文章来源： 《经济学人》Apr 10th 2021 期 International 栏目
不管你喜欢还是讨厌，虚拟会议已经存在了
虚拟精神错乱
最新研究显示了远程工作的成本和效益
Apr 10th 2021
GEORGINA IS IN no hurry to get back to the office. The 37-year-old, who works in financial services in Geneva, has been working from home for most of the past year. Doing so allowed her to skip her commute, wear tracksuit bottoms and avoid awkward conversations about her pregnancy. She is now on maternity leave but her colleagues are trickling back into the office. Meetings all still take place via Zoom; her colleagues dial in individually from their desks so those working from home do not feel excluded. But Georgina worries that, as restrictions ease, people will rush back to their pre-pandemic ways and that working from home will once again be the exception.
tracksuit 运动服
maternity 孕妇的
trickle 稀稀拉拉；一点点
乔治娜不急着回办公室。37岁的他在日内瓦从事金融服务工作，去年大部分时间都在家工作。这样一来，她就不用去上班，可以穿着运动裤，也不用尴尬地谈论她怀孕的事。她现在正在休产假，但她的同事们正慢慢地回到办公室。所有会议仍然通过Zoom进行;她的同事们在办公桌上单独拨入电话，这样在家工作的人就不会感到被排斥。但乔治娜担心，随着限制的放松，人们会匆忙回到大流行前的生活方式，在家工作将再次成为例外。
Videoconferencing platforms, such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom (now so ubiquitous it has become a verb), made remote work possible as covid-19 spread and countries locked down. Staff once needed permission to work from home; they now need it to go to the office. All kinds of work that once took place in person—from yoga classes to medical appointments—have moved online. The daily number of participants in Zoom meetings jumped from around 10m at most at the end of December 2019 to more than 300m four months later.
ubiquitous普遍存在的
随着新冠病毒的传播和各国的封锁，微软团队和Zoom(现在无处不在，它已成为一个动词)等视频会议平台使远程工作成为可能。员工曾经需要在家工作的许可;他们现在需要去办公室的许可。从瑜伽课到医疗预约，所有曾经在人身上进行的工作都转移到了网上。参加Zoom会议的日人数从2019年12月底最多约1000万人，在4个月后飙升至逾3亿人。
The shift has been good for the planet. Videoconferencing uses less than a tenth the energy required for in-person meetings once travel and equipment are accounted for. The benefits for people, in terms of their mental health and relationships with colleagues, are less clear. Some have come to enjoy interacting through screens. Others are exhausted by their colleagues’ inability to master the mute button. However people feel, virtual work is here to stay, says Tsedal Neeley of Harvard Business School. The trick, she argues, will be keeping the good parts and finding workarounds for the bad.
workaround 变通办法
这种转变对地球有益。如果算上旅行和设备，视频会议的能耗还不到面对面会议的十分之一。对人们的心理健康和与同事的关系的好处就不那么清楚了。有些人已经开始喜欢通过屏幕进行互动。其他人则因为他们的同事无法掌握静音键而筋疲力尽。哈佛商学院(Harvard Business School)的Tsedal Neeley表示，无论人们感觉如何，虚拟工作仍将存在。她认为，关键是要保留好的部分，为不好的部分找到变通方法。
A year into the pandemic, many are suffering from Zoom fatigue. New research from Stanford University has laid out the science behind it. The first problem with video calls is that they force people to stare at their colleagues in close-up. Talk to someone on a laptop using the default configuration on Zoom and their face appears as big as it would be if the two of you were standing 50cm apart. At such proximity the brain is hard-wired to expect either a punch or a kiss. Endless eye contact makes the experience more stressful still. People rarely lock eyes for long during meetings in person. On video calls participants peer into their screens constantly and then wonder why they feel as though everyone is staring at them. Jeremy Bailenson, director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab and the study’s lead author, compares the experience to cramming co-workers into a lift and forbidding them to avert their gazes.
in close-up 在特写镜头中
hardwired 遗传的
avert ones eyes or gaze from sth 不再看某物
在大流行爆发的一年里，许多人都患上了zoom疲劳症。斯坦福大学的一项新研究揭示了这一现象背后的科学依据。视频通话的第一个问题是，它迫使人们近距离盯着的同事看。如果你在笔记本电脑上使用Zoom的默认配置，对方的脸就会变得和你俩相距50厘米时一样大。在如此接近的位置上，大脑会本能地期待一拳或一吻。无休止的眼神交流会让过程更加紧张。在面对面的会议中，人们很少长时间地注视对方。在视频通话中，参与者不断地盯着屏幕看，然后想知道为什么他们觉得每个人都在盯着自己看。斯坦福大学(Stanford University)虚拟人际互动实验室(Virtual Human Interaction Lab)主任、该研究的主要作者Jeremy Bailenson将这种体验比作把同事塞进电梯里，不让他们转移视线。
Poor connection
连接不良
Videoconferencing also eliminates important non-verbal communication. People nod dramatically in an effort to send non-verbal cues that in face-to-face meetings they send naturally. That is tiring. In real life you can see your colleagues fidgeting as your presentation drags on. That is less obvious online. People speak 15% louder on video calls than they do in person, which becomes exhausting. Delays in transmission, common when internet connections are spotty, make communication harder still. A gap of just 1.2 seconds makes participants seem less attentive, friendly and conscientious.
