工作何须卖命？比起粗暴的996，管理人员更应该注意这些事儿

站在20年代的门槛上，我们看到的新闻既有“芬兰拟实行4天工作制”，也有“某灭霸老板要求设计人员一天出100张图”。批判劳资关系的不对等其实有点远了，近一点其实是管理上出了bug。

领导懒政怠政，没有思路和前瞻性，才会要求属下996加班加点出结果，这样的压榨跟简直让“狼性”这个词更加污名化。

未来十年，“996”所代表的长时间、高强度、快节奏还会是被很多管理人员推崇的工作形态吗？

下面推荐一本有趣而又反传统的管理学书籍《工作何须卖命》（It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy at Work），该书试图找出比“996”更富效率的工作模式，其内核在于，企业无需在要求员工疯狂加班的情况下实现利润增长。

编译：王海霞

来源：经济学人（2018.10.04）

管理学著作声誉不佳也是咎由自取。它们的作者大多把“行话”当作思想洞见一一也就是那种喜欢把铲子唤作“手工园艺工具”的人，其余的大部分著作充斥着精炼的陈词滥调，什么“打破模式”啦、“崇拜杀戮”啦。简言之你只有两种选择：要么看不懂，要么不用看。

MANAGEMENT books have a deservedly poor reputation.Too often they are written by people who confuse insight with jargon, the types who love to call a spade a “manual horticultural utensil”.At the other end of the scale are tomes containing a plethora of pithy platitudes about “breaking the mould” and “worshipping the kill”.The choice, in short, is between the incomprehensible and the inconsequential.

因此，读到杰森·弗莱德（Jason Fried ）、和大卫·海涅迈尔·汉森 （David Heinemeier Hansson） 的 《工作何须卖命》(It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy at Work） 一书时着实开心。两位作者在芝加哥经营着一家叫 Basecamp 的软件公司。他们的这本书文笔上乘、妙趣横生、打破传统，绝对是今年出版的管理学著作中的最佳。

So it was a joy for Bartleby to read “It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy at Work”, by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson,who run a software company in Chicago called Basecamp.Their book is funny, well-written and iconoclastic and by far the best thing on management published this year.

作者指出，经营一家企业，完全可以在不要求员工疯狂加班的情况下实现利润持续增长（他们就做到了）。疲惫的员工难有成效，因为“用蛮力是逼不出创造力、进步和影响力的”。睡眠不足的管理者很可能会变得焦躁不耐烦，反而影晌效率。

The authors argue that it is perfectly possible to run a business with consistently growing profits (as they do) without requiring employees to work madly long hours.Tired workers will not be productive since “creativity, progress and impact do not yield to brute force”.Sleep-deprived managers are likely to be counterproductively impatient.

Basecamp的员工每周工作40小时，到了夏季一周工作四天、共32小时。他们每年有三周假期（公司提供高达每人5000美元的补贴），每三年可休一次一个月长假。另外，每个月可享受一次水疗按摩。弗莱德和海涅迈尔·汉森说，这些才是正确的福利。

Basecamp employees have a 40-hour week, except in the summer when the company runs a four-day, 32-hour week.They also get three weeks’ holiday every year (subsidised by the firm to the tune of $5,000 per person),a month-long sabbatical every three years, and a monthly massage at a spa.Those are the right sort of perks, say Messrs Fried and Heinemeier Hansson.

很多公司给予员工的福利都不对 ，像是免费晚餐、游戏室和小吃吧。这都是公司为让员工在办公室主5待些时候而耍的花招。如果有公司宣称“我们都是一家人”，员工们就要小心了一一这也是个诡计，为的是让员工优先考虑雇主，而不是自己真正的家人。

The wrong kind, found in many offices, include free dinners, games rooms and snack bars, which are all devices to keep employees at the office for longer.Workers should also beware of companies that declare “we’re all family here”——a ruse to get workers to put their employers ahead of the needs of their real families.

这本书对公司文化提出的另一条批评是办公室已成为制造干扰的工厂。人们之所以加班到很晚，是因为他们已经没法在办公室里把活儿干完。在一个600人出席的大会上，作者问有谁最近有连续工作三、四个小时没被打断的经历，只有30个人举手。

Another criticism of corporate culture levelled by the book is that offices have become interruption factories.People are working longer and later because they cannot get stuff done at the office any more.At a conference attended by 600 people, the authors asked how many had recently enjoyed 3-4 hours of uninterrupted work; only 30 hands went up.

