好英语网硅谷的快乐工作时代已经结束了
Silicon Valley as we know it — with its radically transparent company cultures, empowered employees, flat hierarchies and rarefied perks like nap pods and free food — is quickly disappearing. And it’s unlikely to return.
极其透明的企业文化、被赋权的员工、扁平化的管理制度，以及午睡仓和免费餐饮等难得的福利——我们所熟知的硅谷正在迅速消失，也不太可能重现了。
For nearly two decades, tech companies heralded an approach that centered on making workers happy with benefits that were intended to seamlessly integrate work and life. They made well-being programs and unlimited vacation, initiatives that prioritized the whole person, standard employee benefits. This, along with high salaries and equity packages, was a way to not just win but dominate the war for talent. The rapid growth and success of Silicon Valley companies, driven in part by their unique people practices, reimagined workplace culture for a generation.
近20年来，科技企业宣扬一种方式，其核心是让工作生活无缝融合的福利待遇，以此增强员工幸福感。这些企业将福利计划和无限假期，以及优先考虑个人身心健康的举措作为标准的员工福利。再加上高薪和股权待遇，不仅是要赢得竞争，更要主导人才争夺战。硅谷企业的迅猛增长和成功在一定程度上是由其独特的人力实践推动的，这重塑了一整代人的职场文化。
Times, as they say, are a-changin’. The industry is facing an uneven macroeconomic environment and a roiling stock market that is putting pressure on public tech companies and making for a less-than-ideal I.P.O. environment for private ones. Tech chief executives are now optimizing more for profitability than for growth at all costs, sometimes at the expense of long-held organizational beliefs.
正如老话所说，时代在变。这一行业如今面临宏观经济环境不均衡和股市动荡的局面，已上市的科技企业感到了压力，私营科技企业的上市环境也不再理想。科技首席执行官们现在更多要考虑优化盈利能力，而非不惜一切代价的增长，这样的考量有时会损害机构长期以来的信念。
The shift is most evident in the recent surge of tech layoffs. There has been lots of public discussion about the disruptive axing of half of Twitter’s 7,500 employees, a move conducted under its new owner, Elon Musk. Haphazard and rolling, the layoffs were painful to watch. The employees who remained have had to endure greater workloads on significantly smaller teams. But while outsiders may have viewed these layoffs as impulsive, they seemed to have primed the environment for other tech companies to follow. In 2022 the tech industry laid off over 150,000 people. In the first few weeks of 2023, Microsoft announced 10,000 job cuts. Amazon reported 8,000 above what it originally called for.
这种转变在最近的科技裁员潮中体现得最为明显。Twitter公司7500名员工被大刀阔斧地裁掉一半，引发了许多公众讨论，这是在新老板伊隆·马斯克领导下进行的一项举措。这种杂乱无章、源源不断的裁员令人痛心。未被裁的员工不得不在规模严重缩水的团队中承担更大的工作量。不过，虽然这些裁员可能被外人视为冲动之举，但它们似乎为其他科技公司的效仿创造了环境。2022年，科技行业裁员超过15万人。而在2023年开年没多久，微软就宣布裁员1万人。亚马逊称员工人数比其最初的要求多了8000余人。
According to multiple media outlets, Meta and Amazon use stack ranking for their employees, a controversial approach in evaluating talent. Popularized by G.E. in the 1980s (though the company later abandoned it), the process has managers rate their employees on a forced curve. Generally, only 20 percent are deemed top talent, and 10 to 15 percent must be designated as low performers. Although there are benefits, even in the best of times, the practice can create a competitive work environment that de-emphasizes employee improvement. With impending layoffs, people with the lowest ranking are typically the first to go.
据多家媒体报道，Meta和亚马逊都对员工进行了堆栈排名，这是一种有争议的人才评估办法，由通用电气在上世纪80年代推广（但后来被该公司废除）。评估过程就是要经理根据强制分布曲线对员工进行评分。一般来说，只有20%的员工被评为顶级人才，10%到15%的人则必须被判定为低绩效。尽管有其优点，但即便是在最好的情况下，这种做法也会创造出一个竞争激烈的工作环境，不强调员工的进步。在准备裁员的情况下，排名最低的人通常最先遭到解雇。
The layoffs are part of a new age of bossism, the notion that management has given up too much control and must wrest it back from employees. After two decades of fighting for talent, chief executives are using this period to adjust for years of management indulgence that left them with a generation of entitled workers.
裁员是这个老板主义新时代的现象，这个概念认为管理层放弃了太多控制权，必须从员工手中夺回。在20年的人才争夺之后，首席执行官们正在利用这一时期来调整长久以来的管理纵容，这样的纵容给他们留下了一代自以为拥有权利的员工。
In 2012, to spur innovation and drive engagement, LinkedIn began the incubator program. A perk that encouraged employees to come up with approved ideas that they could work on full time for up to three months was generous even by Silicon Valley standards. Then there were the many lavish events that served to put a company’s culture on display. It was par for the course for employees to attend elaborately themed holiday parties featuring the next new Instagrammable experience. If you happened to work at Uber in 2015 and attended its corporate event in Las Vegas, you were treated to a private performance from Beyoncé.
