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从最近的新增关注人数来看，开学了，考研成绩出来 了，大家又开始发力了。新来的小伙伴们，公众号每周一、三、五推送口译素材，二、四、六推送双语外刊。往期推送的干货都在每天最后一篇推文中。
双语外刊
Bartleby
巴托比
Why are corporate retreats so extravagant?
为何企业团建如此浮夸？
Companies’ summer camps get unnecessarily creative
公司夏令营日益创意万千。大可不必
ICE BATHS, infrared saunas, white-water rafting, fly-fishing, archery workshops, whisky tastings, yoga at sunrise, shooting clay pigeons, go-kart races, mountain-biking in Norway, falconry in Ireland, climbing up a glacier in Alberta, singing “Kumbaya” around a campfire. These seemingly disparate activities have one thing in common: all of them are real examples of the contemporary corporate off-site.
冰浴、红外桑拿、漂流、飞钓、箭术工作坊、威士忌品鉴、日出瑜伽、飞碟射击、卡丁赛车，到挪威山地骑行，去爱尔兰训鹰，在阿尔伯塔攀登冰川，围着篝火齐声唱Kumbaya。这些看似纷繁不一的活动有一个共同点：它们全是当代公司外出团建的真实例子。
Your columnist, a guest Bartleby, cringes at the idea of PowerPoint presentations followed by role-playing exercises and mandatory games. She prefers to let the ties with her colleagues deepen in organic ways. Still, the executive retreat has become an annual business tradition. The idea is that, by disconnecting employees from their day-to-day routine, companies can build camaraderie and foster creativity. And it has grown in importance.
作为本专栏的特邀撰稿人job工业用意，一想到做完PowerPoint演示后还要玩角色扮演和强制性游戏，笔者尴尬症都要发作了，还是更希望能自然而然地加深同僚之情。然而，高管务虚会已成为商界的一种年度传统活动。其用意是让员工从日常工作释放出来，让他们建立同事情谊并培养创造力。这种形式愈演愈烈。
A splashy, exciting getaway once a year may help retain executives in a tight labour market (and is cheaper than fatter monthly pay cheques). In the era of remote work—without the thousands of micro-interactions that happen in the office—team-building trips have also gained a structural role. Suddenly, off-sites are no longer an afterthought but lodged near the heart of corporate HR strategy. Not participating is not an option; so what if co-workers end up meeting in person for the first time wearing flip-flops?
一年一次精彩刺激的外出活动也许有助在劳动力市场吃紧时留住高管（而且比涨薪留人要省钱）。在远程工作的时代，没有了办公室里的万千细微互动，团建旅行开始发挥某种结构性作用。突然间，外出团建不再可有可无，而是占据了企业人力资源战略中接近核心的位置。不参加是不行的。那同事们头一回面对面竟是穿着人字拖，又会如何？
It used to be barbecues and softball games. Retreats moved things a notch higher in style and expense. Just three months after Steve Jobs left Apple and started another company in 1985, he whisked his employees to Pebble Beach for their first off-site. As corporate psychology boomed in the 1990s, team-building retreats became entrenched. By 2015 Uber was reportedly offering Beyoncé $6m to perform for its employees (no, not the drivers) at a corporate event in Las Vegas (the pop star was apparently paid in the then-hot startup’s stock rather than cash). WeWork, an office-rental firm with tech pretensions, used to host raucous summer retreats around the world; employees were encouraged to dance the night away to electronic music.
最早时是烧烤和垒球比赛。“退修营”在格调和花费上都提高了一个档次。1985年，乔布斯离开苹果创办另一家公司，仅三个月后，他就带着员工到圆石滩（Pebble Beach）做了首次户外团建。随着企业心理学在上世纪90年代蓬勃发展，这种形式开始“安营扎寨”。到2015年，据称优步花了600万美元请碧昂斯到拉斯维加斯的一次公司活动中为员工（优步司机不在其列）表演，这位流行歌手的酬劳似乎不是以现金支付，而是这家当时正如日中天的创业公司的股票。打着科技公司招牌的办公室租赁公司WeWork曾在世界各地举办喧闹的夏季团建活动，鼓励员工在电子音乐中整夜跳舞。
Given Uber’s lacklustre ride since its initial public offering in 2019, current management has gone easy on A-listers. WeWork revised its staff-entertainment policies after its party-loving founder and CEO, Adam Neumann, was forced out in the wake of its abortive IPO later that year. But the trend for the corporate getaway has, if anything, intensified.
