What working parents really need from workplaces | The Way We Work, a TED series

Transcriber: Leslie Gauthier Reviewer:

Every parent is a working parent,

譯者: Lilian Chiu 審譯者: Bruce Sung

每位家長都是工作家長，

whether they have a job outside of the home or not.

不論是否在家以外的地方有份工作。

[The Way We Work]

〔我們工作的方式〕

When Angela shows up at the office,

當安琪拉到了辦公室，

know that Angela has been up for at least three hours,

要知道，安琪拉已經起床 有至少三小時了，

had her hand covered in human excrement,

手上沾過了人類的排泄物，

unwedged a small person

解救了一個卡在

who has become lodged in between the washing machine and the wall,

洗衣機和牆壁之間的小孩，

gotten down on her hands and knees and picked up oatmeal off the carpet.

跪趴到地上撿起了地毯上的燕麥片。

Domestic labor,

家務勞動，

which is what parenting is and everything that goes along with parenting,

也就養育孩子以及相關的一切，

不只是照顧孩子； 還要維持家庭運作，洗盤子

it’s not just taking care of a child;

it’s keeping a household running,

washing dishes,

洗衣服，保持繁忙的行程。

doing laundry,

it’s keeping the schedule tight.

同樣的，我們會假設那些工作 都是由在家的妻子來負責。

We again assume that that work will be done by a wife who’s at home.

The reality has progressed beyond where we’re at policy-wise.

現實卻已經發展到超越了政策層面。

Most people need multiple sources of income,

大部分人需要不只一個收入來源，

women want to work outside of the home --

女性想要在家以外的地方工作——

we’re still expected to do all of the same things.

我們卻仍然被期望 要做所有這些事情。

And so now we outsource a lot of that parenting work

所以現在我們會把 許多養育孩子的工作外包

to other women,

給其他女性，多半是有色人種女性。

and mainly women of color.

We don’t give it financial, cultural value,

我們並沒有賦予它 財務上、文化上的價值，

and so we don’t see it as real work.

所以我們不會把它視為真正的工作。

Care is really the backbone of our society.

照護是我們社會的基礎骨幹。

That work is what makes all other work possible.

有了這項工作， 才讓其他工作成為可能。

So how should we support parents in the workplace?

所以，在工作場所， 我們要如何給家長支持？

[Support family leave]

〔支持家事假〕

There are only two industrialized countries in the entire world

全世界只有兩個工業化的國家

that don’t guarantee some paid family leave,

不保證有薪家事假，

and the United States is one of them.

而美國是其中之一。

We should be envying Ghana,

我們應該要羨慕迦納、巴西、

Brazil, Turkey, Serbia, Japan,

土耳其、塞爾維亞、日本、英國、

the United Kingdom,

Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden --

挪威、荷蘭、瑞典——

we’re lagging behind the world on this.

在這方面，我們落後於世界。

When I say paid family leave,

當我說有薪家事假時，

I’m not talking about necessarily just newborn maternity leave.

我指的並不只是新生兒產假。

That includes paternity leave,

還包括父親假，所有性別，

all genders,

families that are adopting and welcoming a new child into their home,

還有些家庭領養孩子， 要歡迎孩子來到他們家中，

people bringing foster children into their home,

把寄養兒童帶到家裡來，

taking care of aging parents.

照顧年邁的父母。

You know, at some point in your life,

在你人生中的某個時點，

someone that you love and care about is going to need help.

總會遇到你愛的人、 關心的人需要協助。

You should have the right to take time to take care of them.

你應該要有權花時間去照顧他們。

People do their best work

大家會把工作做得最好的時候，

when they feel seen and supported by the people that they work for.

是當他們覺得有被雇主 看見、支持的時候。

It’s pretty simple.

相當簡單。

[Listen to parents]

〔聆聽家長〕

Being a parent is often seen as a weakness in the workplace.

在工作場所，家長身分 通常會被視為是弱點。

You come back and people make a lot of assumptions about you.

