2022年经济学人 办公室的考古学（2）

（单词翻译）

If your office still uses internal mail, with those special envelopes that have people’s names crossed out as they wend their way round an organisation¹, you are in a corporate² period drama.

如果你的办公室仍然在用那种有特殊信封的内部邮件，还会当人们在公司里走来走去时，把他们的名字从信封上划掉，那你就像是在拍一部公司历史剧。

But most offices still retain clues to the historical importance of paper.

但大多数办公室里仍然有几处线索表明，纸张在过去有多么重要。

Photocopiers³, scanners, shredders, guillotines and unfeasibly large staplers⁴ are echoes of a not-too-distant time when physical documents were a vital currency, when people assembled in a single room and shared ideas on pieces of paper.

复印机、扫描仪、碎纸机、切纸机以及超大的订书机，这些会让人想起，曾几何时，实物文件是公司里至关重要的通货，人们会聚在一个房间里，在纸上分享想法。

In-trays and out-trays are visible reminders⁵ of how information used to flow within organisations.

看到收文盘和发文盘就会想起人们以前是如何在公司内部传递信息的。

Noticeboards and business cards were once the best ways to convey news and contact details.

布告板和名片曾经是通知消息和交换联系方式的最佳方式。

Forecasts of the paperless office have been around for decades; they are not about to come true now.

无纸化办公室的预测已经存在了几十年；现在它们还不会成为现实。

But the stationery⁶ cupboard will be less well stocked in future.

但文具柜里的存货未来就不会这么满了。

Meetings between people in the office and those working remotely rely today on platforms like Zoom⁷ or Microsoft Teams.

如今，办公室里的人要和远程办公的人开会时，要依赖Zoom或Microsoft Teams等平台。

Hunt around, though, and you may find an object that was seen as useful back in those dim and distant days of 2019: the conference-call speakerphone.

不过，四处找找，你可能会发现一种在2019年那些昏暗遥远的日子里被视为有用的东西：免提会议电话机。

Looking a bit like a small spacecraft, this phone had to be plugged into a socket⁸ to work.

它看起来有点像一个小航天器，必须插入插座才能工作。

Lights would suddenly blink, and people would murmur⁹ in awe¹⁰.

工作时，灯光会突然闪烁，人们会敬畏地喃喃低语。

Someone would dial in, each button-press a loud beep.

有人拨号时，每按一个按钮，都会发出很响的哔哔声。

They would inevitably¹¹ hit the wrong one at some point and have to start again.

总会有人中途按错，不得不重新开始。

These rituals and others are now rarely performed; the phones themselves are gathering¹² dust on shelves, left behind by better technology and the abrupt¹³ rise of remote working.

诸如此类程序现在很少有人会做了；由于科技进步和远程办公的突然兴起，这些电话机已经被搁置在架子上吃灰了。

The very layout of many offices is a throwback to a pre-pandemic age.

许多办公室的布局本身就是疫情前的风格。

If you work in a place filled with identikit cubicles¹⁴, still have your own nameplate or sit at a desk tethered to the floor by a digestive system’s worth of cabling, you are in an environment that made sense when the whole workforce¹⁵ came to the office every day, even if they just got on with their own work in silence.

如果你工作的地方到处都是千篇一律的小隔间，里面有每个人的名牌，或是有长如大小肠的电脑缆线把办公桌拴在地板上，那么这就是以前的那种工作环境，那时候，所有人每天都会来办公室上班，即使每个人开始工作时都不发一言。

Now that the office’s comparative advantage is as a place to collaborate¹⁶ with other people, socialising, sofas and hot-desking are seen as the future.

既然办公室的比较优势在于为合作提供场所，那么社交、沙发和轮用办公桌就是人们眼中未来的样子。

Real archaeologists need tools and time to do their painstaking¹⁷ work: paint brushes, trowels, sieves¹⁸ and picks.

真正的考古学家要想完成艰苦工作，是需要时间和工具的，比如画笔、铲子、筛子和镐。

Corporate archaeology¹⁹ is easier: you just need eyes and a memory of how things used to be.

企业考古就容易多了：只需要眼睛和对过去事物的记忆。

But you also need to be quick.

但速度也要快。

As more and more workplaces are revamped for the hybrid²⁰ era, now is the time to take a careful look around the office.

随着越来越多工作场所为适应混合办公时代而进行改造，现在是时候仔细看看办公室了。

You may see something that will soon seem as dated as pneumatic tubes, typewriters and fax machines.

里面的东西可能很快就会像气动管、打字机和传真机一样过时了。