每日英語跟讀 Ep.K183: Do Chance Meetings at the Office Boost Innovation? There’s No Evidence of It

When Yahoo banned working from home in 2013, the reason was one often cited in corporate America: Being in the office is essential for spontaneous collaboration and innovation.

雅虎2013年禁止在家工作，是基於一個在美國企業界經常被援引的理由：待在辦公室對自發性合作和創新至關重要。

“It is critical that we are all present in our offices,” wrote Jacqueline Reses, then a Yahoo executive, in a staff memo. “Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people and impromptu team meetings.”

時任雅虎主管的賈桂琳．雷瑟斯在一份員工備忘錄中寫道：「我們所有人都待在辦公室裡，這很重要。一些最佳決策和見解往往來自走廊和餐廳內的討論、與新人的會面及即興召開的團隊會議。」

Today, Reses, now CEO of Post House Capital, an investment firm, has a different view. “Would I write that memo differently now?” she said. “Oh yeah.” She still believes that collaboration can benefit from being together in person, but over the last year, people found new, better ways to work.

如今擔任Post House Capital投資公司執行長的雷瑟斯卻有不同看法。她說，「我現在會用不同方式寫備忘錄嗎？是的」。她仍相信面對面交流有助合作，但在過去一年，人們找到更好的工作新方式。

As the pandemic winds down in the United States, however, many bosses are sounding a note similar to Reses’ in 2013.

然而，隨著美國疫情逐漸平息，許多老闆現在說的話都跟2013年的雷瑟斯類似。

“Innovation isn’t always a planned activity,” said Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, about post-pandemic work. “It’s bumping into each other over the course of the day and advancing an idea you just had.”

蘋果執行長庫克談到疫情後的工作時說：「創新通常不是規劃好的活動。創新是你一整天遇上彼此，然後推進一個你剛想到的點子。」

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, said working from home “doesn’t work for spontaneous idea generation, it doesn’t work for culture.”

摩根大通執行長戴蒙表示，在家工作「不利自發產生創意，也不利企業文化」。

Yet people who study the issue say there is no evidence that working in person is essential for creativity and collaboration. It may even hurt innovation, they say, because the demand for doing office work at a prescribed time and place is a big reason the American workplace has been inhospitable for many people.

然而，研究這個問題的人表示，沒有證據顯示面對面工作對創造力與合作至關重要。他們說，這甚至可能會損害創新，因為要求在規定的時間地點辦公，是許多人無法待在職場的重要原因。

“That’s led to a lot of the outcomes we see in the modern office environment — long hours, burnout, the lack of representation — because that office culture is set up for the advantage of the few, not the many,” said Dan Spaulding, chief people officer at Zillow, the real estate marketplace.

房地產公司Zillow人資長史伯丁說：「這導致了我們在現代辦公環境中看到的許多結果，工時長、極度勞累、缺乏代表性，因為這種辦公室文化是為了少數人利益建立，而非多數人。」

“The idea you can only be collaborative face-to-face is a bias,” he said. “And I’d ask, how much creativity and innovation have been driven out of the office because you weren’t in the insider group, you weren’t listened to, you didn’t go to the same places as the people in positions of power were gathering?”

他說：「認為只能面對面才能合作是一種偏見。我想問的是，有多少創造力和創新被趕出辦公室，因為你不屬於內部團隊，你未被傾聽，你沒去那些掌權者聚會的地方。」

He and others suggested reimagining the office entirely — as somewhere people go to every so often, to meet or socialize, while daily work is done remotely. At Zillow, nearly all employees will be remote or come in only once in a while. Several times a year, teams will go to small offices set up for gathering.

他跟其他人建議，將辦公室完全重塑為人們不時見面或社交的地方，而日常工作則靠遠距完成。在Zillow，幾乎所有員工都遠距辦公，或只是偶爾進公司。團隊每年會有幾次到專門設立的小辦公室聚會。Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/5623453