三四十岁在科技公司就算“老骥伏枥”了？！

05 三四十岁在科技公司就算“老骥伏枥”了？！

你能否想象，在三四十岁的年纪，自己就成为周围同事眼中的“老人家”了？

这样的事就在硅谷的高科技企业中发生着，许多公司的雇员年龄中值只有不到30岁。

虽然年轻的雇员会让公司的氛围变得活跃、富有创造力，FT专栏作家露西·凯拉韦却直接告诉那些有“年龄歧视”的企业：不招大龄者进你的团队一点儿都不明智。

Tech companies in Silicon Valley are ageist.The median age of workers at Facebook and LinkedIn is 29.At Google it is all of 30.“Young people are just smarter,” as Mark Zuckerberg is supposed to have said.And even if they are not smarter, they are certainly cheaper.

硅谷的高科技企业都有年龄歧视。Facebook和LinkedIn的员工年龄中值是29岁，谷歌是30岁。“年轻人要更聪明”，据说马克·扎克伯格这样说过。而且就算他们没有更聪明，也肯定更便宜。

There are lots of stories of tragic people in their 40s and 50s buying hoodies and boning up on superheroes before they pound the virtual pavements in search of a job.Some eventually get hired, but most appear not to.It all reminds me of the things women have been doing for decades to try to fit into a male world — wearing trouser suits and taking up golf, only this time it is worse.San Francisco has become a hotspot for Botox, with tech workers in even their late 20s and 30s seeking to inject their faces with stuff that renders them expressionless, to fit in with their baby-faced colleagues.

有很多这样的故事：悲催的四五十岁的求职者，在应聘前跑去买帽衫和恶补超级英雄。有些人历尽周折后得到了聘用，但大多数人却似乎没能找到工作。这让我回想起女性为融入男人的世界几十年来所做过的努力——穿裤装，还有学打高尔夫球——只是这回情况更糟。旧金山现在已经成了一个肉毒杆菌盛行地，那儿的技术工作者们甚至在三十岁左右就试着往脸上打那些让他们面无表情的玩意，好让自己能够融入那些娃娃脸的同事们。

Yet there are bigger barriers to older people working in tech that no one is talking about and which no hoodie or syringe full of botulinum toxin will take care of.It has nothing to do with any prejudice that the over-40s are slow at mastering technology or that they lack entrepreneurial spirit.Instead, the barrier is the very thing that these companies are being praised for: their new organisational structure.

然而，对年纪较大的人来说，在科技公司工作有着更大的障碍，这些障碍无人提及，并且帽衫或充满肉毒杆菌的注射器也无济于事。这种障碍与超过四十岁的人掌握技术慢或缺乏创业精神的偏见没什么关系。而恰恰是这些公司被极力称赞的地方：新的组织架构。

I've been reading The Conversational Firm by Catherine Turco, a sociologist at MIT, who has spent months infiltrating “TechCo”, a rapidly growing software company in the US.It has chucked out the old ways of working and arranged itself on more open, unhierarchical lines.

我最近在看麻省理工学院(MIT)社会学家凯瑟琳·图尔科写的《会话公司》(The Conversational Firm)一书，凯瑟琳在美国一家飞速成长的软件公司“TechCo”呆了好几个月。这家公司抛弃了旧的工作方式，采用更开放的、打破等级制度的组织模式。

It is the product of a socially networked age, in which people communicate within companies in quite different ways.The result, says Ms Turco, is an organisation built around conversation.So far, so good: people my age are all in favour of conversation.Only not of this variety.

这是一个社交网络时代的产物，在这个时代，公司内部员工的沟通方式和以往大相径庭。其结果是，据图尔科女士称，一个基于对话构建起来的组织由此诞生。如此尚好：像我这个年纪的人们都喜欢对话。只不过不是这种形式的。

The book starts with a glowing description of Hack Night at TechCo.Hundreds of employees assemble in a hall at the company HQ; the evening begins with a call for anyone with an idea to tell the audience what it is.Then each idea is assigned to a part of the room, and as music is pumped up everyone moves around to discuss whichever idea appeals to them.There's beer, pizza and a lot of talk.It goes on for hours.At about 9pm, everyone goes home.

