办公室文员为保护隐私“高筑墙”(1/2)

英语自学网

美国办公室文员绞尽脑汁保护小隔间内的个人隐私
Hints：
workplace, work space
"cubicle farms"
"bullpens"
all-too-public
校对：鬼面福娃
翻译：未丸宸
注解：未丸宸
组长：鬼面福娃
答疑：西碧儿的琴Office mazes in which just about everybody below the rank of vice president works in large open spaces, divided by partitions into cubicles are the standard workplace setting for millions of Americans.

These "cubicle farms" are ridiculed by cartoonists, and often loathed by their inhabitants as symbols of conformity and all-too-public work spaces in which one cannot help but overhear every word of a loud or chattering neighbor.

But as the New York Times recently reported, dwellers in these office "bullpens", as they are called, are building walls to gain some privacy.

Two kinds. Makeshift physical ones by stacking file cabinets atop each other around their cubes, or lining up plants, pictures of kids and anything else they can think of to separate themselves from their office neighbors. And technological walls. Just about all day long, some cubicle dwellers listen to soothing mood music or white noise through headsets just to block out the chatter. And a few workplaces are piping in what's called pink noise.每个在副总裁级别以下职位的人都在一个大型开放的被分成“格子间”的办公空间工作，这些办公室迷宫是数以万计的美国人标准的工作场所。
这些“隔间农场”经常遭到漫画家们的嘲笑。通常情况下，办公室文员们也对这些小隔间心生厌恶，因为它们是模式化的象征，也因为在这样过分公开的空间工作，人们在无意中会听到隔壁大声说话或唠唠叨叨的同事的每一句话。

但是《纽约时报》近日报道，在“牛栏”办公室里工作的文员们正在构筑幕墙以保护自己的隐私。
有两种方式。第一种是临时搭建的实物幕墙。围绕着他们的小隔间堆砌文件柜，或者摆放一些植物、孩子的照片和任何他们可以想到的东西，从而把他们自己和同事隔开。第二种是技术幕墙。一些办公室文员整天用耳机听舒缓心情的音乐或者白色噪音来隔离其他同事聊天的声音。少数的办公场所通过电信设备传送被称为“粉色噪音”的声音信号。