最新英语翻译短文

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The Workman's Compensation

How can someone, hour after hour, day after day, year in and year out, tighten approximately

the same nut to the same bolt and not go mad? That most working people do not, in fact, go mad is

due

in

large

measure

to

a

phenomenon

so

common

that

it

is

found

wherever

people

labor

in

industry: taking it easy. It would take some kind of real mental case to do all the work one could

all day long. No one expects it. Taking it easy on the job while someone else covers your work, or

Working

on

and

off,

however,

has

its

limits.

The

rules

are

infinitely

varied,

subtle,

and

flexible, and, of course, they are always changing. Management, up to a certain level at least, is

aware of the practice, and in some industries employs entire cadres of people to curtail or put an

end to it. Simultaneously, the workers are subtly doing their best to keep it going and to extend it

wherever possible.

Every worker has a highly developed sense of how much work is expected of him. When he

feels that the expectation is excessive, he tries to do something about it. This instinct has to do

with the political nature of work itself, something every modern worker understands. The bosses

want more from the worker than they are willing to give in return. The workers give work, and the

bosses give money. The exchange is never quite equal, and the discrepancy is called profit. Since

the bosses cannot do without profit, workers have an edge. A good worker in a key spot could, so

long as he kept up production, take all the coffee breaks he wanted, and the bosses would very

likely look the other way. He could also choose to cut down on the coffee breaks, apply himself,

and increase production, and then ask for and get more money. But that would be self-defeating,

and

he

knows

it.

It

would

also

place

him

in

competition

with

other

workers,

which

would

be

playing into the bosses' hands. What he would rather do is create some slack for himself and enjoy

his job more.

At present on the West Coast, when a gang of longshoremen working on cargo start a shift,

they often divide themselves into two equal groups and toss a coin. One group goes into the far

reaches of the ship's hold and sits around. The other group starts loading cargo, usually working

with a vengeance, since each one of them is doing the work of two men. An hour later, the groups

change places. In other words, although my fellow longshoremen and I are getting paid for eight

hours,

on

occasion

we

work

only

four.

If

someone

reading

this

feels

a

sense

of

moral

outrage

because we are sitting down on the job, I am sorry. I have searched my mind in vain for a polite

way to tell that reader to go to hell.

If you are that reader, I would recommend that you abandon your outrage and begin thinking

about doing something similar for yourself.

You probably already have, even if you won't admit it. White collar office workers, too, have

come under criticism recently for robbing their bosses of their full-time services. Too much times

is being spent around the Mr. Coffee machine, and some people (would you believe it?) have even

been having personal conversations on company time. In fact, one office-system expert recently

said that he had yet to encounter a business work place that was functioning at more than about 60

percent efficiency.

Management often struggles hard to set up a situation where work is done in series: a worker

receives an article of manufacture, does something to it, and passes it on to another worker, who

does something else to it and then passes it on to the next guy, and so on.

The

assembly

line

is

a

perfect

example

of

this.

Managers

like

this

type

of

manufacture

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because

it

is

more

efficient

-

that

is,

it

achieves

more

production.

They

also

like

it

for

another

reason, even if they will not admit it: it makes it very difficult for the worker to do anything other

than work.

Frederick

W.

Taylor,

the

efficiency

expert

who

early

in

this

century

conducted

the

time-and-motion studies that led to the assembly-line process, tried to reduce workers to robots, all

in the name of greater production. His staff of experts, each armed with clipboard and stopwatch,

studied

individual

workers

with

a

view

toward

eliminating

unnecessary

movement.

They

soon

found a great deal of opposition from the workers.

Most people not directly engaged in daily work express disapproval when they hear of people

working on and off. A studied campaign with carefully chosen language -

full day's pay,

and their success is such that I rarely discuss it except with other workers. My response is personal,

and I feel no need to defend it: If I am getting a free ride, how come I am so tired when I go home

at the end of a shift?

工作者的补偿

一个人怎么能时复一时，年复一年 地把几乎相同的螺帽拧到相同的螺栓上而不发疯的

呢？事实上，

多数劳动者并不发疯多半是由于

不紧不慢

的现象很平常，

在企业中只要有人

工 作的地方随处可见这种现象。

一个人恐怕要有某种真正的精神病才能一整天竭尽全力地干

活。没人希望这样。在别人帮你干活时，你就不紧不慢地干，也就是像美国人常说的那种

干干停停

是工 作生涯的一个既定部分。

然而，干干停停有它的局限性。这些惯例的变化无休无止，很微妙、很有弹性。当然，

它们总在变。

至少在一定程度上管理部门知道这种做法。

一些企业雇佣干部以减少或结束这

种做法。同时，工人们巧妙地、尽全力使之继 续下去并使之触及到可能的任何地方。

每个工人对自己干多少活都是高度敏感的。

< br>当他感到希望他做的事过多时，

就会采取某

些措施。

这种天性与每个现代工人所懂得的工作本身的政治特性有关。

老板希 望从工人身上

得到的比他们给予的要多；工人付出劳动，老板付出报酬。这个交换从来不 会太平等，

此差

异叫做利润。由于老板不能没有利润，工人们就 占了上风。一个在关键岗位的好工人，

只要

他保持产量不降低，

可以随心所欲地利用工间休息，

而老板可能装作没看见。

工人也可以缩

短工间休息，卖力干活，

增加生 产，

然后要求并得到更多的钱。但他知道那是违背自己利益

的， 这样做也会将自己置于与他人竞争之中，

这种竞争会有利于老板。

那么，他宁愿为自己

创造一些空闲，更好的享受工作。

目前在 西海岸，

从事船货装卸工作的一伙码头装卸工开始轮班时，

经常 分成两组，

然后

掷硬币决定先后顺序。一组走到船舱深处分散坐 下。另一组开始装货，

通常干得卖力，

因为

他们每人干着两人的活，

一小时以后两组交位置换。

换句话 说，

虽然我和工友们获得八小时

的报酬，有时却只干四小时。如 果有人读到此，为我们怠工而愤慨的话，我很抱歉。我白费

心机的绞尽脑汁想找到一个礼 貌的说法，但现在要告诉这位读者，让他见鬼去吧。

如果你是那个读者，

我会劝你不要愤 慨，

开始为自己考虑一下类似的事情。

即便你不承

认，你可能已经想过了。

近来，

白领职员也由于不为 老板全天服务而受到批评。在电煮咖啡

机旁花了太多的时间。

一 些人甚至在工业时间进行私人交谈。

事实上，

一个办公制度专家 近

来说，他还没有遇到工作效率高于

60%

的商业网点。

管理部门经常努力创建一条龙式的工作：

一个人接到产品后为之做些什么，< /p>

把它传给另

外一个工人，这个工人再做些什么，

< br>然后传给下一个工人，如此类推。

装配线就是一个极好

的 例子。经理喜欢这种生产方式，因为它效率更高，也就是说能生产出更多的产品来。

尽管

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