The Work/Life Paradox

 Work is essential to people for obvious reasons. If you don’t earn money, you can’t pay for a place to stay or food to eat. So I can see why many people put a lot of importance on getting and maintaining a job.

However, there is a hidden cost to having a job. It takes up a lot of your time. This is time you could be spending with friends, family, hobbies or any number of other free-time activities. This isn’t really anything new. But if you look closer at your work/home life in relation to the money you make and the time you take doing it, an interesting paradox comes up.

　　然而,，有工作的人有一項(xiàng)隱性開銷——它占用了你大把大把的時(shí)間。這些時(shí)間你本可以用來和家人朋友在一起,、花在你的愛好或是其它什么閑時(shí)做的事情上,，這確實(shí)沒什么新鮮的。但是如果你審視一下自己“公司和家”兩點(diǎn)一線的生活狀態(tài)和你得到多少薪水及所花多少時(shí)間之間的關(guān)系,，你就是發(fā)現(xiàn)一個(gè)有趣的悖論,。     

Time and the Work/Life Paradox

  

時(shí)間與工作生活的悖論

If you have a low to middle-income paying job, it really doesn’t take much money to maintain a place to stay, put food on the table and have some minor entertainment on the side. But on this pay scale, you’ll have to sacrifice any luxury and make-do with the bare minimum. It’s a meager existence, but it can still work.

　　如果你有一個(gè)中低等收入的工作，住房方面的開銷其實(shí)不是很大,，把食物擺上餐桌后還能再來點(diǎn)兒娛樂項(xiàng)目,。但在這個(gè)薪級(jí)，你就不得不放棄一切奢侈的享受,，什么都得湊合著來,。收入的多少是有些微不足道，但也過得去,。  

In order to increase your lifestyle, you have to put in either more hours or get a higher paying job. This seems straight forward. Work more hours if you can at your existing job or get an additional one. If you want better pay, you will need to apply for a different position or go to school to get your credentials for that higher paying job.

　　為了提高生活質(zhì)量,，你要么需要在工作上花更多的時(shí)間，要么找份待遇更好的工作,，這道理似乎很直白。在現(xiàn)有的工作上加班加點(diǎn)或者再找一份兼職工作,，要是想拿高點(diǎn)兒的薪水,，就需要去申請(qǐng)另一個(gè)不同的職位，或者為達(dá)到那個(gè)更高薪水的職位的要求，回到學(xué)校去拿文憑,。  

However, that requires some sacrifice. In order to do this, you need to give up the time you put into your home life and put more of it to your work life. Working additional hours, getting another job or going back to school all take additional time away from your home life.

　　然而,，那樣也得做出犧牲。為了做這些,，你就得把用在生活的時(shí)間用在工作上,。加班加點(diǎn)、做兼職或是重返校園這些都會(huì)奪去你用在生活上的時(shí)間,。

And it doesn’t necessarily end once you get that higher paying job or you graduate from school. Many higher paying jobs require 50-60 hour weeks. This could be 10-20 hours more than you were putting into your low to middle-income level job. This means you are permanently taking time away from your home life and putting it into your work life.

　　但即便在有了待遇更好的工作或是從學(xué)校畢業(yè)之后這種情況也沒有結(jié)束,。許多待遇好的工作要求每周工作50到60個(gè)小時(shí)，比之前中低收入的工作多出了10到20個(gè)小時(shí),。這意味著你總是要把時(shí)間從生活劃到工作中去,。  

The Role of Money

金錢的角色 

The perverse aspect of this paradox comes when we look at it through time and money. When you have a low to middle-income paying job, you will have more free time. However, since you put so much of that money towards rent and food, you don’t have much left over to pay for anything more than cheap entertainment.

　　當(dāng)從時(shí)間和金錢角度去看時(shí)，這個(gè)悖論不利的一面就會(huì)顯現(xiàn)出來,。當(dāng)有一份中低收入的工作時(shí),，你有的時(shí)間就更多。當(dāng)把大部分錢都用在房租和食物上,，節(jié)余也就僅夠一些花費(fèi)少的娛樂了,。  

When you have that higher paying job, you’ll have much more money left over at the end of each month. However, because you are working so many more hours, you have very little time to actually spend that money on anything you want to. In the end, all those hours will tire you out so that you don’t want to do anything really. And you may just end up spending your money accumulating more things because you don’t have the time to spend your money on experiences.