优步自2019年上市以来表现乏善可陈job工业用意，现在的管理层已经不再执着于请一线明星助阵团建了。WeWork在2019年下半年上市失败，之后其热衷开派对的创始人兼CEO亚当·诺伊曼（Adam Neumann）被赶出公司，此后WeWork修改了员工娱乐政策。但是，公司外出团建之风反倒是刮得更强劲了。
To stand out, companies try to make their retreats as bespoke and exotic as possible. Those firms that cannot afford pop stars can have an astronaut regale executives with tales of life in space—not Queen Bey, exactly, but potentially enthralling to the nerdier elements of the workforce. Many organisers opt for the great outdoors, perhaps in the belief that the sublime will unleash authenticity. Wineries around the world are now expanding to accommodate retreats featuring winemaking lessons; employees stomp grapes. A Montana ranch offers corporate clients paintball, flag-capturing and dummy-cattle-roping. Butchershop, a brand-strategy agency, held its second summit in Costa Rica; activities included zip-lining, horseback riding through the jungle and jumping off a cliff into the water.
为了与众不同，公司尽可能把自己的营地团建安排得独家又别致。请不起流行歌星的公司可以请宇航员来为高管们讲讲太空生活的故事——来的不是碧昂丝，却可能对那些技术宅员工很有吸引力。许多组织者选择野外活动，也许是相信壮丽的自然景观会释放人的真性情。世界各地的酒庄如今都在扩大规模，方便接待以酿酒课程为特色的团建，让员工们踩葡萄榨汁。美国蒙大拿州一个牧场为企业客户提供彩弹射击、夺旗和套假牛的活动。品牌战略机构Butchershop在哥斯达黎加举行了第二次团建峰会，活动包括滑索、骑马穿越丛林和悬崖跳水。
A sure-fire way for a business to make its retreat memorable is to thrust participants into adversity. Battling the elements together is supposed to foster team spirit, but zealous organisers have occasionally been known to overdo it. One large European company sent executives to the Arctic Circle in midwinter. They endured frigid temperatures for days, without a fresh change of clothes. Walking on hot coals—an ancient ritual recast as a team-building exercise—led to the injury of 25 employees of a Swiss ad agency in Zurich.
公司要让团建活动令人难以忘怀，一个万无一失的方法是把参与者置于逆境。合力对抗恶劣天气想来能培养团队精神，但狂热的组织者有时会玩过火。一家欧洲大公司在隆冬时节把高管们送到北极圈，让他们在严寒里苦熬多日，还没有衣服可换。踩热炭这种古老仪式被改用作团建项目，导致苏黎世一家瑞士广告公司的25名员工受伤。
It is unclear what many days away achieves, except for straining the expense budget and consuming valuable time. Returning to your desk with frostbite or burnt feet is unlikely to boost your productivity. Even if you escape injury you may have lost esteem for the co-worker who drank too much and delivered a maudlin monologue. Walking on fire with colleagues may be meant to encourage spiritual healing and to put employees and bosses on equal—and equally uncomfortable—footing. Yet it is walking through metaphorical fire which actually causes teams to bond. That happens not at a corporate retreat but after years of working together.■
除了消耗预算和宝贵时间，多日外出团建有何成效并不清楚。脚上带着冻疮或灼伤回到办公桌旁不太可能提高工作效率。即便幸免于受伤，你也可能已经对那个喝多了发表了一通伤感独白的同事失去了敬重之情。与同事一起踏火前行也许是为促进精神疗愈，并把雇员和老板放到平等——且同样烫脚的——位置。然而，真正能让团队凝聚力量的是“赴汤蹈火”式的奋斗经历。它不会发生在企业务虚会上，而只会在多年的并肩共事之后形成。
