中午吃饭歇一会

    今天又在办公桌前解决午餐吗？你在公司呆的时间已经够长了。根据人才发展咨询机构睿仕管理（Right Management）对美国1,023位员工的调查显示，现在只有21%的人经常离开办工桌吃午餐。

    “越来越少的员工在繁重的工作压力下还能自如地腾出时间外出就餐，”睿仕管理高级副总裁迈克尔·海德表示。

    海德补充说，很多公司的文化让人觉得，就算只是离开他们的卖力工作的岗位半个小时，都要心里不安。“必须要问的一个问题是，这样的工作压力，没有任何放松，真的有益于个人或组织吗？”海德说。“我的意思是，这真的能够提升工作表现吗？我们谈的当然不是一顿喝上三杯马蒂尼那样的奢侈午餐，但我们是不是在另一个方向上走得过了头？”

    他认为答案是肯定的。员工担心被人看成偷懒成性的人，“开始牺牲自己的休息时间，为的是赶上工作进度。因此，是不是这家公司施加了不切实际的工作量？是不是员工日益放弃了自己的休息时间？领导者需要密切关注这些情况，把它们堪称员工精疲力竭的早期警告信号，”海德表示。

    纽约生产效率咨询公司The Energy Project的负责人托尼·舒瓦茨说，越来越多的公司开始意识到这个问题。他说：“员工工作过度、疲惫不堪时，可能就难以出色地完成任务。”The Energy Project的客户百时美施贵宝（Bristol Myers Squibb）、苹果（Apple）、普华永道（PwC）、谷歌（Google）、索尼（Sony）、福特（Ford）和安永（Ernst & Young）等都“看到疲惫的员工和糟糕的表现之间存在的明显联系。”避免让员工精疲力尽，这一点对于取得成功至关重要，对公司和个人业务都一样。”

    避免让员工精疲力竭的一点建议：鼓励员工时不时休息一会。“当生活对我们的要求进一步提高时，我们倾向于坐下来，埋头更努力地工作，”舒瓦茨说。“问题是没有休息和放松来恢复精力，我们的效率会下降，会犯更多的错误，对我们所做事情的专注程度也会下降。”

    他说，这里的矛盾是“给员工施加过多压力，事实上只会让他们的生产效率下降。如果员工能学会如何更好地支配精力，”包括在一天的工作时间内稍作休息，“他们会在少得多的时间内完成更多的工作，创造更多的价值。”

    你肯定想知道自己和员工们在管理精力方面做得有多好或多差。为此，The Energy Project专门设计了一项只有20道题的小测试，并在过去10年中测试了数千名员工，帮助人们确认自己是否将耗尽精力。舒瓦茨说，结果往往“令人沮丧，但也令人吃惊。平均分为14分，这意味着人们常有的20种行为中有14种是消磨精力的。”

    这些行为之一就是——你肯定猜到了——放弃午休。“让员工在中午恢复精力是极大的竞争优势，”舒瓦茨说。“看看谷歌。每个人都走出办公室享用午餐。伙食很好，而且是免费的。人们在餐厅有很好的交流。”

    “Facebook和Twitter现在也提供这样的福利，给了员工放松吃饭，相互熟悉，交流观点的机会，”他补充说。“显然，这些公司相当成功，管理层拥有前瞻性思维。看看那里发生的情况，你就可以看到未来。”就让我们祈祷吧。

    译者：杨智

    Lunching al desko again today? You've got lots of company. Only 21% of people now regularly leave their workstations for a midday meal, according to a poll of 1,023 U.S. employees by talent development consultants Right Management.

    These days, "far fewer employees are feeling comfortable enough with their work loads to take time away" for a quick bite, notes Michael Haid, a senior vice president at the firm.

    Haid adds that many companies' cultures make people feel they need to apologize for stepping away from the grindstone even for 30 minutes. "One has to ask if such pressure, without any let-up, actually benefits the individual or the organization," Haid says. "I mean, does it really improve performance? We are definitely not talking about a return to the days of the three-martini lunch, but have we gone too far in the other direction?"

    He thinks so. Employees fearful of being seen as slackers "begin to sacrifice their own break times in order to keep up with their workloads. So, whether the organization is imposing unrealistic workloads or whether employees are progressively giving up their own break times, leaders need to pay close attention and understand the early warning signs" of burnout, Haid says.

    Tony Schwartz, head of New York City-based productivity consulting firm The Energy Project, says more and more companies are starting to recognize the problem. "What's at risk, when employees are overworked and stressed out, is their capacity to do great work," he says. The Energy Project's clients -- including Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), Apple (AAPL), PwC, Google (GOOG), Sony (SNE), Ford (F), and Ernst & Young -- "see a clear link between exhausted employees and poor performance. Avoiding burning people out is critical to success, both for companies and for individual bosses."

    A big part of keeping burnout at bay: Encouraging employees to take a break now and then. "When demand in our lives intensifies, we tend to hunker down and push harder," Schwartz observes. "The trouble is that, without any downtime to refresh and recharge, we're less efficient, make more mistakes, and get less engaged with what we're doing."

    The paradox here, he says, is that "by pushing people too hard, you actually make them less productive. But if employees learn to manage their energy better," partly by taking short respites from work throughout the day, "they get far more done, and add much more value, in far less time."

    Curious about how well (or how badly) you, or your employees, are managing energy? The Energy Project has devised a quick 20-question quiz, administered to thousands of employees over the past decade, to help people pinpoint whether they might be headed for burnout. The results, Schwartz says, are usually "depressing but eye-opening. The average score is 14, meaning that, out of 20 behaviors people regularly engage in, 14 are energy-depleting."

    One of those behaviors is -- you guessed it -- skipping lunch breaks. "Letting employees recharge at midday is a tremendous competitive advantage," Schwartz says. "Look at Google. Everyone goes to lunch there. The food is great, and it's free. And people are having terrific conversations in the dining room.

    "Facebook and Twitter now offer the same thing, that chance to connect with colleagues and share ideas over a relaxing meal," he adds. "Obviously, these are highly successful companies, with forward-thinking management. Look at what's happening there, and you're seeing the future." One can only hope.