What Musk misses about how this generation works


Digital technologies have not only shifted where we work but how we view our jobs. 6park.com
数字技术不仅改变了我们工作的方式，也改变了我们对待工作的态度。对P世代而言，一切皆可“定制”。



The great attrition of employees shows no signs of slowing. Recent reports from management consultant McKinsey suggest that as many as 40 per cent are considering leaving their jobs, usually to seek a different type of career or “non-traditional work”, including temporary or part-time roles. 6park.com
员工离职潮没有减缓的迹象。管理咨询公司麦肯锡(McKinsey)最近的报告显示，多达40%的员工正在考虑离职，通常是为了换一种职业或转做“非传统意义上的工作”，包括临时或兼职工作。 6park.com
  
According to one survey, money is an issue, but it’s definitely not the only issue. “Meaningfulness of work” and “adequacy of workforce flexibility” around issues such as working from home are also front of mind. The key, it seems, is a sense of personal control, both to define how and where work happens, as well as how it aligns with workers’ personal values. 6park.com
根据一项调查，钱是一个因素，但绝不是唯一的因素。他们考虑的问题还有“工作有没有意义”和“工作有没有充足的灵活性”。关键似乎在于个体的自主性：可以决定自己如何工作、在哪工作，以及工作是否符合自己的价值观。 6park.com
  
Some readers will wince at this. Others will view it as a short-term phenomenon that emerged during the pandemic. Once this novelty wears off and recession hits, workers will become less demanding. Or so the current argument among many corporate leaders goes. 6park.com
有些读者会皱眉。其他人会认为这是疫情期间出现的一种短期现象。一旦这阵风刮过去，经济衰退袭来，劳动者就不会有那么多要求了。这就是许多公司老板现在的主张。 6park.com
  
A few have decided to crack the whip. Last week, Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, banned staff from working from home. Jamie Dimon, CEO of US bank JPMorgan Chase, would like to. And others may follow their lead in the new year. 6park.com
一些公司老板已经决定来硬的。上周，Twitter的新东家埃隆•马斯克(Elon Musk)宣布禁止该公司员工居家办公。美国摩根大通(JPMorgan Chase)首席执行官杰米•戴蒙(Jamie Dimon)想要禁止。在新的一年里，可能还会有其他公司老板这样做。 6park.com
  
How well this works remains to be seen. Musk’s edict sparked the predictable social media outrage, while friends working at JPMorgan tell me that many of their colleagues are simply finding ways to work at home some of the time. 6park.com
禁令的效果如何还有待观察。马斯克的命令可想而知在社交媒体上引发众怒，而在摩根大通工作的朋友告诉我，他们的许多同事只是在想方设法部分时间居家办公。 6park.com
  
There is so much quiet rebellion in the working world — and executive alarm about it — that many companies have been more accommodating. New employees at Bridgewater say they are only being asked to come to the office for two days a week. This seems in stark contrast with the hedge fund’s reputation for discipline and an intense company culture. I suspect more companies will be forced to adopt Bridgewater’s approach. 6park.com
职场中有太多悄悄的反抗（高管们对此也很警惕），因此许多公司采取了较为包容的做法。桥水(Bridgewater)的新员工说，他们每周只被要求来办公室两天。这似乎与这家对冲基金公司强调纪律的名声和高压的公司文化形成了鲜明对比。我怀疑，会有更多公司被迫采用桥水的方式。 6park.com
  
Once you dig into what’s driving some of these changes, it is not hard to see that pandemic lockdowns and the rise of the Zoom meeting are only partly to blame. Another factor that matters — and one that Musk and Dimon seem to have overlooked — is that the rise of digital technologies goes hand in hand with a subtle but crucial shift in how we see ourselves. Welcome to Generation Playlist. Or, as I’m calling it, Gen-P. 6park.com
一旦你开始探究是什么导致了这些变化的出现，你很容易会发现，疫情时期的封锁和Zoom会议的兴起只是部分原因。另一个重要的——也是马斯克和戴蒙似乎忽略了的——因素是，在数字技术崛起的同时，我们看待自己的方式也发生了细微但关键的变化。欢迎认识“播放列表”世代(Generation Playlist)。我将它简称为P世代。 6park.com
  