fidget 坐立不安
spotty 不稳定的；断断续续的
视频会议也消除了重要的非语言交流。人们戏剧性地点头，努力传达非语言的暗示，而这样的暗示在面对面的会议中他们会自然地传达。这是累人的。在现实生活中，你可以看到你的同事因为你的演讲拖得太久而坐立不安。这在网上就不那么明显了。人们在视频通话时说话的声音比当面通话时大15%，这会让人筋疲力尽。当网络连接不稳定时，通常会出现传输延迟，这使得通信更加困难。1.2秒的延迟会让与会者看起来缺少专注、友好和认真。
Building trust without these social cues is difficult, says Paul Fisher. Mr Fisher, who teaches negotiation at the Saïd Business School at Oxford University, has recently started a module on virtual communication. Every late response to an email and glance to the side on a video call breeds suspicion. Virtual negotiations are “more likely to reach an impasse”, Mr Fisher says, as negotiators struggle to understand each other’s emotions and grow frustrated.
Paul Fisher说，没有这些社交暗示就很难建立信任。 Fisher在牛津大学Saïd商学院的谈判课程，最近开设了一个虚拟沟通模块。每迟回一封邮件，或在视频通话中的侧视，都会引起怀疑。 Fishe表示，虚拟谈判“更有可能陷入僵局”，因为谈判代表难以理解彼此的情绪，而且越来越沮丧。
The constant image of yourself on such calls is also trying. In June 2020 Gabrielle Pfund at Washington University surveyed women—narrowing her search by sex because women often report more issues around body image than men—and found respondents reported spending on average 40% of their time on video calls looking at their own face. Endlessly scrutinising your wrinkles and puffy eyes is not good for your self-esteem.
trying 令人难受的，恼人的，令人烦恼的
scrutinize 仔细观察
puffy 肿胀的
self-esteem 自尊
你在这些电话中不变的形象也令人难受。2020年6月，华盛顿大学(Washington University)的Gabrielle Pfund对女性进行了一项调查（根据性别来缩小她的调查范围，是因为女性通常比男性报告更多关于身体形象的问题），调查发现，受访者称，她们在视频通话中平均花了40%的时间在看自己的脸。无休止地审视自己的皱纹和浮肿的眼睛对你的自尊没有好处。
Virtual meetings have proved a mixed blessing for women in other ways. In one survey of women working in engineering and technology, almost a third of respondents said they were talked over, interrupted or ignored more frequently during such conferences than they were in person. But virtual meetings also free women from tiresome judgments. Bobbi, who is high up at a big consultancy, describes herself as “petite”. She does not miss being sized up in meetings. Deborah Tannen, a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University, points out that deciding what to wear to a virtual meeting is less of a minefield. “You dont have to worry about how long or short your skirt is,” she says.
high up 要人，身居高位者
size up 评价
minefield 雷区；危机四伏的局面
事实证明，虚拟会议在其他方面对女性来说是喜忧参半。在一项针对工程技术行业女性的调查中，近三分之一的受访者表示，与当面交谈相比，她们在此类会议中被谈论、被打断或被忽视的次数更多。但虚拟会议也让女性免于无聊的评判。在一家大型咨询公司担任高级职位的波比(Bobbi)称自己“娇小”。她并不怀念在会议上被人评价。乔治城大学(Georgetown University)语言学教授Deborah Tannen指出，在虚拟会议中决定穿什么衣服并不会踩雷。她说:“你不用担心裙子的长短。”
The past year has also shown that, to the surprise of some bosses, many people labour harder when they barely have to get out of their pyjamas. According to a study of 3m employees at 21,500 companies published in September by Harvard Business School, they worked longer hours, dealt with more emails (see chart) and attended more meetings (a dubious measure of productivity) when the pandemic struck and work first shifted online.
pyjamas 睡衣裤
dubious 不一定好的；犹疑的
过去的一年也表明，让一些老板感到意外的是，许多人在几乎不需要脱下睡衣的情况下工作得更卖力。哈佛商学院(Harvard Business School) 9月份公布的一项针对21500家公司300万名员工的研究显示，当疫情爆发并首次将工作转移到网上时，他们工作时间更长，处理更多电子邮件(见图表)，参加更多会议(这是一种不一定好的生产率衡量标准)。
That will make it harder in future for managers to refuse when employees ask to work from home. “One of the big questions last March was: would people essentially watch Netflix all day?” says Jared Spataro, head of Modern Work at Microsoft. It seems they do not.
