翻译硕士考研者,在暑期阶段需要看双语阅读文章,来提升阅读水平和翻译能力。下面,北京文都考研网为助力翻译硕士学子们在备考上一臂之力,整理了MTI双语阅读精选文章:企业健康福利难提升员工生产力,供考生参考。
2020考研MTI双语阅读:企业健康福利难提升员工生产力
THE NEW YEAR is the moment when people vow to improve their fitness. They join gyms, swear off alcohol and adopt detox diets. These resolutions usually do not last beyond January.
又到了人们在新年发誓要健身的时刻了。他们会走进健身房,发誓戒酒,还编写排毒式饮食计划。这些办法通常还没到一月底就会烟消云散。
But some employers try to help their workers stick to their goals by offering “wellness” programmes. One of the longest-running examples began in 1979 at Johnson & Johnson (J&J), an American health-care company. The plan promotes weight loss, smoking cessation and efforts to reduce blood pressure. The firm claims it reduced medical costs by $400 an employee per year, and resulted in fewer workers suffering from heart disease or high blood pressure.
但是,总是有那么一些雇主试图通过提供“健康”计划来帮助员工实现健身目标。其中的一个持续时间最长的便是美国医疗保健公司强生(J&J)于始于1979年的例子。该公司计划旨在努力促进员工减肥、戒烟和降低血压。该公司声称通过该项计划每年就会减少一名员工400美元的医疗费用,并让患有心脏病或高血压的工人数量大大减少。
Yet an examination of the data by Martin Cherniack of the University of Connecticut* found that in 2005-08, a sharp jump in alcohol use, depression and stress among J&J employees occurred. This coincided with a period when the firm had a target of lifting productivity by 9% a year. So the employees may have been leaner and fitter, but it is possible that workplace pressure to produce more meant greater stress.
然而,康涅狄格大学的Martin Cherniack在检查数据时发现,从2005年到2008年,强生公司员工在喝酒、抑郁和压力等三个方面的数据在急剧上升。与之相冲突的是,该公司同期目标是每年9%的生产率。因此,员工或许可能会更加苗条也更加健康,但是他们的工作的压力可能意味着更严重的身体负担。
All this suggests that employee well-being is a rather more complex topic than can be tackled by a programme devoted to exercise and healthy living. A study by RAND Europe, a research institute, found that obvious bad habits such as smoking and high alcohol use were in fact not associated with lower productivity, while obese workers were no more likely to take time off than anyone else. The biggest productivity problems were associated with lack of sleep, financial concerns and mental-health issues—factors that may well be directly linked to work-related stress.
以上均表明员工福利乃是一个锻炼和健康生活计划要解决的问题更复杂的话题。在研究机构欧洲兰德的一项研究中发现,吸烟和酗酒等明显不良习惯行为实际上与相对低下的生产率并无太大关系,而肥胖的员工也并不会相较其他任何人能抽出更多的时间。首当其冲的生产力问题实际上与睡眠不足、经济问题和心理健康问题有关——而这些因素可能与工作压力直接挂钩。
It seems reasonable for companies to expect some level of economic return on any wellness programme that they provide. But the trade-off should not be too blatant. Making employees fitter so you can work them a lot harder seems rather like drilling your infantry on an assault course before sending them to face the machine guns. A better impact on morale (and thus productivity) might occur if workers felt that their managers had a genuine interest in their welfare.
企业希望能从提供的健康计划获得一定程度的经济回报,这似乎合情合理。不过,权衡取舍不应过于明显。让员工的身心更加健康,这样他们才可以更加努力地工作,这种方法犹似像步兵在面对机关枪前在步兵场上训练一样。只有工人认为管理者真正关心他们的福利,才可能会对他们的工作士气(以及生产力)产生极大的积极影响。
Any health programme that tries to alter workers’ behaviour at home also raises privacy issues. There is a long tradition of employers taking an overly paternalistic attitude towards their staff. Titus Salt, a Victorian philanthropist, built a model village for his workers but banned alcohol from the village, smoking on the pathways and “loud behaviour”. Henry Ford, the car maker, had a “sociology department” that would make unscheduled calls on workers to monitor their lifestyles; those who failed to make the grade were paid lower wages.
