硅谷工作狂文化盛行 爲人父母者叫苦

Tech companies shower their employees with perks like dry cleaning, massages and haircuts. But there is one group for whom working at a tech company can be much more difficult than working elsewhere: parents.

高科技公司給員工提供了大量福利，比如干洗、按摩和理髮等等。但對有些人而言，在科技公司工作要比在其他任何地方困難很多：爲人父母者。

Facebook holds all-night hackathons. Google has weekend laser tag retreats. Many startups have no parental leave policy at all, so the first employee to have a baby has to ask the company to create one.

Facebook會舉辦通宵達旦的編程馬拉松活動。谷歌(Google)也有周末激光槍對戰賽。很多初創公司完全沒有育兒假政策可言，所以第一個生孩子的員工不得不向公司提出設立此類規定的要求。

Then there are the subtler messages. Yahoo's chief executive, Marissa Mayer, was vocal about returning to work two weeks after she gave birth. Later, Yahoo told employees they could no longer work from home. Workers with children say they are often the only such employees on teams of 20-somethings.

還有更微妙的訊息被傳達出去。雅虎(Yahoo)首席執行官瑪麗莎·梅耶爾(Marissa Mayer)大談自己生下孩子兩週後就回到了工作崗位上。後來，雅虎公司告訴員工，他們以後不能在家工作了。有孩子的員工紛紛表示，團隊中往往都是二十多歲的年輕人，而他們是其中唯一有孩子的人。

The strains around these issues have burst into public view in recent weeks. In a gender discrimination trial against Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a top venture capital firm, two former partners were declined board seats because they were pregnant or going on maternity leave, according to testimony. In a lawsuit against Facebook, a former technology partner said her boss had admonished her for volunteering at her child's school one day a month, which she said was allowed by company policy. Microsoft mandated sick leave among its contractors after complaints that some were not given such benefits.

圍繞這些問題產生的衝突，最近幾周突然闖入了公衆的視野。在頂級風險投資公司凱鵬華盈(Kleiner Perkins Caufield& Byers)的性別歧視案的審理過程中，證詞顯示，因爲懷孕或準備休產假，兩名前合夥人沒有得到董事會席位。在針對Facebook的一樁訴訟中，一名前技術合夥人稱，因爲每個月到自家孩子的學校當一天志願者，她遭到了上司的斥責。她表示，此事本來屬於公司政策允許的範疇。因爲有承包商僱員抱怨沒有得到休病假的福利，微軟(Microsoft)不得不對此做出了強制規定。

“The culture is not necessarily friendly to families, and I think that's not really realized,” said Bret Taylor, former chief technology officer at Facebook and co-founder of a startup called Quip.

“高科技企業的文化未必對家庭友好，我認爲，人們還沒有真正意識到這一點，”佈雷特·泰勒(Bret Taylor)說。他曾是Facebook的首席技術官，如今是初創公司Quip的聯合創始人。

That Silicon Valley — known for being on the forefront not just of technology but also of workplace policy — creates so many difficulties for working parents highlights a vexing problem for the U.S. economy. The United States is arguably struggling to adjust to the realities of modern family life more than any other affluent country.

大家都知道硅谷不僅站在科技前沿，而且在職場政策上也相當前衛。然而，它給在職父母造成了諸多困難。此事突顯了美國經濟中一個令人頭痛的問題。在努力適應當代家庭生活方面，可以說美國比其他的富裕國家面臨更大的困難。

The American workplace has always prized people who place work ahead of family, and European countries have long had more generous policies for working parents. But in the last two decades, that gap has widened significantly. Other developed countries have expanded benefits like paid parental leave and child care, while the United States has not.

美國職場一向讚許那些把工作擺在家庭之前的人，而歐洲國家早已爲在職父母提供了更優厚的政策。不過，在過去的20年中，這一差距在明顯拉大。其他發達國家增加了帶薪育兒假和兒童看護等福利，美國卻沒有跟上。

The absence of such policies here creates obvious advantages for companies, reducing costs and increasing production. But for workers — most of whom have children, aging parents or both, and many of whom are single parents — the downsides can be enormous, whether they work in high finance or hourly labor. Many workers today — blue-collar and white-collar alike — believe they must choose between career and family.

