The Financial Times occupies an audaciously undistinguished building on the fringes of the City, in which the carpet tiles are coffee-stained, functional desks are arranged in lines and mice roam freely.

英国《金融时报》占据了伦敦金融城(City of London)边缘一栋十分不起眼的建筑，地毯上有咖啡渍，功能性的办公桌排成行，老鼠在其间自由游荡。

Yet to me the office is entirely satisfactory as it has each of the four things I mind about most. There are interesting people to talk to; a desk of my own that I can keep as tidy or messy as I like; a location easy to get to on a bicycle and a man on the door who says “hello, Lucy” every time I go in.

然而，我对我的办公室非常满意，因为我最在意的4样东西在办公室里都有。这里有值得交谈的有意思的人；有一张我自己的桌子，我可以随心所欲地保持桌面整洁或者凌乱；我骑自行车就可以轻松上下班；而且门口有个人在每次我进门的时候会和我打招呼“你好，露西”。

In an ideal world two further things would be nice: a bit more daylight; a view of something other than a hideous red-brick building. But then I suppose you can’t have everything.

在理想的情况下，再加上两样东西就好了：多一点阳光；除了难看的红砖建筑以外，从窗户还能看到点别的东西。但我想，你总不可能拥有一切。

Or can you? During the past few months I have been visiting a series of brand new offices whose owners are so pleased with them that they invited me (along with an FT camera crew) inside to snoop around.

还是说，你其实可以？过去几个月，我走访了一系列全新的办公室，其主人们对这些办公室十分得意，因此他们邀请我（以及英国《金融时报》的一个摄制组）入内探访一番。

The first thing I noticed is that people have got better at building offices. They are no longer designing white-collar factories for getting your head down. Nor are they building places intended to inspire fear and envy by the extent of the marble reception hall or size of the indoor waterfall. Instead the modern office is a bright, egalitarian space, a temple to fun and creativity.

我注意到的第一件事是，人们在建造办公大楼方面更加拿手了。他们不再设计让人埋头工作的“白领工厂”，也不再建造借助庞大的大理石大堂或壮观的室内瀑布来激起敬畏和艳羡的建筑。现代办公室光线充足、彰显平等，是崇尚乐趣和创造力的圣殿。

It doesn’t matter how uncreative your business — you can be a firm of accountants, a multinational selling soap powder — the emphasis is still on playfulness, with a look that is somewhere between kindergarten and modern furniture showroom.

无论公司的业务多么缺乏创意都没有关系——你可以是一家会计师事务所，或者是一家销售洗衣粉的跨国公司——这些办公室的重点依然放在趣味上，看起来介于幼儿园和现代家具展示厅之间。

In all the offices I visited, fluorescent lights are out and funky lampshades are in. Primary colours are everywhere. There are no straight lines. At the CBI, the employers’ group and possibly the least playful organisation in the UK, each employee has a coaster on their desk with a picture of them pulling a funny face.

在我走访的所有办公室里，荧光灯管都已被淘汰，取而代之的是时髦的灯罩。到处都是原色。没有任何直线。雇主团体——英国工商业联合会(CBI)可能是英国最不好玩的组织，每名雇员的桌子上都放着一个杯垫，上面印着他们自己做鬼脸的照片。

Everything is arranged to encourage meeting and mingling: there are “pods” and “hubs” and seats upholstered in jewel colours. The bodily and spiritual needs of the worker — never a concern for office designers in the past — are all catered for. There are comfy, private places to make phone calls, healthy food, fancy gyms and even meditation rooms.

一切布置都是为了鼓励接触和交往：不少办公室有“独立舱”、“枢纽区”和罩着宝石色椅套的椅子。员工的身体和精神需求——过去的办公楼设计者从不考虑这些事情——都得到照顾。这些办公室有舒适、私密的场所让员工打电话，还有健康食品、设备齐全的健身房，甚至冥想间。

Is this progress? Even though I detest the infantilising primary colours and the insistence on compulsory fun, I can’t pretend these new offices don’t look nicer than my own. Yet I’m still not sure how much difference it makes to the experience of the people who work in them.

