研究：“混合办公”不影响工作还降低离职率

近日，发表于《自然》杂志上的一项新研究发现，混合办公模式（每周居家办公两天）能有效降低员工离职率，且不影响员工工作表现。

🤔️小作业：

1. According to the passage, what was one significant finding regarding employee turnover at Trip.com?

A) Employee turnover increased by 33% with hybrid work schedules.

B) Employee turnover rates were unaffected by work schedules.

C) Hybrid work schedules had no impact on employee turnover.

D) Resignations decreased by 33% among hybrid workers.

A) Remote work leads to increased operational costs.

B) Employees working remotely are less innovative.

C) Remote work does not affect company culture negatively.

D) Remote work enhances employee training and mentoring.

无注释原文：

Study finds hybrid work benefits companies and employees

From: Standford Report

It is one of the most hotly debated topics in today's workplace: Is allowing employees to log in from home a few days a week good for their productivity, careers, and job satisfaction?

Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford economist and one of the foremost researchers on work-from-home policies, has uncovered compelling evidence that hybrid schedules are a boon to both employees and their bosses. 

In a study, newly published in the journal Nature, of an experiment on more than 1,600 workers at Trip.com – a Chinese company that is one of the world's largest online travel agencies – Bloom finds that employees who work from home for two days a week are just as productive and as likely to be promoted as their fully office-based peers.

On a third key measure, employee turnover, the results were also encouraging. Resignations fell by 33% among workers who shifted from working full-time in the office to a hybrid schedule. Women, non-managers, and employees with long commutes were the least likely to quit their jobs when their treks to the office were cut to three days a week. Trip.com estimates that reduced attrition saved the company millions of dollars. 

“The results are clear: Hybrid work is a win-win-win for employee productivity, performance, and retention,” says Bloom, who is the William D. Eberle Professor of Economics at the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences and also a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR).

The findings are especially significant given that, by Bloom's count, about 100 million workers worldwide now spend a mix of days at home and in the office each week, more than four years after COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns upended how and where people do their jobs. Many of these hybrid workers are lawyers, accountants, marketers, software engineers, and others with a college degree or higher. 

Over time, though, working outside the office has come under attack from high-profile business leaders like Elon Musk, the head of Tesla, SpaceX, and X (formerly Twitter), and Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, who argue that the costs of remote work outweigh any benefits. Opponents say that employee training and mentoring, innovation, and company culture suffer when workers are not on-site five days a week.

Blooms says that critics often confuse hybrid for fully remote, in part because most of the research into working from home has focused on workers who aren't required to come into an office and on a specific type of job, like customer support or data entry. The results of these studies have been mixed, though they tend to skew negative. This suggests to Bloom that problems with fully remote work arise when it's not managed well.

As one of the few randomized control trials to analyze hybrid arrangements – where workers are offsite two or three days a week and are in the office the rest of the time – Bloom says his findings offer important lessons for other multinationals, many of which share similarities with Trip.com.

“This study offers powerful evidence for why 80% of U.S. companies now offer some form of remote work,” Bloom says, “and for why the remaining 20% of firms that don't are likely paying a price.”

The research is also the largest to date of hybrid work involving university-trained professionals that rely on the gold standard in research, the randomized controlled trial. This allowed Bloom and his co-authors to show that the benefits they identified resulted from Trip.com's hybrid experiment and not something else.

- ◆ -

注：完整题目见本文开头；中文文本为机器翻译并非一一对应，仅供参考

含注释全文：

Study finds hybrid work benefits companies and employees

From: Standford Report

It is one of the most hotly debated topics in today's workplace: Is allowing employees to log in from home a few days a week good for their productivity, careers, and job satisfaction?

在当今职场中，一大热门话题是：允许员工每周居家办公几天是否有助于提高生产力、职业发展和工作满意度？

log in/on 表示“进入，登录（计算机系统）”，英文解释为“to connect a computer to a computer system by typing your name, so that you can start working”举个🌰：Log on using your name and password. 用你的名字和密码登录。

Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford economist and one of the foremost researchers on work-from-home policies, has uncovered compelling evidence that hybrid schedules are a boon to both employees and their bosses.

