假装是聪明的工作方式

 　　Is shirking just a smarter way of working?

　　假装是聪明的工作方式？

　　“Fudgelling”, I learned the other day, is an 18th-century word meaning “pretending to work when you’re not really working”, which goes to show it’s an age-old phenomenon. (There’s also the Italian phrase giacca civetta, or “owl jacket”, a modern coinage to describe the jacket slung¹ over a desk chair, late at night, while its owner is enjoying la dolce vita.)

　　前几天我了解到“Fudgelling”是一个18世纪的单词，它的意思是“假装工作”，这说明这是一个自古便有的现象。（还有意大利短语giacca civetta或者是“猫头鹰夹克”，这是一个现代的词汇，用来描述夹克挂在书桌的椅子上，实指深夜时夹克的主人过着马切罗式的逃避生活）

　　假装是聪明的工作方式

　　Today, with work demanding more of us than ever, it’s no surprise to witness the rise of extreme fudgelling. In a recent study, the academic Erin Reid spent time at an unnamed US management consultancy that exp plans to stay late, etc. She discovered that 31% of men and 11% of women found ways tects total devotion from employees: responding to emails at midnight, cancelling birthday plans to stay late,etc.She discovered that 31% of men and 11% percent of women found ways to “pass” as workaholics: they vanished from work without telling anyone, or made covert² deals with colleagues so they could spend time with their families.

　　今天,随着工作的要求越来越多,人们不难看到极端fudgelling的兴起。在最近的一项研究中,美国学术艾琳·里德在一个不知名的管理咨询公司做实验计划待到很晚。她发现31%的男性和11%的女性找到谁是全情投入工作的员工的方法:午夜回复邮件,熬夜取消生日聚会等。她发现31%的男性和11%的女性找到了作为工作狂的“通行证”:他们没有通知任何人便从工作中消失,或者为了能够花时间与他们的家人（在一起）,而与同事秘密做交易。

　　And here’s the thing: it worked. People who made formal arrangements to reduce their workloads³ - more often women - got penalised for not pulling their weight. Yet the fake workaholics, predominantly men, were seen as no less devoted⁴ to their jobs than the real ones, and were rewarded accordingly. This says something depressing about sexism, but it also shows that what was being rewarded wasn’t relentless⁵ work, but the appearance of relentless work.And here’s the thing: it worked.

　　现在的情况是:它确实有效。通常情况下，女性通过做出正式工作安排减轻压力，却因为不尽责而受到惩罚。因此然而,假的工作狂,主要是指男人,他们并没有和真正的工作狂一样尽心付出，却也得到相应的奖励。这里便提出了性别歧视这样令人沮丧的问题，同时表明，获得奖励并不是因为刻薄无情的努力工作，而是努力工作的表象：这种方式确实有效。

　　What we are dealing⁶ with here is “signalling”- in this case, how we communicate the message that work’s getting done, which doesn’t always mean work’s really getting done.

　　我们在这里讨论的是“信号”，是指在这种情况下，我们如何传达正在工作这种信息，而这并不总是意味着真正在工作。

1 slung   

抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往

参考例句：

• He slung the bag over his shoulder. 他把包一甩，挎在肩上。
• He stood up and slung his gun over his shoulder. 他站起来把枪往肩上一背。

2 covert   

adj.隐藏的；暗地里的

参考例句：

• We should learn to fight with enemy in an overt and covert way.我们应学会同敌人做公开和隐蔽的斗争。
• The army carried out covert surveillance of the building for several months.军队对这座建筑物进行了数月的秘密监视。

3 workloads   

（某一人或组织）工作量，工作负担( workload的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Project management software can provide such visibility into everyone's skills and workloads. 项目管理软件可以提供这样的能见度到每个人的技能和工作量。
• Doctors have complained of heavy workloads. 医生投诉工作越来越繁重。

4 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

5 relentless   

adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的

参考例句：

• The traffic noise is relentless.交通车辆的噪音一刻也不停止。
• Their training has to be relentless.他们的训练必须是无情的。

6 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。