发表时间：2024.07.01     作者：Bloomberg     来源：ShoelessCai     阅读：79

On days when Ellen went into the office, her mornings started around 6 a.m. She woke up with her 3-month-old baby and nursed him. Then she got him dressed. She got ready, too, and put on makeup. She packed a lunch, her breast pump, milk storage bags and anything else she needed. She said goodbye to her husband and son and drove 45 minutes in Austin traffic to get to her office.

本人翻译：Ellen 一旦开始工作，早晨就从 6 点开始。她醒来，还有 3 个月大的小孩要照料。她需要为小朋友穿衣服。也做了准备，自己化妆。她还包装好午餐，给小孩喂奶，还要带上各种奶瓶和必要物品。和丈夫小孩告别，在 Austin 驱车 45 分钟至办公室。

百度翻译：Ellen走进办公室的日子，早上6点左右就开始了。她带着3个月大的婴儿醒来，给他喂奶。然后她给他穿好衣服。她也做好了准备，化了妆。她带了午餐、吸奶器、储奶袋和其他她需要的东西。她向丈夫和儿子道别，在奥斯汀的车流中驱车45分钟到达办公室。

At work she scheduled meetings around pumping sessions. If a meeting ran long, and they always did, she leaked through her shirt and had to change. At the end of the day, she drove another 45 minutes to get home by 6. She nursed the baby again. Coordinated dinner with her husband. Put her son to bed at 7:30 and prayed that he slept through the night—which, of course, he didn’t. She answered work emails, cleaned her pumping equipment, showered, prepared her son’s bottles for tomorrow and finally went to bed. All told, it was a 16-hour day, not counting her son’s middle-of-the-night feeding session. “It was nonstop,” Ellen says. “I was so depleted as a person, as a mom. And I only had to do it two days a week.”

本人翻译：她的会议围绕着抽水机展开。如果一系列会议，看她衣服就知道，都是汗渍，必须得改变。一天结束之后，她再驱车 45 分钟回到家，再照顾小孩，吃晚饭，7点半安抚小孩睡觉，祈祷他能睡个好觉，然而他儿子并非如此。她回复邮件，清洗抽水机设备，洗澡，准备明天小孩午饭，睡觉。众所周知，这是每天耗去 16 小时的工作，还不算午夜要喂奶的时间。“根本停不下来” Ellen 说到，“我作为人、作为母亲，都被剥夺很多。但我只需要每周两天是这么生活的。”

百度翻译：在工作中，她把会议安排在抽水会议前后。如果会议持续很长时间，而且他们总是这样做，她就会从衬衫里漏出来，不得不换衣服。当天结束时，她又开车45分钟，6点前到家。她又喂奶了。与丈夫协调晚餐。7点30分让她的儿子上床睡觉，祈祷他能睡个通宵——当然，他没有。她回复了工作电子邮件，清洁了抽水设备，洗了澡，为儿子准备了明天的奶瓶，最后上床睡觉了。总的来说，这是一天16个小时的时间，还不包括她儿子半夜的喂食时间。“这是不间断的，”艾伦说。“作为一个人，作为一个母亲，我太累了。我每周只需要做两天。”

Like millions of other office jobs, Ellen’s, in internal communications at Whole Foods Market Inc., had gone fully remote at the start of the pandemic and remained that way for more than a year. She was still working remotely when she went on maternity leave in March 2021, but by the time she returned 12 weeks later, in June, Whole Foods had called its corporate workforce back to the office.

本人翻译：就像其他几百万个工作岗位一样，Ellen 从疫情开始时候远程工作，已经持续一年了，关于她在 Whole Foods Market 这家公司内部交流的工作。她从 2021 年 3 月就开始休产假，此后一直远程工作，但是在她 12 周之后回来的时候，具体是 6 月份，Whole Foods 这家公司，已然召回了所有员工。

百度翻译：与其他数百万份办公室工作一样，Ellen在Whole Foods Market股份有限公司的内部沟通工作在疫情开始时完全处于远程状态，并在一年多的时间里一直保持这种状态。2021年3月休产假时，她仍在远程工作，但12周后的6月，当她回来时，全食超市已经把公司员工叫回了办公室。

