助人爲樂嗎？不，研究表明：助人爲“累”

Imagine a busy day at work. One of your coworkers walks over to your office and asks for your help — he is struggling to understand some financial projections. You put aside what you’re doing and spend the next 45 minutes helping him sort through the formulas and numbers. He leaves your office with a better understanding of the projections.
假使有一天你工作忙得不可開交。你的一名同事走進你的辦公室找你幫忙，說有幾處財務預測令他費解。於是你放下手頭的工作，用接下來的45分鐘時間幫他理清了一些公式和數字。他理清楚迷惑後，總算離開了你辦公室。

How would you feel after this interaction? Happy that you helped a coworker in need? Worried that this interruption interfered with your own work? Tired because you spent mental energy working through his problem? Most of the published research on helping suggests that you would feel happy and energized. My personal experiences (and, I am guessing, yours) tend to be mixed.
這時候你是什麼感受呢？會爲幫了需要幫助的同事而感到開心？還是擔心自己的工作被幹擾了？或是因耗費腦力在別人的問題上而感到疲憊不堪？大多公開發表過的相關研究表明，自己在幫助人後會感到喜悅且精力充沛。而我個人的體會（我猜你的也是）卻是五味雜陳。

Indeed, my recent research suggests that responding to help requests at work is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, helping coworkers in need is energizing and replenishing, particularly when that help is perceived as beneficial to coworkers — in other words, when you can see that your help has actually made a positive difference. On the other hand, helping coworkers in need drains the helper’s cognitive and emotional resources, leaving them too tired and depleted to perform subsequent work tasks.
確實，我最近的研究表明應對工作上的求助需求是一把雙刃劍。一方面，幫助有需要的同事使人精力充沛，尤其是當你對同事的幫助真的很大時，換句話說，即你看見自己的幫助真的起到了積極作用時。另一方面，幫助他們的同時會耗盡自己的認知和情感資源，導致自己疲勞不堪，以致於沒有精力完成後續的工作任務。

These insights are informed by work that my coauthors and I published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. We surveyed 68 managerial and professional employees every day for 15 consecutive workdays. We asked these employees to report how many times they responded to help requests from coworkers that day at work and whether their help had been beneficial to those they helped. We also measured their level of energy throughout the day. We found that, similar to running the first few miles of a long race, responding to one or two help requests was not particularly energy-sapping on a given day for helpers. However, as with running a full marathon, responding to numerous help requests was increasingly depleting for employees. Energy depletion manifests itself as reduced willpower and ability to focus, manage emotions, or persist at difficult tasks. Helping multiple times a day left employees depleted until the next morning, even though they rested that night.
我和我的搭檔在《應用心理學期刊上》共同發表的文章中提到了這些觀點。我們連着在15個工作日內對68位管理職業人員做出了調查。我們要求這些職員告知他們幫助同事的次數以及幫助是否起到了作用。我們同樣也測量了他們一整天的精力水平。結果是，在特定的一天內幫一兩個小忙併不有損精力，這就和跑長跑開頭的幾英里一樣。然而，就和跑馬拉松一樣，要幫無數個忙會讓人越來越感到精力枯竭。精力枯竭表現爲意志力和注意力下降，難以控制情緒或堅持完成難度較大的工作。一天內多次提供幫助會使職員精力透支，即便晚上得到了休息，第二天早上仍恢復不過來。

Interestingly, we found that responding to many help requests was particularly problematic for prosocial employees, people who value helping others and who help on a regular basis. Perhaps because helping others is so important to their sense of self, prosocial employees devote more time and cognitive resources to helping others. Thus, the high-quality help that prosocial employees tend to provide seems to come at a higher cost for them — they feel more depleted and derive less replenishment even when their help is beneficial to coworkers.
有趣的是，我們發現多次幫助別人對那些親社會的職員來說尤其是個問題，他們很看重幫助他人並且這對他們來說是常事。或許是因爲幫助他人對他們的自我存在很重要，親社會的職員會投入更多的時間和認知資源來幫助他人。因此，他們提供高質量的幫助似乎代價慘重。即便他們真正幫到了同事們，自己更多地還是會感到心力交瘁且難以恢復。

