雙語閱讀：壞天氣更能激發工作熱情

摘要:　研究發現，每增加一英尺的降雨量，員工的交易速度就會提高1.3%。吉諾說：“我們同時還發現能見度低和極端天氣總是伴隨着高效的工作週期，同時陽光普照、清空萬里的天氣總是與相對低的工作效相聯繫。”

While the polar vortex has meant many thousands struggling to work through ice and snow, researchers have discovered that the terrible weather conditions could actually make them more productive.

Researchers at Harvard Business School found that in fact bad weather days make us more focused and productive.

壞天氣更能激發工作熱情

They also found that on warm, sunny days, productivity dropped dramatically.

'On a bad-weather day, people are better at focusing on their work not because the weather makes them grumpy but because they have fewer distracting thoughts about what they might otherwise be doing outside,' wrote Francesca Gino, an associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School

'Indeed, cognitive distractions and error rates were greater on nice days than on bad-weather days.'

The researchers asked 200 adults to predict the impact of weather on individuals’ work productivity.

More than 80 percent predicted good weather would increase productivity and about the same percentage predicted that bad weather would decrease productivity.

To test the prediction, the team looked at data from a midsize bank in Tokyo.

The bank had tracked employee productivity for two-and-a-half years following the launch of a new mortgage-processing system in June 2007.

During this period, the bank processed more than 56,000 loan applications, a process comprising about 600,000 individual data-entry tasks.

'Such tasks require high levels of attention and focus, which allow workers to complete their work faster and more productively.

'Thus, we expected higher productivity to be associated with fewer cognitive distractions.'

The team matched these figures to meteorological data in Tokyo during that period - and found that an increase in rain correlated with a decrease in the time it took for workers to complete their tasks.

A one-inch increase in rain was related to a 1.3% decrease in worker completion time for each transaction.

'We also found that low visibility and extreme temperatures also matched periods of high worker productivity.

'Meanwhile, clear, sunny days correlated with relatively low productivity.'

Gino said the 1.3% productivity loss is similar to the organization being short one worker on a given day.

She even urged firms to consult the weather forecast when planning staff levels.

'If an organization wishes to maintain a consistent work output, the weather forecast might be a valuable factor in a staffing model.

'Finally, given that weather depends on location, our research suggests that, holding all other factors constant, locating operations in places with worse weather may be may be good news for companies in Boston.'

他說：“事實上，人們在好天氣時認知上的精力分散和錯誤率都要比壞天氣發生得頻繁。”

研究人員讓200人蔘與預測了天氣對個人工作效率的影響。其中80%以上的人員選擇了好天氣會增加工作效率，還有幾乎同樣數量的人員選擇了壞天氣會降低效率。

爲了驗證這項預測，研究小組審視了一組東京一箇中等大小的銀行的數據。該銀行記錄下了兩年半以來銀行僱員對於2007年7月建立的按揭程序系統的操作情況。這是一項要求注意力高度集中、動作要快、效率要高的工作。研究小組通過對比該銀行的數據記錄和當時東京的天氣記錄，來分析該銀行員工工作效率的走勢。

研究發現，每增加一英尺的降雨量，員工的交易速度就會提高1.3%。吉諾說：“我們同時還發現能見度低和極端天氣總是伴隨着高效的工作週期，同時陽光普照、清空萬里的天氣總是與相對低的工作效相聯繫。”

吉諾隨即建議公司在評估員工水平時，參考一下天氣預報。她同時戲謔道：“因爲天氣與地域相關，我們的研究表明，在其他因素不變的情況下，選擇壞天氣籠罩的辦公地點更爲可取。這對於波士頓的公司來說可謂是個好消息。”