我爲什麼喜歡FT辦公室 I love my office despite the coffee stains and mice
The Financial Times occupies an audaciously undistinguished building on the fringes of the City, in which the carpet tiles are coffee-stained, functional desks are arranged in lines and mice roam freely.
英國《金融時報》佔據了倫敦金融城(City of London)邊緣一棟十分不起眼的建築，地毯上有咖啡漬，功能性的辦公桌排成行，老鼠在其間自由遊蕩。
Yet to me the office is entirely satisfactory as it has each of the four things I mind about most. There are interesting people to talk to; a desk of my own that I can keep as tidy or messy as I like; a location easy to get to on a bicycle and a man on the door who says “hello, Lucy” every time I go in.
然而，我對我的辦公室非常滿意，因爲我最在意的4樣東西在辦公室裏都有。這裏有值得交談的有意思的人；有一張我自己的桌子，我可以隨心所欲地保持桌面整潔或者凌亂；我騎自行車就可以輕鬆上下班；而且門口有個人在每次我進門的時候會和我打招呼“你好，露西”。
In an ideal world two further things would be nice: a bit more daylight; a view of something other than a hideous red-brick building. But then I suppose you can’t have everything.
在理想的情況下，再加上兩樣東西就好了：多一點陽光；除了難看的紅磚建築以外，從窗戶還能看到點別的東西。但我想，你總不可能擁有一切。
Or can you? During the past few months I have been visiting a series of brand new offices whose owners are so pleased with them that they invited me (along with an FT camera crew) inside to snoop around.
還是說，你其實可以？過去幾個月，我走訪了一系列全新的辦公室，其主人們對這些辦公室十分得意，因此他們邀請我（以及英國《金融時報》的一個攝製組）入內探訪一番。
The first thing I noticed is that people have got better at building offices. They are no longer designing white-collar factories for getting your head down. Nor are they building places intended to inspire fear and envy by the extent of the marble reception hall or size of the indoor waterfall. Instead the modern office is a bright, egalitarian space, a temple to fun and creativity.
我注意到的第一件事是，人們在建造辦公大樓方面更加拿手了。他們不再設計讓人埋頭工作的“白領工廠”，也不再建造藉助龐大的大理石大堂或壯觀的室內瀑布來激起敬畏和豔羨的建築。現代辦公室光線充足、彰顯平等，是崇尚樂趣和創造力的聖殿。
It doesn’t matter how uncreative your business — you can be a firm of accountants, a multinational selling soap powder — the emphasis is still on playfulness, with a look that is somewhere between kindergarten and modern furniture showroom.
無論公司的業務多麼缺乏創意都沒有關係——你可以是一家會計師事務所，或者是一家銷售洗衣粉的跨國公司——這些辦公室的重點依然放在趣味上，看起來介於幼兒園和現代傢俱展示廳之間。
In all the offices I visited, fluorescent lights are out and funky lampshades are in. Primary colours are everywhere. There are no straight lines. At the CBI, the employers’ group and possibly the least playful organisation in the UK, each employee has a coaster on their desk with a picture of them pulling a funny face.
在我走訪的所有辦公室裏，熒光燈管都已被淘汰，取而代之的是時髦的燈罩。到處都是原色。沒有任何直線。僱主團體——英國工商業聯合會(CBI)可能是英國最不好玩的組織，每名僱員的桌子上都放着一個杯墊，上面印着他們自己做鬼臉的照片。
Everything is arranged to encourage meeting and mingling: there are “pods” and “hubs” and seats upholstered in jewel colours. The bodily and spiritual needs of the worker — never a concern for office designers in the past — are all catered for. There are comfy, private places to make phone calls, healthy food, fancy gyms and even meditation rooms.
一切佈置都是爲了鼓勵接觸和交往：不少辦公室有“獨立艙”、“樞紐區”和罩着寶石色椅套的椅子。員工的身體和精神需求——過去的辦公樓設計者從不考慮這些事情——都得到照顧。這些辦公室有舒適、私密的場所讓員工打電話，還有健康食品、設備齊全的健身房，甚至冥想間。
Is this progress? Even though I detest the infantilising primary colours and the insistence on compulsory fun, I can’t pretend these new offices don’t look nicer than my own. Yet I’m still not sure how much difference it makes to the experience of the people who work in them.
