The New, Hip Co-Working Spaces
Technology has upended where we work. The line between work and play has been blurred, and the difference between the office and home has all but disappeared.
As a result, there's a new class of white-collar workers who roam the earth looking for places to get their jobs done.
科技顛覆了我們工作的場所。工作與玩樂之間的界線模糊了，辦公室和家的區別也幾乎消失了。
因此，出現了新一類的白領工作者，他們在地球上四處遊走，尋找完成他們工作的地方。
共用工作空間逐漸在歐美白領工作者間成為一種潮流。 圖／美聯社
Some of them work from home, curled up on the couch or in a home office — maybe with a drone hovering nearby. Others camp out at expensive cafes, refilling their mugs of fancy coffee throughout the day.
But increasingly, these untethered employees are gathering in a new kind of office known as the co-working space.
他們當中有些人在家工作，蜷縮在沙發上或是家庭辦公室裡，或許還有架無人機在附近盤旋。其他人則是在昂貴的咖啡店內紮營，整天將他們的昂貴咖啡不斷續杯。
然而，這些不受束縛的員工正聚集在一種被稱為共同工作空間的新的辦公室，而且此風日盛。
Surely, you've heard of these places. But their numbers have multiplied across the country in the past few years, filling a niche for those who need more than a cafe but less than an office.
They now come in a wide range of options. Some are fancy; some are not. Some require memberships; some do not. Some target technology workers; others are for writers or small businesses. And in the Los Angeles area, there seems to be a co-working option for every neighborhood and every profession.
你肯定聽說過這些地方，然而它們的數量過去幾年裡在全國卻呈倍數成長，滿足了那些需要一處不只是咖啡店，卻又不像辦公室的場所的小眾的需求。
這種場所如今可有多樣的選擇。有些很昂貴，有些則不會。有些需要是會員，有些則不用。有些瞄準科技業員工，也有些針對作家或小企業。而在洛杉磯地區，每個區里和行業似乎有都共同工作空間可供選擇。
Before you rush out to join a co-working space, there are pros and cons to consider.
Some believe working away from a traditional office improves productivity. A study published last year in The Quarterly Journal of Economics examined Ctrip, a 16,000-employee Chinese travel agency, where call-center employees were randomly assigned to work in either the office or the home. Those who worked from home were 13 percent more productive, the report found. When Ctrip gave all its workers the option to work from home, productivity grew even further, to 22 percent.
在你急著加入共同工作空間前，必須考量其中利弊。
有些人認為不在傳統辦公室工作能提高生產力。去年發表在經濟學季刊的一項研究報告對於攜程進行了研究。攜程是家有1萬6000名員工的中國大陸旅行社，其客服中心員工被隨機分配到辦公室或是在家工作。這篇報告發現，在家工作的員工生產力多了13%。當攜程讓所有員工在家工作時，生產力更進一步成長22%。
Another study published last year in the journal Sleep Health, found that people who had flexible work schedules slept better than those who had to report to the office at specific times.
But there are studies that raise doubts about working remotely. "How Effective Is Telecommuting?" published last year in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest, found that working from home can make people feel sad. The report says this is likely because of the social and professional isolation experienced from being home alone for too long.
另個去年發表於睡眠健康期刊的研究報告發現，享有彈性工作時間的人比那些必須在特定時間向辦公室報到的人睡得更好。
但也有研究對於遠距工作提出了質疑。去年發表於公共利益心理科學期刊的研究報告「電子通勤效果如何？」發現，在家工作會讓人感到悲傷。報告稱，這很可能是孤獨在家太久而產生的社會與職業隔離感造成的。
（紐約時報, Nick Bilton, 陳韋廷譯）
說文解字看新聞
科技和網路的日新月異改變了我們的日常生活（daily life），從食衣住行育樂，甚至到文中所討論的工作場所，無一不受到影響。共同(或稱共用) 工作空間是個來自西方的概念，近年在全球興起，是因應網路科技時代而生的新型態辦公空間。
共同工作空間對傳統工作空間文化帶來了衝擊，共同工作空間顧名思義，是指不同行業的自由工作者在同一個空間工作，它同時也是這一些共同工作者（coworker）的社群平台。共同工作者多為SOHO族（此處SOHO為small office和home office的縮寫，亦即單獨辦公、家裡辦公之意，SOHO族指那些在家辦公的自由職業者）、創業者（entrepreneur）、部落客等。
telecommuting在文中譯作「遠距工作」，意思與teleworking和remote working相同，例句：For employees, telecommuting presents unprecedented freedom in choosing where to work.（對員工來說，遠距工作在選擇工作地點上提供了前所未有的自由。）此外，這個字其他常見中文翻譯還有「電子通勤」和「居家就業」。
隨著科技使辦公及網路的連結日趨緊密，員工少了傳統工作空間的限制，便可彈性安排自己的工作時間、地點及工作型態，生產力也因此提升。
（陳韋廷）
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