上下班一定會對我們的健康如此有害嗎

BBC News – Studies show that the growing distance between where we work and where we live can lead to burnout, poor sleeping habits, social isolation and even emotional problems for our children. Yet, newer research boldly argues that travelling to work could actually be a pretty important buffer separating home life from work life.

BBC新聞 – 研究顯示，我們工作地點和生活地方之間日益增長的距離，可導致倦怠，不良睡眠習慣，社交孤立，甚至對自己孩子的情緒問題。然而，最新的研究大膽認爲，上下班實際上可成爲把家庭生活與工作過程分開的相當重要的緩衝。

An international team of researchers surveyed 225 employees of a large media company in London earlier this year and found that the longer they commuted, the less happy and emotionally satisfied they were with their jobs. However, this negative relationship between commute time and job satisfaction didn’t exist for people who scored higher in one trait: self-control.

某國際研究團隊今年初調查了倫敦一家大型媒體公司的225名員工，發現上下班時間越長，他們從工作中感到的快樂和情感滿足就越少。但是，對在自控力這一特質上得分較高的人來說，通勤時間與工作滿意度之間的負相關關係並不存在。

People who have higher levels of self-control might ask themselves a series of questions on the morning commute, such as: What do I need to do today? How does that fit in with what I have to do this week? And will this play into my overall career goals?

自控程度較高的人可能會在早晨上班路上問自己一系列問題，比如：我今天需要做什麼？這與我本週要做的如何一致？這在我的整體職業目標中會發揮作用嗎？

By doing this for a few minutes each day on the morning commute, the study showed that people are better equipped to transition both psychologically and temporally from their home role (as a father, mother or housemate) to their work role (as a boss, subordinate or colleague) and, consequently, report fewer feelings of stress or burnout.

研究顯示，通過每天早晨上班路上的幾分鐘自我提問，人們可以更好地在心理上暫時完成從父親，母親或同屋人的家庭角色到老闆，下屬或同事的工作角色的轉變，因此，報告有壓力感或倦怠感的人要少。

While those of us who don’t drive to work may instead find time to read, answer emails or space out during our commute, it turns out, the solitary and unsociable way we behave on mass transit could actually be detrimental.

雖然我們中那些不開車的人，可能在上下班路上找到了時間閱讀，回電子郵件或出神，但結果表明，我們在公交車上表現出的孤僻不愛社交的行爲方式實際上可能是有害的。

Lain Gately, author of the book Rush Hour argued that we very frequently travel in conditions that would be considered inhumane for livestock…“We don’t really treat people as people. We treat them as if they’re part of the furniture.” That might help us to deal with overcrowding, but research shows it could be part of the reason our commutes feel so stressful.

《高峯時刻》一書的作者蓋特利認爲，我們很頻繁地在那種被認爲適合牲畜的非人性化環境中旅行…..“我們不是真的把人當人看。我們把他們當成司空見慣的東西。”這或許可以幫助我們應付過度擁擠，但研究顯示，這可能是我們上下班感到如此緊張的部分原因。

Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioural science at the University of Chicago in the US, said there’s a social paradox that plays out on trains and buses around the world every morning when commuters mistakenly seek solitude.

美國芝加哥大學行爲科學教授埃普利說，當上班族錯誤地尋求獨處時，每天早晨全世界的火車和公交車上就上演了一出社會悖論劇。

Epley said humans are extremely social animals who crave connectivity, yet we vastly underestimate how interested strangers would be in talking to us…He suggested leading with a compliment or observation as a potential icebreaker, and said his experiments suggest “both extroverts and introverts might be surprisingly happier if they were just a little bit more social than they are right now.”

埃普利說，人類是渴望聯繫的極其社會化的動物，然而，我們大大低估了陌生人與我們攀談的興趣程度……他提出，率先進行恭維或作出評論，就可能成爲打破僵局的破冰者，並說，他的實驗表明，“外向者和內向者都可能會出人意料地更快樂些，如果他們比現在合羣那麼一點點。”