斯坦福大学经济学家尼古拉斯·布鲁姆（Nicholas Bloom）是居家办公政策方面最权威的研究者之一，他发现了有力证据，表明混合工作制对员工和老板都有好处。

foremost /ˈfɔː.məʊst/ 表示“最重要的；最佳的；领先的”，英文解释为“most important or best; leading”举个🌰：This is one of the country's foremost arts centres. 这是全国最重要的艺术中心之一。

compelling /kəmˈpel.ɪŋ/ 1）表示“（理由、论证等）令人信服的，很有说服力的”，英文解释为“If a reason, argument, etc. is compelling, it makes you believe it or accept it because it is so strong.”如：compelling evidence 强有力的证据。

2）表示“引人入胜的；激动人心的；扣人心弦的”，英文解释为“very exciting and interesting and making you want to watch or listen”举个🌰：I found the whole film very compelling. 我觉得整部影片都很扣人心弦。

hybrid /ˈhaɪ.brɪd/ 表示“（两种完全不同的东西的）混合”，英文解释为“something that is a mixture of two very different things”举个🌰：His work is an interesting hybrid of popular and classical music. 他的作品是经典与流行音乐有趣的混合。

boon /buːn/ 表示“提高生活质量的东西；有用之物；福音”，英文解释为“something that is very helpful and improves the quality of life”举个🌰：Guide dogs are a great boon to the partially sighted. 导盲犬对视力有障碍的人来说是非常有用的。

In a study, newly published in the journal Nature, of an experiment on more than 1,600 workers at Trip.com – a Chinese company that is one of the world's largest online travel agencies – Bloom finds that employees who work from home for two days a week are just as productive and as likely to be promoted as their fully office-based peers.

最新发表在《自然》（Nature）杂志上的一项研究对全球最大在线旅行社之一、中国携程公司的1600多名员工进行了实验，布鲁姆发现，每周居家办公两天的员工与每天到办公室工作的员工同样高效，且晋升机会也相当。

peer /pɪər/ 作动词，表示“仔细看，端详；费力地看”，英文解释为“to look carefully or with difficulty”举个🌰：When no one answered the door, she peered through the window to see if anyone was there. 没有人开门，她就费力地透过窗户朝里望去，看是否有人在。

作名词，表示“同龄人；同辈；同等社会地位（或能力）的人”，英文解释为“a person who is the same age or has the same social position or the same abilities as other people in a group”举个🌰：Do you think it's true that teenage girls are less self-confident than their male peers? 你是否认为十几岁的女孩子不如同年龄的男孩子自信？

On a third key measure, employee turnover, the results were also encouraging. Resignations fell by 33% among workers who shifted from working full-time in the office to a hybrid schedule. Women, non-managers, and employees with long commutes were the least likely to quit their jobs when their treks to the office were cut to three days a week. Trip.com estimates that reduced attrition saved the company millions of dollars.

在第三个关键指标——员工离职率上，结果同样令人鼓舞。从每天到办公室工作转变为混合工作制的员工辞职率下降了 33%，尤其是女性、非管理人员和通勤时间较长的员工，辞职的可能性更低。携程公司估计，这种降低离职率的做法为公司节省了数百万美元。

turnover /ˈtɜːnˌəʊ.vər/ 1）表示“（一定时期内的）营业额，成交量”，英文解释为“the amount of business that a company does in a period of time”举个🌰：Large supermarkets have high turnovers (= their goods sell very quickly). 大型超市的货品销售量很大。

2）表示“人事变更率；人员调整率”，英文解释为“the rate at which employees leave a company and are replaced by other people” 如：a high turnover of staff很高的人员变更率

resignation /ˌrez.ɪɡˈneɪ.ʃən/ 1）表示“辞职；辞去（职务）；放弃（工作）”，英文解释为“the act of telling your employer that you are leaving your job”

2）表示“无奈的顺从；顺从；听任”，英文解释为“Resignation is the acceptance of an unpleasant situation or fact because you realize that you cannot change it.”举个🌰：He sighed with profound resignation. 他极度无奈地叹气。

commute /kəˈmjuːt/ 可以作名词，也可以作动词，1）表示“上下班往返；往返于工作地点与家之间；通勤”，英文解释为“a regular journey between work and home”举个🌰：It's at least an hour's commute to work. 上班路上至少要花1个小时。

2）表示“变换，改变”，英文解释为“to change one thing into another”举个🌰：People used to believe that you could commute base metals into gold. 人们过去曾认为能将贱金属变成黄金。

trek /trek/ 可以作动词，也可以作名词，表示“长途跋涉（尤指徒步旅行），翻山越岭；艰苦的行程”，英文解释为“to make a long and difficult journey, especially on foot”举个🌰：We did an eight-hour trek yesterday. 昨天我们走了8个小时。The elevator was broken, so we had to trek up six flights of stairs. 电梯坏了，所以我们只好爬了六层楼梯。

attrition /əˈtrɪʃ.ən/ 1）表示“（尤指给敌人的力量或自信造成的）消耗，损耗，削弱”，英文解释为“gradually making something weaker and destroying it, especially the strength or confidence of an enemy by repeatedly attacking it”

2）表示“自然减员；（学生或雇员）人数减少”，英文解释为“a reduction in the number of people who work for an organization that is achieved by not replacing those people who leave”

“The results are clear: Hybrid work is a win-win-win for employee productivity, performance, and retention,” says Bloom, who is the William D. Eberle Professor of Economics at the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences and also a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR).