这本书一开头就生动地描绘了TechCo的夜话活动(Hack Night)。数百名员工聚在公司总部的一个礼堂：刚开场就号召所有人集思广益，讲讲自己有什么好的构想。接着征集上来的点子被收集到礼堂的一个区域，然后音乐响起，人们走来走去地互相讨论哪个点子比较吸引人。现场供应啤酒和披萨，大家高声阔论。活动持续几个钟头。大概到晚上9点，人们才散场回家。

At TechCo, they love Hack Night.But they would, because the median age of their 600 staff is 26.I view an evening like this with unmitigated horror.Not because I think it couldn't work, or that no fruitful discussion could ever result.It simply would not work with me as a part of it as I am at least two decades too old for it.

在TechCo，人人都爱Hack Night。而他们也应该爱，因为这家公司600名员工的中值年龄为26岁。而这样一个夜晚对我而言则恐怖至极。并不是因为我觉得它起不到什么作用，或是这样的讨论不会有什么成果。只是它对我来说行不通，部分原因在于，要适应它，我至少得再年轻二十岁。

TechCo calls it “controlled chaos”, but I am anti-chaos of any sort, on the grounds that it is chaotic and therefore a less efficient way of organising than something more structured.Worse, the very idea of Hack Night offends me because, like most people my age, I'm a cynic.Traditional organisations can tolerate moderate amounts of cynicism, but this new company functions only when everyone is a true believer.

TechCo将其称之为“掌控下的混乱”，但我反对任何形式的混乱，就因为它混乱所以和那些更规范的组织方式相比它效率低下。更糟的是，Hack Night这个想法本身就让我不爽，像大多跟我年纪相仿的人一样，我是一个愤世嫉俗的人。传统的组织能够包容适度的愤世嫉俗，但这种新式企业只有在人人都是虔诚信徒的前提下才能运行。

The more companies that model themselves around this sort of “conversation”, the more my generation will be locked out — even if their young bosses stop saying outrageously ageist things and see some sense in trying to hire a few older people.

效仿这种“会话”模式的公司越多，我们这代人也将越多地被拒之门外——即便这些公司的年轻老板们不再肆无忌惮地发表年龄歧视的言论，也看到试着雇佣一些年长员工有一定好处。

At some point the penny must drop, even with the most bigoted 20-something billionaire, that age discrimination is not just illegal or unfair but is also stupid.When older customers are the ones with most of the money — needed to keep almost any business going — not having them in your workforce makes no sense.

人们迟早得明白，年龄歧视并不仅仅是非法的或不公平的，也是愚蠢的，就算是最偏执的二十来岁的亿万富翁也要懂得这点。当年长的顾客是那些掌握着大部分资金的人——几乎任何业务的发展都需要这些资金——不招大龄者进你的员工队伍一点儿都不明智。

What worries me most is that these organisational ideas are bound to escape from Silicon Valley before long, as that is the way of these things.The infantile office decor with primary colours and bean bags was invented in California but has long since migrated, so now the frumpiest businesses all over the world have offices that look like kindergartens.This is regrettable but not a disaster — older people can simply close their eyes to it.

最让我担心的是这些组织理念不久就将从硅谷蔓延到更多的地方，这是必然趋势。那种用亮丽原色和懒人沙发装饰的童趣十足的办公室，始创于加利福尼亚，但早已风靡各地，所以现在全世界最古板企业的办公室看着都跟幼儿园一样。这虽不尽人意但也算不上是灾难——上岁数的人大可以眼不见为净。

But with the conversational firm you can't just close your eyes — or ears.It is a structure, a philosophy and a way of life; in this conversation, people in their 40s, let alone in their 50s or 60s, will have nothing to say.

而对会话公司就不能视而不见——或充耳不闻。它是一种架构、哲学及生活方式；在这样的会话中，四十几岁的人，更别说五六十岁的人，都将无话可说。

词汇总结

pound the pavement 在街头徘徊找工作

bone up on sth （通常是为了准备考试）专门钻研，努力研读

There are lots of stories of tragic people in their 40s and 50s buying hoodies and boning up on superheroes before they pound the virtual pavements in search of a job.

有很多这样的故事：悲催的四五十岁的求职者，在应聘前跑去买帽衫和恶补超级英雄。

So far, so good

形容某件正在进行的事情，到现在还算成功；特别是你其实并不看好这件事将来走向的情况下

So far, so good: people my age are all in favour of conversation.

如此尚好：像我这个年纪的人们都喜欢对话。

Tsk 语气词，啧啧，表示不耐烦、不赞同

be bound to 必然或注定要做；坚决或下定决心要做

What worries me most is that these organisational ideas are bound to escape from Silicon Valley before long, as that is the way of these things.

最让我担心的是这些组织理念不久就将从硅谷蔓延到更多的地方，这是必然趋势。