Poolside Working Is No Longer a Sign of Importance (高管新时尚：休假时不工作)
When I was at university I spent a summertravelling around Europe with some friends, and one of them suggested we dropin on his parents’ place in the south of France.
There are two things I remember about that visit.There was the mortification of being greeted by a butler who ceremoniously carriedmy tatty luggage –a few things stuffed into a plastic I’d been allocated.
But what stays in my mind even more was theimage of his father- who turned out to be a famous tycoon – clad in smallswimming trunks with cigar clamped between teeth, holding a gin and tonic inone hand and a telephone receiver in the other.
The year was 1979 and this was what power lookedlike. The man was too important to be out of touch with the deals he was doing.So he had installed a telephone line by the swimming pool and passed his summersissuing instructions forms a lounger by the water.
A quarter of a century later, technologyallowed all of us to pretend to be tycoons. We might mot have had the butler orthe pool house but everyone could head to the beach with a BlackBerry packed alongwith their towels. And because we could, we did. Only for most of us, what we weredoing was not deals, it was responding to mundane inquiries that could have waitedtwo weeks – or forever.
Tish year, I decided to do something radicalthat I hadn’t done for almost a decade. I took a proper holiday. I disconnectedmyself form work altogether. I didn’t open any work messages. I didn’t open anywork altogether. I didn’t open any work messages. I spent time reading, walking,looking at the sea – and sometimes getting into it – while I thought about notmuch at all.
When I returned to work and reacquaintedmyself with email, it was perfectly straightforward. I deleted almost all ofthem unread, responding only to the things that looked interesting. Far fromfeeling overwhelmed, I felt a certain excitement in the sudden immersion in work.It was a new-shoes and sharp-pencil sort of feeling overwhelmed, I felt acertain excitement in the sudden immersion in work. It was a new-shoes andsharp-pencil sort of feeling that used to go with the beginning of a schoolterm.
Over the past week it has started to dawnon me that my radical action was not radical at all. I was merely following thelatest fashion.
Last week I sent an email to an entrepreneur I know, and within seconds the automatic reply came back:“I am on holiday until August 30 and will not be checking messages. ”This was particularly remarkable given that last time I’d seenhim- some five years ago – he had told me how he expected all his employees torespond to messages instantly wherever they were and whatever they were doing.
So I emailed back asking what had made himchange his mind – but all I got in return was the same automatic messagetelling me be wasn’t reading whatever I was sending.
The very next day I got an email form a woman who I had contacted before I went away. It began:“Sorry for my radio silence-I have had a blissful two-week holiday and am just catching up on emails on my return.”Herewas the same thing again: a driven, thirtysomething entrepreneur who wanted meto know not how hard she worked on holiday but how she loafed around, and howmuch she enjoyed it.
To see how widespread this change is, I’vecollected all the out-of-office emails I’ve had this summer, and counted the numberthat were followed at once by an email sent from the beach. Three years ago, itwas very unusual for an automatic message not to be quickly followed by a real one.This year I’ve had a total of 38 automatic messages telling me the sender was away,only six of which have been succeeded by a personal, poolside reply.
Bragging about not working on holiday seemsto be part of a wider trend – which I wrote about a few months ago – in whichfashionable execs flaunt not their long hours, but their short ones.
To be emailing from the pool does not proveyou are powerful, it is – a sign of weakness, poor time management and an inabilityto delegate. If you can take two weeks off altogether it shows you haveovercome all gadget addiction, and like a modern-day tycoon can control whenyou work -and when you don’t.
词汇总结
Drop in on 顺道拜访
When I was at university I spent a summer travellingaround Europe with some friends, and one of them suggested we drop in on his parents’place in the south of France.
Ceremoniously adv.隆重地
Tatty adj.不整洁的；不值钱的；破旧的
There was the mortification of being greetedby a butler who ceremoniously carried my tatty luggage-a few things stuffedinto a plastic bag-to the suite of rooms to which I’d been allocated.
Tycoon n.企业界大亨，巨头，巨富
A quarter of a century later, technologyallowed all of us to pretend to be tycoons.
Mundane adj.世俗的，平凡的；世界的，宇宙的
It was respondingto mundane inquiries that could have waited two weeks – or forever.