Ellen was already struggling with the idea of going back to work—leaving her baby when he could barely hold his head up filled her with guilt. Adding pumping and child-care logistics on top of that left her so anxious that some nights she couldn’t sleep. Complicating things was that none of the local day cares had spots; she and her husband, who was still working from home, had planned to take turns watching their son until they got off a waitlist. That arrangement didn’t work with Ellen in the office. They asked Ellen’s mom to fly in from Indiana to watch the baby instead. “I honestly don’t know how people who had kids before the pandemic did it,” Ellen says. “Was everyone just miserable all the time?” (Answer: Yes.)

本人翻译：Ellen 最近很忙，要回去工作了嘛。还要带小孩，居然产生了罪恶感。加上水管、接送小孩的事情，最糟糕的是，居然失眠。非常复杂，社区也没有日间照护，先生在家工作，计划轮流照看小孩，知道小孩自己走路。这样的安排其实还不够，他们要求 Ellen 母亲也加入，而对方在印第安纳。Ellen 表示，她并不知道疫情之前人们怎么带小孩的，是这么痛苦的吗？

Ellen had always been what she calls “career-focused.” And while becoming a mother recalibrated her priorities, it hadn’t made her less ambitious. So she figured out a way to transfer to Whole Foods’ parent company, Amazon.com Inc., which offered remote work as well as better pay and benefits. Amazon’s office was even farther from her home than Whole Foods’. “I told them, ‘If this is ever anything that requires me to be in person, I’m looking at a two-hour round-trip commute. That doesn’t work for me.’” Not a problem, Ellen says Amazon told her. She started her new job, also in internal communications, in July 2022.

本人翻译：Ellen 总是保持她所称呼的“关注事业”的状态。她成为母亲的时候，重新调整了一些状态，但是抱负从未改变。因此，她找到一个方法，转到 Whole Food 母公司，即亚马逊。亚马逊也同意远程工作，工资还更高，还有福利，但是亚马逊办公室更远，比起 Whole Food 而言。“我告诉他们‘如果一切要求我亲历亲为，我会关注两小时来回的通勤。但对我没作用。’” Ellen 说到，亚马逊认为她 的说法没问题。她就开启新工作了，还是内部交流的岗位，在 2022 年 6 月的时候换的。

百度翻译：艾伦一直是她所说的“以事业为中心”。当了母亲后，她重新调整了自己的优先事项，但这并没有降低她的野心。因此，她想出了一种方法，转移到Whole Foods的母公司亚马逊股份有限公司，该公司提供远程工作以及更好的薪酬和福利。亚马逊的办公室甚至比全食超市离她家更远。“我告诉他们，‘如果这是任何需要我亲自到场的事情，我会考虑两个小时的往返通勤。这对我不起作用。’”Ellen说亚马逊告诉她，这不是问题。她于2022年7月开始了她的新工作，也是内部沟通。

For a while, Ellen felt like she had it all. She was busy with a full-time job and, by now, a 1-year-old, but she wasn’t waking up filled with dread. She and her husband eventually found a day care, and their family fell into a manageable routine of drop-offs, pickups and 5:30 dinners. Her mom went back to Indiana. Her husband traveled for work; it was hard when he was gone but not impossible. “There was this sense of stability,” Ellen says. Then, in February 2023, Amazon announced that all employees would return to the office three days a week.

本人翻译：一度，Ellen 感到她能拥有一切。她很忙，目前为止，有一个 1 岁小孩，还不会让她绝望地醒来。她和丈夫最终找到了日托班，家庭可管理了，因为琐事迅速减少（a manageable routine of drop-offs），接送小孩 ，5点吃晚饭。她妈妈回到了印第安纳。她丈夫出差，他离开的时候觉得很难，但并非不可能。“这就是稳定感” Ellen 说到。然后，2023 年 2 月的时候，亚马逊宣布，所有员工必须回到办公室，每周 3 天。

