Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home

　　如果你一直認為，自己在疫情爆發期間，曾經體驗過「居家工作」這一辦公模式，本書的兩位作者要告訴你，事實可能不是這樣。
 
　　《集體倦怠》作者安妮．海倫．彼得森，與曾獲2019年Mirror Award新聞報導獎、曾長期為BuzzFeed撰寫科技文章的的查理．瓦佐，早在疫情來臨前的2017年，便親身嘗試居家辦公的工作模式。
 
　　這個模式在想像上，擁有各種好處：省下通勤時間，甚至可以選擇住在任何城市，不需要將與公司的距離納入考慮，擁有更多時間和處理私人事務的彈性......無論從員工或公司(節省開銷)的角度來說，似乎都是雙贏的選擇。
 
　　然而事實是(或許你也已經親身發現了)，原本能將員工從固定工時與辦公場所解放出來的模式，未能達成目的，反而讓工作大舉入侵私人生活領域，破壞了工作與生活間的平衡。
 
　　這種嶄新的工作模式，難道只是另一種私人生活被工作佔領的悲慘型態？或者，真正充滿願景的遠距辦公模式，其實可以、也應該是另一種樣貌？
 
　　長久以來，人們不斷討論如何讓工作方式更有彈性，如今，我們正站在實現這一目標的轉折點，作者認為，一個真正讓所有人共贏的工作模式是有可能被建立的，要做到這件事，就必須要重新思考我們與工作的關係。
 
　　本書從四個核心概念──彈性、企業文化、科技工具、群體，來探討遠距工作模式面臨的問題與改變的方向，企圖為所有期望打造更平衡、更快樂、更有創造力的工作方式的人們，提供一份全面而深入的指引，並引導讀者進一步看見這場變革，可能為整體社會帶來的正向改變。

　　(文/博客來編譯)

　　The future isn’t about where we will work, but how. For years we have struggled to balance work and life, with most of us feeling overwhelmed and burned out because our relationship to work is broken. This “isn't just a book about remote work. It's a book that helps us imagine a future where our lives—at the office and home—are happier, more productive, and genuinely meaningful” (Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of The Power of Habit).

　　If you think you’ve been working from home recently, Charlie Warzel and Anne Helen Petersen are here to tell you otherwise. What we’ve been doing is something else entirely, a jury-rigged compromise made under the duress of a national crisis that’s satisfactory for neither the worker nor the employer. For Warzel and Petersen, the past year has revealed that there may be another path forward for work, one that doesn’t involve hellish daily commutes and the demands of jam-packed work schedules that no longer make sense. As a society, we have talked for decades about flexible work arrangements. In this book, the authors make clear that we are at an inflection point where this becomes possible for many companies and their employees.
 
　　Out of Office combines groundbreaking reporting and the couple’s own experiences after they made the decision to leave their desk jobs in New York City for Montana. They describe how workers and employers across America, and around the world, are finding new ways of working that make people happier and more productive, and make companies more profitable. This is a book that aims to reshape our entire relationship to the office.