经济学人下载:自由交流:企业老板如何高效控制员工(1)

Finance and Economics
财经

Free exchange
自由交流

Better, stronger, faster
更好、更强、更快

Labour-monitoring technologies raise efficiency—and hard questions.
劳动力监督技术在提高效率的同时也带来种种难题。

Bosses have always sought control over how workers do their jobs.
企业老板总是在找办法来控制员工的工作方法。

Whatever subtlety there once was to this art, technology is now obliterating.
不论这种方法以前有多么微妙，如今的技术正在完全毁灭掉。

In February Amazon received patents for a wristband apparently intended to shepherd labourers in its warehouses through their jobs with maximum efficiency.
2月，亚马逊获得了一款腕带多项专利——从表面上看，这款腕带是用来指导员工在仓库里最为高效地工作。

The device, were Amazon to produce and use it, could collect detailed information about each worker’s whereabouts and movements, and strategically vibrate in order to guide their actions.
如果亚马逊生产并使用这一穿戴设备，它将收集每位员工详细的行踪和运动信息，并以巧妙地震动方式指导员工的行动。

Using such technology seems an obvious step for firms seeking to maximise productivity.
对于各家企业来说，使用这类技术表面上是为了追求最高生产率。

Whether workers should welcome the trend, or fear it, is harder to say.
员工对此技术是欢迎还是担忧，现在还很难说。

Workplace discipline came into its own during the Industrial Revolution.
在工业革命时期就有了工作纪律。

As production came to depend ever more on expensive capital equipment, bosses, not keen to see that equipment sitting idle, curtailed their workers’ freedom,
随着生产越来越依赖于昂贵的资本设备，老板们不愿看到设备闲置，便缩减员工的自由，

demanding they work during set hours, in co-ordination with other employees, at a pace dictated by the firm.
要求他们在固定的时间里工作，以及与其他员工协调一致，而工作节奏则由企业来控制。

Technology creates new opportunities for oversight.
技术为监督员工工作创造了新机会。

Editors can see which of their journalists attract the most readers (though many wisely focus on other measures of quality).
编辑能看到哪位记者吸引的读者最多（虽然很多人明智地关注于其他衡量质量的办法）。

Referees at sporting events are subject to reviews that check their decisions to within millimetres.
运动比赛的裁判常常要复查以确保他们的决策精确到毫米。