“结果很明确：混合工作制在提高生产力、绩效和员工留任率方面是三赢，”布鲁姆说。他是斯坦福大学人文与科学学院威廉依贝尔经济学教授，也是斯坦福经济政策研究所（SIEPR）高级研究员。

retention /rɪˈten.ʃən/ 表示“保留；保持；维持”，英文解释为“the continued use, existence, or possession of something or someone”如：water/heat retention 水分保持/热量滞留。

📍2023年政府工作报告Part 13提到：义务教育巩固率由93.8%提高到95.5%。The retention rate in nine-year compulsory education rose from 93.8 percent to 95.5 percent. 其中，The retention rate 巩固率是2013年公布的教育学名词，是指在特定教育阶段内，完成了某一年级学习的学生人数占这届学生入学时总人数的比例。

The findings are especially significant given that, by Bloom's count, about 100 million workers worldwide now spend a mix of days at home and in the office each week, more than four years after COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns upended how and where people do their jobs. Many of these hybrid workers are lawyers, accountants, marketers, software engineers, and others with a college degree or higher.

根据布鲁姆的统计，自从疫情改变了人们的工作方式和地点，四年多以来，全球约有1亿员工采用了混合工作制，其中许多是律师、会计师、营销人员、软件工程师和其他拥有本科或更高学历的人，因此这些研究发现尤为重要。

upend /ʌpˈend/ U 表示“翻倒；倒放；使颠倒”，英文解释为“If you upend something, you turn it upside down.”举个🌰：He upended the beer, and swallowed. 他把啤酒倒出来，大口喝了。

引申的，也有“使...结束；打倒；推翻”（To end up; to set on end）的含义。

🎬电影《云图》（Cloud Atlas）中的台词提到：And those who try to upend it do not fare well. 那些企图颠覆秩序的人不会善终。

补充：

📍fare well值得积累的一个表达，此前在「经济学人」足球客队为啥总是输？文中提到过，fare作动词，表示“进展；成功；遭遇”，直白地解释就是，xxx做得好/做得不好，表现得好/表现不好，后面可接well或者是badly（文中为比较级），英文解释为“If you say that someone or something fares well or badly, you are referring to the degree of success they achieve in a particular situation or activity.”举个🌰：How did you fare in your exams? 你考得怎么样？

🎬电影《总统杀局》（The Ides of March）中的台词提到：And you wouldn't fare too well in federal prison. 你在联邦监狱也不会好过。

Over time, though, working outside the office has come under attack from high-profile business leaders like Elon Musk, the head of Tesla, SpaceX, and X (formerly Twitter), and Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, who argue that the costs of remote work outweigh any benefits. Opponents say that employee training and mentoring, innovation, and company culture suffer when workers are not on-site five days a week.

然而，随着时间的推移，远程工作受到了像特斯拉、SpaceX和X（前身为Twitter）老板埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）和摩根大通（JPMorgan Chase）首席执行官杰米·戴蒙（Jamie Dimon）等知名商业领袖的批评，他们认为远程工作的成本超过了其收益。反对者表示，如果员工每周5天不在办公室工作，员工培训和指导、创新以及公司文化都会受到影响。

profile /ˈprəʊ.faɪl/ 一词经常出现，1）表示“（有关某人的）简介，概况”，英文解释为“A profile of someone is a short article or programme in which their life and character are described.”举个🌰：A newspaper published comparative profiles of the candidates' wives. 一份报纸刊登了候选人妻子们的对比简介。

2）表示“关注度”，英文解释为“If someone has a high profile, people notice them and what they do. If you keep a low profile, you avoid doing things that will make people notice you.”

常用：a high profile 惹人注目/关注；高姿态，a low profile 不惹人注目，低姿态；如：a move that would give Egypt a much higher profile in the upcoming peace talks 会给埃及在即将到来的和平谈判中高关注度的一个行动。

📍如果你把微信语言设置成英文，你就会发现微信官方把头像处理成：Profile Photo，上面的“My Profile”对应的中文则是“个人信息”。

作动词，1）表示“扼要介绍；概述；写简介”，英文解释为“to give or write a description of sb/sth that gives the most important information”举个🌰：His career is profiled in this month's journal.这期月刊概述了他的工作生涯。

2）表示“给……画侧画像；显出……侧面轮廓”，英文解释为“represent in outline from one side”

outweigh /ˌaʊtˈweɪ/ 1）表示“（在重要性或意义上）超过”，英文解释为“If one thing outweighs another, the first thing is of greater importance, benefit, or significance than the second thing.”举个🌰：The advantages of this deal largely outweigh the disadvantages. 这笔交易的利远大于弊。

2）表示“比（某人）重”，英文解释为“If you outweigh someone, you are heavier than them.”举个🌰：He outweighed her by about 20 kilograms. 他比她重约20千克。

Blooms says that critics often confuse hybrid for fully remote, in part because most of the research into working from home has focused on workers who aren't required to come into an office and on a specific type of job, like customer support or data entry. The results of these studies have been mixed, though they tend to skew negative. This suggests to Bloom that problems with fully remote work arise when it's not managed well.

