How Long Before You Hit the Breaking Point?
公司白领的极限点
Do you have a‘breaking point’for your life—a point where long work hours send you over the edge into work-family conflict?
你生活中是否会出现“崩溃点”，长时间工作会不会让你感到家庭和工作的冲突把你逼到崩溃的边缘？
Based on new research on 22,436 IBM employees in 75 countries, many people do, and that breaking point varies dramatically based on whether employees are free to work from home part of the time, or not.
对IBM 公司在75 个国家的22,436 名员工进行的一项研究表明，很多人的生活中都会出现“崩溃点”；根据员工是否可以有部分时间在家办公，“崩溃点”差异很大。
In a startling finding, researchers discovered telecommuters on flextime schedules can cram in 19 more hours of work a week, compared with people who work entirely in the office, before they begin to report work-family conflict.
调查结果令人惊讶。研究人员发现，相比在办公室中工作的人，安排更有弹性的远程工作者每周可以多挤出19 个小时工作，之后才会出现工作上的“崩溃点”。
The study was co-authored by E. Jeffrey Hill, a professor in the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University and a long-time researcher on work-family issues.
研究的主持者之一是杨百翰大学家庭生活学院教授、工作家庭问题资深研究人希尔。
Those who did all their work in the office began to complain of work-family conflict after 38 hours of work.
希尔博士发现，整天在办公室待着的员工在工作38 个小时后开始抱怨工作与家庭出现冲突。
However, those who were able to extend their workday from home by telecommuting, rather than putting in longer hours at the office, could log 57 total hours before starting to feel the strain, counting both hours at the office and at home, Dr. Hill found.
不过希尔发现，那些不需要整天呆在办公室、可以选择远程办公的人在工作57 个小时后才会开始抱怨（把在办公室和在家工作的时间都计算在内）。
The hourly tallies are based on the point at which 25% of each of the two groups of employees-the office-bound workers and the telecommuters on flextime-reported work-family conflict.
时间的计算是根据两组员工中——在办公室工作和实行弹性工作制、在家办公的人——各有25%表示工作与家庭出现冲突的时间。研究结果将发表在本月的《家庭心理学期刊》上。
This basic pattern rings true to me.
这个研究结果在我看来是真实的。
Since I began telecommuting years ago, I have found I could happily log longer work weeks than when I was confined to the newsroom.
多年前开始在家办公，我发现比起成天闷在编辑部里，我可以快乐地工作更长时间。
The size of the 19-hour gap in this study, however—about two additional workdays a week—is surprising.
不过，我得承认，研究中显示19 个小时差距——相当于每周多两天——着实让人吃惊。