这将使管理者在未来更难拒绝员工要求在家工作的要求。“去年3月的一个大问题是:人们是否会整天看Netflix?”微软现代工作主管Jared Spataro表示。看来他们并没有。
Virtual work does have advantages. On video calls everyone appears as an equally sized, randomly arranged square; that has a certain democracy. Markers of status, such as taking the seat at the head of the table or next to the boss, have disappeared. Time differences permitting, staff anywhere in the world can hear from their bosses directly in mass meetings and can collaborate with distant colleagues.
虚拟工作确实有优点。在视频通话中，每个人看起来都像一个大小相同、随机排列的正方形;这有一定的民主。代表地位的标志（如坐在桌子首位或老板旁边的位置）都消失了。如果时差允许，世界上任何地方的员工都可以在大型会议上直接听到老板的声音，也可以与远方的同事合作。
Some feel uncomfortable about blurring the boundaries between their home and work lives, but it is also helping co-workers get to know one another. One in five people has met colleagues’ pets or families virtually during the pandemic, according to a Microsoft survey. That breeds comradeship. One in six has cried with a co-worker as the stresses of lockdowns take their toll, according to the same poll. “Previously you had a work persona and a home persona,” says Krish Ramakrishnan of BlueJeans, a videoconferencing service owned by Verizon Communications, an American telecoms group. “During the pandemic there is just one persona.”
comradeship 同志情谊
to take its toll (on sb/sth) （对某人/某事物）产生恶果
persona 角色
有些人对模糊家庭生活和工作生活的界限感到不舒服，但这也有助于同事们相互了解。根据微软的一项调查，五分之一的人在流感大流行期间与同事的宠物或家人在网上见过面。那可以培养友谊。同一项调查显示，六分之一的人曾因封锁带来的压力过大而与同事一起哭泣。美国电信集团威瑞森通信旗下的视频会议服务公司BlueJeans的克里什•拉马克里什南表示:“以前你有一个工作角色和一个家庭角色。”“在大流行期间，只有一个角色存在。”
Take Sherry S. Wang, a radiologist in Utah. Before covid-19 one physician at a local hospital dropped by her room there to show her scans. Now that she works from home, he calls via Skype. She had never seen his office or the tchotchkes it is filled with. “I feel like I know him better now,” she says.
radiologist 放射学家
physician 内科医生
tchotchke 小玩意儿，不值钱的装饰品
以犹他州的放射科医生 Sherry S. Wang为例。在covid-19之前，当地一家医院的一名医生到她的房间给她看了扫描结果。现在她在家工作，他通过Skype给她打电话。她从没见过他的办公室，也没见过里面装着的小装饰品。“我觉得我现在更了解他了，”她说。
WFH SMH FML
Other aspects are less appealing. Morag Ofili, a lawyer in London, changed jobs last year. Virtual drinks with new colleagues sounded fun at first. But Ms Ofili soon found that socialising with strangers via video call feels awkward and lacks the “energy” of the pub. “Fundamentally, I’m in a room on my own,” she says.
其他方面就没那么吸引人了。伦敦律师Morag Ofili去年换了工作。刚开始，和新同事虚拟喝酒听起来很有趣。但Ofili很快发现，通过视频电话与陌生人进行社交会感到尴尬，而且缺少酒吧里的“活力”。她说:“从根本上说，我是在一个房间里独自一人。”
For good or ill, a hybrid model of online and in-person meetings seems inevitable in the aftermath of the pandemic. A survey by PwC at the end of 2020 found that over 80% of employers reckon remote work has been a success. Some 70% of executives are planning to increase investment in virtual-collaboration tools. Almost 65% plan to plough money into training managers to deal with a virtual workforce.
无论是好是坏，在疫情过后，在线会议和面对面会议的混合模式似乎不可避免。普华永道在2020年底的一项调查发现，超过80%的雇主认为远程工作已经取得了成功。大约70%的高管计划增加对虚拟协作工具的投资。近65%的受访者计划投入资金培训管理人员，以应对虚拟劳动力。
The coming months will be devoted to working out how to avoid the worst aspects of telework. Harry Moseley, chief information officer at Zoom, takes his dog for a walk twice a day in lieu of a commute. He opts for audio-only calls when he is on the go or speaking briefly with colleagues he knows well. Non-stop videoconferencing over an eight-hour workday leaves users exhausted and bottom-sore.