这是一种进步吗？尽管我讨厌幼稚的原色和带有强制意味的“好玩”，但我很难否认这些新办公室看着比我自己的办公室更好。然而我依然不确定，这能给在其中工作的人们的体验带来多大区别。

As gyms and food are widely available outside the office, it is surely not much of an advantage if they are inside, too. And it is hard to believe cooler furniture means higher productivity. At home I care about my surroundings more than is seemly. I have just bought a lampshade so expensive I have to tell myself it is a work of art to justify the outlay. Yet as soon as I get to the office, I take a rest from such materialistic excesses. The style of the lights doesn’t move me at all. I simply don’t care. None of it belongs to me, I’m not responsible for it, and that feels like a relief.

鉴于健身房和食物在办公室外面随处可得，在办公室里提供这些肯定算不上一项多大的优势。而且也很难相信更酷的家具会带来更高的生产率。在家里，我过分在意环境。我刚刚买了一个十分昂贵的灯罩，为了给这笔花销找理由，我不得不告诉自己这是一件艺术品。然而，当我抵达办公室的时候，我就能从这种过度的物欲中暂时解脱。办公室里的灯具风格无法让我为之所动。我根本不在乎。这里的任何一件东西都不属于我。我也无需负责，这给人一种轻松感。

One thing I did covet were the spectacular views some offices had over London — to sit all day with the city spread out before you must be agreeable. But even then I’m not sure how much difference it would make. The FT office has four sides, three of which offer dismal views, while one looks out over the Thames to St Paul’s. Yet the people with the river view don’t strike me as any more productive or happier than anyone else. Like most privileges, the river view gives a minor boost on receipt — but then if you try to take it away, all hell breaks loose.

我的确艳羡从一些办公室的窗户能看到伦敦的壮观风景线——看着整个城市在眼前铺开，这样坐一整天一定很惬意。但我依然不确定这能带来多大的不同。英国《金融时报》的办公楼有四面，从其中三面看到的景色都不怎么样，只有一面可以看到泰晤士河和对岸的圣保罗大教堂(St Paul’s)。然而在我看来，能欣赏河景的同事并不比其他人更有效率或者更快乐。就像大多数特权一样，河景刚开始有一些轻微的提振效果——但一旦你试图把它撤走，人们就会闹翻天。

Yet even with their great views and jaunty decor, I still wouldn’t swap any of the offices I visited for my own. In almost all of them, one big thing was badly wrong — too many of the desks were empty.

然而，即使我到访过的办公室能看到美丽的景色，装饰风格轻松活泼，我还是不会拿我自己的办公室去交换。几乎所有这些办公室都在一个重要方面不对劲——太多办公桌无人使用。

This is the great irony of modern working life. Just as architects and designers are learning how to build better offices, people are losing the habit of working in them. The only office I visited that was properly populated was the one where working at home is frowned on and where everyone had their own desk.

这是现代职场生活的一大讽刺。就在建筑师和设计师摸索如何建造更好的办公室的同时，人们也日益丢弃在办公室工作的习惯。在我走访的办公室里，只有一处在场人数比较合理，那家公司不赞成在家工作，每个人都拥有自己的桌子。

At the others, flexible working was encouraged, and hot desking was rampant. Anyone sufficiently retro to turn up at the office could therefore expect to find half their team at home, and have to content themselves with sitting at any old desk, surrounded either by randomers — or no one at all.

在其他一些办公室，弹性工作制受到鼓励。办公桌轮用制非常盛行。任何足够老派、选择去办公室上班的人，会发现自己所在团队的一半人都在家中，因而只能坐在任意一张旧办公桌旁，周围或者是随机出现的人员——或者根本没有人。

Set against this, the sleek design amounts to nothing. After all, where is the joy in office life if you can’t rely on seeing the same people every day and saying to them: wasn’t Homeland brilliant last night?

在这样的背景下，时尚的设计一文不值。毕竟，如果你不能指望每天看到同样的人，并对他们说：“昨晚的《国土安全》(Homeland)真是棒极了，对吗？”办公室生活的乐趣何在？