The number of people working remotely has skyrocketed since January 2020, with approximately half the U.S. labor force working from home in the early days of the pandemic. Those workers tend to be more educated and wealthier than workers whose jobs cannot be performed remotely, and low-wage workers have been much more likely to lose their jobs during the pandemic.

2020年1月起，遠距工作人數大增，新冠疫情初起時，美國約有半數勞工在家上班，這些勞工論教育程度和財力，往往勝過那些受限於職業性質不能遠距工作的人，而且低薪勞工在疫情期間失業的可能性也大得多。

While some have returned to the office since last spring, a significant number have not. Many estimates of how many office workers projected to work permanently at home, post-pandemic, range from 20% to 30%, up from under 10% before the coronavirus.

儘管去年春天起部分勞工回到職場，卻仍有相當多勞工尚未。疫情過後永久在家工作上班族所占比率，據各種估計從20%到30%不等，比疫情前的不到10%要多。

But millions more Americans communicating completely virtually with their co-workers does not mean our emotional office dynamics have caught up yet to our new videoconference world. Many are feeling a spectrum of new anxieties about their interactions with colleagues.

不過，完全在線上與同事溝通的美國人多了幾百萬，並不表示我們情感上的辦公室動力學已經跟上我們新的視訊會議世界。許多人在與同事線上互動時，感受到各種不同層次的新焦慮。

Employees are asking themselves questions like: Is that Slack message unanswered because I’m getting fired, or because my boss is dealing with remote schooling her kid? Did that joke land flat on that video call because it was a bad joke, or am I falling out of favor?

員工紛紛自問諸如以下的問題：即時通訊軟體Slack上的訊息沒人回，是因為我要被炒魷魚了，還是因為主管正忙著陪她的小孩看線上課程？我在視訊通話時講笑話沒人笑，是因為笑話太冷，還是大家不再喜歡我了？

Past research on the topic of organizational and social paranoia shows that working from home may exacerbate uncertainty about status, which can lead to over-processing information and rumination, said Roderick Kramer, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

美國史丹福大學商學研究所組織行為教授克瑞默說，先前針對組織與社交多慮現象的研究顯示，在家工作可能使關於自身地位的不確定感加重，這可能導致對資訊過度解讀和負面反芻思考。

Remote work can contribute to “feeling out of the loop, because you’re missing the kinds of ad hoc conversations that tend to reassure us we’re in good standing,” Kramer said.

克瑞默說，遠距工作可能激起「不屬於圈內的感覺，因為你沒辦法與人臨場對話，這種對話通常能讓我們確定處於好的地位」。

So-called organizational paranoia isn’t always irrational. And there’s even a term for that kind of sensible hypervigilance: prudent paranoia. “Part of paranoia is about self-presentational issues,” Kramer said. And it’s not just in our heads that we are being judged for how we look, and how our homes look, on video chats.

所謂的組織多慮現象並不總是非理性的，甚至有個名詞描述這種合理的過度警覺，叫「明智的多慮」。克瑞默說：「多慮一部分跟自我呈現有關。」別人會在視訊對話時用我們的外表和居家環境來評斷我們，並不只是我們想得太多 。

Jane Marie, 42, who is the owner of the podcast production company Little Everywhere and is a single mother, said she’s worried that she is losing out on business opportunities because of how she comes off on video calls. “I wear the straight bangs across short bob that only eccentric gallery owners in movies have,” she said. “I always worry if I’m meeting new people remotely on Zoom, I won’t get my serious side across — already being a woman is the worst for that.”

42歲的珍．馬力是播客製作公司「小各地」負責人，也是單親媽，她擔心因為在視訊通話時呈現的外表而失去生意機會，「我留直瀏海配鮑伯頭，只有電影中怪怪的畫廊老闆才會留的髮型，我擔心如果這樣在Zoom上遠距會見陌生人，對方會看不到我正經的一面，身為女人已經是最糟糕的了」。

Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/5238124

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