   　　當(dāng)有一份收入更好的工作時(shí)，每月的節(jié)余會(huì)大大增加,，但因?yàn)橐ぷ鬟@么長(zhǎng)時(shí)間,，你就僅有一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)時(shí)間去買想要的東西。到最后長(zhǎng)時(shí)間的工作會(huì)把你累垮,，讓你什么都不想做,。最終會(huì)買回來的東西越來越多，因?yàn)槟銢]有時(shí)間自己去體驗(yàn)什么 ,。

In both situations, the vast majority of people end up in front of their television sets wishing they had what the other person has. The low to middle-income person wishes they had all the extra money the higher paid person has. The higher income person wishes they the time off that the low to middle-income person has.

　　在這兩種情況下,，絕大多數(shù)人都會(huì)坐在電視機(jī)前，夢(mèng)想他們也能有別人有的東西——中低收入人群夢(mèng)想能夠擁有高收入人群的額外收入,，而高收入人群卻想著能夠有中低收入人群大把悠閑的時(shí)光,。  

How to Overcome the Paradox

  

如何打破悖論

Finding a way around this paradox can be difficult. As your pay increases, the time you spend at work also tends to increase. So you either have to settle with lower pay and more free time or higher pay and no free time at all.

　　想要找到一個(gè)能避開悖論的方法會(huì)很難。隨著收入的增長(zhǎng),，你花在工作上面的時(shí)間也會(huì)跟著增加,。所以要么就老老實(shí)實(shí)拿低薪水，要么就拿高薪水,，犧牲你的休息時(shí)間,。

But you can find some alternatives if you look hard enough. Of course, there are some people who don’t care that they have to work longer hours so long as they get that extra pay. That’s certainly fine if you are happy with that. But in general, I think most people would like to have good pay with more time off.

　　但是要是夠仔細(xì)的話，你就能發(fā)現(xiàn)一些選擇的余地,。當(dāng)然有的人不在乎去工作更長(zhǎng)時(shí)間,，只要能拿高薪水就可以,。要是本人愿意這樣的話，這未嘗不可,；但是總得來說我想大多數(shù)人都樂意有更高的薪水和更長(zhǎng)的休息時(shí)間,。  

Researching jobs before you enter them will give you a great idea of the work/home life balance you can expect. For example, doctors and lawyers notoriously have larger pays, but extremely long days. However, many nurses can be paid really well but work shorter hours than the traditional 40 hour work week.

　研究成果會(huì)讓你對(duì)工作與生活的平衡有一個(gè)極好的認(rèn)識(shí)：比如，醫(yī)生和律師都有他們令人發(fā)指的高收入,，可他們要工作很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間,。然而許多護(hù)士們收入不菲，工作時(shí)間卻短于一般的每周40個(gè)小時(shí),。     

Looking for employment with good pay and ample free time can have an additional difficulty. In order to be happy at work, you must find something that you enjoy doing. This might narrow down your choices considerably. But taking the time to find the right job might be worth it to actually have both the money and the time to do more things you want.

　想要找一份薪水多同時(shí)休息時(shí)間還長(zhǎng)的工作還存在另一個(gè)困難,。為了工作得開心，你就必須找一些自己樂于做的事情,，這就大大縮小了選擇范圍,。但如果能夠同時(shí)擁有更多金錢和時(shí)間去做想做的事情，花些時(shí)間去找一份這樣的工作也是值得的,。

If having a good work/home life balance is important to you, you need to be aware of this paradox. If you don’t make yourself aware of this phenomenon, you could either get stuck at a low or high paying job that leaves you with little more to do than watch television during your free time.

　如果找到工作生活的平衡點(diǎn)對(duì)你來說很重要,，那你就需要更加注意這一悖論。如果還沒有注意到這一現(xiàn)象,，那你可能會(huì)被中低收入的工作困住,，休息時(shí)間里除了看電視什么也做不了。