The decline of the office romance

　　办公室恋情的穷途末路

　　Fewer romantic relationships will be forgedat the water cooler. That is a shame

　　在饮水机旁建立恋爱关系的机会越来越少了，这令人遗憾

　　Their eyes met across the officephotocopier. At long last, each of them had found someone who could push theirbuttons. Eventually, they settled down and decided to reproduce. Read more in“Fifty Sheets of Grey Paper”, out soon in paperback.

　　隔着办公室的打印机，他们四目相对。终于，每个人都找到了能够触动彼此内心的人。最后，他们相爱并结婚生子。更多内容详见即将出版的《五十页灰纸》平装版。

　　Romance is a long-established side-effectof office life. After all, people may spend almost half their waking hours atwork, and their colleagues will frequently have something in common with them,even if it is only complaining about the manager. Some relationships areinevitably bound to result.

　　爱情是办公室生活长期以来存在的副产品。毕竟，人们将醒着的近一半的时间都花在工作上，并且往往会和同事存在一些共同点，即便只是一起抱怨经理。有些关系自然而然地就会开花结果。

　　But the lockdown has made the forming ofnew romances much more difficult. Although online dating has thrived in thepandemic, the number of people who have met their soulmate via a work Zoommeeting must be vanishingly small. It is hard to flirt while your facialexpressions are being observed by a dozen colleagues. And how private iscompany videoconferencing software’s private-chat function, really?

　　但疫情下的封锁使新的办公室恋情更难形成了。在疫情大流行期间，在线约会得以蓬勃发展，但通过 Zoom 会议找到灵魂伴侣的人却少得可怜。当你的面部表情同时被十几个同事看得一清二楚时，你很难和其中一个同事调情。而且，就算是公司视频会议软件的私人聊天功能，它又能有多私密呢?

　　Even before the pandemic, however, officeromances were in decline. In 1995, 19% of (heterosexual) people met theirpartner at work, according to a study by Stanford University. By 2017 this hadfallen to 11%. It will be even lower now. As white-collar employees toil morehours at home and fewer at the office—which seems likely even after the virusrecedes—opportunities for workplace romantic connections will dwindle.

　　而即便是在疫情大流行之前，办公室恋情也变得越来越少了。据斯坦福大学的一项研究显示，1995年，19%的异性恋者是在工作中与另一半相识的。到2017年，这一比例已经下降至11%。如今可能更低了。由于白领们在家工作的时间越来越长，而在办公室工作的时间越来越少(即使疫情过后，这种情况可能仍将存在)，发展办公室恋情的机会也将越来越小。

　　One reason for the decline is thatcompanies have realised that work relationships give rise to all kinds ofethical questions. The idea of a boss marrying his secretary (or a doctordating a nurse) is one of the oldest clichés around.

　　办公室恋情越来越少的一个原因是，公司已经意识到办公室恋情会引发各种道德问题。最老套的剧情就是老板娶了秘书(或是医生与护士约会)。

　　Sadly, the trope is so well establishedthat secretaries and nurses have spent decades fending off the unwantedattentions of their superiors. As the #MeToo movement has demonstrated, somemen use their positions of power to harass women who work for them.

　　可悲的是，由于这种情节太过深入人心，以至于几十年来秘书和护士一直都在努力避开上级对自己不必要的关注。正如#MeToo 运动所指出的那样，一些男性利用职权之便对下属女性进行骚扰。

　　Consensual relationships can cause problemsas well. A relationship with a subordinate makes it hard for a manager to beobjective about their performance. Colleagues may understandably suspect themanager of favouritism. Things may be as bad if the romance breaks down. Hurtfeelings may make it hard for the ex-partners to work together and will alsomake it awkward for everyone else in the office.

　　即便是两厢情愿也会存在一些问题。一个管理者一旦与下属存在亲密关系，就很难客观地评价下属的工作表现。其他同事理所当然也会怀疑经理徇私舞弊。一旦关系破裂，情况也很糟糕。感情上受到伤害可能会让曾经的恋人很难在一起工作，同时也会让办公室里的其他同事感到尴尬。

　　Some companies ban all office romancesoutright. Others issue guidelines such as the stipulation that employees shouldnot allow a relationship with a colleague to influence their behaviour at work,and that they should disclose any relationship that might give rise to aconflict of interest. These rules seem perfectly sensible, although they do involvea sacrifice of privacy.

　　有些公司完全禁止办公室恋情。另一些公司则通过规章制度加以限制，例如规定员工不得因与同事发展恋情而影响其工作行为，并规定员工应对任何可能导致利益冲突的关系予以披露。尽管这些规则确实以牺牲个人隐私为代价，但也合乎情理。

　　注：双语全文源自经济学人

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