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我电脑屏幕的桌面背景是鲜绿色，上面排着七张色彩鲜艳的纸牌。我用鼠标把红心6拉到黑桃7上面。我现在所做的，你或许也做过。玩这种游戏是办公室的大忌，仅次于访问色情网站。但我在照玩不误。
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The
background of my screen is a vivid green. Seven bright cards are lined up
across it. With my mouse I drag the six of hearts on to the seven of
spades. I am doing the most taboo thing that you can do in the office,
after visiting porn sites on the internet. I am blatantly playing
solitaire.
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我是全英国最浪费时间的人之一，我还是办公室中无所事事者的典范。但到目前为止，我还没有在上班的时候玩过纸牌游戏。在家的时候玩过。但是一到办公室，就没这个胆子了。
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In
spite of being one of the nation's leading time-wasters, with acknowledged
specialism in office idleness, I have never, until this week, played card
games on my computer at work. At home, yes. But in the office, I never
dared.
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上班时候哪种浪费时间行为最体面?人们心中有个座次排位，电脑游戏位居末列。各种浪费时间的行为都是一分一秒地吞噬时间，似乎没有什么区别，而雇主却不这么看。所幸的是，我的爱好是聊天，这是人们认为的最为体面的浪费时间之举。严格的说，聊天从浪费上来说，浪费的是两倍时间，不仅把自己时间耗掉了，还耽误了对方的时间。
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There
is a peckingsgroupsin the respectability of time-wasting activities at
work, and computer games are at the bottom of it. Minute for minute, all
time-wasting eats up the same amount of time, but employers tend not to
see it like that. Luckily for me, the activity I like the best is the most
respectable. It is chatting. Strictly speaking, this is twice as wasteful,
as you are not just squandering your own time but also that of the person
you are talking to.
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但是，很多现代企业不仅仅容忍聊天，甚至积极鼓励。据说聊天有传播知识，激发思维，产生创意之功效。我很高兴他们这样看，但是我一直闹不明白，“昨天晚上谁看了《名人换妻游戏》节目了？”这样的问题和创意有何相干。
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However,
most modern organisations do not merely tolerate chatting but actively
encourage it. Chatting supposedly spreads knowledge and increases the buzz
that is meant to lead to creativity. I am glad they see it like this,
though the link between creativity and asking "Did anyone see
Celebrity Wife Swap last night?" has never been clear to me.
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排在聊天之后的是经常去售货机和厕所。企业一般还不能对此有反对意见。去这些地方，路上未免会遇到些人，于是又要聊上一番。
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Next
to chatting come frequent visits to the vending machine and the loo.
Companies generally do not or cannot object to this. You meet people on
the way and then chat some more.
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再接下来的是网上购物，或是通过Google搜索研究疑难病症。有些公司禁止此类行为，但是大多数公司则或多或少地容忍它的存在。
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Further
down the peckingsgroupsare shopping on the internet and researching
obscure medical conditions on Google. Some organisations outlaw this sort
of thing but most tolerate it, more or less.
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在电脑上玩牌则大不一样了。首先，那鲜绿色的背景很是显眼。刚才我正玩着空当接龙，就有一位临时秘书送邮件过来。我心里顿时涌出一阵内疚感。坐在这里玩游戏，说明我是个闲人，明目张胆地闲着，无所顾忌地闲着，真应该在我脑门上印上这样的字样：“我无聊，我怠工，我在白占着这位子。炒了我吧。”
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Playing
cards on your computer is another thing altogether. For a start, the
bright green makes it highly visible. Just now I was playing solitaire and
a new temporary secretary brought me my mail. I felt a brief stab of
guilt. By sitting playing games, I was so ostentatiously, outrageously
idle I might as well have had a big sign on my head saying: "I'm
bored. I'm shirking. I'm a waste of space. Fire me."
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我怀疑这办公楼里上班玩牌的还有不少人，由于大部分人面对出口坐，所以大家也看不到他们在干什么。我发邮件问谁在电脑上打过牌，并许诺绝对保密，但是只有三个人回复。其中一个说他过去打过，但现在不玩了。另外两个承认在家里打过，坐地铁的时候用掌上电脑玩过。我看我要是问谁打老婆，估计也不会像这样应者寥寥。
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I
suspect there are many people in this building who play cards at work;
most have desks that do not facesintosthe room so people cannot see what
they are doing. Yet when I sent out a message to all my colleagues asking
for computer card players to come forward in the strictest confidence and
talk to me about their habit, only three people responded. One had played
in the past, but didn't any more. Two others admitted to playing at home
or on their Palm Pilots on the Tube. If I had asked how many people beat
their wives I would not have got a much more muted response.
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但是我发现，上班时玩空当接龙者不必感到羞耻。玩些无伤大雅的小游戏或许还有助于工作。
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Yet
I now find that there is no reason to be ashamed of playing solitaire at
work. Spending time playing these harmless little games may even be good
for your work.