你返回工作場所時， 大家會對你有很多假設。

You're not invited to go on work trips

同事旅行時不會邀請你，

because assumptions are made that you don’t want to do that,

因為他們的假設是 你不想參與，或不能參與。

or you can’t.

而這會很讓人洩氣，

And that can be really disempowering to people,

很讓人沮喪，會讓他們——

and it’s really discouraging

and it makes them --

in a period of time that’s already stressful --

在已經壓力很大的時期——

can make you feel even worse.

會讓你感覺更糟。

[Talk to parents]

〔和家長談談〕

Asking a coworker about how things are going at home

問問同事

家裡或孩子一切都好嗎，

or with their kid,

making people feel like they don’t have to hide that.

讓他們覺得他們不需要隱藏這些事。

“What’s up with your two-year-old?”

「你的兩歲孩子好嗎？」 請對方給你看他們孩子的照片。

Ask to see a picture of their child.

[Be flexible]

〔要有彈性〕

For parents, the hours between 5-8pm are really crucial.

對家長而言，

下午五點到八點是非常重要的時間。

It’s sometimes the only time you really have with your kids.

有時，那是你唯一 能和孩子相處的時間。

You’re often running to pick them up somewhere

你通常要趕去某個地方接他們，

or to relieve someone from doing childcare.

或讓照顧孩子的人可以下班。

I would much rather send a few emails at 8:30pm than be on a call at 5pm.

我會寧可在晚上八點半發一些信件，

也不要在下午五點時待命。

And so I think emphasizing and creating a culture of work

所以，我認為，應該 強調和創造一種工作文化，

where it’s the work that gets done,

讓工作能夠完成，

the work is what matters,

重點在於工作，

the end result is what matters,

重點在於最後結果， 而不是用傳統方式追蹤時間，

as opposed to tracking time in a traditional way,

and opening up the lines of communication around that can be really beneficial.

以及打開相關的溝通管道， 這些都會很有幫助。

Letting a coworker know that you have their back

讓同事知道你會在背後挺他們，

if they want to say that 4:45 doesn’t work for them as a meeting time,

如果他們想要說

他們無法在四點四十五分開會，

那你也會發聲，說你也無法。

that you’ll step in and say that you can’t do it either, right?

Just something to show solidarity.

就只是展現團結的方式。

[Oh yeah ... ]

〔喔，是啊……〕

One other thing,

還有一件事，曾在工作場所 身為用母乳哺育的母親——

as a former breastfeeding mother in an office place --

a pumping mother --

擠奶母親——

I should say that if you want to clean out your office fridge every now and then,

我會說，如果你願意偶爾 清理一下辦公室的冰箱，

that is a really beautiful thing to do for a pumping mother,

那對擠奶母親而言會是很美好的事，

because I used to do that in my office.

因為我以前在辦公室就會這麼做，

I would put my little cooler that had breast milk amid like

我得把裝有母奶的保冰袋

放在一堆東西當中，

year-old bottles of salad dressing,

包括陳年沙拉醬料瓶、

pad thai that had become petrified,

變成像石頭一樣的泰式炒河粉，

just gross stuff.

就是噁心的東西。

And no one should have to do that, right?

沒有人應該要這樣，對吧？

同樣的，只是做件小事，

Again, a very, very small thing

that makes a big difference in someone’s life.

就能讓別人的人生大不同。

In striving to be as efficient as possible,

當我們努力達到最高效率，

as achieving,

最高成就，最高生產力，

as productive as possible,

we’ve drifted away from this notion of care

我們就漸漸忘記了

照顧和養育子女都是很重要的工作。

and parenting being important work.

But we need to talk about these things

但我們必須要談這些議題，

and bring parenting and family life out into the open,

把養育子女和家庭生活 都搬上檯面來，

because we can't fix problems that we don't see.

因為我們無法處理 我們看不見的問題。

We can’t fix problems that we don’t talk about.

我們無法處理我們不談的問題。

It really doesn’t have to be this hard

真的不應該這麼辛苦，

and we can do much more to support people.

我們可以做更多，來支持別人。