后再處理——或者干脆不用理會。

This year, I decided to do something radical that I hadn't done for almost a decade.I took a proper holiday.I disconnected myself from work altogether.I didn't open any work messages.I spent time reading, walking, looking at the sea — and sometimes getting into it — while I thought about not much at all.

今年，我決定做些大膽的嘗試，我已經(jīng)有將近十年沒這樣做了。我愜意地度了個假。全然拋開了工作。不去打開任何與工作有關(guān)的消息。我閱讀、散步、瞭望大海——有時到海里泡一泡——腦子里什么都不想。

When I returned to work and reacquainted myself with email, it was perfectly straightforward.I deleted almost all of them unread, responding only to the things that looked interesting.Far from feeling overwhelmed, I felt a certain excitement in the sudden immersion in work.It was a new-shoes and sharp-pencil sort of feeling that used to go with the beginning of a school term.

回來上班后，我非常簡捷地處理了電子郵件。我?guī)缀鮿h除了所有未讀郵件，只回復(fù)那些看起來有趣的。突然恢復(fù)工作不僅沒讓我覺得不堪重負，反而讓我有一點興奮。這種感覺似曾相識，就像以前在新學(xué)期伊始，穿上新鞋子，削尖了鉛筆的感覺。

Over the past week it has started to dawn on me that my radical action was not radical at all.I was merely following the latest fashion.

過去一周，我意識到自己的大膽舉動其實一點都不大膽。僅僅是趕了趟時髦。

Last week I sent an email to an entrepreneur I know, and within seconds the automatic reply came back: “I am on holiday until August 30 and will not be checking messages.” This was particularly remarkable given that last time I'd seen him — some five years ago — he had told me how he expected all his employees to respond to messages instantly wherever they were and whatever they were doing.

上星期，我給一位認識的企業(yè)家發(fā)了封郵件，隨即就收到了自動回復(fù)：“目前我正在休假，8月30日前不會查看信箱?！边@種口吻跟我上次見到他時——大約五年前——簡直判若兩人。那時他對我說，他希望所有員工，不論何時何地，都能第一時間回復(fù)信息。

So I emailed back asking what had made him change his mind — but all I got in return was the same automatic message telling me he wasn't reading whatever I was sending.

于是，我回郵件問他為什么改變了想法——可收到的仍舊是一模一樣的自動回復(fù)，無論我發(fā)什么，他都不會看。

The very next day I got an email from a woman who I had contacted before I went away.It began: “Sorry for my radio silence — I have had a blissful two-week holiday and am just catching up on emails on my return.” Here was the same thing again: a driven, thirtysomething entrepreneur who wanted me to know not how hard she worked on holiday but how she loafed around, and how much she enjoyed it.

就在第二天，我在休假前聯(lián)系過的一位女士給我發(fā)了封郵件。郵件開頭這樣寫道：“抱歉一直沒回復(fù)，我度過了一個兩周長的愉快假期，回來后才開始處理郵件。”這又是一個同樣的事例，一個銳意進取、已屆而立之年的企業(yè)家，想讓我看到的不是她在假期如何努力工作，而是她如何放松，如何適得其樂。

To see how widespread this change is, I've done a little experiment.I've collected all the out-of-office emails I've had this summer, and counted the number that were followed at once by an email sent from the beach.Three years ago, it was very unusual for an automatic message not to be quickly followed by a real one.This year I've had a total of 38 automatic messages telling me the sender was away, only six of which have been succeeded by a personal, poolside reply.

為了看看這種變化有多普遍，我做了個小實驗。我收集了今年夏天收到的所有外出時的自動應(yīng)答郵件，又數(shù)了數(shù)那些在第一時間從海灘回復(fù)的郵件。三年前，收到一封自動回復(fù)郵件后，如果沒有一封真實的郵件緊隨其后，是很稀罕的。今年，我總共收到38封外出時的自動應(yīng)答郵件，其中只有6封郵件隨后有真人從泳池邊上發(fā)來了回復(fù)。

Bragging about not working on holiday seems to be part of a wider trend — which I wrote about a few months ago — in which fashionable execs flaunt not their long hours, but their short ones.

夸耀自己不在假期工作符合一種趨勢：緊跟時代潮流的企業(yè)高管們炫耀的不再是花了很長時間工作，而是只用了很短時間就完成了工作——我?guī)讉€月前曾寫過一篇文章談到了這種趨勢。

To be emailing from the pool does not prove you are powerful, it is starting to be seen for what it is — a sign of weakness, poor time management and an inability to delegate.If you can take two weeks off altogether it shows you have overcome all gadget addiction, and like a modern-day tycoon can control when you work — and when you don't.

在泳池邊發(fā)郵件并不能證明你有影響力，這開始被人們視為能力不足、不善管理時間以及不會放權(quán)的證明。如果你能休息整整兩個星期，則說明你已經(jīng)克服了對電子設(shè)備的依賴，而且像一個現(xiàn)代大亨一樣，自己掌控著何時工作——何時不工作。

詞匯總結(jié)

drop in on 順道拜訪

When I was at university I spent a summer travelling around Europe with some friends, and one of them suggested we drop in on his parents' place in the south of France.

大學(xué)時的一個夏天，我和一群朋友一起環(huán)游歐洲，其中一個朋友邀請我們到法國南部他的父母家做客。

ceremoniously [,seri'm?unj?sli]

adv.隆重地

tatty ['t?t?]

adj.不整潔的；不值錢的；破舊的

There was the mortification of being greeted by a butler who ceremoniously carried my tatty luggage — a few things stuffed into a plastic bag — to the suite of rooms to which I'd been allocated.

說起那次拜訪，首先讓我覺得很沒面子的是，一名管家彬彬有禮地將我寒酸的行李——一只塞了許多東西的塑料包——送到為我安排的套房。

tycoon [ta?'ku?n]

n.企業(yè)界大亨，巨頭；巨富

A quarter of a century later, technology allowed all of us to pretend to be tycoons.

25年過去了，技術(shù)使我們?nèi)巳硕寄苎b成大亨。

mundane ['m?nde?n; m?n'de?n]

adj.世俗的，平凡的；世界的，宇宙的

It was responding to mundane inquiries that could have waited two weeks — or forever.

只不過我們多數(shù)人都不是在做生意，而是在回復(fù)雞毛蒜皮的小事，這些事可以兩周后再處理——或者干脆不用理會。