另外,想要改变员工在家中行为的健康计划也会引发对隐私问题的担忧。雇主对员工采取过分家长式的态度有着悠久的传统的。维多利亚时代的慈善家蒂特斯·萨特斯(Titus Salt)曾为他的工人们建造了一个模范村庄,但禁止他们在村里酗酒,在路上吸烟以及一些“吵闹的行为”。汽车制造商亨利福特曾设有“社会学部门”,不定期地给员工打电话,检查他们的生活方式;其中那些不合格的员工的工资会更低一些。
The modern equivalent of those practices revolves around technology. Some companies persuade their workers to wear a Fitbit or other device to monitor things such as their level of exercise, heart rate and sleep patterns. BP America introduced Fitbits in 2013. Those who reach certain goals, such as walking 1m steps a year, qualify for extra health benefits.
上述行为在当代通过技术方式来实现。一些企业会说服员工佩戴Fitbit等设备来监控他们的运动水平、心率和睡眠模式等因素。BP America于2013年引入Fitbits。那些达到某些目标(比如每年步行1百万步)的人就有资格获得额外的健康福利。
In a health system dependent on private insurance, there may be a case for giving workers such incentives, provided take-up is voluntary. There is a parallel with car insurance, where vehicle owners pay lower premiums if they are willing to have their driving monitored.
在依赖个人保险的卫生系统中,可能存在某些向员工提供此类激励的情况,当然前提是他们自愿接受。与汽车保险相类似的情况是,如果车主愿意让他们的开车行为受到监控,他们便能支付更低的保费。
But there is less excuse in a country like Britain, which has a public health service. Nevertheless, research published in 2017 showed there had been a 37% leap in the share of British workers who had been offered a wearable device by their employer. Many people, however, will regard these as a spy on their wrists, transmitting information back to the boss. A PwC survey in 2016 found that 38% of British employees did not trust their firms to use the data collected in a way that workers would benefit.
但是,英国等拥有公共卫生服务的国家没有什么额外的情况。尽管如此,在2017年发布的研究显示,英国员工在雇主提供可穿戴设备的占比中大幅上升了37%。然而,许多人也会将这些设备视为手腕上的监视器,因为这些设备会将信息传回给他们的老板。在普华永道2016年的一项调查中发现,有38%的英国员工不相信他们的公司会以员工受益的方式来使用其所收集到的数据。
At least you can take a Fitbit off (and some workers have reportedly strapped them to their dogs to boost their activity scores). A few firms, such as Mindshare, a media agency in Sweden, and Three Square Market, a tech firm in Wisconsin, have already moved on to the next stage: implanting a chip under a worker’s skin. Employees gain a way to open doors and pay for meals in the canteen, but what do they lose in return? There is nothing wrong with employers offering a bit of fitness coaching. But nobody wants their boss to turn into a stalker.
但是有一点,至少你可以取下Fitbit(据报道,一些员工会将它们绑在狗身上以他们的活动分数)。一些企业,如瑞典媒体机构Mindshare和美国威斯康星州的科技企业Three Square Market均已经进入到了下一阶段:即在工人的皮肤下植入芯片。员工可以(凭刷芯片)在食堂开门并支付他们的餐费,但是相应的他们会失去一些什么吧?雇主提供一些健身教练是完全正确的,但是没人想他们的老板变成偷偷摸摸的尾随者。
以上是北京文都考研网给出的“2020考研MTI双语阅读精选文章:企业健康福利难提升员工生产力”,希望对翻译硕士考生有所帮助!祝2020考研金榜题名!
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