2023年经济学人 花样百出的企业团建有用吗

（单词翻译）

Business

商业版块

Bartleby

巴托比专栏

The corporate¹ summer camp

公司夏令营

Why had the executive retreat become so extravagant²?

为什么高管的休闲团建变得如此奢侈？

Ice baths, infrared³ saunas, white-water rafting, fly-fishing, archery workshops, whisky tastings, yoga at sunrise, shooting clay pigeons, go-kart races, mountain-biking in Norway, falconry in Ireland, climbing up a glacier⁴ in Alberta, singing “Kumbaya” around a campfire.

冰浴、红外线桑拿、漂流、飞钓、射箭工作坊、威士忌品酒会、日出瑜伽、飞碟射击、卡丁车比赛、挪威山地自行车骑行、爱尔兰放鹰狩猎、阿尔伯塔冰山攀登、围着篝火唱Kumbaya。

These seemingly disparate activities have one thing in common: all of them are real examples of the contemporary corporate off-site.

这些看似大相径庭的活动有一个共同点：这些都是当代企业户外团建的真实例子。

Your columnist⁵, a guest Bartleby, cringes at the idea of PowerPoint presentations followed by role-playing exercises and mandatory⁶ games.

您的巴托比专栏客座作家一想到要用PPT做展示，然后再进行角色扮演练习和强制参加各种游戏，就会不安地想要蜷缩起来。

She prefers to let the ties with her colleagues deepen in organic ways.

她更喜欢让自己与同事的关系顺其自然地加深。

Still, the executive retreat has become an annual business tradition.

尽管如此，高管休闲团建已经成为一年一度的企业传统。

The idea is that, by disconnecting employees from their day-to-day routine, companies can build camaraderie⁷ and foster creativity.

这种活动的初衷是让员工从日常工作中抽离出来，从而建立同事之间的情谊，并培养员工创造力。

And it has grown in importance.

这种活动的重要性也与日俱增。

A splashy, exciting getaway once a year may help retain executives in a tight labour market (and is cheaper than fatter monthly pay cheques).

每年进行一次大张声势的、令人兴奋的休假可能有助于在供不应求的劳动力市场留住高管(这比开出更高的月薪要更划算)。

In the era of remote work—without the thousands of micro-interactions that happen in the office—team-building trips have also gained a structural⁸ role.

在远程办公的时代--没有了办公室里数以千计的微互动--团建旅行也起到了结构性作用。

Suddenly, off-sites are no longer an afterthought but lodged⁹ near the heart of corporate HR strategy.

突然之间，异地办公不再是事后才想到的事情，而是被置于企业人力资源战略的核心。

Not participating is not an option; so what if co-workers end up meeting in person for the first time wearing flip-flops?

没有不参加这种选择，既然如此，让同事们穿着拖鞋第一次线下见见面怎么样？

It used to be barbecues and softball games.

曾经的团建活动是烧烤和垒球比赛。

Retreats moved things a notch¹¹ higher in style and expense.

但休闲团建的出现让活动的风格和花费都上了一个台阶。

Just three months after Steve Jobs left Apple and started another company in 1985, he whisked his employees to Pebble¹² Beach for their first off-site.

就在1985年，史蒂夫·乔布斯离开苹果公司并创办了另一家公司的三个月后，他立刻带着员工去了圆石滩，作为第一次户外团建。

As corporate psychology¹³ boomed in the 1990s, team-building retreats became entrenched¹⁴.

随着企业心理学在20世纪90年代蓬勃发展，团建休闲活动变得深入人心。

By 2015 Uber was reportedly offering Beyoncé $6m to perform for its employees (no, not the drivers) at a corporate event in Las Vegas (the pop star was apparently¹⁵ paid in the then-hot startup’s stock rather than cash).

据报道，2015年，优步花了600万美金请碧昂斯在拉斯维加斯的一次公司活动上为员工(不，司机不包括在内)表演(给这位流行歌星的支付方式显然是当时还炙手可热的初创公司股票，而不是现金)。

WeWork, an office-rental firm with tech pretensions¹⁶, used to host raucous¹⁷ summer retreats around the world; employees were encouraged to dance the night away to electronic music.

WeWork是一家以技术为幌子的办公室租赁公司，它过去曾在世界各地举办喧闹的夏季休闲团建活动，鼓励员工们随着电子音乐彻夜跳舞。

Given Uber’s lacklustre ride since its initial public offering in 2019, current management has gone easy on A-listers.

