日本公务员提早3分钟午休买盒饭 领导公开鞠躬致歉 网友：太严格！
近日，日本神户水务局一名公务员因午休前三分钟就离开办公室去买午餐，而受到了批评和扣薪，相关领导也专门召开电视新闻记者会，向公众鞠躬道歉。
据报道，这名64岁公务员被发现在过去7个月中，26次提前离开办公室买盒饭，每次大约提前3分钟出门。根据相关规定，日本公务员的午休时间是中午12时至13时。日本媒体称，这次“午餐事件”的败露，是由于一名员工从办公室的窗户看到他离开办公室，径直前往了距单位不远的便利店。
水务局发现此事后，认为这名员工的行为违反了公务员服务法中要求的专心工作的规定，除了对其进行处罚，扣除薪水之外，水务局的领导还召开了公开记者会，几名官员一字排开对媒体鞠躬道歉。
He Left Work for 3 Minutes Before His Lunch Break. Now His Pay Is Docked.
午休前离开三分钟买便当，日本员工被扣半天工资
For the want of a bento box, a Japanese worker who habitually left his desk three minutes before his official lunch break has been docked[1] half a day's pay.
为了买便当，一名日本员工习惯在正式午休前离开办公桌三分钟。这个行为让他付出了半天工资的代价。
[1]dock: to remove part of something 克扣，扣发（尤指金钱）
As a punishment, the Army docked the soldiers' pay/wages by 20% and took away their leave.
作为惩罚，陆军方面扣发了士兵们20%的工资并取消了他们的休假。
The transgression[2] prompted four senior officials at the city waterworks department in Kobe to hold a news conference offering a public apology for the worker's conduct.
这起违规事件还促使神户市水务局的四名高级官员召开新闻发布会，就该员工的行为公开道歉。
[2]transgression:an action that breaks a law or rule 违反；罪过
https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=p1343ou8g5a&width=500&height=375&auto=0
“It's deeply regrettable that this misconduct took place. We're sorry,” one bureau official said, as all four bowed deeply.
“发生这种不当行为令人深感遗憾。我们很抱歉，”一位官员说，四名官员都深深地鞠躬。
The unidentified 64-year-old employee was fined thousands of yen and reprimanded[3] after an investigation found that he had left the office to order a bento box ahead of his lunch break on 26 occasions over a seven-month period, an official said.
经过调查，这名未被指名身份的64岁雇员被发现在7个月的时间内，26次在午休前离岗去买便当。官员表示，这名员工被罚款数千日元，并受到训斥。
[3]reprimand:to express to someone your strong official disapproval of them 训斥；申斥；谴责
She was reprimanded by her teacher for biting another girl.
她因为咬了另一个女孩而受到了老师的训斥。
The case caught the eye of social media users in a country known for its struggle with maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
在日本，这起案件在社交媒体上引发关注。
“It's sheer madness. It's crazy,” said one Twitter user.
“完全疯了。疯狂。”一名Twitter用户表示。
“Is this a bad joke? Does this mean we cannot even go to the bathroom?” said another.
“这是一个烂玩笑吗？这是不是意味着我们连洗手间也不能去了？”另一个人说。
Japan's work culture can be brutally punishing, spawning[4] cases like that of Miwa Sado, a young journalist at a public broadcaster who died of congestive heart failure after clocking 159 hours of overtime in one month. She was 31.
日本的工作文化有时很严酷，因此产生了像公共电视台的年轻记者佐户未和(Miwa Sado)那样的案例，她在一个月内加班159小时后死于心脏衰竭，年仅31岁。
[4]spawn: to cause something new, or many new things, to grow or start suddenly （使）产生，（使）突然增长
The new economic freedom has spawned hundreds of new small businesses.
新的经济自由催生了上百家新的小企业。
Employees consider napping in public — or in the office — a badge of honor. It telegraphs a sign of diligence and commitment: You are working yourself to the bone[5].
员工认为在公共场合或在办公室里打盹是一件光荣的事。因为这传达出一种勤奋和富有责任感的信号：你在拼命工作。
[5]更常用的说法是work your fingers to the bone: to work extremely hard, especially for a long time （尤指长期）辛苦劳作，拼命工作
She worked her fingers to the bone to provide a home and food for seven children.
她长年累月地辛苦劳作，好让7个孩子能有个家，能吃上饭。
In Japan, many workers consider needing to nap in public a sign of diligence and commitment.(在日本，许多员工认为在公共场合打盹是勤奋和有责任感的表现)
Public acknowledgment by officials and leaders of perceived wrongdoings is also expected in Japan, where rail conductors will beg forgiveness when a train is even a minute late, or early.
