与其说促进协作，不如说减少成本
“孤独是个拥挤的房间”，罗西乐队的Bryan Ferry曾用颤音这么唱道，他还唱：每个人“都在一起，又都独自一人”。开放式办公室的设计可能正是证明了他的观点。这当然不是出于布局考虑。开放式办公室的初衷是为了员工与同事有更多接触，由此产生的合作将提高生产力。
两位哈佛商学院学者Ethan Bernstein和Stephen Turban着手检验这个观点。作者调查了两家已转为开放式办公室的匿名跨国公司同事间的互动，他们招募工作者佩戴“社会经济学”徽章，使用红外传感器检测人们何时互动，使用麦克风检测人们何时谈话或聆听，另一种设备用来检测人们的动作和姿势，还有一个蓝牙传感器定位人们的位置。
在第一家公司，作者发现在老式隔间式办公室，面对面交流比员工之间有清晰视线的开放空间里高出三倍多。相比之下，当人们转到开放式办公室，互相发送的电子邮件数量增加56%。在第二家公司，转到开放式办公室后，面对面交流减少1/3，同时电子邮件流量增加在22%-50%之间。
为什么会发生这种变化？作者认为，员工珍视隐私，在开放式办公室，他们寻找新的方式来保护隐私。他们带着大耳机将自己和周围同事的干扰隔离开来。事实上，那些开放式办公室的拥护者似乎忘记了能够专注工作的重要性。
员工们还找到与同事交流的其他方式。他们发送电子邮件，而不是在大庭广众之下聊天，结果是生产力下降（经过在两个被调查公司中的一个衡量得出）。
小隔间也没有提供很好的工作环境，环境依旧嘈杂，而且切断了员工的自然光源。但至少，员工有更多机会使自己的工作领域有一些个人风格，为孩子照片、办公室植物、新颖的咖啡杯留出充足的空间，这些都是使人们在工作中感到轻松和快乐的方式。
当公司转向办公桌轮用制时，这种舒适感完全被否定了。根据地产公司CBRE的数据，到2020年，45%的跨国公司计划采用办公桌轮用制，目前这个比例是30%。员工们在大楼里四处寻找办公桌，就像上班族寻找最后一个高峰期的座位，或者游客寻找泳池边的休息室一样。也许你打算花一个上午安静地阅读研究论文或管理手册，倒霉的是，最后一张桌子被Jenkins占了。
对于低级别的工作人员，办公桌轮用制是一个清晰的信号：他们被视为机器里的一次性齿轮。加上缺乏隐私，办公室变成了令人沮丧的工作场所。员工可以在家工作，但这又无法达到开放式办公室促进合作的目标。
这种办公室的兴起让人想起二战后英国对住宅塔楼的热情。英国一项战时调查发现，49%的人想住在带花园的小房子里，只有5%的人想要一套公寓。但是他们只有公寓。建筑师们把自己想象成Howard Roark式的远见者，Ayn Rand所著《源泉》中的“英雄”，竞相为群众建造坚固的神殿。正如David Kynaston在他的《艰苦英国》中所描述的那样，居民们真实的欲望并没有得到满足。
战后建筑师们建造公寓而非独栋房屋的真正原因，是公寓要便宜许多。这也正是开放办公室风靡一时的原因，而不是所谓的与同事加强交流。更多的工作者可以被塞进任何给定的空间。
当然，有人喜欢如此，正如有人喜欢住在塔楼一样。对其他人来说，唯一的选择便是闹将起来，直到高管们改变主意，给员工提供一些私人空间。换句话说，全世界的工作者们，联合起来，这样你们才能再度分开。
原文拾粹：
Open Office, Closed Minds
It is more about cost-cutting than collaboration
1、It is more about...than... 与其说是，不如说是
“Loneliness is a crowded room,” as Bryan Ferry of the band Roxy Music once warbled, adding that everyone was “all together, all alone”. The open-plan office might have been designed to make his point. That is not the rationale for the layout, of course. The supposed aim of open-plan offices is to ensure that workers will have more contact with their colleagues, and that the resulting collaboration will lead to greater productivity.
