好英语网从加班到零工经济 无间歇工作的代价
It makes accidents more likely, boosts stress levels, and even causes physical pain. But the real problem is that many people just can’t afford not to do it.
事故频发，压力山大，还引起身体这酸那疼。但真正的问题在于，很多人根本承受不了压力。
According to latest International Labour Organization statistics, more than 400 million employed people worldwide work 49 or more hours per week, a sizeable proportion of the near 1.8 billion total employed people worldwide.
根据国际劳工组织最新统计，全球有超过4亿员工每周工作49小时及以上，在全球近18亿就业人口当中，此比例不小。
In a recent interview with The New York Times, even entrepreneur Elon Musk felt moved to describe his 47th birthday spent locked in his factory, pulling an all-nighter. “No friends, nothing,” he said. It might have been just another day in another 120-hour work week. “This has really come at the expense of seeing my kids. And seeing friends,” he added.
即使是企业家埃隆•马斯克（ Elon Musk），近日接受《纽约时报》采访谈到自己47岁生日只能在工厂里熬通宵时，也颇为感慨：“没朋友，什么都没有。”与平时每周工作120小时的日子没什么区别。他说：“我彻底牺牲了和孩子们、朋友们见面的时间。”
For some of his fans, this is just the price of being Silicon Valley’s current demi-god, the pioneer simultaneously pursuing the colonisation of Mars and creating an affordable and mass-produced electric car.
对于他的粉丝而言，这就是他成为硅谷当代神话的代价。马斯克致力于研发价格亲民的电动汽车并大规模量产，与此同时他还是推行火星殖民化的先锋。
But wearing exhaustion like a badge of honour sets a dangerous precedent. Hustling over long hours and weekends has become a staple of start-up culture in Silicon Valley - hence, it has also filtered out to many parts of the world. While writing this piece, a post popped up in my Facebook from a Colombian group for start-ups: ‘Raise your hand if you are working right now on your company, idea, or business!,’ next to a fist emoji. It had 160 likes, even a few hearts. It was commented on by 38 proud entrepreneurs, each posting the URL of their project. It was a Saturday; it was 9:56 p.m.
然而，当疲惫的表情成了一种荣誉勋章，这其实开了一个危险的头。每天加班、周末加班，已经成了硅谷创业的标配，并且蔓延到世界各地。写这篇文章的时候，Facebook刷出一张哥伦比亚创客群的帖子：“如果此刻的你为了公司、为了点子、为了生意，正在工作，请举手！”这个帖子收获了160个赞，甚至还有很多人点了代表“大爱”的心形图案。38位骄傲的创业者留言评论，每一位都贴了自己项目的线上地址。当时是周六，晚上9:56。
The problem is that this 'long hours' culture likely defeats the purpose of getting more things done, or at least puts a very hefty price on doing them. There is plenty of evidence that working overtime reduces your productivity, and makes you feel and actually be less healthy. It also make you more likely to develop a whole range of diseases.
问题在于，这种“加班”文化可能无法实现做更多事的初衷。或者说，需要付出更大的代价才能完成工作。大量证据表明，加班会降低工作效率，让你感觉很不健康（事实也是如此），还更容易患上各种疾病。
Still, millions of workers seem unable to take a stand against it, from medics to ‘gig economy’ workers and freelancers. What happens then? And, what can we – those who can’t help working on Saturday nights – do about it?
然而，从医务人员到“零工经济”员工再到自由职业者，上百万员工却无法站出来表示反对。为什么会这样？对于我们这些周六晚上不得不加班的人，能做什么呢？
This is going to hurt
带来的损伤
It seems self-evident: an overworked person is tired; hence more likely to have an accident at work. But proving this is surprisingly difficult. It might be that riskier jobs also have more demanding hours, or simply that people who work more hours spend more time at risk, even if they don’t do overtime. But a study that analysed 13 years of job records in the US found that “working in jobs with overtime schedules was associated with a 61% higher injury hazard rate compared to jobs without overtime”.
