常規任務對決首要任務 不可忽視工作中的"小事"

Most people can identify their top priority at work. Generally, it will be the part of the job that is most productive for their employer: for a merger and acquisitions banker, it could be landing a big deal for a client; for a lorry driver, the punctual delivery of an important consignment; for a hospital doctor or nurse, giving vital treatment to a patient.

絕大多數人能夠認知自己工作中的首要任務。通常，這也是他們工作中最能給僱主帶來成效的部分：對併購銀行家來說，首要任務是爲客戶敲定一樁大交易；對貨車司機來說，首要任務是將重要的貨物準時送達；對醫生或者護士來說，首要任務是給予病人至關重要的治療。

But every job is ringed with secondary tasks – the routine but critical stuff covered by codes and guidelines. If such chores are neglected, the consequences may undermine overall success. New research suggests tired workers in demanding jobs start giving up doing those small, but vital, tasks remarkably quickly.

但是每一項工作都涉及次要任務，這些常規而又至關重要的環節包含在準則和指引中。如果忽視了它們，可能會破壞整體上的成功。一項新的研究似乎表明，從事高強度工作的疲憊員工會很快放棄那些細小但卻十分重要的任務。

Technology can, of course, take over some basic chores altogether. It is no longer necessary to engage an additional auditor to cross-check the balance sheet, or to insist airline pilots handle every tiny aspect of monitoring and flying their aircraFT.

當然，技術能完全接手一些基礎的日常事務。我們不再需要一位額外的審計員來覈對資產負債表，或者堅持讓飛行員處理飛機監控和飛行中的每一個細小的方面。

Automated solutions are not as reassuring as they seem, however. Peter Thiel, the entrepreneur, wrote in the FT last week that computers “excel at efficient data processing but struggle to make basic judgments”. In other words, humans are not redundant. But the flesh-and-blood workers who remain now have greater responsibility for more important tasks. If companies pile more work on to them, these weary employees could inadvertently plunge them into disaster.

然而，自動化解決方案並不像它們看上去那樣令人放心。企業家彼得•蒂爾(Peter Thiel)最近在英國《金融時報》撰文表示，計算機“善於進行高效率的數據處理，但很難做出基本的判斷”。換句話說，人類並不多餘。但是，剩下的有血有肉的員工如今爲更重要的任務承擔了更大的責任。如果公司將更多工作分配給他們，疲憊的員工可能在不經意間使公司陷入災難。

It is a truism that a tired worker is less productive than a fresh one. But researchers at Wharton and Kenan-Flagler business schools have shown that compliance with routine tasks can fall away within one heavy shift.

疲勞的員工的生產率沒有精力充沛的員工高，這是不言而喻的道理。但沃頓商學院(Wharton School)和凱南-弗拉格勒商學院(Kenan-Flagler Business School)的研究者向我們展示，即使在一個繁重的輪班期間，人們完成常規性任務的程度也可能逐漸下降。

Their study’s focus was hand hygiene, healthcare’s mundane but powerful weapon against cross-infection. Such is the importance of sanitisation – when done thoroughly, it can reduce infection by the MRSA “superbug” by 95 per cent – that hospitals have started to monitor compliance, using electronic tags in sanitisers and workers’ badges. Each time a member of staff skips the sanitiser, the omission is logged.

他們的研究重點是手衛生，這是一種平淡無奇的衛生保健手段，卻能有效地對抗交叉感染。消毒如此重要，以至於如果徹底洗手，就能將有“超級病菌”之稱的耐甲氧西林金黃色葡萄球菌(MRSA)的感染機率減少95%。醫院開始在洗手液分配器和員工胸牌上安裝電子跟蹤器，以監控醫護人員是否遵守這項程序。每當一個員工跳過了洗手程序，就會被記錄下來。

The extraordinarily rich anonymised information from such a system is a treasure trove for big data researchers such as Wharton’s Katherine Milkman. Analysing 13.8m “unique hand hygiene opportunities” for more than 4,000 staff at 35 hospitals, she and her co-authors found that over a 12-hour shift compliance by an average staff member fell by 8.5 percentage points. Lax handwashing, they suggest, could be costing $25bn annually in treatment of unnecessary infection in the US – and leading to 70,000 needless deaths.