2、rationale [ˌræʃəˈnɑ:l] n.理论的说明;基本原理，基础理论;根据
Ethan Bernstein and Stephen Turban, two Harvard Business School academics, set out to test this proposition. The authors surveyed interactions between colleagues in two unnamed multinational companies which had switched to open-plan offices. They did so by recruiting workers to wear “sociometric” badges. These used infra-red sensors to detect when people were interacting, microphones to determine when they were speaking or listening to each other, another device to monitor their body movement and posture and a Bluetooth sensor to capture their location.
3、infra-red ['ɪnfrər'ed] adj.红外线的
At the first company, the authors found that face-to-face interactions were more than three times higher in the old, cubicle-based office than in an open-plan space where employees have clear lines of sight to each other. In contrast, the number of e-mails people sent to each other increased by 56% when they switched to open-plan. In the second company, face-to-face interactions decreased by a third after the switch to open-plan, whereas e-mail traffic increased by between 22% and 50%.
4、cubicle [ˈkju:bɪkl] n.小卧室，斗室
Why did this shift occur? The authors suggest that employees value their privacy and find new ways to preserve it in an open-plan office. They shut themselves off by wearing large headphones to keep out the distractions caused by nearby colleagues. Indeed, those who champion open-plan offices seem to have forgotten the importance of being able to concentrate on your work.
5、Why did this shift occur? 为什么会发生这种变化？使用shift表示变化，语言多样
6、champion，这里是拥护者，捍卫者的意思
Employees also find other ways of communicating with their fellow workers. Rather than have a chat in front of a large audience, employees simply send an e-mail; the result (as measured at one of the two companies surveyed) was that productivity declined.
7、in front of a large audience，大庭广众之下
Cubicles do not offer a great work environment, either; they are still noisy and cut off employees from natural light. But at least, workers have more of a chance to give their work area a personal touch. Allowing plenty of room for pictures of children, office plants, novelty coffee mugs – these are ways of making people feel more relaxed and happy in their jobs.
8、a personal touch，个人风格，个人特性
Such comforts are completely denied when companies shift to “hot-desking”, as 45% of multinationals plan by 2020, according to CBRE, a property firm, up from 30% of such companies now. Workers roam the building in search of a desk, like commuters hunting the last rush-hour seat or tourists looking for a poolside lounger. If you planned to spend a morning quietly reading a research paper or a management tome, tough luck; the last desk was nabbed by Jenkins in accounts.
9、hot-desking，办公桌轮用制
10、 tome [təʊm] n.卷;册;大而重的书
11、nab [næb] vt.逮捕;捉住，逮住;抢夺
Hot-desking is a clear message to low-level office workers that they are seen as disposable cogs in a machine. Combine this with the lack of privacy and the office becomes a depressing place to work. Workers could stay at home, but that negates the intended benefits of collaboration that open-plan offices bring.
The drive for such offices is reminiscent of the British enthusiasm for residential tower blocks after the Second World War. One British wartime survey found that 49% wanted to live in a small house with a garden; only 5% wanted a flat. But flats they got. Architects, who fancied themselves as visionaries like Howard Roark, the “hero” of Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead”, competed to create concrete temples for the masses to occupy. As David Kynaston, in his book “Austerity Britain” recounts, the desires of the actual residents were dismissed.
12、 reminiscent [ˌremɪˈnɪsnt] adj.怀旧的;回忆往事的;使人联想…的
13、tower blocks，塔楼
14、Austerity [ɒˈsterəti] n.苦行;严厉;简朴，朴素;节衣缩食
The real reason post-war architects built flats rather than homes is that it was a lot cheaper. And the same reason, not the supposed benefits of mingling with colleagues, is why open-plan offices are all the rage. More workers can be crammed into any given space.
15、...are all the rage，...风靡一时，非常流行
Some people like them, of course, just as some like living in tower blocks. The only option for everyone else is to kick up a stink until executives change their minds and provide some personal space. In other words: workers of the world, unite. So you can separate again.
16、 kick up a stink，闹事，I'm going to kick up a big stink about it，我要为此大闹一场
译者注：本文选自《经济学人》（2018年7月28日）