工作过劳的人很累，因此更容易发生事故不言而喻。但证明这一点却很困难。也许因为危险的工作需要花更多的时间，或者单纯是工作时间长的人暴露在风险中的时间也长，就算不加班也这样。不过一项调查分析了美国13年来的职业记录，发现“与不用加班的工作相比，需要加班的员工受伤害率高了61%。”
This specific study stops short of saying that fatigue is the primary cause of this increased risk, but there is ample evidence to suggest this might be the case.
这项具体研究并未明说疲劳是风险提升的主要原因，但有充分的证据表明可能就是这么一回事。
For instance, if you woke at 8 a.m. and were still awake at 1 a.m. the next day (that is, if you had been up for 17 hours straight), your physical performance would likely be worse than if you had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05%. This the level that an average 73 kg male would get if he had drunk two 355ml cans of beer. That’s right, you’re drunk on overtime.
比如，如果你早上8点醒来，到凌晨1点都还没睡（也就是说你已经17个小时未睡觉），那你的身体表现，可能比73公斤的男人喝了2听355毫升的啤酒（血液中含0.05%的酒精浓度）要糟糕得多。没错，加班时的你就像醉了一样。
If you remained awake until 5 a.m., the impairment would be similar to having 0.1% of blood alcohol – more than the 0.08% that is considered the legal driving limit in most countries of the world.
如果你到凌晨5点还没有睡，那给身体带来的伤害和0.1%的血液酒精浓度差不多。而世界上绝大多数国家，血液酒精浓度超过0.08%，就是酒驾了。
So, an all-nighter will make your physical performance (things like your reaction time or coordination) as impaired as if you were too drunk to drive. And if you can’t drive, will you be able to work safely and competently? Maybe typing on a computer is not very risky, but this is something definitely worth considering when doing manual or physical labour, or if your work demands attention to detail.
所以，熬夜会让你的身体表现（比如反应速度或协调性）受到损伤，就像酒驾一样。你都醉得开不了车，还能安全、有效地工作吗？也许在电脑前打打字并不危险，但如果是手工或者体力劳动，或是需要精神高度集中的工作，就得好好斟酌了。
The algorithmic ‘whip’
算法“鞭策”
Still, a lot of people feel trapped in the cycle – they rely on overworking to make ends meet and pay their bills. They are stuck in a system that incentivises them for clocking up lots of hours, or for working through the night if their clients live in another time zone.
然而，很多人却摆脱不了这个恶性循环，他们需要加班加点来维持生计。这些人受困于激励员工超时工作的系统，或因公司客户在其他时区则不得不在夜间工作。
For example, this is often the case for ‘gig economy’ workers in Southeast Asia and Africa, hired by companies or entrepreneurs in the US, UK or Europe through freelancer platforms to do things like coding, blog post working, website building or social media management.
比如，东南亚和非洲的“零工经济”员工，就是个典型例子。美国、英国或者欧洲其他国家的公司、商人在自由职业平台上雇佣这些人写代码、编辑博客、建设网站，或是管理社交媒体等等。
Some recent research led by Alex J Wood, from the Oxford Internet Institute, reveals that the algorithms that assign jobs to these workers are a powerful driver to sustained overworking.
近来，牛津互联网研究所的伍德（Alex J Wood）负责的一些研究表明：为这些劳动者分配工作的算法，直接导致了持续过劳。
Basically, the higher your ranking on these platforms, the more likely you are to be hired. But to get these good reviews, workers have to accommodate everything their client wants, with little room for negotiating better conditions: “They have to be available to communicate whenever they are wanted. If the client has a very short deadline, they have to accept. Otherwise, they will be given a bad rating”, says Wood in an interview.
基本上，你在这些平台上的排名越靠前，受雇可能性就越高。但若要得到好评，就得包容客户的一切要求，很难有协商争取利益的空间。伍德在受访时表示，“他们随时候命，只要客户需要，马上开工。如果客户的截止日期很近，他们也只能接受。否则就要收到差评。”
If the worker is not in the top rankings, this pressure only increases. Some try to attract more gigs by charging extremely low prices, forcing them to work very long hours for little money. Furthermore, most invest a significant amount of unpaid labour too, on admin like setting up profiles, bidding for gigs on the platform, and acquiring skills to create a more attractive profile. All this adds up to a very long and exhausting routine.
