新西蘭試行每週四天工作 結果效率奇高

On the first long weekend of her employer’s experiment with a four-day working week, Kirsten Taylor freaked out a little bit. Like a housework hurricane, she got through mounds of clothes-washing, weeded the garden, cleaned the windows and mowed the lawn.
在公司首次試驗四天工作制的第一個長週末，柯爾斯頓·泰勒感覺有點抓狂。就像經歷了一場家務颶風，她洗了一大堆衣服，除了花園的雜草，擦了窗戶，還修剪了草坪。

It had been lovely to spend extra time with her 21-month-old son, but by the end of the third day off she was shattered.
能夠和21個月大的兒子共度更多時光本來是件很好的事，但是到第三天快結束時她感覺自己要崩潰了。

“I actually found that day really hard. I ran myself ragged,” laughs Taylor, who is a solo mother. “I hadn’t yet programmed that routine into my life. I thought: I don’t know when the next one of these is coming, I better get everything done. I don’t think I did it well, but heck it was a productive day!”
身爲單身母親的泰勒大笑着說：“事實上，我覺得第三天很難熬。我把自己累壞了。我還沒有將這種長週末納入常規生活。我在想，不知道下一個長週末會是什麼時候，所以我最好把一切事情都幹完。我覺得自己幹得不夠好，但這一天還真是非常高效！”

Taylor is one of 200 employees at New Zealand trustee company Perpetual Guardian, which is halfway through a six-week long trial which could have profound implications for the future of labour. Staff are working four days a week but getting paid for five.
泰勒是新西蘭信託公司Perpetual Guardian200名員工中的一位。該公司正在試行爲期六週的每週四天工作制，目前正進行到一半。員工每週工作四天，但卻能得到五天的薪水。這次試驗可能會對勞動力的未來產生深遠影響。

The experiment began in early March and will conclude in mid-April, after which productivity data will be collated and analysed. Employees will find out if the new routine will be adopted full-time in July.
這次試驗是從三月初開始的，將在四月中旬結束，之後會整理和分析生產率數據。該工作制是否會長期實施將在7月揭曉。

New Zealanders work an average of 1,752 hours a year, making them close to average compared with their OECD peers. Germans spend the least amount of time working annually, closely followed by Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands, while Mexicans, Koreans and Costa Ricans clock the most.
新西蘭人每年平均工作1752個小時，接近經濟合作與發展組織其他成員國的平均水平。德國人每年的平均工作時間是最短的，其次是丹麥人、挪威人和荷蘭人，而墨西哥人、韓國人和哥斯達黎加人的工作時間是最長的。

Luxembourg is the most productive country in the world, despite its workers toiling away for an average of only 29 hours per week.
盧森堡是世界上生產率最高的國家，儘管他們的勞動力每週平均工作時間只有29小時。

Last year the Autonomy Institute made renewed calls for the implementation of a four-day week, saying it would help even out the unhealthy distribution of work and shift the focus to producing better work in a shorter time.
去年自治學會再次呼籲實施每週四天工作制，聲稱這將平衡不健康的工作分配，將重心轉移到在更短時間內做出更好的業績。

Christine Brotherton, head of people and capability for Perpetual Guardian, said many employees brought a similar level of focus to making the most of the extra day off as they would apply to their work.
Perpetual Guardian公司人力部主任克里斯汀·布拉澤頓說，許多員工都會將投入到工作中的同等精力投入到多出的那一天假期，以實現最大化利用。

“People have been thinking quite hard about that third day off and how best to use it so it can change their life. Some people come back to work and are incredibly energised,” says Brotherton.
布拉澤頓說：“人們努力地思考如何充分利用第三天假期，從而改變自己的生活。有些人回到公司工作，而且奇蹟般地充滿活力。”

“People have been training for marathons, going to the dentist, getting their car serviced, or doing the shopping for their elderly parents. All the stuff that has been put on the back burner, but either helps themselves or their family. Life administration. ”
“人們進行馬拉松訓練、去看牙醫、把車送去保養，或爲年邁的父母購物。去做所有想做但被擱置的事情，對自己或家人有用的事情。管理自己的生活。”