官员和领导者也会对错误行为公开认错。在列车晚点或早开的情况下，列车长会恳求原谅。
Such was the case November, when the Metropolitan Intercity Railway Company in Tokyo apologized on its website because a train left a station in Chiba, a suburban prefecture, 20 seconds early.
去年11月，东京首都圏新都市铁道株式会社在其网站上道歉，因为一列火车提早20秒离开了千叶站。
But the case of the waterworks employee calls into question the country's efforts to address a rise in karoshi[(日语)過労死], or death from overwork. In a 2016 government report on karoshi, nearly a quarter of companies surveyed said some employees were working more than 80 hours of overtime a month.
但是水务局员工的这种情况，引发了对该国解决过劳死事件增长问题的质疑。在2016年的一份关于过劳死的政府报告中，近四分之一的受访公司表示，一些员工每个月加班超过80小时。
Months later, Tadashi Ishii, the president of the advertising agency Dentsu, announced his resignation after an outcry[6] over the 2015 death of Matsuri Takahashi, 24, an employee who had killed herself by jumping from the roof of an employee dormitory.
几个月后，广告公司电通株式会社的社长石井直(Tadashi Ishii)在抗议浪潮下宣布辞职。2015年，该公司24岁的高桥茉莉(Matsuri Takahashi)从员工宿舍屋顶跳下自杀。
[6]outcry: a strong expression of anger and disapproval about something, made by a group of people or by the public 呐喊；大声疾呼；强烈抗议
The release from prison of two of the terrorists has provoked a public outcry.
释放两名恐怖分子激起了公众的强烈抗议。
Gen Oka, who is in charge of personnel affairs of the waterworks bureau of Kobe City, said in an interview on Friday that the employee had “left his desk about three minutes or so between 11:30 a.m. and 11:40 a.m. 26 times between September 2017 and March 2018.”
神户市水务局官员在接受采访时说，该员工在2017年9月至2018年3月间，“曾有26次在上午11点30分到上午11点40分之间离开办公桌大约三分钟”。
The employee, who is in charge of inventory control, told his supervisors that he went to a nearby restaurant to order a bento lunch because he needed a “change of pace.” But, the official said, “ordering lunch should be done during his lunch break, between noon and 1 p.m.”
这名负责库存控制的员工告诉他的上司，他去附近的一家餐馆买便当了，因为他需要“变换一下节奏”。但官员说：“订便当必须在12点至下午1点之间完成”。
The worker was caught when a senior colleague looked out his office window and spotted him walking to get food. Senior management calculated how much time he had spent away from his desk and docked him “thousands of yen as punishment,” Mr. Oka said, adding, “He said, ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘I will never do that again.’”
这名员工的行为被发现，是有一天一位高级别的同事望向窗外时发现这个人走在路上去拿食物。高级管理人员计算了他离开办公桌的时间，并对他进行了“数千日元的惩罚”，官员称这名员工说，“我很抱歉”，“我不会再这样做了”。
The official acknowledged that since making the announcement on June 15, the department had received some blowback[7], with people calling or writing on its website to complain. “We received about 50 or 60 such opinions,” he said.
官员承认，自从6月15日发布公告以来，该部门受到了一些抨击，有人打电话或在其网站上投诉。
[7]blowback:negative reactions or results that were not intended, such as criticism, protest, or anger 违背初衷的结果
But the department also got some support, he said, from people who said “we shouldn't hire such a person who leaves the desk during working hours.”
但他表示，该部门也得到了一些支持，有人表示“我们不应该雇用这样在工作时间离开办公桌的人”。
He defended the department's decision, saying, “It is our obligation as public servants to devote ourselves to the work.”
On Twitter, the waterworks employee's punishment drew puzzlement and criticism.
在Twitter上，对水务局员工的惩罚引发了困惑与批评。
“Leaving the desk for three minutes to order bento is not O.K., while leaving for 15 minutes smoking is allowed? That's strange. Kobe City should explain it,” one person wrote.
“离开办公桌三分钟订购便当不OK，那能允许离开15分钟抽烟吗？真奇怪。神户市应该做出解释，”一个人写道。
“Honestly, who cares? This is an unprecedented apology news conference,” another social media user said, adding, “Is it much of a loss for the city that four managers hold a news conference like this?”
“老实说，谁在乎？这是一个前所未有的道歉新闻发布会，”另一位社交媒体用户说，并补充说，”四个经理举行这样的新闻发布会对于这个城市来说是不是一种损失？”
Another person said: “What about all the politicians who sleep in Parliament? They ought to be fired, then.”
另一个人说：“那些在国会中睡觉的政客呢？他们应该被解雇。”
来源：New York Times
中文翻译仅供参考，并非一一对应