我電腦屏幕的桌面背景是鮮綠色，上面排著七張色彩鮮艷的紙牌。我用鼠標把紅心6拉到黑桃7上面。我現在所做的，你或許也做過。玩這種游戲是辦公室的大忌，僅次于訪問色情網站。但我在照玩不誤。

The background of my screen is a vivid green. Seven bright cards are lined up across it. With my mouse I drag the six of hearts on to the seven of spades. I am doing the most taboo thing that you can do in the office, after visiting porn sites on the internet. I am blatantly playing solitaire.

    我是全英國最浪費時間的人之一，我還是辦公室中無所事事者的典范。但到目前為止，我還沒有在上班的時候玩過紙牌游戲。在家的時候玩過。但是一到辦公室，就沒這個膽子了。

In spite of being one of the nation's leading time-wasters, with acknowledged specialism in office idleness, I have never, until this week, played card games on my computer at work. At home, yes. But in the office, I never dared.

    上班時候哪種浪費時間行為最體面?人們心中有個座次排位，電腦游戲位居末列。各種浪費時間的行為都是一分一秒地吞噬時間，似乎沒有什么區別，而雇主卻不這么看。所幸的是，我的愛好是聊天，這是人們認為的最為體面的浪費時間之舉。嚴格的說，聊天從浪費上來說，浪費的是兩倍時間，不僅把自己時間耗掉了，還耽誤了對方的時間。

There is a peckingsgroupsin the respectability of time-wasting activities at work, and computer games are at the bottom of it. Minute for minute, all time-wasting eats up the same amount of time, but employers tend not to see it like that. Luckily for me, the activity I like the best is the most respectable. It is chatting. Strictly speaking, this is twice as wasteful, as you are not just squandering your own time but also that of the person you are talking to.

    但是，很多現代企業不僅僅容忍聊天，甚至積極鼓勵。據說聊天有傳播知識，激發思維，產生創意之功效。我很高興他們這樣看，但是我一直鬧不明白，“昨天晚上誰看了《名人換妻游戲》節目了？”這樣的問題和創意有何相干。

However, most modern organisations do not merely tolerate chatting but actively encourage it. Chatting supposedly spreads knowledge and increases the buzz that is meant to lead to creativity. I am glad they see it like this, though the link between creativity and asking "Did anyone see Celebrity Wife Swap last night?" has never been clear to me.

    排在聊天之后的是經常去售貨機和廁所。企業一般還不能對此有反對意見。去這些地方，路上未免會遇到些人，于是又要聊上一番。

Next to chatting come frequent visits to the vending machine and the loo. Companies generally do not or cannot object to this. You meet people on the way and then chat some more.

    再接下來的是網上購物，或是通過Google搜索研究疑難病癥。有些公司禁止此類行為，但是大多數公司則或多或少地容忍它的存在。

Further down the peckingsgroupsare shopping on the internet and researching obscure medical conditions on Google. Some organisations outlaw this sort of thing but most tolerate it, more or less.

    在電腦上玩牌則大不一樣了。首先，那鮮綠色的背景很是顯眼。剛才我正玩著空當接龍，就有一位臨時秘書送郵件過來。我心里頓時涌出一陣內疚感。坐在這里玩游戲，說明我是個閑人，明目張膽地閑著，無所顧忌地閑著，真應該在我腦門上印上這樣的字樣：“我無聊，我怠工，我在白占著這位子。炒了我吧�！�

Playing cards on your computer is another thing altogether. For a start, the bright green makes it highly visible. Just now I was playing solitaire and a new temporary secretary brought me my mail. I felt a brief stab of guilt. By sitting playing games, I was so ostentatiously, outrageously idle I might as well have had a big sign on my head saying: "I'm bored. I'm shirking. I'm a waste of space. Fire me."

    我懷疑這辦公樓里上班玩牌的還有不少人，由于大部分人面對出口坐，所以大家也看不到他們在干什么。我發郵件問誰在電腦上打過牌，并許諾絕對保密，但是只有三個人回復。其中一個說他過去打過，但現在不玩了。另外兩個承認在家里打過，坐地鐵的時候用掌上電腦玩過。我看我要是問誰打老婆，估計也不會像這樣應者寥寥。

I suspect there are many people in this building who play cards at work; most have desks that do not facesintosthe room so people cannot see what they are doing. Yet when I sent out a message to all my colleagues asking for computer card players to come forward in the strictest confidence and talk to me about their habit, only three people responded. One had played in the past, but didn't any more. Two others admitted to playing at home or on their Palm Pilots on the Tube. If I had asked how many people beat their wives I would not have got a much more muted response.

    但是我發現，上班時玩空當接龍者不必感到羞恥。玩些無傷大雅的小游戲或許還有助于工作。

Yet I now find that there is no reason to be ashamed of playing solitaire at work. Spending time playing these harmless little games may even be good for your work.

