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Bartleby巴托比The small consolations of office irritations 职场烦恼的小小安慰
The silver linings of interruptions and impostor syndrome
被干扰和冒牌者综合症的光明面
EVEN PEOPLE who love their jobs have a few gripes. Even people who excel at their work have their share of worries. The office environment makes it hard to concentrate; their colleagues are annoying beyond belief; their career path within the organisation is not obvious. There are aspects of the workplace, like “reply all” email threads and any kind of role-playing, which are completely beyond redemption. This column is here to administer the balm of consolation for some of work’s recurring irritations.
即使热爱自己工作的人也会有一些抱怨。即使工作出色的人也有自己的烦恼。办公室环境让人难以集中注意力；讨厌的同事令人抓狂；自己在组织中的职业发展道路也不甚清晰。职场的某些方面——比如“回复所有人”的邮件线程以及任何的角色扮演——已经完全无可救药了。本文是要为一些在工作中反复出现的烦恼提供一丝慰藉。
Start with a pervasive problem: being interrupted. You have muted notifications on Slack and cleared your calendar; the Prelude from Bach’s Cello Suite No 1 is playing; your fingers are poised above the keyboard and a thought of world-altering profundity is gradually taking shape in your mind. Then there is a knock at the door, and a colleague asks if you have a minute to discuss the air-conditioning. By the time they have gone, so has that momentous thought and any sense of well-being.
先从一个普遍的问题说起：被打扰。你已将Slack通知设置了静音，清空了日程表；巴赫《第一大提琴组曲》的前奏曲正在播放；你的手指已经在键盘上摆好，一个惊天动地的深刻想法在脑中逐渐成形。然后响起了敲门声，一个同事问你有没有时间讨论一下空调的事情。等到他们离开，那个伟大的念头也不见了踪影，任何泰然自若之感也随之消失。
Context-switching of this sort is more than simply annoying. A survey conducted in 2021 found that it takes people nine and a half minutes to resume a focused state of mind after switching between apps. But there is a bright side to being interrupted. A paper by Harshad Puranik of the University of Illinois Chicago and his co-authors asked a sample of employees in America to record how often they were distracted by colleagues and to report their sense of belonging to their organisations. They found that being interrupted involves a social interaction with colleagues that can strengthen a worker’s feelings of connection. The next time a knock comes, remind yourself that at least you are not lonely.
这样的心境转换不只是令人恼火。2021年的一项调查发现，人们从一个应用切换到另一个后需要九分半钟时间才能恢复专注的状态。但被打扰也有好的一面。伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校的哈沙德·普拉尼克（Harshad Puranik）等人在一篇论文中写道，他们请一些美国员工记录下他们被同事打扰分心的频率职场让人苦恼，并报告他们对所在组织的归属感。他们发现，被打扰也是一种与同事的社交互动，可以增强员工与他人的联结感。下次有人敲门时，提醒一下自己，至少你不孤单。
What about some of the characters who make office life so teeth-grinding? Every company has its share of toadies who specialise in managing up: flattering the bosses and claiming more credit than is their due. Unctuousness is undoubtedly irritating. But it, too, can sometimes have wider benefits.
那些让办公室生活变得令人咬牙切齿的人物呢？每个公司都会有以讨好上司为业的人：对老板阿谀奉承，善于邀功请赏。这种油滑无疑让人讨厌。但它有时同样可能从更广泛的层面带来好处。
Recent research by Wei Cai of Columbia Business School and her co-authors found that teams performed better when they had some crawlers among them. People who got better assessments from their superiors than from their peers in performance-review processes were designated as “upward influencers” in the study. Too many characters of this sort is bad: at some point, team members will expend more effort competing for recognition than getting actual work done. But because these personality types are prepared to invest more time communicating with their managers, the presence of a handful of them ensures that a team does not become invisible to the bosses. A few suck-ups can be good for everyone.
哥伦比亚商学院的蔡玮等人最近的研究发现，马屁精的存在会让团队的表现更优秀。在这项研究中，那些在绩效评估中获得的上司评价高于同事评价的人被划定为“向上影响者”。这种人太多了不好：多到一定程度，团队成员都会花更多精力去竞争老板的认可而不是完成实际工作。但由于这些性格类型的人更愿意花时间和上司沟通，团队中有几个这样的人反而确保了这个团队不会被老板忽视。有几个马屁精可能对大家都有好处。
What of traits that workers find most irritating about themselves, the things that may be holding them back? Impostor syndrome, the belief some people have that they do not deserve to be in positions of influence, is usually thought of as being bad for individuals and organisations alike. But it can have an upside.
那种让员工最自觉困扰并可能阻碍他们发展的特质又如何？“冒牌者综合症”是指一些人认为自己不配身居要职。一般认为这种想法对个人和组织都是有害的。但它也可能有好的一面。
Research by Basima Tewfik of the MIT Sloan School of Management found that people who worry about being an impostor are regarded by others as having better interpersonal skills than those who are untroubled by self-doubt. It may be that a concern about lacking competence leads people to compensate by developing stronger relationships with others. In a world that increasingly prizes collaboration and soft skills, that is not to be sniffed at.
麻省理工学院斯隆管理学院的巴斯玛·特菲克（Basima Tewfik）的研究发现，与那些从不自我怀疑的人相比，担心自己是冒牌货的人在其他人眼里却拥有更好的人际交往技巧。这可能是由于他们对自己的能力信心不足，因此会通过与他人建立更牢固的关系来加以弥补。在一个越来越重视协作和软技能的世界里，这一点不可小视。
Weaknesses can turn into advantages in other ways, too. The idealised entrepreneur may drip with confidence and charisma, for example. But not everyone fits that mould. In a recent study, Lauren Howe and Jochen Menges of the University of Zurich asked participants in an investment game who had been asked about their own flaws to allocate funds to startups. They found that entrepreneurs who reveal a personal shortcoming, such as indecisiveness or insecurity, are more likely to attract funding from investors who share these same characteristics. Some weaknesses are not to be admitted: stupidity, say, or narcolepsy. But flaws can sometimes help people get ahead, not hinder them.
弱点也可能转化为其他优势。例如，理想中的创业者可能自信满满、魅力十足。但并不是每个人都符合这种人格模式。在最近的一项研究中，苏黎世大学的劳伦·豪（Lauren Howe）和约亨·门格斯（Jochen Menges）请一个投资游戏中的参与者将资金分配给创业公司职场让人苦恼，这些人此前都被问及自己有什么缺陷。他们发现，那些坦承自己有某种性格缺陷——比如优柔寡断或缺乏安全感——的创业者更有可能从具有相同特质的投资者那里拿到融资。有些缺点是断然不能承认的，比如愚蠢或嗜睡。但弱点有时也可以帮助人们走到前头，而不是阻碍他们。
The problem with silver linings is that they are attached to clouds. You are still being interrupted all the time. You are still surrounded by annoying colleagues. Impostor syndrome still causes you unnecessary anxiety. Your weaknesses are still weaknesses. But there are bright sides to most things in office life, and they go beyond the payslip.
虽说每朵乌云都镶着金边，但乌云毕竟还是乌云。你仍然成天被打扰。你身边仍然围绕着烦人的同事。冒牌者综合症仍然引发你不必要的焦虑。你的弱点仍然是弱点。但职场生活中的大多数事物都有光明的一面，可不是只有工资单是好事。