My coauthors and I find similar results in another study published in the Academy of Management Journal. We surveyed 82 employees from various organizations multiple times a day for 10 consecutive workdays. We found that daily helping had both positive and negative consequences for helpers. Helping was associated with positive emotions, which then enhanced helpers’ sense of energy as well as their satisfaction and commitment to work that day. At the same time, helping interfered with helpers’ own progress at work, depleted their inner resources, and hurt their job satisfaction and commitment. The positive effects of helping were more pronounced for people who are risk seeking, enjoy challenging themselves, and are motivated by the possibility of reward, whereas the negative effects of helping were more pronounced for people who are risk averse, prefer avoiding mistakes, and are motivated by preventing harm.
在發表於《管理學院期刊》的一項研究中，我和搭檔發現了類似的結果。我們在連續10天內對82位來自不同組織的職員進行每天若干次的調查。發現對提供幫助者來說，每天幫助別人有利有弊。幫助他人會產生積極情緒，這種情緒有助於增加他們的精力、當天的工作滿意度和投入度。與此同時，幫助他人又會妨礙幫助者自身的工作，消耗其內在資源，削弱其工作滿足感和投入度。對那些敢於冒險、樂於挑戰，並受潛在回報的驅使的提供幫助者來說，幫助他人帶來的積極作用更爲明顯；相反，那些不願冒險、極力避免出錯和傷害的提供幫助者來說，其負面的作用則更爲明顯。

In light of these novel findings, what are the takeaways for helpers and help-seekers?
這些新發現對提供幫助者和尋求幫助者有哪些啓示呢？

First, it is important to recognize that, in addition to positive effects, helping has negative effects that may persist for hours or days for the helper. In the first study I show that the depleting effects of helping were stronger than the replenishing effects.
首先，幫助他人在帶來積極影響的同時也會帶來消極影響，這種消極因素可能會持續影響提供幫助者幾個小時甚至幾天，意識到這點至關重要。在之前的研究中我提到過，相比於幫助他人給提供幫助者帶來的補充作用，其消耗作用更爲顯著。

Second, on days when helpers feel depleted from helping, they can resort to short-term solutions to restore their energy. For example, research suggests that taking breaks, napping, andand consuming caffeinemay be short-term solutions for depleted helpers.
其次，當人們在幫助了他人之後感到精疲力盡時，可以通過臨時的解決方法來恢復精力，比如，研究者建議人們可以短暫休息會兒、打個盹兒或者吃點含咖啡因的食品。

Third, whereas refusing to help may constitute a social faux pas, agreeing to help at a future and more opportune time for the helper is appropriate. Thus, when possible, helpers may be better served if they help at the end of their workday or workweek, or after they have accomplished important goals of their own.
再次，鑑於拒絕提供幫助可能會導致失禮，這時候允諾在未來或者一個更合適的時間點再提供幫助則比較妥當。因此，如果人們是在快下班或快到雙休時，或者是在他們已經完成自身的重要任務時給予他人幫助，可能會表現得更好。

Help-seekers can play an important role in lessening the costs of helping in several ways.
而求助者在縮小這一過程產生的代價方面起到重要作用，具體有以下幾個方法：

First, help-seekers ought to be aware of the harmful effects that responding to help requests has on helpers and should avoid seeking help from the same person multiple times a day.
首先，求助者應該意識到迴應求助要求對提供幫助者存在負面作用。所以應避免同一天內多次向同一個人尋求幫助。

Second, help-seekers may be better served if they search for solutions by first consulting resources such as manuals and websites. Doing so is likely to improve their self-efficacy and learning while safeguarding helpers’ time and resources.
第二，求助者在求助前先搜尋說明書或網站資源會得到更好的幫助。這樣做也能提高自我效率和學習能力，同時也顧及了提供幫助者的時間和資源。

Third, help-seekers can facilitate the replenishing effects of helping by expressing gratitude and by explaining to helpers how their actions benefited help-seekers’ work and day. While saying “thank you” may sound obvious, we’re less likely to express thanks at work than anywhere else. Expressed gratitude boosts helpers’ affective resources and may offset some of the depleting effects of helping.
第三，求助者通過對提供幫助者表達感謝並解釋自己如何因此受益匪淺，可以使提供幫助者精力得到補充。說聲“謝謝”聽起來平淡無奇，然而我們在工作時很少有表達感謝的習慣。表達感謝可以使提供幫助者的情感資源激增，並緩解其筋疲力盡之感。

In sum, providing help is without doubt a critical behavior in every workplace. It is important, however, to remember that it comes with a cost.
總之，在任何工作場所，提供幫助無疑都是一種臨界行爲。然而，幫助他人是要付出代價的，記住這點至關重要。