百度翻译：有一段时间，艾伦觉得她什么都有。她正忙于一份全职工作，现在已经1岁了，但她醒来时并没有充满恐惧。她和丈夫最终找到了日托中心，他们一家陷入了一种可以管理的日常生活，包括接送和5:30晚餐。她妈妈回了印第安纳州。她的丈夫出差；他离开的时候很艰难，但并非不可能。“有一种稳定的感觉，”Ellen说。然后，在2023年2月，亚马逊宣布所有员工将每周三天返回办公室。

Ellen tried to get out of it. She looked through her hiring documents only to realize that permanent remote work was never promised in writing. She appealed to her boss. She pointed out that her colleagues were in Seattle, Nashville and Arlington, Virginia, so their meetings would remain virtual no matter what. She applied for a remote-work exemption that the company was granting on a limited basis. “As a mother of a 2-year-old,” she wrote, “remote work is critical.” She highlighted her two-hour commute, how she’d have to extend her son’s day care at $25 an hour and that Amazon’s Austin office didn’t even have a designated space for her—she’d actually been told to report to a WeWork 21 miles from her home. It didn’t matter. Amazon denied her request. “I didn’t know what else to do,” Ellen says. In December she quit. (An Amazon spokesperson didn’t address Ellen’s situation but noted that “we gave our teams three months to prepare” to return to the office, “while also working to support people based on their individual circumstances.”)

本人翻译：Ellen 试图离开这样的生活。她查阅了所有的雇佣文件，只是意识到，永久的远程工作，没有在白字黑字的规定中被承诺。她诘问老板。她指出她的同事在西雅图、纳什维尔、阿灵顿弗吉尼亚，因此他们的会议无论如何都是虚拟的。她申请远程工作豁免，内容是公司对于有限的资源是有允许的。“作为 2 岁孩子的母亲” 她写道，“远程工作很关键。”她强调了两个小时的通勤时间，及她如何要延展她的日托，直至每小时多支付 25 美元，并且亚马逊 Austin 办公室还没有制定的地方给她办公 —— 她事实上被要求向 WeWork 报告，而这家办公室距离她的家有 21 英里。没起作用。亚马逊拒绝了她的提议。“我不知道还能做什么，” Ellen 说到。12月的时候，她就离职了。（一个亚马逊发言人并没有陈述 Ellen 的情况，但是指出，“我给到我们团队 3 个月准备”来回到办公室，“与此同时，我们也积极地支持那些愿意在他们私人环境工作的人。”）

百度翻译：Ellen试图摆脱困境。她查看了自己的招聘文件，才意识到长期远程工作从来没有书面承诺。她向老板求助。她指出，她的同事们在西雅图、纳什维尔和弗吉尼亚州阿灵顿，所以无论怎样，他们的会议都将保持虚拟。她申请了公司在有限的基础上给予的远程工作豁免。“作为一个2岁孩子的母亲，”她写道，“远程工作至关重要。”。这并不重要。亚马逊拒绝了她的请求。“我不知道还能做什么，”艾伦说。12月，她辞职了。（亚马逊发言人没有提及Ellen的情况，但指出“我们给了我们的团队三个月的时间准备”返回办公室，“同时也根据个人情况为人们提供支持。”）

A few months earlier, Emily Smith resigned from her position at a tobacco education nonprofit in Indiana. Smith, who’d been working remotely, said her boss wanted her in the office four days a week. She couldn’t find child care to make that happen. “I called 60 day cares,” she says. “No one had an opening.”

本人翻译：几个月前，Emily Smith 辞职了，那家公司从事香烟教育工作，在印第安纳，非盈利性质。Smith，一直远程工作，说到老板要求其在办公室一周呆四天。她做不到，因为没找到日托。“我打电话给到 60 家日托” 她说到，“没有一家是开张的”。

百度翻译：几个月前，艾米丽·史密斯辞去了印第安纳州一家烟草教育非营利组织的职务。史密斯一直在远程工作，她说她的老板希望她每周在办公室呆四天。她找不到托儿服务来实现这一点。“我打电话给60日托中心，”她说。“没有人有空缺。”

Around the same time, Whitney Whipple left her job as head of US brand moments for YouTube Advertising. Her 18-year career in marketing had culminated in a mid-six-figure salary, but that didn’t make her three-hour round-trip commute, three days a week, between Westchester County and Google’s Manhattan offices less painful. “I never wanted to be a stay-at-home mom,” she says. “I went to business school. But the reality is that I also have two children at home who need me. I thought, ‘Something has to change.’”

