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多面手的零工经济员工再无小费
添加时间:2016-12-30 21:14:33 浏览次数: 作者:未知
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  • I have been puzzled by the way that different cultures approach service workers’ pay

    在我的首次东京之旅中,我曾因为小费问题,颇为尴尬地与一位出租车司机僵持不下。

    ever since I was involved in an awkward stand-off over a tip with a taxi driver during my first trip to Tokyo.

    自那以后,我对于不同文化处理服务业员工报酬的方式一直感到困惑。

    No tip necessary, no tip necessary, the driver kept saying in broken English.

    那位司机一个劲地用蹩脚的英语说:不用给小费,不用给小费。

    But I continued on bullheaded: No please, please, do take this.

    而我坚持己见:不,请你一定要收下。

    In the background my husband was shaking his head, as a small scene developed at the hotel doorway.

    我们在酒店门前发生了小小的争执,我丈夫则在后面摇头。

    He had, of course, warned me this could happen.

    他当然警告过我会发生这种事。

    I told you so! he snarked, as I finally conceded.

    在我最终屈服后,他带着挖苦的语气说道:我跟你说过吧。

    I was clueless to the fact that in Japan tipping is considered an insult.

    我完全不知道在日本给小费会被认为是一种侮辱。

    The price is the price.

    价格是多少就是多少。

    I had stupidly tried to force some yen1 into the taxi driver’s hand.

    我却愚蠢地试图强行把一些日元塞入出租车司机的手中。

    Why is tipping deemed essential in, for example, the US but judged to be merit-based and discretionary in Europe? Such cultural differences I once put down to local quirks3 or regulations.

    为什么在美国等一些国家小费被认为必不可少,而在欧洲却被认为可以视服务质量随意给的?我曾把这种文化上的差异归因于当地习俗或者监管规则。

    But a recent experience in the gig economy, which is trying to do away with tips altogether, has made me realise that those differences may be closely tied to how career-minded we expect our service workers to be.

    不过,最近在零工经济(这种经济模式正试图全面取消小费)领域的一段体验让我认识到,上述差异或许与我们对服务业员工敬业程度的期望密切相关。

    This year I spent time working for Deliveroo, a UK food courier service, for research into a story I was writing for the Financial Times.

    我今年在英国一家名为Deliveroo的送餐服务公司工作过一段时间,为了做一些研究用于撰写打算发表在英国《金融时报》上的一篇文章。

    I wanted to figure out how responsive workers needed to be to earn lucrative4 surge rates, where workers are paid more when demand increases.

    我想知道的是,员工需要多积极才能赚到高峰工资(surge rates,需求大幅上升时员工报酬也升高)?

    Because surge rate periods cannot be predicted, workers must be on call all the time.

    由于这种高峰工资时期无法预测,员工必须一直处于待命状态。

    I also wanted to see if it would be possible in the gig economy to earn more than the minimum national wage of £7.20 per hour, as companies such as Deliveroo and Uber often claim.

    我还想知道,在零工经济中,有没有可能像Deliveroo和优步(Uber)等公司时常声称的那样,赚得超过全国最低工资标准(每小时7.2英镑)。

    I discovered that surge rate periods were too few to supplement the basic rates.

    我发现能够赚取高峰工资的时候很少,不足以对基本工资构成补充。

    Meanwhile, the one element of a low-paid service job that had traditionally compensated5 for low rates — a tip for a job well done — had largely been done away with.

    同时,在低薪服务业岗位,传统上对低工资起补偿作用的一个因素——干得好有小费——基本上被取消了。

    In their effort to end the necessity for cash and create the perfect, frictionless6 experience, app developers for Deliveroo and others like it had dehumanised the transaction to such a degree that tips had become inconveniences.

    为了终结现金必要性、创造完美无摩擦的体验,Deliveroo及类似企业的应用开发人员把交易过程变得十分不人性化,从而让支付小费变得很不方便。

    Uber even encourages riders not to tip drivers.

    优步甚至鼓励乘客不要给司机小费。

    To maximise earning potential, gig economy workers often become jacks7 of all trades, signed up to as many different task apps as possible to capture surge rate opportunities as best they can.