“But some people haven’t quite realised that if we have three days off, the four at the office have to be very productive, and we need to address that,” she adds.
她補充說：“但是有些人還未完全意識到，如果我們放三天假，那麼工作的那四天必須效率很高，而我們需要解決這個問題。”

Amazon is reportedly piloting a 30-hour work week for some employees. Whilst workers on the 30-hour work week receive the same benefits as full-time employees, they earn 75% of the salary – and results aren’t in yet on the pilot’s outcomes. KPMG and Deloitte offer four-day work weeks to some employees (with certain conditions attached), while Google allows some employees full control over 20% of their working week, hoping that the creative freedom will lead to new ideas and innovations.
據報道，亞馬遜正在一部分員工當中試行30小時工作周。每週工作30小時的這些員工雖然能享受和全日制員工同樣的福利，但是前者的工資是後者的四分之三。目前這個試行項目還沒有出結果。畢馬威和德勤的某些員工可以每週工作四天，但是有一定的附加條件。谷歌則允許一些員工隨心支配工作週中超過20%的時間，希望這種創作自由可以引發新想法和創意。

Perpetual Guardian’s CEO, Andrew Barnes, a Briton, says the experiment is generating interesting data, which will be analysed by academics at two leading New Zealand universities before a decision on extending the trial is made.
Perpetual Guardian公司的首席執行官、英國人安德魯·巴恩斯說，這個試驗正在產生有趣的數據，來自兩所新西蘭一流大學的學者們將對這些數據進行分析，然後再決定是否延長試行期。

According to Barnes, some employees have found the reduced time to complete their work stressful. “People were really positive going in, then a bit negative, then positive again,” says Barnes. “In general terms, people are more positive because they are suddenly able to do things that they otherwise couldn’t do.”
巴恩斯說，一些員工因爲完成工作的時間變短而感到壓力重重。他說：“剛開始人們真的很積極，然後會有點消極，接着又會變得積極。普遍來說，人們變得更積極了，因爲他們突然能夠做那些本來做不了的事了。”

Supporters of reduced working hours have been cheering on the trial. “I don’t feel the pressure for it to succeed, but I think my staff do. People are telling me: we have to make this work for New Zealand,” says Barnes.
支持縮短工作時間的人一直在爲這個試驗歡呼。巴恩斯說：“沒有壓力迫使我非把這件事做成不可，但我認爲我的員工有壓力。人們告訴我：爲了新西蘭，我們必須讓這個試驗成功。”

“From my point of view, it’s very difficult as an owner of a business to see any way that this is not positive for me at the moment.”
“從我的角度出發，作爲企業主，我目前還難以看到這種工作制對我有什麼不利。”

But he expressed disappointment at the lack of interest in the trial shown by the New Zealand government, despite its potential implications for addressing issues from work/life balance and the gender pay gap to the health and mental wellbeing of working New Zealanders.
雖然新工作制有望解決工作與生活平衡、男女收入差異以及新西蘭工作者身心健康等方面的問題，但新西蘭政府對此缺乏興趣，他有些失望。

Having survived her day of housework, Kirsten Taylor has now settled into the new routine. She loves spending more time with her son, saving money on childcare and getting through her to-do list. Her personality and “head down, bum up” work style suit the arrangement perfectly, she says.
好不容易結束了幹家務的一天，柯爾斯頓·泰勒現在適應了新常規。她喜歡和兒子共度更多時光，省下了一些託管費，也做了更多想做的事。她說，她的性格和“埋頭苦幹”的工作風格與新的工作制非常合拍。

While her colleagues still socialise during the work day, the office space is quieter and more concentrated, and “water-cooler chats” are briefer. “I am feeling significantly better equipped when I begin the work week now,” she says.
儘管她的同事們仍然會在工作日進行一些社交活動，但是辦公室變得安靜了，人們工作時的注意力更集中了，辦公室裏的閒聊時間也變短了。她說：“現在當我開始一週的工作時，我感覺自己精力更充沛了。”

“[The trial] was definitely more pressurised than I would ever have expected. But now I am nervous about when it ends. I don’t know anyone who wants to return to the old routine.”
“試驗期間的工作壓力肯定比我預計的更大。但現在我擔心的是試行期結束了該怎麼辦。我認爲沒有人想回到過去那種工作制。”