布鲁姆指出，批评者常常将混合工作制和完全远程办公混为一谈，部分原因是对居家办公的研究大多集中在不需要到办公室工作的员工和特定类型的工作上，比如客户支持或数据录入。这些研究的结果好坏参半，但往往偏向负面。这表明，如果管理不善，完全远程工作就会出现问题。

表示“数据输入，数据录入”，英文解释为“the work or process of putting information into a computer database”

entry /ˈen.tri/ 1）表示“进入；加入，参加”，英文解释为“the act of entering a place or joining a particular society or organization”举个🌰：I can't go down that street - there's a "No entry" sign. 我不能走那条街——那儿有“禁止入内”的标志。

2）表示“项目；条目；（一则）记录”，英文解释为“a separate piece of information that is recorded in a book, computer, etc.”举个🌰：They've updated a lot of the entries in the most recent edition of the encyclopedia. 在最新版百科全书中他们更新了很多条目。

3）表示“参赛作品；参赛答卷”，英文解释为“An entry for a competition is a piece of work, a story or drawing, or the answers to a set of questions, which you complete in order to take part in the competition.”

skew /skjuː/ 表示“歪曲；曲解；使不公允；影响…的准确性；偏离；歪斜”，英文解释为“to move or lie at an angle, especially in a position that is not normal；to change or influence sth with the result that it is not accurate, fair, normal, etc.”如：to skew the statistics 影响统计数字的准确性。举个🌰：These last-minute changes have skewed the company's results. 这些最后一刻才做出的改变影响了公司的业绩。

skewed /skjuːd/ 1）表示“不准确的，不确切的”，英文解释为“not accurate or exact”举个🌰：Maybe your world view is a little skewed. 也许你对世界的认知有点不准确。

2）表示“不直的；不直接了当的”，英文解释为“not straight”举个🌰：Her smile is slightly skewed. 他的微笑有点让人琢磨不透。

As one of the few randomized control trials to analyze hybrid arrangements – where workers are offsite two or three days a week and are in the office the rest of the time – Bloom says his findings offer important lessons for other multinationals, many of which share similarities with Trip.com.

作为少数几个分析混合工作制的随机对照试验之一（员工每周有两到三天不在办公室工作，其余时间在办公室工作），布鲁姆说，他的研究结果为其他跨国公司提供了重要的借鉴，许多公司与携程公司有相似之处。

randomized /ˈræn.də.maɪzd/ 表示“随机化的”，英文解释为“relating to experimental research where subjects are selected for particular treatments by chance”如：a randomized drug trial 随机药物试验。

📍 randomized controlled trial = randomized control trial (RCT) 随机对照试验的基本方法是，将研究对象随机分组，对不同组实施不同的干预，在这种严格的条件下对照效果的不同。在研究对象数量足够的情况下，这种方法可以抵消已知和未知的混杂因素对各组的影响。

off-site /ˌɒfˈsaɪt/ 表示“装置外的；厂区外的；（远离写字楼、工厂等的）异地会议，异地活动”，英文解释为“a meeting or other event that happens away from an office building, factory, etc.”

multinational /ˌmʌl.tiˈnæʃ.ən.əl/ 可以直接作名词，表示“跨国公司”，英文解释为“a large and powerful company that produces and sells goods in many different countries”

“This study offers powerful evidence for why 80% of U.S. companies now offer some form of remote work,” Bloom says, “and for why the remaining 20% of firms that don't are likely paying a price.”

“这项研究有力地证明了为什么80%的美国公司现在都采取某种形式的远程工作，”布鲁姆说。“也说明了为什么剩下的20%不采取远程办公举措的公司可能要付出代价。”

The research is also the largest to date of hybrid work involving university-trained professionals that rely on the gold standard in research, the randomized controlled trial. This allowed Bloom and his co-authors to show that the benefits they identified resulted from Trip.com's hybrid experiment and not something else.

这项研究也是迄今为止最大规模的混合工作制研究之一，涉及受高等教育的专业人员，并采用了随机对照试验这一研究的“黄金标准”。布鲁姆和他的共同作者能够证明，他们所发现的好处是由于携程的混合工作制实验所带来的，而非其他因素带来。

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