hello大家好！经济学家 Juliet Schor 表示，传统的工作方式需要重新设计。她在美国和爱尔兰等国家领导为期四天的工作周试验，迄今为止的结果非常积极：从提高雇主和客户满意度到收入增长和更低的营业额。Schor 以每周 4 天、32 小时的工作（带 5 天的工资）为例，解释了这种未来工作模式如何应对职业倦怠和工作压力等重大挑战。
演讲题目：The case for a 4-day work weekI've been studying work since the 1980s, and I've never seen anything like what's happening today. Pandemic-fueled anxiety is surging around the world. In the US, more than half of all employees report feeling stressed a lot of the day. Job quits are at record levels, running at four million a month. People are burning out.我从20世纪80年代开始学习工作，从未见过今天发生的事情。由大流行引发的焦虑情绪正在世界各地激增。在美国，超过一半的员工表示一天中感到压力很大。失业率达到创纪录水平，每月达到400万。人们都筋疲力尽了。In response, a growing number of companies are offering a four-day, 32-hour week, but with five days of pay. Now, it's not a new idea, but the pandemic has turbocharged it. Employers are realizing that if they can rethink where people work, they can also rethink how many days they're on the job.作为回应，越来越多的公司提供每周4天、32小时、但有5天工资的服务。现在，这不是一个新的想法，但大流行让它变得更加强大。雇主们意识到，如果他们能重新考虑人们在哪里工作，他们也能重新考虑自己的工作天数。Sounds pretty great, but is it realistic? Well, actually, yes. Unlike policies in which one party profits at the expense of another, the four-day week can benefit workers, companies and society, and it can even be a gateway for addressing climate change.听起来不错，但现实吗？事实上，是的。与一方以另一方为代价牟利的政策不同，四天工作周可以造福工人、公司和社会，甚至可以成为应对气候变化的契机。But first, let's talk about the workplace. For nearly a decade, companies and governments have been experimenting with shorter hours with no cuts in pay. While the results do vary, the research shows that people are less stressed, value their jobs more and have better lives outside of work. 但首先，让我们谈谈工作场所。近十年来，公司和政府一直在尝试在不减薪的情况下缩短工作时间。虽然结果确实有所不同，但研究表明，人们压力更小，更重视工作，工作之外的生活也更好。In most cases, they are as productive in four days as they are in five. Companies can also see benefits through lower turnover and a higher-quality applicant pool. Less burnout reduces health care costs, mistakes and poor service. With colleagues, I'm studying four-day week trials now in progress in the United States and Ireland, with summer start dates for the UK, New Zealand and Australia. We have thousands of employees participating.在大多数情况下，他们四天的工作效率和五天的工作效率一样高。公司还可以通过较低的人员流动率和较高质量的申请人群体看到好处。减少倦怠会降低医疗成本、失误和糟糕的服务。我和同事们正在研究美国和爱尔兰正在进行的每周四天的试验，英国、新西兰和澳大利亚的夏季开始日期。我们有数千名员工参与。Healthwise, an education company, didn't wait for our trial to begin. In June, their employees were quitting in droves. By August, they'd implemented a four-day week. Six months later, CEO Adam Husney reports that people are dramatically happier and have never been more productive. 教育公司Healthwise没有等到我们的试验开始。6月，他们的员工纷纷辞职。到8月，他们已经实行了一周四天的工作制。六个月后，首席执行官亚当·胡斯尼报告称，人们的幸福感大大提高，而且从来没有像现在这样富有成效。Resignations and sick days are down, revenue has grown and customer satisfaction scores are outstanding. Healthwise employees are spending their Fridays off doing family activities like sports or errands. One mother of young children reported that now she can occasionally manage a guilt-free pedicure. The four-day week can help with self-care and managing the daily stresses of systemic racism, sexism and classism.辞职和病假减少，收入增加，客户满意度得分显著。Healthwise的员工在周五休息，做运动或跑腿等家庭活动。一位有小孩的母亲报告说，现在她偶尔可以做一次没有内疚感的足疗。为期四天的工作周有助于自我照顾和管理系统性种族主义、性别歧视和古典主义的日常压力。Now a key part of the model is that in return for the gift of a day off, people are willing to squeeze all their productivity into four days. So while they may be spending less time at work, they're not necessarily doing less work. The secret sauce is work reorganization, cutting out the least productive activities. Meetings are a prime target. Yes, I see everyone nodding. Most companies reduce their frequency and length and the number of attendees. 现在，这个模型的一个关键部分是，作为对休假一天的回报，人们愿意把他们所有的生产力压缩到四天之内。因此，虽然他们在工作上的时间可能会减少，但他们不一定会减少工作。秘密在于工作重组，减少最低效的活动。会议是首要目标。是的，我看到每个人都在点头。大多数公司都会减少出席的频率、时间和人数。