    为了把盈利潜力最大化,零工经济的员工往往会成为多面手,他们会尽可能多地登录不同的任务应用,以便尽最大可能抓住赚取高峰工资的机会。

    Yet when they do so, they undermine their own economies of scale.

    然而,当他们这么做的时候,他们会削弱自身的规模经济效应。

    From the need to invest in multiple tools and equipment to the burden of having to turn your hand from one trade to the next, multitasking introduces new costs.

    从需要投资于多种工具和设备,到从一单交易转到另一单交易带来的负担,多任务同时进行会带来新的成本。

    What the gig economy really does is undercut seasoned service workers who have learnt through experience that it makes sense to smooth prices across low and high peak periods for the sake of professionalism.

    零工经济实际上让服务业熟练员工降低了身价,他们从自身经验中明白了一点,从专业化角度来讲,让低峰期价格和高峰期价格保持平稳是有意义的。

    It has replaced them with amateurs with no capacity to plan ahead — and little time to hustle8 for compensatory tips.

    零工经济却用没有能力提前计划、也没有时间去争取补偿性小费的生手代替了这些熟练员工。

    In the US, waiting staff depend on the discretionary kindness of strangers to make a living wage.

    在美国,侍应生要靠陌生人酌情给予的善意赚取生活费。

    Some might say that leads to better and more responsive service workers.

    有的人也许会说,这会提高服务业员工的素质和积极性。

    In continental9 Europe the service cost is always included in the bill.

    而在欧洲大陆,服务成本始终包括在账单里。

    Yes, critics could argue that is why France has so many shoddy and obnoxious10 waiters.

    没错,批评人士可能会说,这正是法国为什么有这么多差劲而讨厌的服务生的原因。

    Incentives11 matter — and French waiters do not have any.

    激励机制十分重要,法国却没有针对服务生的激励机制。

    But it is also true that in France, service work is considered a legitimate12 and respectable career choice for everyone — not just students, migrants or casual workers.

    不过,在法国,服务业工作被视为合法、受人尊重的职业,适合每个人——而不只是学生、外来移民或兼职员工。

    In the gig economy, where workers struggle to make the minimum wage but cannot rely on a cash exchange to generate a tip-giving opportunity, the discretionary system just does not cut it.

    在零工经济中,员工很难赚到最低标准的薪资,又不能指望从现金交易中得到收小费的机会,自愿给小费机制完全不适用。

    The traditional US restaurant industry bypasses regulation because of a local quirk2: no one dares not to tip a minimum 20 per cent of the bill.

    美国传统餐饮行业在这方面无需监管,是源自当地风俗习惯:没人好意思不支付最少为账单20%的小费。

    This amounts to a culture of respecting the true cost of professional service.

    这实际上是一种尊重专业服务真实成本的文化。

    The digital economy will have to develop the same culture if it is to avoid intervention13 by regulators.

    如果数字化经济要避免监管机构的干预,就必须发展出同样的文化。

    If not, the career waiter or waitress will be consigned14 to history.

    如果不能做到这一点,全职服务生将会成为历史。

    That would unleash15 a bitter race to the bottom, undermining all our living standards.

