Bartleby

The decline of the office romance

办公室恋情的减少

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

在饮水机旁建立的恋爱关系变少了。这真是一种遗憾

Aug 15th 2020 |

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

爱情是办公室生活长期存在的副效应。毕竟，人们可能会把醒着的一半时间花在工作上，他们的同事经常会和他们有一些共同点，即使只是抱怨经理。有些关系（爱情）是不可避免的必然结果。

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

但是（疫情带来的）封锁让新恋情的形成变得更加困难。尽管线上约会在大流行中蓬勃发展，但是通过“Zoom会议（类似于腾讯会议，钉钉这种）”平台工作来结识他们的灵魂伴侣的人数却是少得可怜。当你的面部表情被十几个同事观察时，你很难调情。公司视频会议软件的私人聊天功能到底有多私密，真的能做到私密吗?

词汇

Flirt/调情；玩弄

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

然而，即使在大流行之前，办公室恋情也在减少。根据斯坦福大学的一项研究，1995年，19%的异性恋者是在工作中遇到他们的伴侣的。到2017年，这一比例降至11%。现在会更低。由于白领们在家工作的时间越来越长，而在办公室工作的时间越来越少——即使在病毒消退之后，这种情况仍有可能出现——办公室恋情的机会也会减少。

词汇

Dwindle/减少；变小

One reason for the decline is that companies have realised that work relationships give rise to all kinds of ethical questions. The idea of a boss marrying his secretary (or a doctor dating a nurse) is one of the oldest clichés around. Sadly, the trope is so well established that secretaries and nurses have spent decades fending off the unwanted attentions of their superiors. As the #MeToo movement has demonstrated, some men use their positions of power to harass women who work for them.

下降的一个原因是，公司已经意识到工作关系会引发各种道德问题。老板和他的秘书结婚(或者医生和护士约会)是最老套的想法之一。可悲的是，这一比借代此根深蒂固，以至于秘书和护士们花了几十年的时间来抵御上级不必要的关注。正如“我也是”运动【一项女性争取权力的运动（自己去年有文章翻译过）】所表明的，一些男性利用他们的权力地位骚扰为他们工作的女性。

词汇

Trope/  比喻；修辞；转义

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

两厢情愿的关系也会带来问题。与下属的关系使得管理者很难客观地评价他们的表现。同事们可以理解地怀疑经理徇私。如果浪漫关系破裂，情况可能会同样糟糕。受伤害的感情可能会让前伴侣很难在一起工作，也会让办公室里的其他人感到尴尬。

词汇

Consensual/交感的；在双方同意下成立的

Favouritism/徇私；偏爱

The result of this is that many companies have policies that discourage or forbid managers from flings with someone who works for them. Office relationships were blamed for the departure of Steve Easterbrook from his role as chief executive of McDonald’s last year; the fast-food company launched a lawsuit against Mr Easterbrook this week.

其结果是，许多公司制定了政策，不鼓励或禁止经理与为其工作的人调情。去年，人们将办公室关系归咎于史蒂夫•伊斯特布鲁克(Steve Easterbrook)辞去麦当劳(McDonald 's)首席执行官一职;这家快餐公司本周对伊斯特布鲁克提起了诉讼。

Some companies ban all office romances outright. Others issue guidelines such as the stipulation that employees should not allow a relationship with a colleague to influence their behaviour at work, and that they should disclose any relationship that might give rise to a conflict of interest. These rules seem perfectly sensible, although they do involve a sacrifice of privacy.

有些公司完全禁止办公室恋情。其他机构则发出指引，例如规定雇员不应容许与同事的关系影响其工作行为，以及雇员应披露任何可能引致利益冲突的关系。这些规则看起来非常合理，尽管它们确实涉及到隐私的牺牲。

词汇

Stipulation/规定；约定；条款

Some of these problems can be avoided if the relationship is at one remove: if people meet their partners through work, rather than at the same office. Clearly there could still be problems if, for example, a purchasing manager was dating the salesperson at a supplier. But in most circumstances these romances avoid the potential problems of favouritism or abuse of power. Bartleby was fortunate enough to meet his spouse through his job 24 years ago (a period that proves Mrs Bartleby’s infinite reserves of patience).

如果双方的关系是有一定距离隔阂的，其中一些问题是可以避免的:如果人们是在工作中认识他们的伴侣，而不是在同一间办公室。但是；显然，如果采购经理与供应商的销售人员约会，问题仍然存在。但在大多数情况下，这些（非同一办公室职员之间的）恋情避免了潜在的徇私或滥用权力的问题。24年前，巴特比很幸运地通过工作结识了自己的另一半(这段时间证明了巴特比夫人的无限耐心)。

For that reason, this columnist can perhaps be forgiven for hoping that the office romance does not disappear completely. Millions of happy couples have probably met by their desks or the coffee machine. Perhaps couples will get a buzz from defying company rules. But they may have to be subtle about it: “Speak low if you speak love,” as William Shakespeare wrote in “Much Ado About Nothing”. That said, romance novels may need a bit of updating to cope with the post-pandemic era.

出于这个原因，我们或许可以原谅这位专栏作家希望办公室恋情不会完全消失。数以百万计的幸福夫妻可能在他们的办公桌或咖啡机旁见过面。也许，无视公司规定会让情侣们感到兴奋。但他们可能不得不小心翼翼:正如威廉·莎士比亚在《无事生非》中所写的那样:“说爱就要小声点。”也就是说，爱情小说可能需要一些更新来应对大流行后期时代。

词汇

Buzz/唧唧喳喳的谈话声；（愉快或兴奋等）强烈情感