本人翻译：几乎同时Whitney Whipple 离开了她的工作，作为 YouTube AD 部门美国分部的主管。她在市场部任职 18 年，薪资积累到 6 位数，但这并没有让她那来回 3 小时的通勤变得更加不痛苦，即一周三天，在 Westchester 和 谷歌曼哈顿办公室之间。“我从来都不想在家当老妈” 她说到，“我上的商学院。而事实是，我还有两个小孩在家需要我照看。我认为，‘需要改变些什么’”

百度翻译：大约在同一时间，惠特尼·惠普尔辞去了YouTube广告公司美国品牌时刻负责人的工作。她18年的营销生涯最终获得了六位数的薪水，但这并没有让她每周三天往返威彻斯特县和谷歌曼哈顿办公室三小时的通勤变得不那么痛苦。“我从来都不想做一个全职妈妈，”她说。“我上的是商学院。但现实是，我家里也有两个需要我的孩子。我想，‘有些事情必须改变。’”

In Washington, DC, Lee Taylor-Penn, a senior program officer at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, couldn’t drop her daughter off at preschool early enough to make it to mandatory 9 a.m. meetings. Last summer her boss called her into human resources to discuss her chronic tardiness. “Actually, what they said was that I needed to find a better work-life balance—those were the words they used,” Taylor-Penn says. “I said, ‘I’m a single mom with a one-and-a-half-hour commute. I don’t have a work-life balance.’” She quit, too. (The National Academies didn’t respond to a request for comment.)

本人翻译：华盛顿，Lee 是资深工程师，在美国国家科学院、工程院、医学院任职，她却无法早一些从女儿到学前班，然后再赶回去参加 9 点的会议，去年夏天，她的老板将她喊到人力资源部，讨论她的长期迟到问题（chronic tardiness）。“事实上，他们说，我需要更好的生活工作平衡 ，这些都是他们使用的词语，” Lee Taylor 说到，“我说，‘我’是单身母亲，通勤时间 1.5 小时。根本没有工作生活平衡的问题” 她也辞职了。（国家科学院并没有回复评论这件事）

百度翻译：在华盛顿特区，美国国家科学院、工程院和医学院的高级项目官员李·泰勒·佩恩（Lee Taylor Penn）无法提前将女儿送到幼儿园，无法参加上午9点的强制性会议。去年夏天，她的老板把她叫到人力资源部，讨论她长期迟到的问题。泰勒·佩恩说：“事实上，他们说我需要找到更好的工作与生活平衡——这就是他们用的词。”。“我说，‘我是一个单身妈妈，通勤时间只有一个半小时。我没有工作与生活的平衡。’”她也辞职了。（美国国家科学院没有回应置评请求。）

As workers trickled and then streamed back to offices, highways re-clogged at rush hour and mayors declared their downtowns revitalized, working mothers asked: What about us? The pandemic had inadvertently prompted a massive experiment, with corporations rethinking how their employees worked and from where. For the most part, it was a resounding success for the environment (fewer commuters meant lower carbon emissions), employers (productivity did not generally decrease and in some cases rose) and employees, especially parents.

本人翻译：随着工人们零星地回来，然后形成回办公室风潮（trickle，streamed），高速公路高峰时期又一次堵塞了，市长声称他们的城镇会恢复元气的，工作的母亲问道：我们怎么办？ 疫情不经意地激发了一系列实验，同时这些公司也重新思考了，他们员工应该怎么工作，以及住在哪。最重要的部分，这对于环境来讲是巨大的成功（resounding success），因为更少的通勤者意味着更少的碳排放，对雇主、雇员、为人父母的人都是如此。这些雇主的生产力都不会下降，有些还会上升。

百度翻译：当工人们慢慢地回到办公室，高速公路在高峰时段再次堵塞，市长们宣布他们的市中心恢复了活力时，职场母亲们问道：我们呢？疫情无意中引发了一场大规模的实验，企业重新思考员工的工作方式和工作地点。在大多数情况下，这对环境（通勤者的减少意味着碳排放的减少）、雇主（生产力通常不会下降，在某些情况下还会上升）和员工，尤其是父母来说都是一个巨大的成功。

