在家工作超爽？其實會議更多、工時更長！More meetings, more emails when working from home

The pandemic has forced millions of employees to relocate to their living rooms and kitchen tables instead of working in the office. Does that mean that now we have less work and more flexibility? The answer is probably no.

According to a recent study by researchers at Harvard Business School, employees in 16 cities in America, Europe, and the Middle East have been attending more meetings by video conference. The number of meetings an average worker attends has risen by 13%. The number of people in the average meeting has risen too, by 13.5%. Fortunately, meetings are shorter by about 20%, or 12 minutes.

友善讓你懂 │ 解說

你是不是覺得在家上班，既輕鬆又自由呢？答案可能是否定的。最新研究針對美國、歐洲與中東16個城市、300萬人調查，自從開始在家工作之後，員工反而要開更多會、收發更多電子郵件，工時也變更長了！不僅視訊會議數量增加了13%，平均與會人數也增加13.5%。不過，稍微好一點的是，至少會議時間也減少了，平均減少20%或12分鐘。

另外幾個有趣的數字是，這些地區的員工平均每天增加48.5分鐘的工時，正常工時候所收發的電子郵件，也增加了8%。看來在家工作，並沒有我們想像中的「爽」，不是嗎？

輕鬆帶著走 │ 學習

Relocate從locate變化而來，locate的意思就是「定位」、「尋找地方」、「位於」，通常在句子中用做被動式，例句：

• The factory is located near the airport. 工廠位於機場附近。
• The restaurant is located just a few minutes from my house. 餐廳位於距離我家幾分鐘而已。

Locate也可以翻作「放置在（位子）」，例如：

• The company chose to locate its factory near the airport. 公司選擇把工廠建在機場附近。

Relocate則有「重新放置」、「重新定位」、「重新尋找」的意思，也可翻為「搬遷」，例句：

• The company decided to relocate its headquarters. 這間公司決定遷移總部。
• I decided to relocate to New York. 我決定搬到紐約。