職場英語:最佳工作時長探祕
In an uncertain job market, fortunate people with steady paying gigs often think twice before shutting down for the day. But is there any benefit to responding to those additional emails or hanging around the office for that extra hour? Is there a weekly hour sweet spot?
當前，就業市場充滿了不確定因素。因此，那些擁有穩定報酬的幸運兒們在收工之前通常都會三思而行。但是，再多回復幾封電子郵件，或者在辦公室無所事事地多呆一個小時，到底有沒有好處呢？每週的工作時長是否有一個最佳上限呢？
It's a tricky question. One hour per week is too little to do a job well, and 168 -- the total number of hours in a week -- isn't right either. Such a sleep-deprived person would be non-functional (not to mention smelly from a lack of showering).
這個問題非常棘手。每週工作1小時，肯定不可能做好工作；每週工作168個小時——整整一週全天24小時工作——也並不合適。因爲一個睡眠不足的人不可能正常工作（更不用說長時間不洗澡還會產生難聞的異味）。
The answer must be somewhere in the middle; a point of diminishing returns where previous hours boost productivity by a large margin, and additional work hours wouldn't help much. But what amount of hours could that be?
答案肯定是介於兩者之間的收益遞減點，在這個節點之前的工作時間可以大幅提高生產效率，但之後的額外工作時間卻並沒太大好處。問題是，到底多少個小時最合適呢？
In a competitive economy where people still value their family and leisure time, figuring out the answer could give businesses a strategic advantage, so it's no surprise that plenty of people have conflicting opinions on the matter.
在競爭激烈的經濟體中，人們依然重視家人和自己的休閒時間，找到這個問題的答案將使企業擁有戰略性的優勢。所以，在這個問題上，很多人的觀點相互衝突也就不足爲奇了。
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg tells graduates in his usual commencement address that "it never hurts to be the first one in in the morning -- and the last one to leave."
美國紐約市市長邁克爾•布隆伯格曾經在一次例行的畢業典禮演講中告誡畢業生們：“第一個到公司，最後一個離開，這樣做絕對沒壞處。”
In last year's bestselling book Rework, 37 Signals co-founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson complain about people who "try to fix problems by throwing sheer hours at them.... This results in inelegant solutions." Workaholics "aren't heroes," they write. "They don't save the day, they just use it up. The real hero is already home because she figured out a faster way to get things done."
在去年的一本暢銷書《重來》（Rework）中，37信號公司（37 Signals）聯合創始人賈森•弗萊德與戴維•海涅邁爾•漢森抱怨，有些人“指望靠單純投入時間來解決問題……結果卻拿不出什麼好辦法。”他們在書中寫道：“工作狂並不是英雄。他們不是在節約時間，而是在耗時間。真正的英雄已經回到家中，因爲她已經找到了更快捷的方法去完成工作。