After emerging from the fog of the early pandemic, mothers found that when working from home was combined with reliable child care, the dual demands of work and home were easier to meet. Moms who held demanding full-time jobs could suddenly achieve what had once seemed impossible: the ability to be a fully present parent without compromising their careers. It was a remarkable revelation. Now, with no compelling explanation beyond the nebulous benefit of in-person collaboration and the importance of office “culture,” they were being told the experiment was over. Despite the corporate declarations of support for working parents during the pandemic—“parental burnout” was even treated as a mental health phenomenon in medical journals—with things returning to normal, or whatever passed for normal, those same companies developed collective amnesia and acted like everything was fine.

本人翻译：逐渐从早期疫情迷雾中显现的情形，母亲们发现远程工作带来了可靠的照顾小孩的机会，工作和家庭的双重需求被满足了。那些从事非常需要投入的全职工作的母亲，忽然就能达到曾一度认为是不可能的事情：一种充分显现的能力，为人父母未必要损失事业。这是相当显著的揭示。现在，已然没有那些与人合作有优势的强行解释，以及办公室文化的重要性，他们被告知实验结束了。尽管疫情期间，有关于支持边带小孩边工作的合作声明存在 —— （然而）“为人父母倦怠感”被认为是一种心理现象，还有药物治疗 —— 期待事情回到正常，或者无论什么经历到的都希望是正常的。这些类似或者相同的公司，还出现了集体健忘（collective amnesia），以及表现得好似所有事情都很好。

百度翻译：从早期疫情的迷雾中走出来后，母亲们发现，当在家工作与可靠的儿童保育相结合时，工作和家庭的双重需求更容易满足。那些全职工作要求很高的妈妈们可以突然实现曾经看似不可能的事情：在不影响职业生涯的情况下，成为一个完全在场的父母。这是一个了不起的启示。现在，除了面对面合作的模糊好处和办公室“文化”的重要性之外，没有任何令人信服的解释，他们被告知实验已经结束。尽管企业在疫情期间宣布支持在职父母——“父母倦怠”甚至在医学期刊上被视为一种心理健康现象——但随着事情恢复正常，或者其他一切被认为正常的事情，这些公司还是出现了集体健忘症，表现得好像一切都很好。

For this story, Bloomberg Businessweek spoke to nearly two dozen women who held jobs ranging from tech executive to administrative assistant at companies as large as Alphabet Inc.’s Google and as small as a mom-and-pop business in the Midwest. Some were single parents. Others were married with a high-earning spouse. All wanted to further their careers (which is why many of them asked to go by just their first or middle name or, in some cases, to remain anonymous). But when asked to give up the flexibility remote work afforded—to, as many of them put it, choose between their kids and their jobs—they decided they were done.

本人翻译：这个故事，彭博商业周刊采访了将近 20 位女性，这些人的工作从科技企业的执行官你，到公司的行政助理，这些公司基本和谷歌一样大，小的公司就是中西部地区的夫妻老婆店。有些是单亲父母。其他的，都和高薪伴侣结婚。所有人都希望进一步拓展他们的职业道路（这解释了为什么，他们中很多人，企图只是用名字或者中名，有些人还保持匿名）。但他们被问及，是否愿意放弃灵活的远程工作，可接受的情况下，就像很多人说的，在小孩和工作中选择，他们就不作选择了。

百度翻译：在这篇报道中，《彭博商业周刊》采访了近20多名女性，她们在Alphabet股份有限公司的谷歌等大公司和中西部的一家夫妻企业担任过从技术主管到行政助理的各种职务。有些是单亲家长。其他人的配偶收入很高。所有人都想进一步发展自己的职业生涯（这就是为什么他们中的许多人要求只使用自己的名字或中间名，或者在某些情况下保持匿名）。但当被要求放弃远程工作所提供的灵活性时——正如他们中的许多人所说，在孩子和工作之间做出选择——他们决定放弃了。

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