如果这些人不在排行榜最前面，那压力就会更大。一些人会用极低的价格来吸引零工活计，迫使他们为了一点点钱而用更长时间工作。此外，很多人还要做大量的无偿劳动来经营自我，比如设置个人资料、在平台上竞标、学习新技能让自己的简历更好看等。这些加起来，就让日常工作变得又长、又令人精疲力尽。
As one interviewee on Wood’s research said, “I’m so broke, this is someone who’s ready to give me the money, so why don’t you want 18 hours in one day?”
正如伍德研究中一位受访者所说：“我这么穷，有人要给我钱，那为什么一天不花个18小时干活呢？”
These patterns seem to replicate in many areas of the gig economy. There have been reports in the US that some drivers working for ride-hailing firms are driving up to 20-hour shifts to take advantage of fare spikes. And in the UK, Uber limited its drivers to 10 hours of continuous use of the app, after a parliamentary probe.
零工经济的很多领域似乎都出现了这种过劳模式。美国有报道称：一些网约车公司的司机为了充分利用车费上涨的机会，每天驾驶时间达到20小时。在英国，在议会调查后，优步（Uber）将司机持续使用网约车服务的时间限制为10小时。
According to Wood, “the most obvious impact is sleep deprivation,” which reinforces the vicious cycle of little rest and long hours. “People would be more productive if they didn’t have these long hours. But the way the businesses are set up means that people cannot maximise that productivity because they have to be working late at night to meet a deadline.” Freelance platforms have been under fire for glorifying such unhealthy lifestyles, with good reason.
根据伍德的说法，“最明显的影响是对睡眠的剥夺”，这加剧了休息越来越少、工作越来越久的恶性循环。“如果不用一直加班，工作效率会更高。但零工经济的建立导致人们没法尽可能提高效率，因为他们不得不熬夜赶截止时间。”自由职业平台因为推崇这种不健康的生活方式，而广受诟病。
His study does not show how many of these ‘gig’ workers actually work for very long hours, and he clarifies that things are usually a lot better for freelancers in Europe, the UK and the US, who have more specialised skills and a lot more bargaining power. Still, in the Global South, there are signs that this cycle of overwork is becoming ingrained. More than half of the workers interviewed by Wood and his team said that they had to work at very high speed, 60% worked to tight deadlines, and 22% experienced physical pain as a result of their work.
伍德的研究并没有表明实际上有多少打零工者要长时间工作。他还澄清说，在欧洲、英国和美国，自由职业者专业技能多，议价能力强，情况就乐观得多。而在南半球，有迹象表明这种过劳恶性循环正在愈演愈烈、愈来愈根深蒂固。伍德团队采访的劳动者中，超过一半的人表示他们必须高速工作，60%的人说期限很紧，22%的人曾因工作而身感疼痛。
Always ‘on call’
永远“随叫随到”
The era when work ended as people left the office is long gone. Checking and answering messages from work seems unavoidable – and even desirable for some people, as they feel it allows them to outperform competitors, or to spend more time with family without losing track of their jobs. As put by a 2006 academic paper from Ian Towers, a researcher from SRH Hochschule in Berlin, mobile technology “increases expectations: managers and colleagues alike expect staff to be almost always available to do work”.
一离开办公室就算今日工作结束的时代，早已一去不复返。下班后检查和回答工作信息似乎避无可避，有的人甚至对此趋之若鹜，因为他们觉得这样能超过竞争对手，或者能花更多时间能关注着工作、又能同时和家人在一起。来自柏林SRH应用技术大学（SRH Hochschule）的研究员塔瓦斯（Ian Towers）在其2006年的学术论文中提出，移动技术“提升了人们的期望：管理人员和同事都希望员工随时都能工作”。
But being ‘on call’ is not the same as being off work, and the way our body reacts to both situations is very different. A 2016 study found that the cortisol levels (the hormone that regulates the ‘fight or flight’ reaction and plays a role in raising stress levels) of people ‘on call’ rise faster in the mornings than those of people who are not required to be available, even if they don’t end up working that day.
