向低效率的“996”说不！今天，我要准时下班！

过度工作、待命、有成效的

用英语怎么说？

在网友们热议“996ICU”加班文化的时候，

马云的一句“能做996是一种巨大的福气”

可以说是一石激起千层浪。

国际劳工组织4月15日发布报告显示，

目前全球超过1/3的劳动人口，

工作时间过长，

即每周工作时长超过48个小时，

大大增加了意外受伤和生病的风险。

但是拼命工作真的意味着更多回报吗？

什么才是健康合理的工作时长？

怎样的工作环境才能提高效率？

When a new group of interns (实习生) recently arrived at Barclays (巴克莱银行) in New York, they discovered a memo in their inboxes (收件箱). It was from their supervisor (主管，上司) at the bank, and headed: “Welcome to the jungle (丛林，意在提醒实习生们竞争的激烈).” 

The message continued: “I recommend bringing a pillow （枕头，你办公室放了吗？） to the office. It makes sleeping under your desk a lot more comfortable ... An intern asked our staffer for a weekend off  （ask for ... off，请假, for 后面跟时间，e.g. a day, a weekwend）for a family reunion (家庭聚会) – he was told he could go. He was also asked to hand in his BlackBerry and pack up (打包整理) his desk.”

Although the memo was meant as a joke, no one laughed when it was leaked (泄露) to the media.

Nowadays, jobs are endlessly stressed (紧张的) and increasingly precarious (不稳定的). Overwork (过度工作) has become the norm (惯例，常规) in many companies – something expected and even admired. 

Everything we do outside the office – no matter how rewarding (有益的) – is quietly denigrated (被贬低). Relaxation, hobbies, raising children or reading a book are considered as laziness.

Technology was supposed to liberate (从…中解放出来) us from much of the daily slog (苦干), but has often made things worse.

In 2002, fewer than 10% of employees checked their work emails outside of office hours. Today, with the help of tablets （平板电脑）and smartphones, it is 50%, often before we get out of bed.

Some observers have suggested that workers today are never “turned off” （关机）. Like our mobile phones, we only go on standby (待命，很常用的词组) at the end of the day, as we crawl into bed exhausted （筋疲力竭地爬上床）.

Thankfully, a sea change (重大变化) is taking place. The costs of overwork can no longer be ignored. Long-term stress, anxiety and prolonged inactivity (久坐不动) have been exposed as potential killers (致命的事物，之前Lady Gaga一文中，killer还有厉害的意思).

When researchers at University College London looked at 85,000 workers, mainly middle-aged men and women, they found a correlation (相关，统计中的常用语) between overwork and cardiovascular problems (心血管疾病), especially an irregular heart beat (心律不齐), which increases the chances of a stroke (中风) five-fold (五倍).

Is there a healthy and acceptable level of work?

According to US researcher Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, most modern employees are productive (有成效的) for about four hours a day: the rest is padding (凑篇幅的文字，这里引申为无效率的工作) and huge amounts of worry. 

Pang argues that the workday could easily be scaled back (缩减，scale作为动词，还可以跟up/down，表示扩展/减少) without undermining (影响，破坏) standards of living or prosperity.

Other studies back up (支持) this observation. The Swedish government, for example, funded an experiment where retirement home (养老院) nurses worked six-hour days and still received an eight-hour salary. The result? Less sick leave (病假), less stress, and a jump in productivity.

But almost all of these studies focus on the amount of time spent working each day, year-in and year-out (年复一年地，更常见的是day in and day out 天天). 

We need to go further and begin to look at the conditions of paid employment （有偿工作）. If a job is overly stressful, even a few hours of it can be a nightmare （噩梦）.

In order to make jobs more conducive to (有益于) our mental and physical health, much less work is definitely essential (必要的). So too are jobs of a better kind, where hierarchies (论资排辈) are less authoritarian (极权的) and tasks are more varied and meaningful (多样和有意义).

文章来源：The Guardian

图片来源于网络 

小贴士

英语中通常动词后加副词来修饰，但有时动词后也会出现形容词，比如，文中出现的we crawl into bed exhausted。这里的形容词exhausted并非修饰动词crawl, 而是作为主语补足语，描述的是主语we的状态。

例如：The plane landed safe.= When the plane landed, it was safe.

A business should start small.= When a business starts, it should be small.

对于996的工作制，大眼觉得不能一概而论。对于自己热爱的工作，全力以赴、加班加点完成好，是一种幸福。但如果长期在低效率的环境中，被迫加班，那么对身心都是极大的摧残。今天的文章有一些生词，难度我打4颗星。我们还准备了干货满满的词汇表，欢迎收藏。

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