為什么我們在工作時更無禮？

10 為什么我們在工作時更無禮？

Last Tuesday on my way to work I was waiting to cross a road when a middle-aged woman next to me dropped some coins on to the pavement.Six people bent down to retrieve them for her.A man in a smart navy suit fumbled in the gutter to find a 1p piece, which he proceeded to hand over.The only person nearby who didn't help was me — but that was because I was holding on to my bicycle.

上周二，我在上班的路上等著過馬路，旁邊一位中年女士將幾枚硬幣掉落在人行道上。6個人躬下身去幫她撿。一位身著考究海軍藍西裝的男士，在排水溝里摸索著找出1便士，然后還給她。唯一一個站在一旁卻沒幫忙的人就是我——而那是因為我正扶著自行車。

Instead, I found myself telling the group that what I'd witnessed made me pleased to be a Londoner.Everyone was in a hurry to get to work.Yet everyone instinctively paused to be nice to a stranger who had lost less than a quid in small change.The good Samaritans looked at me doubtfully.Being kind was one thing; talking to strangers quite another.As soon as the lights changed they bustled off to their City offices.I bustled off to mine.

相反，我對這群人說，看到這一幕使我為自己身為一個倫敦人而高興。每個人都趕著去上班。而每個人都本能地停下來幫助一個掉了不足一英鎊零錢的陌生人。這些好心人莫名其妙地看著我。助人為樂是一回事；跟陌生人說話則完全是另外一回事。交通燈一變，他們就匆匆趕往各自位于金融城的辦公室。我也趕往我的辦公室。

When I arrived I walked to my desk straight past various colleagues staring at screens, some of whom were wearing headphones.I didn't greet any of them.I dumped the previous day's dirty tea cup in the communal sink and took a clean one from the cupboard.I sat down, looked at my emails and resolved not to reply to any of them.I went up to the canteen, bought myself a greasy pastry, which I ate at my desk, scattering crumbs all round me.

到了公司，我徑直走向自己的辦公桌，路過一眾盯著電腦屏幕的同事，他們有的正戴著耳機。我跟他們誰也沒打招呼。我把前一天的臟茶杯扔進公用水槽，又從櫥柜里拿了只干凈的。我坐下，查看電子郵件然后決定一封也不回。我去餐廳給自己買了塊油乎乎的糕點，坐到辦公桌前吃，弄得周圍都是碎屑。

This is my routine every morning at the office; I wouldn't have been at all surprised if some of the Samaritans were doing something similar at theirs.How people behave at work isn't all that nice.We are more thoughtful to perfect strangers in the street than we are to our colleagues in the office.At work we ignore people, we stink them out with our lunches, we arrive late to meetings.We talk loudly when others are trying to work, or we whisper distractingly when we don't want everyone to hear.

這就是每天早上我上班后的例行程序；我一點也不奇怪那些好心人中也有人在他們辦公室干類似的事兒。人們在工作中怎么就表現(xiàn)得沒那么友善呢。我們對街上的陌生人要比對辦公室的同事體貼得多。在工作中我們無視他人，用自己的午飯把別人熏走，開會時姍姍來遲。我們在別人努力工作時高談闊論，又在不想被人聽到時令人心煩意亂地竊竊私語。

Management experts call this “workplace incivility”, which they define as “l(fā)ow intensity deviant behaviour” that is not necessarily intended to harm its target, but does so anyway.I didn't set out to be uncivil to my colleagues by not saying hello or by ignoring so many emails.This is just how office life has become.

管理專家們將此稱為“工作場所的不文明行為”，并將其定義為“低強度越軌行為”，這些行為雖不一定是有意為之，但仍妨害到了別人。我不打招呼或?qū)Υ罅侩娮余]件置之不理，并非故意對同事們失禮。只是職場生活已變了樣。

Research suggests such rudeness is rampant and doing real harm.It makes people hate their jobs, it makes them less creative and more stressed.It might even (though I'm doubtful) make us more prone to heart attacks.

研究顯示這樣的無禮非常普遍并正在造成實實在在的危害。它使人們厭惡本職工作，缺乏創(chuàng)意并壓力倍增。甚至可能（雖然我懷疑）會使我們增加罹患心臟病的風險。

It isn't immediately obvious why offices are becoming less civil.Human nature hasn't changed much.In my experience, when something big goes wrong in the office, people are very nice indeed.But six things have changed that may have made us all ruder in little ways.