2012年，为了激励创新，提升员工投入，LinkedIn启动了孵化项目。这一福利鼓励员工提出创意，一经许可，他们就可以全职投入其中三个月之久，即使以硅谷的标准，这也相当慷慨。此外还有许多为展示公司文化而举办的奢华活动。参加精心设计的主题节日派对，感受值得在Instagram上发布的新体验，对这些员工来说已属理所当然。如果你恰好在2015年的优步工作，并参加了该公司在拉斯维加斯的企业活动，你还能看到碧昂斯献上的私人演出。
Executives across industries are leaning into their newfound bossism and ending pandemic-era work arrangements and incentives. Reed Hastings, Netflix’s co-founder and co-C.E.O., said near the start of the pandemic that he didn’t “see any positives” in working from home, and the company apparently allows only some remote work. TikTok reportedly told employees that it was sunsetting gym membership and Wi-Fi reimbursements as well as its $45 daily meal stipends to workers not tied to the company’s main hubs, in its own efforts at restraint. These changes are bellwethers.
各行各业的高管都在朝着这种新兴的老板主义靠拢，结束疫情期间的工作安排和激励措施。Netflix联合创始人兼联合CEO里德·哈斯廷斯在疫情开始之初表示，他看不到居家办公的“任何好处”，该公司显然只允许部分员工远程工作。据称，TikTok已告知员工，准备取消健身房会员资格和Wi-Fi费用报销、以及不在公司主要地点工作员工的每日45美元膳食补贴，作为该公司缩减福利的部分措施。这些变化都是风向标。
Not all tech employees see these shifts as signals. I recently spoke with a product marketing manager from Meta who was laid off. I assumed that she would be apprehensive about her job prospects; instead, armed with three months’ severance and decent savings, she remains optimistic. With nearly 79 percent of software engineers and nearly 76 percent of marketers who were laid off in tech finding jobs within three months, her optimism isn’t necessarily unfounded.
并非所有科技员工都将这些转变视为信号。我最近与Meta的一位被裁产品营销经理进行了交谈。我以为她会对自己的就业前景感到担忧；但相反，拿着三个月的遣散费和可观的存款，她仍然是乐观的。近79%的软件工程师和近76%的营销人员都在被裁三个月内找到了工作，她的乐观并非毫无根据。
However, a few things are true now that make the shift in tech employee culture not just a moment in time but a redefinition of how tech companies will be run.
然而，有几点现在已成事实，因此，科技企业员工文化的转变不仅仅是时势使然，而是对科技企业运营方式的重新定义。
Meta and Salesforce combined lost more than $700 billion in market cap last year. Both companies are now dealing with activist investors who have taken prominent positions in their stocks. The activists have called for the companies to slash costs, reduce nonstrategic investments and, notably in Meta’s case, aggressively reduce its work force. Managers have less capacity to overhire and invest in employee initiatives that aren’t tied directly to business execution.
去年，Meta和Salesforce的市值损失加起来超过7000亿美元。这两家公司现在都得应付维权投资者，这些人持有两家公司股票的大头。这些维权者呼吁两家公司削减成本，减少非战略投资，特别是Meta还被要求大幅裁员。如果与业务执行没有直接关系，管理人员对超需求招聘和员工计划投入已不再拥有那么大的权限。
For tech start-ups and founder-C.E.O.s, the past 10 years were a bull run. Interest rates were low, venture funding seemed limitless and valuations skyrocketed. With money being essentially free, founder-C.E.O.s dove in — pursuing revenue, increasing their customer bases and investing in myriad people and projects.
对于初创科技企业和创始人兼CEO们而言，过去十年都是牛市。利率水平较低，风险投资似乎永不枯竭，企业估值飙升。因为本质上可以轻松拿到投资，创始人兼CEO们全身心地追求营收、扩大客户基础、并对无数人员和项目进行投资。
However, with recent interest rates the highest they have been since late 2007 and continuing market uncertainty, investors are considering more investments in companies with strong fundamentals and cash flows. For founder-C.E.O.s, this means it will be harder to raise funding, and investors will have an even greater expectation of return on their money. For large tech companies and start-ups alike, cash is no longer free, and employee investments must pay off.
然而，由于近期利率处于2007年底以来的最高水平，加之市场持续动荡，投资人正在考虑加大对拥有强劲基本面和现金流的企业投资。对创始人兼CEO而言，这意味着融资将更加困难，投资人对投资回报的期待更高。而对大型科技企业及初创企业而言，轻松拿钱已是历史，对员工的投资也必须得到回报。
We are entering an era of external investor pressure, higher financing hurdles and overall market volatility. This environment calls for management to make structural changes in the way workplace culture is experienced for both labor and capital.
我们正迎来一个外部投资人施压、融资障碍加大和整体市场波动的时代。这样的环境要求管理层对劳资双方的职场文化进行结构性改变。
The current tech work force is used to every voice getting a vote, and it will now have to yield to a new world — one with heightened expectations and disciplined investment. Not considering the winds of change will put the careers of many empowered workers at risk.
眼下，科技行业的劳动力已经习惯人人都有话语权，但他们将不得不适应一个期待更高、投资更谨慎的新世界。若不考虑变革的风向，许多被赋权员工的职业生涯都将岌岌可危。