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最近，Utrecht大学的杰弗瑞•哥尔斯坦（Jeffrey Goldstein）针对荷兰一家保险公司的60人开展了一项实验。这60人中一半获准每天用一小时玩空当接龙或者挖地雷等基本的电脑游戏。实验的另一半人则不准玩。大家猜一下结果如何？玩游戏的那一半人更快乐，效率也更高。
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Jeffrey
Goldstein of Utrecht University has just conducted an experiment on 60
people in a Dutch insurance company. Half of them were allowed an hour a
day to play basic computer games such as Solitaire and Minesweeper. The
other half were not. And guess what? The half who played the games were
happier and more productive.
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如果这一结论正确的话，其意义很重要。用这个方法，可以让员工更愉快，又不需要另拨开支，不需要改变企业文化，不需要开展管理创新，什么都不需要。
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If
this is true, it is quite important. Here is a way of making people feel
better that involves no expenditure, no culture change, no managerial
initiative, no nothing.
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因此，企业似乎不应该拿掉个人电脑中的游戏，也不需要发送让人不快的备忘录，而是放手让大家去玩，然后等着士气的高涨。
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Instead
of taking games off personal computers and sending round beastly memos, it
seems companies should allow everyone to play these games, and watch
morale climb.
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到此为止，哥尔斯坦教授的实验结果都合情合理。好的游戏能舒缓身心，因为它需要投入一定的思考。在玩游戏的时候，大脑能处在一种欣喜而又空白的状态。如果工作既紧张又乏味，借这种游戏逃避现实也无可厚非，它能让人的大脑得到片刻休息后，更加清爽。
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Up
to a point, Prof Goldstein's results make sense. A good game is soothing
because it requires just the right amount of mental activity. While you
play, the rest of your mind can be a blissful blank. If you do a boring
job or a stressful one, such escapism is a fine thing: a mental break from
which you return feeling refreshed.
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我发现，和人打电话的时候玩游戏也很不错。打电话时玩这些游戏远不像打字那样显得粗鲁，因为电话那一头很难听到鼠标移 动的声音。
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I
have found it is also good to play games when you are talking to someone
on the phone. It is far less rude than typing, as the mouse noise is not
so obvious to the person on the other end.
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但是问题的关键在于这些游戏玩起来上瘾。那些接受实验的荷兰职员一天能愉快的玩一个小时，看来一定很节制。而我一回家，就不那么节制了。我和自己约法三章：每写150字我就去打一轮游戏。但是没打出高分，我就再玩一轮，然后又是一轮，又是一轮。
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The
catch is that these card games are addictive. The Dutch workers must have
been an unusually moderate bunch to be able to stick happily to an hour a
day. I am less moderate: at home I play obsessively when I should be
working. I start by making a deal with myself that after every 150 words I
am allowed ONE game. But then the game does not go well, and I play
another and another and another and another.
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看来我已经跨出了玩家的范畴，成了瘾君子，这有两个迹象可以说明。首先，如果我在家玩，孩子一回到家的时候，我就立马把游戏关掉。试图向家人隐瞒这种坏习惯，真没出息。更糟糕的是，这坏习惯伤害你的手和手腕关节。要是打空当接龙打出了肢体重复性劳损，那可就再可悲不过了。
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Two
things tell me I have crossed the line from being a user to being an
abuser. The first is that if I am working at home and one of my children
comessintosthe room, I quickly shut the game down. To hide such a bad
habit from one's family is pathetic. Still worse is what it does to your
hand and wrist. To get RSI from playing solitaire would be the most tragic
thing imaginable.
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从手腕考虑，也从内心考虑，我都鼓励所有公司不要理睬Utrecht的研究成果。电脑游戏还应该列为禁区。
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From
the wrist, as well as from the heart, I urge all companies to take no
notice of the Utrecht findings. Computer games should remain taboo.
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上周花了些时间“研究”在公司电脑上打游戏之后，我受“益”匪浅。非但一如既往地痴迷于空当接龙，还开始挖起地雷，并加入红心大战来。
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In
spending some of last week "researching" card games on my office
computer, I have done myself no favours. I am not only as addicted to
solitaire as ever, but also am in the early stages of a new relationship
with Minesweeper and FreeCell.
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哥尔斯坦还在一家老人院开展了一项类似的实验，发现玩电脑游戏能振奋精神。这想法很让人觉得安慰，也给了我一个启发。我准备现在把玩这个游戏的恶习戒了，等过了三四十年，发现世上其它浪费时间的方式都不太好使了，我再把这个习惯捡起来，另外还有抽烟。
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Prof
Goldstein has conducted a similar experiment in an old people's home,
swhereshe also found that playing computer games raised morale. This
thought is comforting, and gives me an idea. I am going to kick the habit
now and take it up again, along with smoking, in three or four decades
when other opportunities for wasting time are thinner on the ground.
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译者/柏林
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lucy.kellaway@ft.com
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