為何辦公室變得不那么文明了并非一目了然。人性沒有太大改變。依我的經(jīng)驗，當辦公室里出了什么大事時，人們會相當友善。然而六種事物發(fā)生了改變，可能以不甚起眼的方式使我們所有人都無禮了許多。

The first is email.As there is far too much of it to reply to we've learnt not to — or to send terse one word answers — both of which are rude.And having mastered the art of ignoring emails we are now learning to ignore anything we don't feel like doing.Answering the phone at work is becoming optional — which is rude not only to the person on the other end, but to the colleagues subjected to endless ringing.

首先是電子郵件。因為實在有太多郵件要回于是我們學會了索性不回——或生硬地只回一個詞——兩種方式都很無禮。而且自打掌握了忽視郵件的技巧我們現(xiàn)在正學著忽視所有我們不愿做的事。上班時接電話變得很隨性——這不僅對打電話的人很無禮，對忍受沒完沒了鈴聲的同事們也是一樣。

The second invitation to incivility is the smartphone, which has made appearing to listen when someone else is talking — hitherto a mainstay of good manners — no longer required.This month I was at a conference at which not only was three-quarters of the audience (me included) staring at their phones, but half the people on the panel were openly tweeting or Whatsapping as the man at the lectern droned on.

其次招致不文明行為的事物是智能手機，它令傾聽別人講話——一直以來的基本禮節(jié)——變得可有可無。這個月我參加了一個會議，當主講人發(fā)言時，不僅四分之三的聽眾（包括我在內(nèi)）盯著手機看個沒完，連半數(shù)的討論者都公然發(fā)著推特或使用著Whatsapp。

Open plan offices are also made for incivility.Now that we are herded together in public spaces, what would have been fine in private offices (eating noisily, talking loudly on the phone etc) becomes less so.It is thanks to open plan offices that we have the rudest office invention of the lot — headphones.These shout: I'm here, but I wish I wasn't.

開放式辦公室也為不文明行為提供了土壤。既然我們一起被趕到了公共空間，那以往在私人辦公室里無礙的行為（大聲吃東西、講電話等等）就變得不那么合適了。多虧開放式辦公室，讓我們有了最粗魯?shù)霓k公室發(fā)明——耳機。戴這些玩意兒就好像在喊道：我在這，但我不想在這。

Hot desking and flexible working have made things worse still.When you are not sitting with the same people every day, and may not even know the person who dumps themselves down next to you, there is no incentive to be particularly nice as you won't see them tomorrow.

辦公桌輪用制和彈性工作制令情況變得更糟。當你每天和不同的人比鄰而坐，可能都不知道旁邊郁郁寡歡的人是誰時，你就會沒有興致表現(xiàn)得特別友好，因為明天就見不到他們了。

Possibly worse than any of this is the cult of busyness, which has made rudeness not just acceptable but admirable.If it is impressive to be busy, then it is good to keep people waiting, good to turn up late to meetings and good to be so preoccupied that you end up blanking people in the corridor.

或許最糟糕的當屬對忙碌的推崇，這使無禮不僅能被接受還令人稱羨。倘若忙碌了不起，那讓人干等著也無妨，開會遲遲不露面或由于太投入而在走廊擋別人的路也都無所謂。

All this is pretty fundamental, and it isn't clear how to get civility back.

這一切都是非?；镜?，而如何讓禮貌回歸卻不清楚。

The only way that might work is rude in itself: it is secretly to video people behaving badly and send it to them, or share more widely.Almost everyone is decent really.Few people like to think of themselves as rude.A 10-second video of someone cutting a colleague dead or eating disgustingly might have an agreeably corrective effect.

唯一奏效的辦法也許是無禮本身：把人們的不佳表現(xiàn)偷偷拍攝下來然后發(fā)給他們，或分享地更廣泛些。幾乎每個人都很體面。很少有人認為自己無禮。一段10秒的視頻，記錄某人對某位同事不理不睬或吃相不雅也許會收獲令人愉快的矯正效果。

詞匯總結(jié)

retrieve [r?'tri?v]

vt.[計]檢索；恢復；重新得到

vi.找回獵物

n.[計]檢索；恢復，取回

Six people bent down to retrieve coins for her.

6個人躬下身去幫她撿硬幣。

Samaritans 樂善好施的人

The good Samaritans looked at me doubtfully.

這些好心人莫名其妙地看著我。

bustle off 使忙亂；催促

I bustled off to my office.

我也趕往我的辦公室。

greasy ['gri?s?; -z?]

adj.油膩的；含脂肪多的；諂媚的

pastry ['pe?str?]

n.油酥點心；面粉糕餅

I went up to the canteen, bought myself a greasy pastry, which I ate at my desk, scattering crumbs all round me.

我去餐廳給自己買了塊油乎乎的糕點，坐到辦公桌前吃，弄得周圍都是碎屑。