遠距工作其實沒人性？心理學告訴你原因Don’t Like Remote Work? You’re Not Alone

Since the advent of the personal computer, people have been predicting the death of the office. Today, about a third of the workforce is working remotely, but some of them are struggling with videoconference technologies.

Psychologists say we don’t make eye contact for that long when we are actually face to face, but we have no choice but to stare at our colleagues on a video call. After hours of this, people are exhausted.

The office has proven more useful than we had imagined. Our brains can generate productive ideas in random interactions at the office. Companies like Google and Facebook have designed big offices with communal spaces in an attempt to get the creative juices flowing.

友善讓你懂｜解說：

個人電腦發明以來，就有人預測辦公室將被消滅；而在現今疫情期間，雖然已經有約三分之二的員工改用遠距工作，但不少人卻對視訊開會適應不良。

心理學家發現，許多人之所以無法適應遠距視訊開會，是因為我們平常就算面對面講話，也不會盯著對方眼睛那麼久；但視訊開會必須如此，因此長期開會下來，許多人都筋疲力盡。

事實上，辦公室遠比我們想像的有用！它讓大家聚集在一起，透過同事間的隨機互動，大腦會碰撞出許多新想法。就連 Google、Facebook 等科技公司，也認同實際互動所帶來的好處，並在辦公室裡設計出公共空間，讓創意可以源源不絕！

輕鬆帶著走｜學習：

remote work 指的是遠距工作，也可以用 working remotely 這個說法。既然要遠距工作，通常也連帶提到視訊會議 videoconference 或是 video call 這兩個單字。

與遠距工作相反的空間，則是 office 辦公室。跟辦公室情境相關的詞彙有哪些呢？

1. random interaction n. 隨機互動
2. communal space n. 公共空間
3. to get the creative juices flowing 是常用語，指的是「讓創意源源不絕」，也可以說 to keep creative juices flowing。在 get 或 keep 後面也可以加上所有格，例如：To get my creative juices flowing。

例句：I am working remotely since March 1. 從 3 月 1 日起，我開始改為遠距工作。