此類政策的缺失，給企業帶來了顯而易見的優勢：降低了成本，提高了產量。但對員工而言——其中大多數不是有小孩，就是有年邁的父母，或者兩者都有，很多人還是單親家長——其中的不利之處是巨大的，無論他們收入豐厚，還是拿計時工資。如今很多員工覺得，自己必須得在事業和家庭中二選一，而有這種想法的並不限於藍領或白領。

The share of women in their 30s and 40s who work, which was once higher in the U.S. than in Canada, Australia, Japan and much of Europe, has fallen behind. The widening gap in policies is a major reason for the change, said Francine Blau, an economist at Cornell University, and other researchers. And it is not a challenge just for women: 37 percent of nonworking men 25 to 54 say family responsibilities are a reason they are not working, according to a New York Times/CBS News/Kaiser Family Foundation poll.

以前，美國三四十歲在職女性的比例高於加拿大、澳大利亞、日本，以及歐洲的許多地區，現在卻已經落在了後面。康奈爾大學(Cornell University)的經濟學家弗朗辛·布勞(Francine Blau)和其他一些研究人員表示，公司政策方面日益擴大的差距是這種變化的一個重要原因。面對這一挑戰的不僅僅是女性：根據《紐約時報》、CBS新聞頻道(CBS News)和凱澤家族基金會(Kaiser Family Foundation)進行的一項聯合調查，在未涉足職場的25至54歲的男性中，有37%表示家庭責任是自己不工作的一個原因。

More broadly, some economists say, the lack of family-focused policies reflects the power imbalance between companies and workers in the U.S. economy. The share of economic output flowing to corporate profits has surged, while employee compensation has stagnated.

更宏觀地看，一些經濟學家指出，家庭幫扶政策的匱乏反映了美國經濟中企業和員工之間的權力不平衡。經濟產出流入公司利潤的份額在飆升，而員工的薪酬卻停滯不前。

The technology industry is a striking example because it attracts some of the country's smartest people, many of whom have far more bargaining power than most workers. Silicon Valley also has outsize cultural significance, as the face of U.S. ingenuity and a magnet for global talent.

科技行業是一個明顯的例子，因爲它吸引了美國最聰慧的人才，其中不少人比大多數員工擁有強得多的議價能力。硅谷還有着巨大的文化意義，不僅代表着美國的獨創精神，也是吸引全球人才的磁鐵。

But it is also a place that often expects total commitment to work. That grows from the notion that in tech, unlike in other industries, companies become overnight successes, and believe their work is changing the world.

然而，硅谷也期待你全力以赴地投入工作。這來源於一個信念：不同於其他行業，科技業的公司會在一夜之間大獲成功，而且這些公司相信自己的工作正在改變世界。

“People who give you millions of dollars for nothing but an idea at the very least expect your complete commitment to that idea,” said Glenn Kelman, chief executive of Redfin, the online real estate brokerage firm. “That is why nobody, not even the most committed parent, talks about a family-friendly workplace in, say, an investor pitch.”

“只不過因爲你擁有一個點子，投資者就交給你成百上千萬的美元，那麼，他們最起碼也會期待你就此施展全力，”房地產中介網站Redfin的首席執行官格倫·凱爾曼(Glenn Kelman)說。“這就是爲什麼，在向投資者做推介的時候，沒有人會談論什麼對家庭友好的工作環境，即便是最顧家的父母也不會這樣做。”

Startups are unlikely to have parental policies because they are more focused on growing as quickly as possible. Many big tech companies try to ease the way for new parents, at least officially — but that does not necessarily filter down to company culture.

初創公司之所以不大可能擁有育兒政策，是因爲他們更關注的是儘快發展壯大。許多大型科技企業試圖爲新近爲人父母的員工提供一定的便利，至少在官方層面上如此——但這未必能滲透到公司文化的層面。

They have some of the most generous policies in corporate America for the period after a child is born, like four months of paid leave and a $4,000 baby stipend at Facebook. There are prominent examples of women with children who have climbed the corporate ladder in tech. Mayer was pregnant when she became chief executive of Yahoo, and Susan Wojcicki, chief executive of YouTube, recently had her fifth child.

