別爲難員工 睡眠與生產力密切相關

Do you want to be more productive at work? Make sure you sleep at least seven hours a night — but smoke and drink as much as you want.

你想在工作中更富有效率嗎？那麼你要確保每晚至少睡夠7個小時——但是你可以盡情地抽菸和喝酒。

A study of more than 21,000 employees has found a strong connection between lack of sleep and lower productivity at work. But, to the researchers’ surprise, smoking and alcohol consumption seem to make no difference.

一項對超過2.1萬名員工所做的研究發現，缺少睡眠與工作效率低下有着很強的關聯。但是，令研究員意外的是，抽菸和飲酒似乎沒有影響。

Vitality Health, a UK health and life insurance company, commissioned research organisation Rand Europe and the University of Cambridge to study factors that affect workers’ productivity. They used data taken from companies that took part in the insurer’s “Britain’s Healthiest Company” competition.

英國健康和人壽保險公司Vitality Health委託研究機構蘭德歐洲(Rand Europe)和劍橋大學(University of Cambridge)，對影響勞動者生產力的因素進行研究。它們使用的數據來自參加Vitality Health舉辦的“英國最健康公司”比賽的公司。

The researchers found that employees who slept for six hours or less a night were significantly less productive than those who slept for seven or eight. Eleven other factors were also correlated to productivity, defined as absenteeism or “presenteeism” — when people went to work but did not perform at their best. But the researchers noted that correlation did not necessarily mean causation.

研究員發現，每晚睡眠6個小時或更少的員工，工作效率明顯低於睡眠時間達到7或8個小時的員工。還有另外11個因素也與工作效率相關，被界定爲缺勤或“假性出勤”（指一個人雖然在上班但狀態不佳）。但研究員指出，這種相關性不一定代表因果關係。

Employees who were physically inactive, had financial worries, mental health problems or musculoskeletal problems all reported lower productivity, as did those who said they were bullied at work or were under unrealistic time pressures. But other factors did not seem to have any link with productivity, including smoking, alcohol consumption and severe obesity.

缺少鍛鍊、存在經濟煩惱、有心理健康問題或是肌肉骨骼問題的員工均報告他們的工作效率較低，那些自稱在工作中被欺凌或是承受不現實的時間壓力的員工同樣如此。但是，抽菸、飲酒和過度肥胖等其他因素與工作效率似乎並不存在關聯。

“It is something we discussed at length when we were going through the data, because we were quite surprised,” said Shaun Subel, Vitality Health’s director of strategy.

“這是我們在整理數據時詳細討論過的問題，因爲我們都相當驚訝，”Vitality Health策略主管肖恩•蘇貝(Shaun Subel)稱。

He said the study only measured short-term effects, while habits such as smoking and drinking could cause employees health problems in the longer-term, which would then have an impact on their work. “The data gives us a powerful new way to say to companies that you can almost set your objective: if you are targeting just short-term productivity effects, these are the most important drivers you should probably be looking at. If you are concerned about the long-term health of your employees, these are the drivers,” Mr Subel said. “Importantly you’ve got companies who want to do both.”

他稱，這項研究只衡量短期影響，而吸菸飲酒等習慣長期而言可能會引起員工的健康問題，這或將影響他們的工作。“這些數據給我們提供了一個有力的新方式來告訴公司，它們可以設定這樣的目標：如果只是想提高短期生產力，這些就是你可能應該關注的最重要的影響因素；如果公司關心員工的長期健康，那些就是影響因素，”蘇貝稱，“重要的是有很多公司想要兩者兼顧。”

In the US, where companies have large healthcare liabilities, there are significant financial reasons to want to improve workers’ health. Some companies are experimenting with wearable activity monitors for their employees to encourage them to exercise more.

在美國，公司對員工醫療負有較大責任，希望改善員工健康有着重要的經濟原因。目前有一些公司在員工身上試驗可穿戴活動監測器，以此鼓勵他們加強鍛鍊。

But the study did not find a relationship between an employer’s provision of health or wellness programmes and their employees’ productivity.

但是，上述研究並未發現僱主提供的員工健康計劃與員工生產力之間存在關聯。