抢椅子游戏 办公室座位安排学问多

Office workers are being treated to a new game: musical chairs.
如今，办公室职员正被安排玩一个新游戏：抢椅子游戏。

By shifting employees from desk to desk every few months, scattering those who do the same types of jobs and rethinking which departments to place side by side, companies say they can increase productivity and collaboration.
公司方面表示，通过让员工每几个月调换一次座位、将从事同类工作的员工分散开来以及重新考虑让哪些部门坐在一起等方式，他们能够提高生产率并促进合作。

Proponents say such experiments not only come with a low price tag, but they can help a company's bottom line, even if they leave a few disgruntled workers in their wake.
支持者称，这类实验不仅成本低，而且有助于提高公司利润，虽然它们会引起一些员工的不满。

In recent years, many companies have moved toward open floor plans and unassigned seating, ushering managers out of their offices and clustering workers at communal tables. But some companies -- especially small startups and technology businesses -- are taking the trend a step further, micromanaging who sits next to whom in an attempt to get more from their employees.
近年来，许多公司转向开放空间格局，不指定固定座位，引导管理者走出办公室，并将员工聚在公用办公桌旁。但一些公司（尤其是小型初创公司和科技公司）将这种趋势又向前推进了一步，它们对座位安排进行微观管理，以提高员工的生产率。

'If I change the [organizational] chart and you stay in the same seat, it doesn't have very much of an effect,' says Ben Waber, chief executive of Sociometric Solutions, a Boston company that uses sensors to analyze communication patterns in the workplace. 'If I keep the org chart the same but change where you sit, it is going to massively change everything.'
Sociometric Solutions首席执行长本・瓦贝尔(Ben Waber)称：“如果我改变（组织系统）图，但你的座位保持不变，是不会产生很大效果的。如果我保持组织系统图不变，但调整你的座位，则会让一切产生巨大变化。”Sociometric Solutions是一家波士顿公司，该公司用传感器来分析工作场所的沟通模式。

Mr. Waber says a worker's immediate neighbors account for 40% to 60% of every interaction that worker has during the workday, from face-to-face chats to email messages. There is only a 5% to 10% chance employees are interacting with someone two rows away, according to his data, which is culled from companies in the retail, pharmaceutical and finance industries, among others.
瓦贝尔说，一名员工在工作日中的每一种互动都有40%到60%是与邻座展开的，从面对面交谈到电邮信息都是如此。他的数据显示，员工与相隔两排的同事进行互动的几率仅为5%到10%。该数据采自零售、制药和金融等行业的公司。

Companies should think carefully about whom they put where, according to experts who study office design and workplace psychology. Grouping workers by department can foster focus and efficiency, says Christian Catalini, an assistant professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, but mixing them up can lead to experimentation and the potential for breakthrough ideas.
研究办公室设计和工作场所心理学的专家们表示，公司应该认真考虑把什么人安排在什么位置就座。麻省理工学院(Massachusetts Institute of Technology)斯隆管理学院(Sloan School of Management)的助理教授克里斯蒂安・卡塔利尼(Christian Catalini)表示，让员工按部门就座有助于提高专注程度和工作效率，但让不同部门的员工混坐能鼓励员工大胆尝试，还能激发可产生突破性创意的潜力。

MODCo Media, a New York advertising agency, has tested three different seating arrangements over the past few years. For about six months, the company intermingled its accountants and media buyers, hoping they would begin to absorb each others' skills through 'osmosis' and 'overhearing phone calls.'
纽约广告公司MODCo Media在过去几年里试用了三种不同的座位安排。该公司让会计和媒介采购员混坐了约六个月，希望他们能通过“耳濡目染”和“偷听电话”来相互借鉴。