這是一種進步嗎？儘管我討厭幼稚的原色和帶有強制意味的“好玩”，但我很難否認這些新辦公室看着比我自己的辦公室更好。然而我依然不確定，這能給在其中工作的人們的體驗帶來多大區別。
As gyms and food are widely available outside the office, it is surely not much of an advantage if they are inside, too. And it is hard to believe cooler furniture means higher productivity. At home I care about my surroundings more than is seemly. I have just bought a lampshade so expensive I have to tell myself it is a work of art to justify the outlay. Yet as soon as I get to the office, I take a rest from such materialistic excesses. The style of the lights doesn’t move me at all. I simply don’t care. None of it belongs to me, I’m not responsible for it, and that feels like a relief.
鑑於健身房和食物在辦公室外面隨處可得，在辦公室裏提供這些肯定算不上一項多大的優勢。而且也很難相信更酷的傢俱會帶來更高的生產率。在家裏，我過分在意環境。我剛剛買了一個十分昂貴的燈罩，爲了給這筆花銷找理由，我不得不告訴自己這是一件藝術品。然而，當我抵達辦公室的時候，我就能從這種過度的物慾中暫時解脫。辦公室裏的燈具風格無法讓我爲之所動。我根本不在乎。這裏的任何一件東西都不屬於我。我也無需負責，這給人一種輕鬆感。
One thing I did covet were the spectacular views some offices had over London — to sit all day with the city spread out before you must be agreeable. But even then I’m not sure how much difference it would make. The FT office has four sides, three of which offer dismal views, while one looks out over the Thames to St Paul’s. Yet the people with the river view don’t strike me as any more productive or happier than anyone else. Like most privileges, the river view gives a minor boost on receipt — but then if you try to take it away, all hell breaks loose.
我的確豔羨從一些辦公室的窗戶能看到倫敦的壯觀風景線——看着整個城市在眼前鋪開，這樣坐一整天一定很愜意。但我依然不確定這能帶來多大的不同。英國《金融時報》的辦公樓有四面，從其中三面看到的景色都不怎麼樣，只有一面可以看到泰晤士河和對岸的聖保羅大教堂(St Paul’s)。然而在我看來，能欣賞河景的同事並不比其他人更有效率或者更快樂。就像大多數特權一樣，河景剛開始有一些輕微的提振效果——但一旦你試圖把它撤走，人們就會鬧翻天。
Yet even with their great views and jaunty decor, I still wouldn’t swap any of the offices I visited for my own. In almost all of them, one big thing was badly wrong — too many of the desks were empty.
然而，即使我到訪過的辦公室能看到美麗的景色，裝飾風格輕鬆活潑，我還是不會拿我自己的辦公室去交換。幾乎所有這些辦公室都在一個重要方面不對勁——太多辦公桌無人使用。
This is the great irony of modern working life. Just as architects and designers are learning how to build better offices, people are losing the habit of working in them. The only office I visited that was properly populated was the one where working at home is frowned on and where everyone had their own desk.
這是現代職場生活的一大諷刺。就在建築師和設計師摸索如何建造更好的辦公室的同時，人們也日益丟棄在辦公室工作的習慣。在我走訪的辦公室裏，只有一處在場人數比較合理，那家公司不贊成在家工作，每個人都擁有自己的桌子。
At the others, flexible working was encouraged, and hot desking was rampant. Anyone sufficiently retro to turn up at the office could therefore expect to find half their team at home, and have to content themselves with sitting at any old desk, surrounded either by randomers — or no one at all.
在其他一些辦公室，彈性工作制受到鼓勵。辦公桌輪用制非常盛行。任何足夠老派、選擇去辦公室上班的人，會發現自己所在團隊的一半人都在家中，因而只能坐在任意一張舊辦公桌旁，周圍或者是隨機出現的人員——或者根本沒有人。
Set against this, the sleek design amounts to nothing. After all, where is the joy in office life if you can’t rely on seeing the same people every day and saying to them: wasn’t Homeland brilliant last night?
在這樣的背景下，時尚的設計一文不值。畢竟，如果你不能指望每天看到同樣的人，並對他們說：“昨晚的《國土安全》(Homeland)真是棒極了，對嗎？”辦公室生活的樂趣何在？