接下来的几个月，我们将致力于研究如何避免远程办公带来的最糟糕的方面。Zoom公司的首席信息官Harry Moseley每天会遛两次狗，以代替通勤。当他外出或与熟悉的同事简短交谈时，他会选择音频通话。每天八小时不间断的视频会议，会让用户精疲力竭，屁股酸痛。
After a year of working from home, over 40% of employees surveyed in 31 countries said they still lacked office essentials such as a printer. One in 10 did not have an adequate internet connection. Managers are using their imaginations to keep their staff engaged. Courtney Hohne is the communications chief of X, a secretive arm of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. She uses flashcards with a series of icebreakers to start frank, unstructured conversations. They range from “It was something you said,” to “You have no idea what’s really going on here.” If nothing else, staff can bond over the misery of such exercises.
flashcard 识字卡
icebreaker 活跃气氛的话；活跃气氛的行为
在家工作一年后，在31个国家接受调查的员工中，超过40%的人表示他们仍然缺乏打印机等办公室必需品。十分之一的人没有足够的互联网连接。经理们正运用他们的想象力让他们的员工保持忙碌。Courtney Hohne是谷歌母公司Alphabet的秘密部门X的通讯主管。她使用识字卡和一系列活跃气氛的话来开始坦率的、非结构化的对话。谈话内容从“这是你说的话”到“你根本不知道这里到底发生了什么”。至少，员工们可以因此类活动的痛苦而团结在一起。
More sophisticated use of technology will improve the experience of virtual work. Many businesses forced online last year rushed into using videoconferencing for everything. But other tools work well for different tasks. At LeanIn.Org, a women’s organisation that encouraged remote work long before the pandemic, teams rely on shared Google Docs. That allows for “asynchronous work”, where colleagues work on a task together but in their own time. Meetings start with silent brainstorming using Jamboard, a virtual whiteboard. The goal, says Rachel Thomas, the group’s boss, is to communicate in different ways to include different people—slow and fast thinkers, verbal and visual learners, introverts and extroverts.
更复杂的技术应用将改善虚拟工作的体验。许多去年被迫线上上班的企业都争相使用视频会议。但是其他工具对于不同的任务也很有效。在http://LeanIn.Org网站一个妇女组织，早在流感大流行之前就鼓励远程工作，团队依靠共享的谷歌文档。这就允许了“异步工作”，即同事们在各自的时间一起完成一个任务。会议以使用Jamboard(一种虚拟白板)进行无声的头脑风暴开始。该组织的老板雷切尔•托马斯(Rachel Thomas)表示，他们的目标是通过不同的方式与不同的人进行交流（慢速思维者和快速思维者、语言学习者和视觉学习者、内向者和外向者）。
The makers of such products are trying to improve them, too. To lend structure to the “shapeless workday”, Microsoft Teams is introducing a “virtual commute” that eases users into the day with questions about what they need to get done. BlueJeans now allows people to highlight key moments in a video call and record them for others to watch later in an effort to combat the “FOMO” (fear of missing out) that rages among a remote workforce. With new filters, Zoomers can add a unicorn horn to lighten the mood. The company has also rolled out an end-to-end-encrypted option to allay privacy concerns.
lend 增添
allay 减轻
这些产品的制造商也在努力改进它们。为了给“不成形的工作日”增添结构，微软团队推出了一种“虚拟通勤”，让用户带着他们需要做什么的问题轻松地进入一天。如今，人们可以在视频通话中选定关键时刻，并将其录制下来供他人稍后观看，以消除远程办公人群中普遍存在的“FOMO”(害怕错过)。有了新的滤镜，Zoom使用者可以添加一个独角兽角来减轻情绪。该公司还推出了端到端加密的端到端加密选项，以缓解人们对隐私的担忧。
Technology will help those who decide to carry on working from home to feel more included. The Zoom Rooms function for conference rooms is being upgraded with a “smart gallery” tool. Cameras will detect the faces of those physically present at meetings and display them side by side on the screens of those who join virtually.
科技将帮助那些决定继续在家工作的人感到更多的被包容。会议室的Zoom功能正在升级为“智能画廊”工具。摄像头将检测到会人员的面部表情，并将其并排显示在虚拟与会人员的屏幕上。
Such a future may sound lonely and tiring. But those who worked remotely before the pandemic, such as Tara Van Bommel of Catalyst, a non-profit organisation, say things will be different. As Ms Van Bommel points out: “Normally, at the end of the day you go out and see your friends.” Working on Zoom should prove less tiring when the rest of life moves offline. ■
这样的未来可能听起来孤独而累人。但是那些在疫情爆发前就在远程工作的人，比如来自Catalyst(一家非盈利组织)的Tara Van Bommel，认为情况会有所不同。正如Van Bommel所指出的:“通常，在一天结束时，你会出去看望朋友。” 当生活的其余时间都离线时，使用Zoom应该会证明不那么累。■
