VOA慢速英语2016 铺天盖地的邮件是否会让你"压力山大"

Is Email Stressing You Out? 铺天盖地的邮件是否会让你"压力山大"

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

这里是VOA慢速英语健康生活频道。

Few people would disagree that email makes our lives easier. But misusing 1 email can cause problems. And I’m not talking about hitting the “reply all” button when you didn’t mean to.

毫无疑问，邮件让我们的生活变得更加便利。但是邮件过多也会造成很多困扰。我指的可不是你不小心点了“统一回复”。

Answering all those emails and processing all that information can overload 2 the brain, causing stress.

回复所有邮件，并对所有信息进行处理加重了大脑负荷，因而产生压力。

So says the Future Work Centre, a business based in London. This company carries out psychological research on people's experiences in their workplaces.

总部位于纽约的“未来工作中心”解释道。这家公司根据人们在工作时的经历进行心理研究。

The centre’s Richard MacKinnon was the lead writer of a report on messaging habits. He calls email a double-edged sword. In other words, email can be both good and bad. Americans also use the saying cuts both ways for something like a double-edged sword.

Richard MacKinnon是该公司研究“信息传递习惯”的主要作者。他将邮件比作双刃剑。换言之，邮件带来的影响是双面的。美国人还会用cuts both ways这一说法表达事物各有利弊。

But back to the culture of emailing.

再来说说邮件文化。

Emails provide a useful way to communicate. But they could add to tension in the mind, causing stress.

邮件为我们提供了一种有效的交流方式。同时邮件会造成精神上的紧张，产生压力。

Come rain or shine, some office workers are under pressure to read and answer emails all day long.

有的员工整天都是在巨大压力下风雨无阻地阅读并回复邮件。

Jonathan Rowe has an office job in London. His complaint is a common one: too many emails. He says reading work emails when you’re at home blurs 4 the boundaries between work and leisure.

Jonathan Rowe在伦敦一家公司做文员。他也有相同的困扰：邮件太多了。他表示在家回复邮件时，已分不清工作和生活了。

"Just general day-to-day pressure to be available all the time, to answer emails all the time, to perhaps eat into people's leisure time and blur 3 the boundaries between work and leisure…"

“每时每刻都处于压力状态下，无时不刻地回复邮件，人们的空闲时间被侵蚀，已经分不清工作和空闲的界限了。”

Psychologists are concerned about the pressure that workers bring on themselves. Dr. Richard MacKinnon spoke 5 with VOA News on Skype.

心理学家称可能是员工自己施加的压力。Richard MacKinnon通过Skype告诉VOA新闻记者。

He says that email can be a valuable, time-saving communication tool. But it can also be a source of stress and even anger for many of us.

他说邮件无疑是一种重要的省时工具。但也是大多数人压力或愤怒的来源。

He adds that the stress does not come from the number of emails you get. The problems result from when and how you deal with them.

他还补充道，压力并非来自邮件的数量。而是你什么时间以及如何处理这些邮件。

According to the study, there are two very stressful email behaviors. One is leaving email on all day – and never signing off. The other is reading and answering emails early in the day and late at night.

研究显示，两种回复邮件的习惯会造成巨大压力。一种是电子邮件一直在线，从不下线。一种是清早和深夜阅读并回复邮件。

"Checking your email very early in the morning, or checking it late at night, or leaving your email on all day, that has a much stronger relationship with email pressure. So it's not necessarily about how many emails we receive..."

“大清早或深夜查看邮件，或者整天都登陆着电子邮件，这些习惯会使你的压力越来越大。所以压力与我们收到邮件的多少并没有直接联系。”

Which jobs are most affected 6 by email stress?

But not all jobs are equally stressed by email. The jobs most affected by email stress are:

marketing 7,

public relations,

media and

Information Technology

然而，并非所有工作的邮件带给人压力。最易受邮件压力影响的工作有：市场，公关，媒体和信息科技。

Educational experts have also written several reports on how email overloads 8 are stressing out teachers.

教育专家已发表了很多关于邮件给教师带来巨大压力的报告。

Ways to cut down on your email stress

MacKinnon says bad email behaviors are linked to higher levels of stress in office workers. The Future Work Centre report gives several suggestions on avoiding email stress.

MacKinnon表示不良的邮件习惯与上班族压力过大之间有一定的联系。“未来工作中心”的报告中给出了一些避免邮件压力的建议。

Use email with a plan. Do not just react to endless email alerts 9. If you use an email application, or app, on your device, close it down when you want to be left alone.

有计划的使用邮箱。不要只是机械地回应无休止的邮件。如果手机上安装有邮箱应用，你想一个人静静时就直接关掉。

Use your “Out of Office” reply more often.

经常使用“不在办公室”这种自动回复。

If you need to communicate with a co-worker, call or better still walk to their office and talk about it. Be careful with the “reply all” option. For example, if you are accepting an invitation to attend training, just write back to those who need to know. Trust me. Other workers on that mailing list will thank you.

如果你需要与同事交流，直接打电话给他们，或者去办公室和他们直接交谈。谨慎使用“统一回复”这一选项。例如，你收到了培训邀请，只需回复给需要知道的人。相信我，邮件上的其他好友会对你感激不尽的。

And accept the fact that if a matter is urgent employers will call you about it. The Future Work Centre report claims that in 2014, people sent an estimated 196.3 billion emails. The average adult spent more than an hour a day answering emails. 

如果有紧急事件，老板一定会打电话告知你。“未来工作重心”的报告称，2014年人们发送的邮件数量高达1963亿。也就是说平均每人每天会花费一小时来回复邮件。

Email is certainly not going anywhere. So, it is important to control your emails and not the other way around.

邮件还能跑哪去。关键是你要掌控邮件，而不是让邮件控制你。

Words in This Story

stress – n. a state of mental tension and worry caused by day-to-day problems

double-edged sword – idiomatic 10 expression something that has both good and bad parts or results

cuts both ways – idiomatic expression to have a mixed effect.

day-to-day – idiomatic expression happening every day

eat into – idiomatic expression to use or take away a large part of something valuable, such as money or time

come rain or shine – idiomatic expression no matter whether it rains or the sun shines; in any sort of conditions

complaint – n. the act of saying or writing that you are unhappy or dissatisfied with something

blur – v. make or become unclear; often used in the expression to blur the boundaries between two things

leisure – n. time when you are not working; time when you can do whatever you want to do