    这会引发竞次(race to the bottom)现象,从而降低我们所有人的生活水准。

     9级    双语 


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    1 yen [jen] JfSwN   第11级
    n. 日元;热望
    参考例句:
    • He wanted to convert his dollars into Japanese yen. 他想将美元换成日币。
    • He has a yen to be alone in a boat. 他渴望独自呆在一条船上。
    2 quirk [kwɜ:k] 00KzV   第10级
    n.奇事,巧合;古怪的举动
    参考例句:
    • He had a strange quirk of addressing his wife as Mrs Smith. 他很怪,把自己的妻子称作史密斯夫人。
    • The most annoying quirk of his is wearing a cap all the time. 他最令人感到厌恶的怪癖就是无论何时都戴著帽子。
    3 quirks [kwɜ:ks] 45fdbe6cf154fe3b8bcba6cba262afa0   第10级
    n.奇事,巧合( quirk的名词复数 );怪癖
    参考例句:
    • One of his quirks is that he refuses to travel by train. 他的怪癖之一是不愿乘火车旅行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
    • All men have their own quirks and twists. 人人都有他们自己的怪癖和奇想。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
    4 lucrative [ˈlu:krətɪv] dADxp   第7级
    adj.赚钱的,可获利的
    参考例句:
    • He decided to turn his hobby into a lucrative sideline. 他决定把自己的爱好变成赚钱的副业。
    • It was not a lucrative profession. 那是一个没有多少油水的职业。
    5 compensated [ˈkɔmpenseitid] 0b0382816fac7dbf94df37906582be8f   第7级
    补偿,报酬( compensate的过去式和过去分词 ); 给(某人)赔偿(或赔款)
    参考例句:
    • The marvelous acting compensated for the play's weak script. 本剧的精彩表演弥补了剧本的不足。
    • I compensated his loss with money. 我赔偿他经济损失。
    6 frictionless [f'rɪkʃnles] tiTxY   第7级
    adj.没有摩擦力的
    参考例句:
    • The suspension of the mirrors must be very frictionless, but strongly damped. 反射镜的悬挂既要无摩擦,但又要有强阻尼。
    • There is a frictionless hinge at C. C点是无摩擦铰。
    7 jacks [dʒæks] 2b0facb0ce94beb5f627e3c22cc18d34   第7级
    n.抓子游戏;千斤顶( jack的名词复数 );(电)插孔;[电子学]插座;放弃
    参考例句:
    • Hydraulic jacks under the machine produce the movement. 是机器下面的液压千斤顶造成的移动。 来自《简明英汉词典》
    • The front end is equipped with hydraulic jacks used for grade adjustment. 前瑞安装有液压千斤顶用来调整坡度。 来自辞典例句
    8 hustle [ˈhʌsl] McSzv   第9级
    vt.推搡;竭力兜售或获取;催促;vi.赶紧;硬挤过去;拼命挣钱;n.奔忙(碌)
    参考例句:
    • It seems that he enjoys the hustle and bustle of life in the big city. 看起来他似乎很喜欢大城市的热闹繁忙的生活。
    • I had to hustle through the crowded street. 我不得不挤过拥挤的街道。
    9 continental [ˌkɒntɪˈnentl] Zazyk   第8级
    adj.大陆的,大陆性的,欧洲大陆的
    参考例句:
    • A continental climate is different from an insular one. 大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
    • The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old. 大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。
    10 obnoxious [əbˈnɒkʃəs] t5dzG   第9级
    adj.极恼人的,讨人厌的,可憎的
    参考例句:
    • These fires produce really obnoxious fumes and smoke. 这些火炉冒出来的烟气确实很难闻。
    • He is the most obnoxious man I know. 他是我认识的最可憎的人。
    11 incentives [ɪn'sentɪvz] 884481806a10ef3017726acf079e8fa7   第7级
    激励某人做某事的事物( incentive的名词复数 ); 刺激; 诱因; 动机
    参考例句:
    • tax incentives to encourage savings 鼓励储蓄的税收措施
    • Furthermore, subsidies provide incentives only for investments in equipment. 更有甚者,提供津贴仅是为鼓励增添设备的投资。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
    12 legitimate [lɪˈdʒɪtɪmət] L9ZzJ   第8级
    adj.合法的,合理的,合乎逻辑的;v.使合法
    参考例句:
    • Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave. 生病是请假的一个正当的理由。
    • That's a perfectly legitimate fear. 怀有这种恐惧完全在情理之中。
    13 intervention [ˌɪntə'venʃn] e5sxZ   第7级
    n.介入,干涉,干预
    参考例句:
    • The government's intervention in this dispute will not help. 政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
    • Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention. 许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。
    14 consigned [kənˈsaɪnd] 9dc22c154336e2c50aa2b71897ceceed   第8级
    v.把…置于(令人不快的境地)( consign的过去式和过去分词 );把…托付给;把…托人代售;丟弃
    参考例句:
    • I consigned her letter to the waste basket. 我把她的信丢进了废纸篓。
    • The father consigned the child to his sister's care. 那位父亲把孩子托付给他妹妹照看。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
    15 unleash [ʌnˈli:ʃ] bjewz   第7级
    vt.发泄,发出;解带子放开
    参考例句:
    • They hope to create allies to unleash against diseases, pests, and invasive species. 他们希望创造出一些新群体来对付疾病、害虫和一些有侵害性的物种。
    • We need to unleash the pent up capital and creativity. 我们需要释放被压抑的资本和创造力。

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