为什么休息实际有助于提高工作效率

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Bartleby -- The dangers of decision fatigue

巴托比专栏——决策疲劳的风险

Why breaks are actually good for productivity

为什么休息实际有助于提高工作效率

“Have a break” is a slogan associated with the popular chocolate snack, KitKat.

“休息一下”是和热销巧克力零食奇巧相关的一句广告语。

But it may be pretty good advice for any manager or worker, minus the calories.

但对于所有管理者或员工来说，这句话都可能是一个很好的建议，抛开卡路里这部分。

The longer the shift, the less effective the employee may become.

一个轮班的时间越长，员工的工作效率可能就越低。

In a new paper for Royal Society Open Finance, “Quantifying the cost of decision fatigue: suboptimal risk decisions in finance”, Tobias Baer and Simone Schnall examine the credit decisions of loan officers at a leading bank over the course of their working day.

托拜厄斯·贝尔和西蒙妮·施纳尔在为皇家学会开放金融撰写的一篇题为“量化决策疲劳的成本：金融中的次优风险决策”的新论文中，研究了一家主要银行的信贷员在工作期间的信贷决策。

The academics write that decision fatigue “typically involves a tendency to revert to the ‘default’ option, namely whatever choice involves relatively little mental effort”.

这两位学者写道，决策疲劳“通常涉及一种回归‘默认’选项的倾向，即任何需要相对较少脑力劳动的选择”。

In other words, as you become tired, you get mentally lazy.

换句话说，当你累了，你就会在精神上变得懒惰。

The study looked at proposals to restructure loans, with each credit officer analysing 46 requests per day.

这项研究考察了重组贷款的申请，每位信贷官员每天分析46份申请。

The approval rate was around 40%, so the default decision was rejection.

通过率在40%左右，默认的决策是驳回。

Officers tended to start work between 8am and 10am, took lunch between 1pm and 3pm, and tended to leave at 6pm.

信贷官员们通常在早上8点到10点上班，下午1点到3点吃午饭，在下午6点下班。

The researchers found that the approval rate declined significantly between 11am and 2pm, as lunch approached, then picked up again after 3pm before declining in the last two hours of work.

研究人员发现，随着午餐时间临近，即上午11点至下午2点之间，通过率显著下降，然后在下午3点之后开始回升，在工作的最后两个小时再次下降。

The applications were distributed to credit officers by the bank’s automated system, so they were in effect allocated randomly.

这些申请是由银行的自动化系统分配给信贷员的，因此它们实际上是随机的。

There is no sign that the loans assessed at lunchtime were of a different quality from those in the rest of the day.

没有迹象能够表明，午餐时间评估的贷款与当天其他时间评估的贷款质量不同。

What makes this study ingenious is that the authors were able to see whether or not the loans were subsequently paid back.

这项研究的独创性之处在于，作者能够看到这些贷款后来是否被偿还。

They found that rejecting a restructuring request made it less likely that the loan would be repaid.

他们发现，驳回重组贷款请求会降低贷款得到偿还的可能性。

So they calculated that decision fatigue, by causing more rejections, actually cost the bank money; around $500,000 over the course of a single month.

因此，他们推算出，决策疲劳，作为驳回增加的原因，实际上给银行造成了损失；大约每月50万美元。

Similar patterns have been seen in other situations.

在其他职位中也有类似的状况。

A much-cited study of Israeli judges found they were less likely to grant parole as lunch approached, but became more lenient once their stomachs were full again.

一项被广泛引用的关于以色列法官的研究发现，在临近午餐时间时，他们不太可能批准假释，但一旦他们的胃被再次填饱，他们就会变得更加宽容。

Other research found that doctors grew steadily more likely to prescribe antibiotics, even when these might not be necessary, over the course of their shift.

还有研究发现，在轮班期间，医生开抗生素的可能性逐渐增加，即使这些药可能是不必要的。

In some areas of work, breaks are seen as a vital matter of safety.

在某些行业，休息被视为至关重要的安全问题。

In the EU, lorry drivers are expected to take a 45-minute break after 4 hours 30 minutes behind the wheel.

在欧盟，卡车司机在驾驶4小时30分钟后，应该休息45分钟。

Mental activity can result in physical exhaustion, as anyone who has spent a day in successive meetings can attest.

脑力活动是会导致身体疲惫的，任何一个连续开了一天会的人都能证明这一点。

In the middle of a business trip, nothing can seem more enticing than the solitary silence of a hotel room, with no clients to amuse or placate in sight.

在出差过程中，没有什么比在独自一人待在安静的酒店房间里更吸引人了，那里没有你需要讨好或安抚的客户。

Breaks can also boost creativity.

休息还能够激发创造力。

It is easy for the brain to develop tunnel vision when it is working hard.

大脑在努力运转时容易形成“隧道视野”。

There are times when the mind needs to roam free.

有些时候，大脑需要自由地漫游。

Kevin Cashman of Korn Ferry, a consultancy, and author of a book, “The Pause Principle”, reports that executives say their best ideas often come when exercising, taking a shower or commuting.

咨询公司光辉国际的凯文·卡什曼写过一本书，叫作《暂停原则》，书中写道，高管们表示，他们最好的想法往往出现在运动、洗澡或通勤的时候。

Taking a break by leaving the workplace, if only to go to the coffee shop, may be the sole practical way for workers to recharge mental batteries.

离开工作场所休息一下——即使只是去趟咖啡店——可能是职场人给精神充电的唯一切实可行的方式。

Many people have hobbies—puzzles, crosswords, knitting—that are enjoyable because they engage only part of their conscious minds but still stave off boredom.

许多人都有自己的爱好——拼图、填字、编织——这些爱好都很令人享受，因为它们只占用了意识思维的一部分，同时还能打发无聊。

However, such pastimes are regarded as impermissible at the office.

然而，这种消遣在办公室是不被允许的。

This is ironic since they are unlikely to disturb anyone else, whereas chatting with a colleague, which is all too likely to do so, is seen as a perfectly acceptable diversion.

这很讽刺，因为这不太可能打扰到其他人，而与同事聊天（很可能会打扰其他人）却被视为完全可以接受的消遣。

One of the nicest elements of working from home during the pandemic has been the ability to take breaks at the time, and in the style, of the employee’s choosing (subject to the tyranny of the Zoom conferencing calendar).

疫情期间在家办公的最大的优点之一就是，员工可以在自己选择的时间、用自己喜欢的方式休息（当然还是会受到视频会议日程的限制）。

The lesson for managers is that what seems like “slacking” is actually a useful device for maintaining productivity.

管理者可以从中学到的是，看似“偷懒”的行为，实际上是保持工作效率的有效手段。

And the study of credit officers indicates that companies should look for ways to protect workers against decision fatigue.

对信贷官员的研究表明，公司应该想办法保护员工免受决策疲劳的影响。

One approach would be to give employees more breaks, of course.

当然，给予员工们更多的休息时间是一种方法。

But another might be to monitor decisions at certain times of the day.

但也可以用另一种方法，即在一天中的特定时间段监控决策。

The bank that was the subject of the study could have ensured that loan decisions made just before lunch, or at the end of the day, were subject to review.

作为研究对象的银行本应该确保，在午餐前或一天结束时所做出的贷款决定受到审查。

Software could be used to “nudge” employees with a message like: “Your decision-making seems to have changed, maybe you want to take a break and reconsider.”

软件可以用这样的信息来“提醒”员工：“你的决策似乎已经改变，也许你需要休息一下再重新考虑。”

A pause should win applause.

暂停，应该受到鼓励。