它們的確擁有在慷慨程度上排在美國業界前列的產後政策，比如Facebook提供了四個月的帶薪產假，外加4000美元的嬰兒津貼。這裏也的確有生兒育女的女性在科技業步步高昇的傑出案例。梅耶爾成爲雅虎首席執行官的時候懷有身孕，而YouTube的首席執行官蘇珊·沃西基(Susan Wojcicki)不久前產下了第五個孩子。

But these examples exaggerate how family-friendly tech companies are, especially after the newborn phase. The executives have privileges not available to typical workers (Mayer built a nursery next to her office). Some benefits, like free meals and on-site laundry, have a flip side of discouraging people from leaving. And many parents say that office culture — which can, for example, reward people based on how many lines of code they can write per week — does not support parents.

然而，這些例子誇大了科技企業與家庭生活兼容的程度，尤其是在新生兒階段過去之後。高管擁有普通員工沒有的種種特權（梅耶爾在自己的辦公室旁邊修建了一個育兒室）。有些公司福利，比如免費餐和公司洗衣服務，帶有鼓勵員工不要離開的副作用。許多有孩子的人表示，辦公室文化不支持爲人父母，比方說，這種文化有時會以一週能寫多少行代碼來獎勵員工。

“I've seen some of what I would call hero culture, where people are doing 20 hours a day to get this or that done at all costs,” said Max Schireson, the former chief executive of a database software company called MongoDB. He became the talk of Silicon Valley last summer when he wrote a blog post saying he was stepping down to spend more time with his three children. He had been flying 300,000 miles a year and was gone when his son had an emergency surgery.

“我看到的一些現象可以稱之爲‘英雄文化’：有人每天工作20個小時，不惜一切代價來完成這樣或那樣的事情，”曾在數據庫軟件公司MongoDB擔任首席執行官的馬克斯·席雷森(Max Schireson)說。去年夏天，他在博客上寫了一篇文章，宣佈自己離職，以便有更多的時間來與三個孩子在一起。這讓他成爲了硅谷街談巷議的人物。此前，他每年在空中飛行30萬英里（約合50萬公里），還缺席了兒子的一次緊急手術。

“Frankly what I've seen is just forgetting the human aspect of it,” he said.

“說實話，我看到的這些無非是忘記了人性的價值，”他說。

As Silicon Valley ages, and 20-something entrepreneurs become 30-something parents, the culture is beginning to change. Offering a family-friendly workplace has become a recruiting strategy.

隨着硅谷的成熟，二十來歲的創業者成爲了三十來歲的父母，這裏的文化也開始發生轉變。提供一個有利於家庭生活的職場環境正在成爲一種招募人才的策略。

The Happy Home Co., a home repair startup, specifically recruits parents. “Some of the most qualified, talented and passionate people in the valley are often overlooked by startups for not being a `cultural fit,' which is often code for `too old, too much of a parent, too female, too different,”' said Doug Ludlow, a co-founder.

家居維修領域的初創公司歡樂家庭(Happy Home Co.)會專門招聘已是父母的員工。“硅谷的一些資質最棒、才能最高、最富有激情的人往往因爲“文化不合拍”而被初創企業忽視。這種不合拍的意思其實是，‘太老了，總是要照顧孩子，是女人，太不一樣了，’”聯合創始人道格·勒德洛(Doug Ludlow)說。

At Taylor's company, Quip, which makes workplace collaboration software, the founders tell interviewees that they have children and leave at 5:30 p.m. If he wants to work later, Taylor said, he goes home so other employees don't feel obligated to stay.

在泰勒所在的協同工作軟件公司Quip，幾位創始人會告訴應聘者，自己有小孩，下午5點半下班。泰勒說，如果自己想接着工作，也會回家去加班，免得其他員工覺得必須留在辦公室裏。

“It's not like we're visionary — we're just older,” he said. “It really helps us recruit people who were concerned about the culture at other companies.”

“並不是說我們有遠見——我們就是年紀大了些，”他說。“這的確能幫助我們招募那些對其他公司的文化有所保留的人才。”

In some ways, an aging Silicon Valley is beginning to look more like the rest of corporate America, where most workers have families. The challenge is retaining the youthful optimism that they can do the impossible — while also showing their employees that working and having families is realistic.

某些方面來說，年紀漸長的硅谷開始與多數員工擁有家庭的美國其他行業趨同。硅谷面臨的挑戰是，在保持一切皆有可能的樂觀活力的同時，也向員工展示出，工作與家庭可以兼得。