TransferWise辦公室驚現員工桑拿房

When TransferWise, an online money transfer service, moved to new headquarters in London recently, it installed a sauna in its offices.

前不久，網絡匯款服務TransferWise將總部搬到了倫敦，還在新總部的辦公室裏裝了一間桑拿浴室。

This is the sort of extravagance that leads to much scoffing about tech start-ups, caricatured as preferring to invest in ping pong tables before turning a profit.

正是這類奢侈之舉，令高科技初創企業受到不少嘲笑，說它們比起盈利，更喜歡把錢投在乒乓球桌上。

But the sauna is more than a sign of excess. TransferWise’s founders are Estonian. Much of its operations are based in the Baltic country. During a recent conversation with Taavet Hinrikus, its co-founder, I was struck by how animated he became when describing the corporate culture he is trying to nurture.

但這間桑拿浴室不止象徵着揮霍過度。TransferWise的創始人是愛沙尼亞人，該公司的許多業務都位於這個波羅的海國家。最近我與其聯合創始人塔韋特•欣裏克斯(Taavet Hinrikus)進行了一次訪談，當他描述起自己正努力培養的企業文化時，整個人所呈現的活力令我印象深刻。

He wants his staff to believe they are part of “a revolution” rather than simply the workforce. He wants to foster respect in the office. “No drama means good karma,” he says. To instil these values, he sends all new recruits — from London or New York — to spend their first week in Tallinn, Estonia, where they take a crash course on the company’s history and values.

他希望自己的員工相信他們是“一場革命”的一部分，而不只是勞動力。他希望在辦公室中培養尊重感。欣裏克斯說：“沒衝突的環境纔是好環境”。爲了灌輸這些價值觀，他將所有新員工（來自倫敦或紐約）都送到愛沙尼亞首都塔林去度過入職第一週。在那兒他們將接受有關公司歷史和價值觀的速成培訓。

Creating a defined culture at a start-up matters, particularly for tech companies. Venture capital investment allows them to hire rapidly. But with such fast growth, newcomers at these organisations can find it difficult to assimilate, fail to understand the work culture, which can lead to staff pulling in different directions.

對於初創公司，尤其對於高科技初創企業而言，創立明晰的文化非常重要。風險投資令他們可以迅速擴充隊伍，可增速如此之快，令這些組織裏的新人感到很難同化，無法理解工作文化，從而導致員工被扯向不同方向。

In Silicon Valley, there is a tendency to solve this problem through creating bumper-sticker mottos. During a visit to Facebook’s offices in Menlo Park, California a couple of years ago, I saw posters plastered across walls featuring mantras such as “Move fast and break things” and “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”

硅谷在解決這類問題時，傾向於創造一些車尾貼式的格言。幾年前我在參觀Facebook位於加利福尼亞州門洛帕克的辦公室時，看到牆上貼滿了海報，上面醒目地印着一些口號，比如“思維要新，行動要快”，還有“無畏方能前行”。

The intention was to encourage workers to innovate and work at speed. The slogans felt Orwellian to an outsider. But throughout Facebook’s enormous offices, desks were occupied by fast-typing young people. I couldn’t find anyone loitering around the ping pong tables.

它們的目的是鼓勵員工創新，提高工作效率。在旁觀者看來，這些標語讓人感到奧威爾的意味。可是環視Facebook巨大的辦公室，滿眼皆是伏案快速敲鍵盤的年輕人。我沒看到有人在乒乓球桌附近閒逛。

Other tech companies offer perks with cultural goals in mind. Songkick, the British gig listing start-up, gives new recruits a box set of The West Wing.

還有的高科技公司在提供額外福利時，也不忘企業文化目標。Songkick是英國一家音樂演出信息推送初創公司，該公司會給新員工發一套《白宮羣英》(The West Wing)影碟。

Michelle You, Songkick’s co-founder, told me a few years ago that the US show represents an “idealised version of what we’d like to be like at Songkick. A place where people trust each other, are high performing, accountable, hold each other to high standards and are honest with each other.”

Songkick的聯合創始人Michelle You幾年前曾告訴我，這部美國電視劇代表了“我們所向往的Songkick的理想化版本，一個讓員工們彼此信任、效率高、負責、互相都堅持高標準，並且互相都誠實以待的地方。”

Evernote, the productivity app group, is among a number of Silicon Valley companies that allow employees to take “unlimited holidays”. Phil Libin, chief executive, says that his employees initially reacted by taking less time off. This forced him to insist all workers take at least one week’s holiday, offering $1,000 for those who organised a trip that “expands their mind”. The policy is intended to cultivate a creative and happy workforce.

還有一些硅谷公司允許員工“無限休假”，效率應用公司印象筆記(Evernote)是其中之一。該公司首席執行官菲爾•利賓(Phil Libin)表示，他的員工最初的反應是，休更短時間的假。這迫使他堅持所有員工至少要休一週假，並對那些組織一次“開闊視野”旅行的員工提供1000美元。這項政策旨在培養出一支有創造力的、快樂的員工隊伍。

The focus on culture yields results. According to a study by Glassdoor, the recruitment experts, entitled “Does company culture pay off?”, the share prices of public companies that were deemed good places to work and praised for their corporate values by employees, were found consistently to outperform the overall stock market.

對文化的注重帶來了回報。招聘網站Glassdoor進行了一項名爲“企業文化有回報嗎？”的調查，發現那些被員工認爲工作環境良好，且企業價值觀得到稱讚的上市公司，其股價表現一貫強於大盤。

Tech start-ups can stumble if they address culture too late. Many suffer from a “brogrammer” attitude that plagues digital start-ups dominated by young men.

高科技初創企業如果過晚處理企業文化問題，可能會在這上面栽跟頭。在年輕男性佔多數的數字初創公司瀰漫着一種“程序員兄弟會”(brogrammer)態度，許多公司都受此拖累。

Last year, Uber, the taxi app group, apologised after one of its top male executives said he might hire private investigators to dig into the private life of a female blogger who was critical of the company. The incident appeared to justify previous criticisms of Uber’s attitudes to women.

去年優步(Uber)一位男性高管說他可能會僱傭私家偵探，深挖一位女博主的私人生活，這位女博主曾批評過該公司，隨後這家打車應用公司爲此事做出道歉。這起事件似乎印證了先前優步在對女性態度方面所受到的批評。

In the past, Uber chief Travis Kalanick had described the company as “boober,” because of its effect on his sex life. Given Uber needs to ensure women feel safe using the service, as well as making it an attractive place for women to work, these were terrible errors. Mr Kalanick has since said the company must become “open and vulnerable enough to show people the positive principles that are at the core of Uber’s culture”.

優步首席執行官特拉維斯•卡蘭尼克(Travis Kalanick)曾形容這家公司爲“妞步”，因爲它造福了他的性生活。鑑於優步需要確保女性感到安全，才能讓她們使用這項打車服務，以及吸引她們來優步工作，上面這些都是可怕的錯誤。卡蘭尼克後來表示優步必須變得“足夠開放和敏感，以向公衆展示優步文化核心中的積極原則。”

Given the opportunities and pitfalls, it’s logical that entrepreneurs such as Mr Hinrikus spend time pondering their company culture. After all, how better to understand the roots and goals of a plucky Estonian start-up than conducting meetings in a sauna?

考慮到企業文化中的機遇和陷阱，欣裏克斯等企業家花時間琢磨企業文化是合理的。畢竟，要了解一家勇敢的愛沙尼亞初創公司的根源和目標，還有什麼比在桑拿浴室裏開會更合適呢？