對沃頓商學院的凱瑟琳•米爾克曼(Katherine Milkman)這樣的大數據研究者來說，這個系統提供的格外豐富的匿名信息是一個寶庫。在分析了35家醫院逾4000名員工總共1380萬次“獨一無二的手衛生機會”後，她和她的合著者發現在12小時的輪班期間，員工對手衛生程序的平均遵守度下降了8.5個百分點。他們估測，在美國，疏於洗手引起的不必要的感染每年會造成250億美元的治療費用，並導致7萬個不必要的死亡病例。

As Prof Milkman explained to me last week, the fact that intense work makes it harder to do less important tasks could have profound implications in other walks of life. The study points out that “these deviations pose a threat to the wellbeing of organisations, employees and clients . . . because such violations can reduce the quality of products produced and services provided as well as creating an unsafe work environment”.

就如米爾克曼教授上週向我解釋的那樣，高強度工作會使人更難去做不那麼重要的工作，這個事實在其他行業也會造成深遠的影響。該項研究指出，“這些違反規定的行爲對組織、員工和客戶的福祉構成威脅……因爲這種違規行爲降低了產品和服務的質量，並使工作環境變得不安全”。

Suddenly, it is a little clearer why the exhausted M&A banker skips parts of the ethical code her bank insists on, or why the tired lorry driver jumps the lights to make it to the depot on time. The work could offer clues about how to make sure the steeplejack always checks his harness, even on the final ascent of the skyscraper, and the weary journalist reads through her story for possible errors on deadline.

突然間，某些行爲背後的原因變得清楚了一些，比如精疲力盡的併購銀行家略過一部分其所在銀行堅持的道德準則，或者疲憊的貨車司機闖交通燈以按時到達倉庫。這項研究工作會提供線索，告訴我們如何確保高空作業工人總是檢查身上的保護帶，即使在最後一次登上摩天大樓時；或者確保記者在截稿前通讀自己的報道以發現可能的差錯。

The good news is that while the ability to carry out these simple tasks deteriorates swiftly, employers can restore it rapidly by, say, giving workers longer breaks between shifts. Another positive conclusion is that in this case technology seems to help. Monitoring compliance electronically, for all its Orwellian implications, does improve the overall frequency of handwashing.

好消息是，儘管人們完成這些簡單事務的能力會快速下降，但僱主也可以通過加長輪班之間的休息時間等手段迅速恢復這種能力。另一個積極的結論是，在這種情況下，技術似乎能提供幫助。電子監控員工是否完成這些日常事務，儘管帶有一種奧威爾式的意味，卻的確能從整體上提高洗手的頻次。

Hand hygiene is, however, one of those secondary tasks that will by definition always be manual. In other areas, the assumption is that machines have cleared the way for professionals to concentrate on their primary productive job. But there is evidence, highlighted in a recent New Yorker article about pilots’ reliance on their autopilot, that some skills may atrophy as workers become complacent about technological back-up.

不過，手衛生是一種必須手工完成的次要任務。在其他領域，人們假設機器已經爲專業人才清除了道路，讓他們能專注於自己的首要生產性工作。但證據似乎表明，員工對技術“後盾”過於自滿導致一些技能會慢慢退化，《紐約客》(The New Yorker)最近一篇關於飛行員依賴自動駕駛儀的文章凸顯了這一證據。

I think the new research adds a further twist: if technology makes some vital tasks that used to be central seem routine, workers may also start to neglect them as the day drags on – with potentially dire consequences.

我想這個新研究還增添了另一項曲折：如果技術使一些曾處於中心地位的關鍵任務變成常規事務，員工在忙碌的上班過程中可能逐漸開始忽視這些任務，進而可能造成嚴重後果。