At Healthwise, people save time by messaging colleagues rather than making phone calls, which inevitably includes some social chatting. They shifted personal tasks, like doctor's appointments, to the off-day. And yes, the pace of work at the office does go up. "Let's be honest," one explained, "I'm not goofing off or looking at Facebook, which I was." But people have adapted and they prefer getting their downtime as a whole day off rather than in snippets.在Healthwise，人们通过给同事发信息而不是打电话来节省时间，这不可避免地包括一些社交聊天。他们把私人任务，如医生预约，转移到休息日。是的，办公室的工作节奏确实加快了。“说实话，”其中一人解释说，“我不是在偷懒，也不是在看Facebook，我就是这样。”但人们已经适应了，他们更喜欢把休息时间作为一整天，而不是零碎地休息。Government initiatives have similar findings. In 2015, the city of Reykjavik and then the National Government of Iceland started offering 36 and 35-hour weeks, eventually enrolling more than 2,500 employees. The results have been remarkable. Physical and mental stress went down while work ethic, job satisfaction, work-life balance, energy levels, all improved. 政府的举措也有类似的发现。2015年，雷克雅未克市和冰岛国家政府开始提供每周36小时和35小时的服务，最终招收了2500多名员工。结果是显著的。身体和精神压力下降，而工作道德、工作满意度、工作生活平衡、精力水平都有所改善。Productivity and service quality stayed the same or got better, and the trial was revenue-neutral. Today, roughly 85 percent of all Icelandic employees are either on or eligible for these schedules. The governments of Spain and Scotland have announced four-day week trials in which they'll be subsidizing the fifth day's pay.生产力和服务质量保持不变或有所改善，试验结果是收入中性的。如今，大约85%的冰岛员工都在或符合这些时间表。西班牙和苏格兰政府宣布了一周四天的试用期，他们将补贴第五天的工资。Now one reason for these successes is that with reduced work time, each hour typically becomes more productive. Norway and Denmark, the two European countries with the shortest average hours of work at about 1,380, have outsized productivity. France and Germany are similar. In contrast, the long-hours countries like the UK and Italy have much, much lower productivity.
现在，这些成功的一个原因是，随着工作时间的减少，每一个小时通常会变得更有效率。挪威和丹麦是平均工作时间最短的两个欧洲国家，约为1380小时，它们的生产率极高。法国和德国相似。相比之下，英国和意大利等工作时间长的国家的生产率要低得多。The US historically led the world in productivity and would likely do better now if its work time weren't so high. While tech firms comprise the biggest group adopting four-day reduced hours schedules, companies are also making the switch in banking, PR, marketing and design, nonprofits, consumer goods, even a restaurant chain.美国历来在生产率方面领先世界，如果工作时间不那么长，现在可能会做得更好。虽然科技公司是采用四天缩短工作时间的最大集团，但在银行、公关、营销和设计、非营利组织、消费品，甚至是连锁餐厅，公司也在进行转换。But it's also true that doing 100 percent of the work in 80 percent of the time isn't feasible everywhere. Manufacturing was sped up decades ago. Many teachers and flight attendants need to slow down, not intensify. And of course, health care workers on the front lines of the pandemic need to work less, not more.但同样正确的是，在80%的时间里完成100%的工作并不是在任何地方都可行的。几十年前，制造业加速发展。许多老师和乘务员需要放慢速度，而不是加大力度。当然，大流行前线的医护人员需要少工作，而不是多工作。Thank you, health care workers.Here, another government effort is instructive. In 2014, the city of Gothenburg in Sweden gave nurses at one of its facilities a six-hour day. As expected, the nurses' health and overall well-being improved, as did productivity and patient care. But in this trial, they hired new staff for the hours that weren't being covered. The striking finding was how much lower sick pay and unemployment benefits helped offset those additional salaries.在这方面，政府的另一项努力很有启发性。2014年，瑞典哥德堡市为其中一家医院的护士提供了每天6小时的服务。正如预期的那样，护士的健康和整体福祉得到了改善，生产力和患者护理也得到了改善。但在这次试验中，他们在未涵盖的时间内雇佣了新员工。令人震惊的发现是，较低的病假工资和失业救济金帮助抵消了这些额外的工资。Now the Swedish case raises a bigger, more existential question. How much time should we be dedicating to work? In many countries, jobs are getting more, not less demanding. And scarcity thinking, the idea that even rich countries need to tighten their belts, has taken hold. 现在，瑞典的案例提出了一个更大、更具存在主义的问题。我们应该在工作上投入多少时间？在许多国家，工作要求越来越高，而不是越来越低。稀缺性思维，即即使是富裕国家也需要勒紧裤腰带的想法，已经深入人心。