文章来源：《经济学人》Mar 11th 2023 期 Business 栏目 Silver linings

Even people who love their jobs have a few gripes. Even people who excel at their work have their share of worries. The office environment makes it hard to concentrate; their colleagues are annoying beyond belief; their career path within the organisation is not obvious. There are aspects of the workplace, like “reply all” email threads and any kind of role-playing, which are completely beyond redemption. This column is here to administer the balm of consolation for some of work’s recurring irritations.

即使热爱自己工作的人也会有一些抱怨。即使是工作出色的人也有自己的烦恼。办公环境让人难以集中注意力；他们的同事令人难以置信地讨厌;他们在组织中的职业发展道路并不明显。工作场所的某些方面，比如“回复所有人”邮件链，以及任何类型的角色扮演，都完全无可救药。这篇专栏文章的目的是为一些工作中反复出现的烦恼提供安慰。

Start with a pervasive problem: being interrupted. You have muted notifications on Slack and cleared your calendar; the Prelude from Bach’s Cello Suite No 1 is playing; your fingers are poised above the keyboard and a thought of world-altering profundity is gradually taking shape in your mind. Then there is a knock at the door, and a colleague asks if you have a minute to discuss the air-conditioning. By the time they have gone, so has that momentous thought and any sense of well-being.

从一个普遍存在的问题开始:被打断。你在Slack上设置了静音通知，清空了日历; 巴赫第一大提琴组曲的前奏曲正在演奏;你的手指稳稳地放在键盘上，一个改变世界的深刻想法正在你的脑海中逐渐成形。然后有人敲门，一位同事问你是否有时间讨论一下空调的问题。当他们离开的时候，那个重要的想法和任何幸福感也都消失了。

Context-switching of this sort is more than simply annoying. A survey conducted in 2021 found that it takes people nine and a half minutes to resume a focused state of mind after switching between apps. But there is a bright side to being interrupted. A paper by Harshad Puranik of the University of Illinois Chicago and his co-authors asked a sample of employees in America to record how often they were distracted by colleagues and to report their sense of belonging to their organisations. They found that being interrupted involves a social interaction with colleagues that can strengthen a worker’s feelings of connection. The next time a knock comes, remind yourself that at least you are not lonely.

这种“上下文切换”不仅仅令人恼火。2021年进行的一项调查发现，在切换应用程序后，人们需要9分半钟才能恢复注意力集中的状态。但被打断也有好的一面。伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校的哈沙德•普兰尼克和他的共同作者在一篇论文中询问了一批美国员工，记录了他们被同事打扰的频率，并报告他们对所在组织的归属感。他们发现，因与同事之间的社交互动而被打断，可以加强员工的联系感。下次有人敲门的时候，提醒自己至少你不孤单。

What about some of the characters who make office life so teeth-grinding? Every company has its share of toadies who specialise in managing up: flattering the bosses and claiming more credit than is their due. Unctuousness is undoubtedly irritating. But it, too, can sometimes have wider benefits.

那些让办公室生活变得让人咬牙切齿的角色呢? 每个公司都有专门的阿谀奉承者，他们专攻向上管理: 奉承老板，声称的贡献比他们实际做得更多。油腔滑调无疑令人恼火。但它有时也能带来更广泛的好处。

Recent research by Wei Cai of Columbia Business School and her co-authors found that teams performed better when they had some crawlers among them. People who got better assessments from their superiors than from their peers in performance-review processes were designated as “upward influencers” in the study. Too many characters of this sort is bad: at some point, team members will expend more effort competing for recognition than getting actual work done. But because these personality types are prepared to invest more time communicating with their managers, the presence of a handful of them ensures that a team does not become invisible to the bosses. A few suck-ups can be good for everyone.

哥伦比亚商学院的蔡伟及其共同作者最近的研究发现，当团队中有一些马屁精时，团队的表现会更好。在这项研究中，那些在绩效评估过程中从上级那里得到比同事更好评价的人被称为“向上影响者”。这种类型的角色太多是不好的:在某种程度上，团队成员将花费更多精力去争夺认可，而不是完成实际工作。但是，由于这些性格类型的人愿意投入更多时间与他们的管理者沟通，少数人的存在确保了一个团队不会被老板忽视。少量的马屁对每个人都有好处。

What of traits that workers find most irritating about themselves, the things that may be holding them back? Impostor syndrome, the belief some people have that they do not deserve to be in positions of influence, is usually thought of as being bad for individuals and organisations alike. But it can have an upside.

员工觉得最让他们恼火的特质是什么? 这些特质可能会阻碍他们发展? 冒名顶替综合症，指一些人认为自己不配担任有影响力的职位，通常被认为对个人和组织都不利。但这也有好处。

Research by Basima Tewfik of the mit Sloan School of Management found that people who worry about being an impostor are regarded by others as having better interpersonal skills than those who are untroubled by self-doubt. It may be that a concern about lacking competence leads people to compensate by developing stronger relationships with others. In a world that increasingly prizes collaboration and soft skills, that is not to be sniffed at.

麻省理工学院斯隆管理学院的巴斯玛•图菲克的研究发现，在别人看来，那些担心自己是冒牌货的人比那些不受自我怀疑困扰的人具有更好的人际交往能力。这可能是因为对能力不足的担忧导致人们通过与他人建立更牢固的关系来弥补。在一个越来越重视合作和软技能的世界里，这一点不容小觑。

Weaknesses can turn into advantages in other ways, too. The idealised entrepreneur may drip with confidence and charisma, for example. But not everyone fits that mould. In a recent study, Lauren Howe and Jochen Menges of the University of Zurich asked participants in an investment game who had been asked about their own flaws to allocate funds to startups. They found that entrepreneurs who reveal a personal shortcoming, such as indecisiveness or insecurity, are more likely to attract funding from investors who share these same characteristics. Some weaknesses are not to be admitted: stupidity, say, or narcolepsy. But flaws can sometimes help people get ahead, not hinder them.

劣势也可以在其他方面转化为优势。例如，理想的企业家可能充满自信和魅力。但并非每个人都符合这种模式。在最近的一项研究中，苏黎世大学的劳伦•豪和约亨•孟格斯在一项投资游戏中要求参与者将资金分配给初创公司，这些参与者被问及自己的缺点。他们发现，那些显露出优柔寡断或缺乏安全感等个人缺点的企业家，更有可能从拥有这些相同特征的投资者那里吸引到资金。有些弱点是不能承认的，比如愚蠢或嗜睡症。但缺点有时可以帮助人们取得成功，而不是阻碍他们。

The problem with silver linings is that they are attached to clouds. You are still being interrupted all the time. You are still surrounded by annoying colleagues. Impostor syndrome still causes you unnecessary anxiety. Your weaknesses are still weaknesses. But there are bright sides to most things in office life, and they go beyond the payslip.

一线希望的问题在于，乌云背后总有一线光明。你还是会一直被打扰。你仍然被讨厌的同事包围着。冒名顶替综合症仍然会给你带来不必要的焦虑。你的弱点仍然是弱点。但办公室生活中大多数事情都有光明的一面，而这些光明并不局限于工资单。