The decline of the office romance

　　辦公室戀情的窮途末路

　　Fewer romantic relationships will be forgedat the water cooler. That is a shame

　　在飲水機(jī)旁建立戀愛(ài)關(guān)系的機(jī)會(huì)越來(lái)越少了，這令人遺憾

　　Their eyes met across the officephotocopier. At long last, each of them had found someone who could push theirbuttons. Eventually, they settled down and decided to reproduce. Read more in“Fifty Sheets of Grey Paper”, out soon in paperback.

　　隔著辦公室的打印機(jī)，他們四目相對(duì)。終于，每個(gè)人都找到了能夠觸動(dòng)彼此內(nèi)心的人。最后，他們相愛(ài)并結(jié)婚生子。更多內(nèi)容詳見(jiàn)即將出版的《五十頁(yè)灰紙》平裝版。

　　Romance is a long-established side-effectof office life. After all, people may spend almost half their waking hours atwork, and their colleagues will frequently have something in common with them,even if it is only complaining about the manager. Some relationships areinevitably bound to result.

　　愛(ài)情是辦公室生活長(zhǎng)期以來(lái)存在的副產(chǎn)品。畢竟，人們將醒著的近一半的時(shí)間都花在工作上，并且往往會(huì)和同事存在一些共同點(diǎn)，即便只是一起抱怨經(jīng)理。有些關(guān)系自然而然地就會(huì)開(kāi)花結(jié)果。

　　But the lockdown has made the forming ofnew romances much more difficult. Although online dating has thrived in thepandemic, the number of people who have met their soulmate via a work Zoommeeting must be vanishingly small. It is hard to flirt while your facialexpressions are being observed by a dozen colleagues. And how private iscompany videoconferencing software’s private-chat function, really?

　　但疫情下的封鎖使新的辦公室戀情更難形成了。在疫情大流行期間，在線約會(huì)得以蓬勃發(fā)展，但通過(guò) Zoom 會(huì)議找到靈魂伴侶的人卻少得可憐。當(dāng)你的面部表情同時(shí)被十幾個(gè)同事看得一清二楚時(shí)，你很難和其中一個(gè)同事調(diào)情。而且，就算是公司視頻會(huì)議軟件的私人聊天功能，它又能有多私密呢?

　　Even before the pandemic, however, officeromances were in decline. In 1995, 19% of (heterosexual) people met theirpartner at work, according to a study by Stanford University. By 2017 this hadfallen to 11%. It will be even lower now. As white-collar employees toil morehours at home and fewer at the office—which seems likely even after the virusrecedes—opportunities for workplace romantic connections will dwindle.

　　而即便是在疫情大流行之前，辦公室戀情也變得越來(lái)越少了。據(jù)斯坦福大學(xué)的一項(xiàng)研究顯示，1995年，19%的異性戀者是在工作中與另一半相識(shí)的。到2017年，這一比例已經(jīng)下降至11%。如今可能更低了。由于白領(lǐng)們?cè)诩夜ぷ鞯臅r(shí)間越來(lái)越長(zhǎng)，而在辦公室工作的時(shí)間越來(lái)越少(即使疫情過(guò)后，這種情況可能仍將存在)，發(fā)展辦公室戀情的機(jī)會(huì)也將越來(lái)越小。

　　One reason for the decline is thatcompanies have realised that work relationships give rise to all kinds ofethical questions. The idea of a boss marrying his secretary (or a doctordating a nurse) is one of the oldest clichés around.

　　辦公室戀情越來(lái)越少的一個(gè)原因是，公司已經(jīng)意識(shí)到辦公室戀情會(huì)引發(fā)各種道德問(wèn)題。最老套的劇情就是老板娶了秘書(或是醫(yī)生與護(hù)士約會(huì))。

　　Sadly, the trope is so well establishedthat secretaries and nurses have spent decades fending off the unwantedattentions of their superiors. As the #MeToo movement has demonstrated, somemen use their positions of power to harass women who work for them.

　　可悲的是，由于這種情節(jié)太過(guò)深入人心，以至于幾十年來(lái)秘書和護(hù)士一直都在努力避開(kāi)上級(jí)對(duì)自己不必要的關(guān)注。正如#MeToo 運(yùn)動(dòng)所指出的那樣，一些男性利用職權(quán)之便對(duì)下屬女性進(jìn)行騷擾。

　　Consensual relationships can cause problemsas well. A relationship with a subordinate makes it hard for a manager to beobjective about their performance. Colleagues may understandably suspect themanager of favouritism. Things may be as bad if the romance breaks down. Hurtfeelings may make it hard for the ex-partners to work together and will alsomake it awkward for everyone else in the office.

　　即便是兩廂情愿也會(huì)存在一些問(wèn)題。一個(gè)管理者一旦與下屬存在親密關(guān)系，就很難客觀地評(píng)價(jià)下屬的工作表現(xiàn)。其他同事理所當(dāng)然也會(huì)懷疑經(jīng)理徇私舞弊。一旦關(guān)系破裂，情況也很糟糕。感情上受到傷害可能會(huì)讓曾經(jīng)的戀人很難在一起工作，同時(shí)也會(huì)讓辦公室里的其他同事感到尷尬。

　　Some companies ban all office romancesoutright. Others issue guidelines such as the stipulation that employees shouldnot allow a relationship with a colleague to influence their behaviour at work,and that they should disclose any relationship that might give rise to aconflict of interest. These rules seem perfectly sensible, although they do involvea sacrifice of privacy.

　　有些公司完全禁止辦公室戀情。另一些公司則通過(guò)規(guī)章制度加以限制，例如規(guī)定員工不得因與同事發(fā)展戀情而影響其工作行為，并規(guī)定員工應(yīng)對(duì)任何可能導(dǎo)致利益沖突的關(guān)系予以披露。盡管這些規(guī)則確實(shí)以犧牲個(gè)人隱私為代價(jià)，但也合乎情理。

　　注：雙語(yǔ)全文源自經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人

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