经济学人下载:紧缩的办公室 都是管理学惹的祸

Ever-smaller offices
紧缩的办公室

Pressed suits
正如缩水套装

Feeling a bit cramped? Blame management theory
挤？都是管理学惹的祸

“PROJECT gold” and “Project Nexus” sound like plans for bank heists or military assaults. In reality, they are the names for KPMG's ongoing attempt to squeeze its 6,700Londonemployees into ever smaller spaces. Since 2006 the professional-services firm has reduced the number of offices it uses inLondonfrom seven to two. By the spring of 2015 everybody will be crammed into one building inCanaryWharf.
“金牌项目”和“联通项目”听上去像是抢银行或军事打击的计划。事实上，这是毕马威公司计划中的项目名称，他们打算缩小全伦敦近6700名员工的工作空间。自2006年起，这家专业咨询公司-毕马威就把开设在伦敦的7家事务所减少到了2家。而到2015年春，所有员工都只能挤在伦敦金融区的一栋大楼里办公。

According to data from the British Council for Offices (BCO), an industry club, the average office tenant now uses around 11 square metres per worker, 35% less than in 1997. A new building in Ludgate Hill, inLondon's financial district, will allocate just eight square metres to each employee. In many offices, rows of “hot” desks have replaced individual offices and even cubicles. “Nowadays it's almost frowned on to have your own office,” claims Nick Wentworth Stanley, of i2 Offices, a big serviced property firm.
英国办公室协会是一家工业俱乐部，该协会的数据表明，现如今，普通写字楼的承租户分配给每名职员约11平方米，与1997年相比少了35%。在伦敦的金融区路德门山街，有一栋新落成的大楼，楼中每名雇员仅能分到约8平方米。在许多写字楼中，独立办公室甚至是小隔间代替了连排的公用办公桌。一家大型产权服务公司i2 Offices的尼克·温特沃斯·斯坦利说“如今很难拥有自己的办公室了”

Firms have long known that only about half of all desks are in use at any moment, as employees work odd hours or disappear to meetings, but it was difficult to fill the spares. Better IT systems now mean that people need not be tied to a particular desk. They need not even be in the office at all: as cloud computing and virtual offices take off, more people are working from home or from other places, further reducing the need for desks.
许多公司很早就知道，由于雇员要倒班或者去开会，大约只有一半的办公桌一直处于使用状态，但是很难填补那些办公桌闲置的空当。更优化的信息系统意味着员工不必拘泥于某个特定的桌子。他们甚至都不必在办公室里：随着云计算与虚拟办公室的兴起，越来越多的人居家办公，或者在其他地方办公，这更加缩小了办公桌的用武之地。

Aside from cheapness, there is a motive behind this squashing. Inspired bySilicon Valley, firms are trying to make their offices into “collaborative spaces”, where people bump into each other and chat usefully. KPMG's redesignedCanaryWharfoffices will include lots of “breakout spaces” where employees can relax, and quiet rooms where people can get away from hubbub, says Alastair Young, who is planning the move. He thinks this will both improve productivity and save money.
除了追求低成本，“挤压”战略的背后还有一个动机。受硅谷启发，各公司正试图把自己的办公室变成“协同空间”，职员们可以随意地与他人会面并且有效地交流。计划搬迁的阿拉斯泰尔·杨说，毕马威重新设计过的伦敦金融区的写字楼还将包含许多的“超脱空间”，员工可以在那儿略作小憩，以及远离喧嚣的静音房。他认为这是提高生产力与节约成本的双赢战略。

In this happy new world, offices are not just places to work but also a way of expressing corporate identity and a means of attracting and retaining staff. At the offices of Bain & Company, a management consultancy, inspirational quotes on walls help workers to identify with Bain's brand, explains Sam Axtell, the company's operations director. Games rooms and relaxing spaces help them “release alpha waves”.
在这个愉快的新时代，办公室已不仅仅是处理案牍之所，还是树立企业形象与吸引新员工、留住老员工的地方。贝恩是一家咨询管理公司，其运营主管萨姆·阿克斯特尔解释道，公司墙上的励志名言有助于员工认同本公司的品牌形象。游戏室与放松空间有助于员工“释放α波”（即“释放压力”）。

This flummery has a practical consequence: it means more workers can be crammed into the middles of cities. Fewer firms now require suburban back offices, says Sandra Jones of Ramidus, a property consultancy. Between 2001 and 2012 the number of workers employed by large firms in Croydon, on the edge of London, declined by almost a quarter, to around 34,000. In Manchesterand Birmingham, too, new office jobs have been created in rejuvenated city centres at the expense of suburbs. This may be one reason commutes are lengthening.
这样的道貌岸然导致一个很实际的后果：这意味着在城市中心会挤入更多的职员。地产咨询公司Ramidus的桑德拉·琼斯称，如今越来越少的企业还要地处郊区的办公楼。在伦敦郊区，大型公司Croydon的职员在2001年至2012年间少了近四分之一，目前为止还剩约34000人。曼彻斯特和伯明翰的情况类似，重建后的老城中心取代了郊区创造了新的工作岗位。这也许是上下班时间变长的原因之一。

Not everyone is delighted by the rise of cramped hot desks. At Broadcasting House, the BBC's new offices inLondon, a shortage of good desks has led to frantic morning scrambles. A manager at a financial firm in the City complains that since his firm redesigned its office, there are only enough phones for one between two. KPMG has seen crushes at lifts and in the canteen; the crowds have also put pressure on the air-conditioning system.
并不是每个人都对拥挤的公用办公桌的数量上升感到满意。伦敦的广播大厦是BBC新的办公楼，高质量办公桌的短缺直接导致了早晨慌乱的“抢桌大战”。伦敦某金融公司的经理抱怨道，自从公司重新设计了其办公室后，办公室电话只够一两个人使用。毕马威公司已经领略了电梯和餐厅满当当的人群；人群还给空调系统施加了巨大的压力。

A modest backlash is under way, in an unexpected quarter. Google's new offices in King's Cross will have all sorts of collaborative space. But workers will still get their own private desks. Where that company leads, others tend to follow.
温和反弹正以一个让人意想不到的方式进行。谷歌在国王十字街的新办公楼会涵盖各种协同空间。但员工仍将拥有自己的私人办公桌。但无论谷歌走向何方，他人还将亦步亦趋。