然而“随叫随到”与准时上下班是两码事，我们的身体对这两种情况的反应截然不同。2016年一项研究发现：早晨随叫随到者的皮质醇（又译为可体松，人体应付压力的激素，因此也称为压力荷尔蒙）水平比不需随叫随到的员工升得要快，即使他们可能一直到晚上都没工作可做。
This hormone usually has its peak concentration when we wake up, and it decreases on the rest of the day. But scientists believe everyday stress factors tamper with its cycle in several ways: it rises faster when you expect a stressful day (researchers believe this may be the case here), its levels remain high if you are chronically stressed, and it does not rise if you are going through a ‘burnout syndrome’ – something usually preceded by a chronic stress period.
这种压力荷尔蒙一般在人们刚睡醒时达到峰值，然后慢慢减少。但科学家认为，日常压力会以各种方式让周期紊乱：比如你预计今天会很紧张，那激素就会上升（研究人员觉得打零工就是这样），如果你长期压力都很大，这个激素就会一直偏高；如果在长期压力后你开始经历“倦怠综合症”，那这个激素就升不上去了。
As a result, people also find it more difficult “mentally detaching work from non-work” when they are ‘on call’, as well as choosing to do the activities that they really want – a trait researchers call ‘control’. In other words: workers don’t feel like the time they are ‘on call’ is really their own, and their stress levels rise accordingly. Hence, researchers conclude that days where availability is demanded “cannot be considered leisure time, because recovery – a crucial function of leisure time – is restricted under such circumstances”.
结果是，“随叫随到”的人发现越来越难“从心理上区分工作和非工作”，很难做自己真正想做的事——研究人员称之为“控制能力”。换句话说，员工并不觉得“随叫随到”的时间真的是自己的，他们的压力也会相应上升。因此，研究人员得出结论，要求随叫随到的日子“不能视作闲暇时间，因为休闲的重要功能——休养生息，在这种情况下十分有限。”
What to do?
该怎么办？
Working for days at a time is not smart, even if you are Elon Musk. The news of his unhealthy work routine has not been well received by investors, and Tesla’s stock fell 8.8% shortly after the NYT interview, amid suspicions of Musk’s poor mental health. Take it as a sobering tale: if you can avoid working for days at a time, just do it, as it has no positive effects on your health, your well-being, or your productivity. Even if you think you are an exception, most likely you are not.
即使你是马斯克，一口气工作好几天也并不明智。他不健康的工作习惯是投资者们并不乐见的新闻。马斯克接受《纽约时报》采访后，因为怀疑马斯克心理状态不佳，特斯拉的股价迅速下跌了8.8%。请将这一新闻作为一个警示：如果你能避免一口气工作好几天，就尽量别这么干。因为这对你的健康、幸福和生产力，并没有什么好处。即使你觉得自己是个例外，实际上哪来这么多侥幸？
The big problem is for the most vulnerable freelancers, who don’t seem to have a chance to stop the cycle of overworking and diminishing productivity. The underlying problem, as Wood says, is that “clients are able to damage future earnings for workers”, while freelancers have little bargaining power.
对于绝大多数弱势的自由职业者，关键问题在于，他们大概没机会结束长时工作导致效率减弱的恶性循环。正如伍德所言，潜在问题是“客户能影响打零工者未来的收入”，而这些人却没有讨价还价的本钱。
It is unlikely that these platforms move to change this, especially when this business model allows them to move billions of dollars each year. Meanwhile, if you happen to hire a freelancer online, it might be better to give your ‘hired hand’ some extra time: they might not only do a better work, but their life could be a lot better as a result.
这些雇佣平台很难改变这一点，毕竟这种商业模式每年能带来数十亿美元的收益。那么如果你碰巧在网上雇佣一名自由职业者，最好多给对方一些时间：这样的话，他们不仅能把工作做得更好，还会有一个更好的生活。