帶病上班不是好事大綱

I woke up one morning last week with all the usual signs of a nasty cold: thumping headache, blocked nose, spousal accusations that I had spent the night snoring like a pregnant hippo.

上週的一個早晨，我一覺醒來後，感到劇烈頭痛、鼻塞，令人討厭的感冒症狀一應俱全。老公抱怨說，我就像懷孕的河馬，一晚上都在不停地打鼾。

Then I did what almost everyone I know does on a day like this. I got up and went to work. On the way in on the Tube, I was coughed and spluttered over by a lot of people dressed for a day at the office. When I got to my desk, doubtless laden with fresh supplies of pathogens, the air was ringing with the familiar snivels of a London autumn.

然後，我做了我認識的幾乎每個人在這樣的一天都會做的事情：起牀，去上班。在地鐵車廂裏，很多穿戴整齊去上班的人在我面前不停地咳嗽，唾沫飛濺。當我好不容易趕到自己的辦公桌時，我無疑又被覆蓋了一層新鮮的病原體，空氣中倫敦秋天熟悉的吸鼻涕聲此起彼伏。

Such is the state of what the human resources industry has come to call presenteeism, or coming to work when ill. A tide of research shows this is bone-headed and counter-productive, for companies as well as workers.

這就是人力資源行業所謂的假性出勤(presenteeism)，即帶病上班。大量研究表明，這是一種愚蠢的做法，對公司和員工自己都適得其反。

Everyone knows a day in bed speeds recovery and stifles the spread of germs in the office. People with more serious ailments than a sniffle face worse woes by continuing to work, especially where mental health is concerned.

每個人都知道，臥牀休息一天會加快身體恢復，同時防止病菌在辦公室裏蔓延。患有比流鼻涕更嚴重疾病的人，帶病工作的後果更嚴重，特別是在精神健康方面。

I have heard several experts claim that presenteeism is now a bigger problem in the UK than absenteeism and could even help explain the country’s dismal productivity growth. I have no idea if that is true. What I do know is that I am tired of reading the “good news” that a growing number of companies are cottoning on to the presenteeism problem and doing something about it.

有幾位專家稱，目前在英國，假性出勤是比缺勤更大的問題，甚至可能有助於解釋英國生產率增長乏力。我不知道這是否屬實。但我確實知道，我厭倦了“好消息”：越來越多的公司開始瞭解假性出勤問題，並着手採取對策。

This generally takes the form of “workplace wellness” programmes full of once unimaginable perks: cheap gym membership, quinoa salads in the canteen, stand-up desks and the odd massage. This is standard stuff for most people I know in large organisations.

這些對策通常以“工作場所健康”計劃爲形式，包括各種以往難以想象的小福利：健身俱樂部入會優惠、公司食堂供應藜麥沙拉、站立式辦公桌、還有偶爾的按摩。對於我認識的大部分在大公司任職的人，這些都是標準的公司福利。

Some have it even better. A friend who works for a big American company’s London outpost told me over a drink the other night that his office not only has its own gym, physiotherapist and masseur, but also an in-house dentist.

有些公司提供更好的小福利。我的一位朋友在一家美國大公司的倫敦辦公室任職。不久前的一個晚上，我們在一起喝酒時，他告訴我，他們辦公室不僅有自己的健身房、理療師、按摩師，還有一名內部牙醫。

American businesses are demons for the corporate wellness trend. It makes sense in the US, where companies pay the health insurance costs of workers. And personally, I have nothing against lunchtime dentistry or kale smoothies. I am sure they do more good than harm. But I do not believe such things alone will do much to stop people coming to work when they are ill.

美國企業是引領企業員工健康趨勢的奇葩。這在美國是有道理的，因爲美國企業一般要爲員工的醫保買單。而就我個人來說，我不反對午餐時間獲得牙醫服務，或享用甘藍菜冰沙。我相信，這些小福利的好處多於壞處。但我不相信這些小福利本身能夠有效阻止員工在生病時仍然上班。

The chief reasons people soldier on have nothing to do with how fit they are. It is because they work for leaner, more stressed, companies where redundancies are common and the pressure to do more with less is constant.

人們堅持上班的主要原因與他們的健康狀況無關，而是因爲他們爲更加精簡、壓力更大的公司工作，裁員是家常便飯，用更少資源做更多事的壓力持續存在。

This makes some people fret that they will be targeted in the next round of redundancies if they have taken a lot of time off. Others worry about lumbering stretched colleagues with more work in their absence.

這種環境令一些人擔心：如果他們請假太多，他們將在下一輪裁員中成爲被裁對象。還有些人擔心，自己請假會讓本已不堪重負的同事承擔更多的工作。

These workers are not to be confused with the most tedious presentee-ists, who insist on showing up half dead at the office to demonstrate how indispensable they are to the operation. Nothing can be done for these people and thankfully they are probably in a minority.

不要把這些人與那些最無聊的假性出勤者混爲一談。後者半死不活地在辦公室露個臉，就爲了顯示自己對公司業務有多麼不可或缺。對於這一類，公司也沒什麼可做的，幸虧他們很可能只是少數。

As for people like me, my excuse for going to work is that I was not entirely sure if my symptoms were due to a virus or a late-night of blathering after a red-eye flight. I bet on the latter, which seems to have been right so far.

至於像我這樣的人，去上班的理由是，我不能完全肯定我的症狀是由病毒引起、還是由於坐了紅眼航班後深夜還與人海闊天空地聊天所致。我猜想是後者，到目前爲止，這似乎是對的。

The answers to the presenteeism problem are not clear, especially if you work in an industry undergoing serious technological disruption, which seems to cover most sectors today. I phoned up one of the people credited with coining the term presenteeism, Professor Cary Cooper of the Alliance Manchester Business School, to see what he thought.

假性出勤問題還沒有明確的答案，特別是如果你所在的行業正在經歷顛覆性的技術變革。如今這種變革似乎覆蓋了大多數行業。曼徹斯特商學院(Alliance Manchester Business School)的卡里?庫珀(Cary Cooper)教授據稱是發明“假性出勤”這個詞的學者之一。我打電話給他，請他談談他的看法。

He agreed that there is not much to be said for “silly things” like ping-pong tables and office bean bags.

他同意，對於在辦公室放乒乓球桌和懶人豆袋沙發等“犯傻行爲”，沒什麼可多說的。

Rather, he thinks the solution lies in training line managers to be better at spotting when employees are under too much stress or ill, and dealing with the situation sensibly — skills that the average MBA student is taught too rarely.

相反，他認爲，解決方案是對部門經理進行培訓，以便在員工面臨過大壓力或生病時，能夠更及時地發現並給予關照——這些是一般的MBA學生沒有學過的技巧。

I think he is on to something, even if management ranks are also thinning out in ever-leaner organisations. I do not expect anything to change soon but at least someone has come up with a better idea than handing out another batch of gym vouchers.

我認爲他說到點子上了，即便在越來越精簡的組織，管理者隊伍也在不斷壓縮。我不期望情況很快就會改變，但至少有人提出了一個比再發一批健身房使用券更好的設想。