找一把舒适的椅子:永久的在家工作即将到来

Indefinite. Or even permanent. These are words companies are using about their employees working from home.

无期限。甚至是永久性的。这些词是公司用来形容在家工作的员工的。

It's three months into a huge, unplanned social experiment that suddenly transported the white-collar workplace from cubicles and offices to kitchens and spare bedrooms. And many employers now say the benefits of remote work outweigh the drawbacks.

一场巨大的、毫无计划的社会实验已经进行了三个月，它突然把白领工作场所从小隔间和办公室转移到了厨房和空余卧室。许多雇主现在都表示，远程工作的好处大于坏处。

Tech companies Twitter and Facebook captured headlines with announcements about permanent work from home. But the news from a 94-year-old company based in the heartland — Columbus, Ohio — may have been even more significant.

科技公司推特和脸书发布了在家永久工作的消息，成为头条新闻。但是，这家总部位于美国腹地——俄亥俄州哥伦布市、有着94年历史的公司发布的消息可能更为重要。

Nationwide Insurance is shutting five regional offices since remote work has gone off so smoothly during the pandemic. And thousands of employees will permanently ditch their commutes for home offices.

因为在大流行期间远程工作进展顺利，全国保险公司关闭了五个地区办事处。成千上万的员工将永久地放弃通勤，在家办公。

CEO Kirt Walker says it's been a popular decision at the company.

公司首席执行官科特·沃克表示，这是公司的一个广受欢迎的决定。

"Overwhelming. Hundreds of emails and cards and letters and phone calls. 'Thank you for doing this.' So I think we got it right," he says.

“成百上千的电子邮件、卡片、信件和电话。‘谢谢你这么做。’所以我认为我们做对了。他说。

It's all about the money

一切都是为了钱

Saving money is always an attractive proposition for businesses, especially these days. And that's likely to drive the shift to remote work, according to Kate Lister, who consults with companies on the future of work as president of Global Workplace Analytics.

对企业来说，省钱一直是一个很有吸引力的提议，尤其是现在。全球职场分析公司总裁凯特•李斯特表示，这很可能会促使人们转向远程工作。

One potential change: Demand for commercial real estate falls due to the growth of remote work and the realities of a painful economic downturn. For example, 90% of the 60,000 employees at investment bank Morgan Stanley have been working remotely during the pandemic. Lesson learned, according to Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman.

一个潜在的变化是：由于远程工作的增长和痛苦的经济衰退的现实，对商业房地产的需求下降。例如，投资银行摩根士丹利的60000名员工中，90%在流行病期间一直在远程工作。摩根士丹利首席执行官詹姆斯•戈尔曼表示，我们吸取了教训。

Office space is expensive

办公空间很贵

Other major companies, such as the investment bank Barclays and Oreo-maker Mondelez International also expect to use less real estate as more employees work from home. Nationwide says costs will be significantly lower with so many employees working from home instead of offices, and it intends to return the savings to customers in lower premiums.

投资银行巴克莱和奥利奥制造商蒙德莱兹国际等其他大公司也预计，随着更多员工在家办公，房地产使用量也将减少。Nationwide表示，由于如此多的员工在家工作而不是在办公室工作，成本将大大降低，它打算以较低的保费将节省的成本返还给客户。

According to Global Workplace Analytics, "a typical employer can save about $11,000 year for every person who works remotely half of the time." And workers can bank between $2,500 and $4,000 a year working remotely half time.

据全球职场分析公司的数据，“一个典型的雇主可以为每一个有一半时间远程工作的人每年节省大约11000美元。”而工人们在一半时间的远程工作中，每年可以获得2500到4000美元的收入。

But remote work all the time isn't popular with either bosses or workers.

但总是远程办公并不受老板和员工的欢迎。

Gorman says he wouldn't want Morgan Stanley's employees working from home exclusively. And that seems to be the prevalent view for both management and employees.

戈尔曼说，他不希望摩根士丹利的员工只在家工作。这似乎是管理层和员工的普遍观点。

"If I were to have it my way, I would probably work from home three days and go into the office two," says Matthew Shultz, a plumbing designer who lives in Fort Worth, Texas. Normally he drives an hour each day to get to an office in Dallas. But these days he pads over to a guest bedroom at home and fires up his computer.

居住在得克萨斯州沃斯堡的管道设计师马修·舒尔茨说:“如果按照我的方式，我可能会在家工作三天，到办公室工作两天。”他通常每天开车一小时去达拉斯的办公室。但这些天，他会在家里的客房里打开电脑。

"You know I'm sitting here wearing shorts and a T-shirt, and I've got my two cats just running around all through the house," he says. "It's kind of weird, but at the same time it's more comfortable. And I feel like I'm a lot more relaxed here than I am in in the office."

“你知道我坐在这里，穿着短裤和t恤，还有我的两只猫在房子里跑来跑去，”他说。“这有点奇怪，但同时也很舒服。我觉得在这里比在办公室里要放松得多。”

Shultz says he gets at least as much done from home as in the office. That reflects the Global Workplace Analytics survey showing 77% of workers say they're fully productive at home. And managers are largely satisfied with their work performance.

舒尔茨说，他在家做的事情至少和在办公室做的一样多。这反映出，全球职场分析公司的调查显示，77%的员工表示，他们在家工作效率很高。管理者对他们的工作表现非常满意。