    最近，Utrecht大學的杰弗瑞•哥爾斯坦（Jeffrey Goldstein）針對荷蘭一家保險公司的60人開展了一項實驗。這60人中一半獲準每天用一小時玩空當接龍或者挖地雷等基本的電腦游戲。實驗的另一半人則不準玩。大家猜一下結果如何？玩游戲的那一半人更快樂，效率也更高。

Jeffrey Goldstein of Utrecht University has just conducted an experiment on 60 people in a Dutch insurance company. Half of them were allowed an hour a day to play basic computer games such as Solitaire and Minesweeper. The other half were not. And guess what? The half who played the games were happier and more productive.

    如果這一結論正確的話，其意義很重要。用這個方法，可以讓員工更愉快，又不需要另撥開支，不需要改變企業文化，不需要開展管理創新，什么都不需要。

If this is true, it is quite important. Here is a way of making people feel better that involves no expenditure, no culture change, no managerial initiative, no nothing.

    因此，企業似乎不應該拿掉個人電腦中的游戲，也不需要發送讓人不快的備忘錄，而是放手讓大家去玩，然后等著士氣的高漲。

Instead of taking games off personal computers and sending round beastly memos, it seems companies should allow everyone to play these games, and watch morale climb.

    到此為止，哥爾斯坦教授的實驗結果都合情合理。好的游戲能舒緩身心，因為它需要投入一定的思考。在玩游戲的時候，大腦能處在一種欣喜而又空白的狀態。如果工作既緊張又乏味，借這種游戲逃避現實也無可厚非，它能讓人的大腦得到片刻休息后，更加清爽。

Up to a point, Prof Goldstein's results make sense. A good game is soothing because it requires just the right amount of mental activity. While you play, the rest of your mind can be a blissful blank. If you do a boring job or a stressful one, such escapism is a fine thing: a mental break from which you return feeling refreshed.

    我發現，和人打電話的時候玩游戲也很不錯。打電話時玩這些游戲遠不像打字那樣顯得粗魯，因為電話那一頭很難聽到鼠標移 動的聲音。

I have found it is also good to play games when you are talking to someone on the phone. It is far less rude than typing, as the mouse noise is not so obvious to the person on the other end.

    但是問題的關鍵在于這些游戲玩起來上癮。那些接受實驗的荷蘭職員一天能愉快的玩一個小時，看來一定很節制。而我一回家，就不那么節制了。我和自己約法三章：每寫150字我就去打一輪游戲。但是沒打出高分，我就再玩一輪，然后又是一輪，又是一輪。

The catch is that these card games are addictive. The Dutch workers must have been an unusually moderate bunch to be able to stick happily to an hour a day. I am less moderate: at home I play obsessively when I should be working. I start by making a deal with myself that after every 150 words I am allowed ONE game. But then the game does not go well, and I play another and another and another and another.

    看來我已經跨出了玩家的范疇，成了癮君子，這有兩個跡象可以說明。首先，如果我在家玩，孩子一回到家的時候，我就立馬把游戲關掉。試圖向家人隱瞞這種壞習慣，真沒出息。更糟糕的是，這壞習慣傷害你的手和手腕關節。要是打空當接龍打出了肢體重復性勞損，那可就再可悲不過了。

Two things tell me I have crossed the line from being a user to being an abuser. The first is that if I am working at home and one of my children comessintosthe room, I quickly shut the game down. To hide such a bad habit from one's family is pathetic. Still worse is what it does to your hand and wrist. To get RSI from playing solitaire would be the most tragic thing imaginable.

    從手腕考慮，也從內心考慮，我都鼓勵所有公司不要理睬Utrecht的研究成果。電腦游戲還應該列為禁區。

From the wrist, as well as from the heart, I urge all companies to take no notice of the Utrecht findings. Computer games should remain taboo.

    上周花了些時間“研究”在公司電腦上打游戲之后，我受“益”匪淺。非但一如既往地癡迷于空當接龍，還開始挖起地雷，并加入紅心大戰來。

In spending some of last week "researching" card games on my office computer, I have done myself no favours. I am not only as addicted to solitaire as ever, but also am in the early stages of a new relationship with Minesweeper and FreeCell.

    哥爾斯坦還在一家老人院開展了一項類似的實驗，發現玩電腦游戲能振奮精神。這想法很讓人覺得安慰，也給了我一個啟發。我準備現在把玩這個游戲的惡習戒了，等過了三四十年，發現世上其它浪費時間的方式都不太好使了，我再把這個習慣撿起來，另外還有抽煙。

Prof Goldstein has conducted a similar experiment in an old people's home, swhereshe also found that playing computer games raised morale. This thought is comforting, and gives me an idea. I am going to kick the habit now and take it up again, along with smoking, in three or four decades when other opportunities for wasting time are thinner on the ground.

    譯者/柏林

lucy.kellaway@ft.com