At stake is the critical issue of how individuals are viewed relative to their social group. As anthropologists such as Joseph Henrich have pointed out, in most cultures across the world, during most of history, individuals and their choices have been seen as a product of society. The group defined people’s identities. The choice was to fit in or get out. 6park.com
这里有一个关键问题：如何看待个体与他们所属的社会集体的关系。正如约瑟夫•亨里奇(Joseph Henrich)等人类学家所指出的，在世界各地的大多数文化里，在大部分历史时期，个体及其选择一直被视为由社会造就。集体定义了个体的身份。个体只能选择融入或退出集体。 6park.com
  
Starting with the European Enlightenment, this shifted. Western society came to be seen as the product of individuals, who had rights. Hence the eventual emergence of the “Me” generation in western 20th-century popular culture. 6park.com
从欧洲启蒙运动开始，这种情况发生了转变。人们开始将西方社会视为由一个个拥有各种权利的个体造就。于是“我”(Me)世代最终在20世纪西方大众文化中出现。 6park.com
  
In the 21st century, the “Me” generation is evolving again. Technology has fostered the idea that while individuals sit at the centre of their own world, they can, and should, fashion it to their individual tastes. This already happens in consumer culture, where we increasingly customise everything — from our travel plans to coffee choices and, of course, the music we listen to — rather than just fitting in with a preset package. It is also reshaping media, with people increasingly using a pick’n’mix approach to absorbing news on their own terms. Unsurprisingly, it’s now seeping into our attitudes towards work. 6park.com
在21世纪，“我”世代再次演变。科技培养了这样一种观念：当个体坐在自己世界的中心时，他们可以、也应该按照自己的品味来塑造这个世界。这种观念已经影响了消费文化，我们越来越多地定制一切——从旅行计划到咖啡选择，当然还有我们听的歌单——而不是去适应预先设定的套餐。这种观念也重塑了媒体，人们越来越多地采用“挑选然后混合”的方式看自己想看的新闻。意料之中地，这种观念正在影响我们对待工作的态度。 6park.com
  
Half a century ago, employees accepted the older generation’s definition of work and careers. Today, they want to fashion it themselves, on their own terms, and, as the McKinsey survey shows, are prepared to quit if they are unable to do so. To traditionalists, this attitude sounds selfish and immature. To younger people, many of whom are locked out of the privileges that their parents took for granted — from home ownership to affordable college tuition — it feels not just empowering, but also necessary. Ironically, Musk acts like the ultimate Gen-P, apparently believing he has the right to fashion the world to meet his desires. 6park.com
半个世纪前的打工人接受了上一代人对工作和职业的定义。如今的打工人希望按照自己的方式塑造工作和职业，而且正如麦肯锡的调查所显示的那样，如果不行，他们不惜辞职。传统主义者认为，这种态度听起来自私而幼稚。年轻一代不奢望拥有那些他们的父母一代认为理所当然的特权——从拥有住房到负担得起的大学学费，在他们看来，能够按照自己的方式塑造工作和职业不仅带来力量感，而且是必要的。讽刺的是，马斯克的行为看起来极端P世代，他似乎相信自己有权让世界变成自己想要的样子。 6park.com
  
Indeed, this shift has been so inexorable that many younger people view customisation as entirely normal. They have no memories of what it was like to live in a world of vinyl records or where the only options for coffee were “black” or “white”. So ripping away their sense of choice is not something that Gen-P will embrace easily. 6park.com
事实上，这种态度转变是不可阻挡的，年轻一代中许多人如今认为拥有定制选项再正常不过。他们对黑胶唱片的世界没有记忆，对咖啡只有“黑咖啡”或“白咖啡”两种选择的世界没有记忆。因此，选择权被剥夺是P世代很难接受的事情。 6park.com
  
Corporate managers might fret about the great attrition. But they cannot tackle it unless they try to understand Gen-P — and recognise that this mindset shift will not disappear soon. Even if there is a recession. 6park.com
企业管理者可能会为严重的员工流失而苦恼。但他们无法解决这个问题，除非他们试着去理解P世代，并认识到P世代对待工作的态度转变不会很快消散——即便出现经济衰退也不会。 6park.com