But really, we should be heading in the opposite direction as digitization and artificial intelligence offer the chance to reduce work time. Amid pandemic fatigue, we should be doubling down on restoring the quality of life and our social fabric, especially in wealthy countries where we already produce enough for everyone to have a good standard of living.但实际上，我们应该朝着相反的方向前进，因为数字化和人工智能提供了减少工作时间的机会。在大流行性疲劳中，我们应该加倍努力恢复生活质量和社会结构，特别是在富裕国家，我们已经生产出足够的产品，让每个人都能拥有良好的生活水平。And this path has the added benefit of addressing the climate crisis. "How so," you may ask. Well, with the four-day week, there's the obvious impact of less commuting. But if we use productivity growth to continue to reduce hours of work just by a couple of percent a year, we can create a longer-term dynamic of decarbonization. Research by me and others has shown this time and again across countries, across states, across households. 这条道路还有应对气候危机的额外好处。“怎么会这样，”你可能会问。好吧，在一周工作四天的情况下，通勤减少会产生明显的影响。但是，如果我们利用生产率的增长，继续以每年仅百分之几的速度减少工作时间，我们可以创造一个更长期的脱碳动力。我和其他人的研究一次又一次地表明，这一点在各个国家、各个州、各个家庭都存在。One reason is that when people are time-stressed, they tend to choose faster and more polluting modes of travel and daily life activities. In contrast, when people get time rather than money, they tend to have a lower carbon footprint. But the bigger reason has to do with the size of the economy. 一个原因是，当人们面临时间压力时，他们往往会选择更快、污染更大的旅行和日常生活方式。相比之下，当人们有时间而不是金钱时，他们的碳足迹往往较低。但更大的原因与经济规模有关。By opting to work less, countries are choosing not to expand production to its max, thereby avoiding additional emissions. Carbon success stories like Germany and Denmark tend to have low annual hours. France and the Netherlands are also low on both carbon and work time. 通过选择减少工作，各国选择不将生产扩大到最大限度，从而避免额外的排放。像德国和丹麦这样的碳成功案例往往年工作时间较短。法国和荷兰的碳排放和工作时间都很低。The four-day week is a down payment on a new way to live and work. And yes, we're going to need government help if we're going to move beyond the innovative companies that already see its virtues. But as the three-day weekend spreads, we can realize everyone deserves a right to free time. And that brings the logic of a universal basic income squarely into view. Because without financial support, low-earners can't afford to take that fifth day off.每周工作四天是一种新的生活和工作方式的首付。是的，如果我们要超越那些已经看到其优点的创新型公司，我们将需要政府的帮助。但是随着三天周末的到来，我们可以意识到每个人都应该有自由时间。这就直面了全民基本收入的逻辑。因为如果没有经济支持，低收入者就不能请第五天假。There's a lot of talk these days about the future of work and the opportunities that it offers. But there's more at stake here than opportunity. We have an imperative. An imperative to face the challenges of our current moment. The pandemic, burnout and depression, inequalities of race and income, the climate crisis. A four-day week addresses each one of these.现在有很多关于工作的未来和它提供的机会的讨论。但这里的利害关系远不止机会。我们有当务之急。我们必须面对当前的挑战。流行病、倦怠和抑郁、种族和收入不平等、气候危机。每周四天的工作周可以解决这些问题。For now, we're starting company by company. But as momentum builds and it becomes universal, we'll have made the transition from scarcity thinking to appreciating the true wealth that we possess. Our ingenuity, our compassion and our humanity.目前，我们正在一家接一家地创办公司。但随着动力的建立和普及，我们将从稀缺思维转变为珍惜我们所拥有的真正财富。我们的聪明才智，我们的同情心和我们的人性。Helen Walters: Juliet, thank you so much. I have a very practical question for you. So you mentioned in the talk that people were taking Friday off. Is the recommendation that people all take the same day off, or is this something that people can take, kind of, any day they want off? What's the ideal mechanism to have in place here?海伦·沃尔特斯：朱丽叶，非常感谢。我有一个非常实际的问题要问你。你在演讲中提到人们周五休假。是建议人们都在同一天休息，还是人们可以在任何一天休息？这里的理想机制是什么？JS: Every company does it the way that works for them. And that's one of the things in our trial. We do coaching, and we work with the companies before they start to figure out are they a company that can shut down for one day? Do they need to have 24/7, you know, customer service available? So really, it depends, and we're seeing every type.JS：每家公司都是按照自己的方式来做的。这是我们审判中的一件事。我们做辅导，我们与公司合作，直到他们开始发现他们是一家可以关闭一天的公司吗？他们需要24/7的客户服务吗？所以说真的，这取决于我们看到的每一种类型。HW: Juliet, thank you so much.Remark：一切权益归TED所有，更多TED相关信息可至官网www.ted.com查询！![]()