鉴于优步自2019年首次公开募股以后表现平平，目前的管理层不再大手笔地请一线明星了。

WeWork revised its staff-entertainment policies after its party-loving founder¹⁸ and CEO, Adam Neumann, was forced out in the wake of its abortive¹⁹ IPO later that year.

WeWork的IPO计划流产后，其创始人兼CEO兼派对爱好者亚当·诺伊曼在当年晚些时候被迫离职，之后WeWork修改了员工娱乐政策。

But the trend for the corporate getaway has, if anything, intensified²⁰.

但企业团建休假的趋势不减反增。

To stand out, companies try to make their retreats as bespoke²¹ and exotic as possible.

为了凸显自己，公司试图让他们的休息团建尽可能地独特和新奇。

Those firms that cannot afford pop stars can have an astronaut regale²² executives with tales of life in space—not Queen Bey, exactly, but potentially enthralling²³ to the nerdier elements of the workforce²⁴.

请不起流行歌星的公司可以让宇航员为高管们讲述太空生活的趣事，这确实比不上碧昂丝，但可能会让员工中的科技宅们感到心潮澎湃。

Many organisers opt¹⁰ for the great outdoors, perhaps in the belief that the sublime²⁵ will unleash²⁶ authenticity²⁷.

许多组织者选择了伟大的户外，也许是因为他们相信，壮丽的大自然会让人返璞归真。

Wineries around the world are now expanding to accommodate retreats featuring winemaking lessons; employees stomp²⁸ grapes.

世界各地的葡萄酒庄现在都在扩大规模，来满足以酿酒课程为特色的休闲团建需求，员工会在那里踩葡萄。

A Montana ranch²⁹ offers corporate clients paintball, flag-capturing and dummy-cattle-roping.

蒙大拿州的一个牧场为企业客户提供彩弹射击、夺旗比赛和套假牛项目。

Butchershop, a brand-strategy agency, held its second summit in Costa Rica; activities included zip-lining, horseback riding through the jungle and jumping off a cliff into the water.

品牌战略机构Butchershop在哥斯达黎加举行了第二次峰会，活动包括高空滑索、骑马穿越丛林和悬崖跳水。

A sure-fire way for a business to make its retreat memorable³⁰ is to thrust participants into adversity.

对于企业来说，一个百分百能让休息团建变得刻骨铭心的方法就是将参与者推入绝境。

Battling the elements together is supposed to foster team spirit, but zealous³¹ organisers have occasionally been known to overdo³² it.

共同对抗自然考验本应培养团队精神，但狂热的组织者偶尔会玩过了头。

One large European company sent executives to the Arctic Circle in midwinter.

一家欧洲大型公司在隆冬时节将高管送往北极圈。

They endured frigid³³ temperatures for days, without a fresh change of clothes.

他们忍受了好几天的严寒，还没有新的换洗衣服。

Walking on hot coals—an ancient ritual recast as a team-building exercise—led to the injury of 25 employees of a Swiss ad agency in Zurich.

在热煤碳上行走--从一种古老仪式改编而成的团建练习--导致瑞士苏黎世一家广告公司的25名员工受伤。

It is unclear what many days away achieves, except for straining the expense budget and consuming valuable time.

目前还不清楚，除了消耗支出预算和宝贵的时间之外，外出休假几天还达成了什么效果。

Returning to your desk with frostbite or burnt feet is unlikely to boost your productivity.

带着冻伤或脚部烧伤回到办公桌前不太可能会提高你的工作效率。

Even if you escape injury you may have lost esteem³⁴ for the co-worker who drank too much and delivered a maudlin³⁵ monologue³⁶.

即使你侥幸没有受伤，在同事喝了太多，然后发表了一段幽怨煽情的独白后，你也可能丧失了对他的敬重之情。

Walking on fire with colleagues may be meant to encourage spiritual healing and to put employees and bosses on equal—and equally uncomfortable—footing.

与同事一起在火焰上行走可能是为了促进精神上的治愈，并让员工和老板处于平等的--平等的难受--地位。

Yet it is walking through metaphorical³⁷ fire which actually causes teams to bond.

但真正让团队建立情感纽带的是一起在比喻义的火焰上行走。

That happens not at a corporate retreat but after years of working together.

这不会发生在企业休闲团建活动上，而是发生在多年的并肩作战之后。