二人认为，开放式办公室尤其难以提供适当的环境，让员工去做需要安静的、创造性的工作。因此，Basecamp实行“图书馆馆规”，员工只能轻声交谈，如果需要开会就要另找房间。

Open-plan offices are particularly bad at providing an environment for calm, creative work, they argue. So “library rules” are imposed at Basecamp. Conversations are kept to a whisper and there are separate rooms when meetings are needed.

Basecamp 避免开会，特别是那种很多人参加的大会。作者指出的一点很有道理：“八个人开一个会，花费的不是一个小时，而是八个小时”。没必要通过备忘录或给全体员工发邮件让他们了解公司发展的每一个动态。公司鼓励员工“享受错失”（JOMO, joy of missing out的缩写），这样他们就可专注于自己的工作内容。

Meetings are avoided, especially those involving lots of people. As the authors rightly point out: “Eight people in a room doesn’t cost one hour, it costs eight hours”. Workers do not need to be kept abreast of every single corporate development via memos or all-staff emails. The firm encourages JOMO, the “joy of missing out”, so employees can concentrate on their own work projects.

另一个减压的方法是避免让截止日变成“要命日”一一设定不切实际的完成时间，项目要求却又一变再变 。“目标都是假的。”两位作者如此写道。他们认为，领导大笔一挥定下的目标数字在被达成或放弃之前，只会成为无谓的压力之源。

Another way to reduce stress is to avoid turning deadlines into “dreadlines”—unrealistic targets for project completions accompanied by ever-changing requirements. “Goals are fake,” the authors write. In their telling, made-up numbers function as a source of unnecessary stress until they are either achieved or abandoned.

员工也不应要求同事第一时间回应自己的询问。几乎在所有的情形下，期待他人当即作出回覆都是不现实的。给员工多一些时间，他们有可能给出更周全、更有帮助的答复。

Nor should workers demand that their colleagues deal with a query straight away. In almost every situation, the expectation of an immediate response is unrealistic. Allowing workers more time means they can come up with a more considered and helpful answer.

在表述公司总体目标时，措辞应谦逊。太多企业都在谈论要“改变世界”和成为“颠覆者”。这样的目标实在太过浮夸，让所有人都背负沉重压力。身为一名管理者，如果你以尽心服务客户、平等对待员工为己任，结果也许就不赖。

The overall aim of the firm should be couched in modest terms. Too many businesses talk about “changing the world” and becoming a “disrupter”. Such aims are far too grandiose and put everyone under too much pressure. As a manager, if you set out to do a good job for your customers, and to treat your employees fairly, things will probably turn out fine.

简言之，这本书力图说服管理者别把自己的“使命”看的那么重，倒是要多多重视员工。此外高管们应停止在工作伦理与长时间工作之间划等号。工作不应该那么疯狂忙乱。一家淡定的公司可以在造福员工的同时也赚取丰厚的利润。

In short, the book aims to persuade managers to take their “mission” less seriously and to take their employees more so. Furthermore, executives should stop equating the work ethic with the practice of working long hours. Work should not be frantic. A calm company can be good for employees and very profitable as well.

在Basecamp工作的体验是不是真像作者们描述得那样好，作为局外人很难知晓。《福布斯》杂志去年将该公司评选为美国最佳小型公司之一。Basecamp是一家私营公司，也没有维权投资者要去讨好，这两点不无帮助。

Whether or not it is as nice to work at Basecamp as the authors make it sound is hard to tell from the outside. It was voted one of America’s best small companies in 2017 by Forbes, a magazine. It helps that the group is private and has no activist investors to please. Some of its practices might not be possible at a giant, listed firm.

它的有些举措对于巨头上市公司来说可能并不可行。但众多高管都应仔细思考它传达的信息。眼下把员工逼到拼命的公司太常见了，而从长远来看，在办公室引入放松的氛围也许会更富成效。

But a lot more executives ought to reflect on its message. A relaxed ethos in the office might work better in the long run than the hard-charging approach that, at the moment, is all too common.

来源：新金融评论