活到老，干到老

　　When I was 20, I thought I'd retire at 60. By the time I was 35, I expected to retire rather earlier, at about 50 or so. Back then, it was fashionable for professionals to take early retirement – either because they found they could, or because their employers had tired of them and pensioned them off. But now that I'm 50 myself, I find that the finishing line has been moved once again and it looks as though I'll be slogging away until I'm 70 and beyond.
　　20岁时，我想我会在60岁退休。35岁时，我期望能更早退休，在50岁左右就隐退。那时专业人士时兴提前退休——或者是因为他们发现自己能做到这一点，或是因为他们的老板烦透了他们，用养老金把他们打发走了。现在我50岁了，我发现终点线又发生了移动，看起来我可能会一直苦干到70岁以后。

　　In the past couple of weeks, there have been various reports from economists saying that the only way of saving the economy from collapse is for everyone to work for much longer. The assumption is that while this makes sense for the public sector borrowing requirement, it's going to be tough on us.
　　近几周来，经济学家的各种报告纷纷宣称，使经济免于崩溃的唯一办法，就是大家都工作得更长久。对此人们的想法是，就公共部门的借款需求而言，这么做是有意义的，但我们就太辛苦了。

　　I'm not so sure: to have a working life that spans five decades is better than one that lasts for three or four. Work is a bit like taking exercise. It can be boring and stressful while you are doing it (and on any given day, I'd miles rather not work than work) but it is actually preferable to not working. It gives us structure, status and money; it gives us something to think about and gets us out of the house.
　　我不太确定，工作五十年是否好过工作三、四十年。工作有点像做运动。做的时候，你可能会觉得沉闷，有压力（随便哪一天我都情愿不要工作），但工作其实比不工作更为可取。工作让我们充实，让我们得到地位和收入；工作让我们动脑筋，让我们走出家门。

　　Last week, I had a chat with a former city solicitor who retired a few years ago. The trouble with not working, he said, wasn't just that you lose money or status. It was no longer rubbing shoulders with young people. Working with the young makes one feel young. When you stop doing that you start to feel old and behave it, too.
　　上周我与退休了几年的一位前市政府律师闲谈。他说，不工作的问题不止是没有了收入和地位，而是不再接触年轻人。与年轻人共事让人感觉年轻。当你不再与年轻人在一起时，你会开始觉得自己老了，连举止也相应变得老态起来。

　　In the future, when offices are filled with toiling old people, it will be good for everyone else, too. Young people have things to learn from older ones. And middle-aged people will enjoy having proper oldies around because it will make them feel agreeably youthful by comparison.
　　将来，当办公室里充斥着老年人辛苦工作的身影时，对所有其他人也都会有益。年轻人可以从老年人身上学到东西，而中年人会很高兴周围有比自己年纪大的人，这会让他们从比较中获得年轻的愉悦感。

　　The business case for diversity of age is far stronger than for diversity of sex or race. Businesses need memories, and here there is an obvious division of labour. The young can take care of short-term memory as the old lose theirs; the old can take care of long-term memory because the young have not yet acquired one.
　　对企业来说，年龄多样化的理由更胜于性别或种族多样化。企业需要记忆，这方面存在明显的分工。年轻人可以负责短期记忆，因为年老者记不住近期的事情；老年人则可以负责长期记忆，因为年轻人尚未获得这种记忆。

　　Yet if our working life really is to last for half a century, it would have been nice to know that at the outset. In practical terms, I realise it would not have made a shred of difference to me at 20 – my planning horizon then stretched out two years, if that. But if the thought of a five-decade working life could somehow be built into everyone's assumptions, it would change the nature of work in three positive ways.
　　不过，如果我们的工作寿命真的要持续半个世纪之久，从一开头就知道会比较好。实际上，我知道，在我20岁时，知不知道这一点其实毫无差别——我那时的规划周期就算有，也只有两年。但是，如果所有人心中都多少有着工作五十年的观念，这将从三个有利的方面改变工作的性质：

　　For a start, there would be less of a sense of hurry to achieve and succeed right now. A working life that stretched out for longer but clipped along at a slower pace might suit most people rather better.
　　首先，这将会减轻人们急于求成的心态。对多数人来说，工作寿命延续更多年、以更为缓慢的步伐不断得到修正，可能会更为妥当。

　　Next, if we all accepted that working life went on almost indefinitely it would no longer seem so dangerous to a career to take a very long break in the middle.
　　其次，如果我们都接受了工作寿命几乎没有尽头的观念，那么对于职业生涯来说，中途中断很长时间不会再显得那么危险。

　　If there were any point in having such regrets, I would almost regret not having taken the past 15 years off entirely to look after my children. To arrange one's life so that the peak work period and the peak domestic upheaval happen at the same time is very poor planning indeed.
　　如果说在这方面有所遗憾的话，我几乎感到后悔的是，过去15年没有完全放下工作，全心去照顾孩子们。让工作的鼎盛时期与家庭变动最大的时期重合在一起，委实是十分糟糕的人生规划。

　　The third, and most important, change is that it would be seen as most peculiar to have only one career.
　　第三，也是最重要的变化是，一辈子只从事一种工作会被视为世界上最奇怪的事。

　　Fifty years is far too long to go on doing the same thing. Nearly all the lawyers, teachers, managers, publishers and doctors I know of my age are already fed up with what they are doing and can't face the thought of doing it for another 20 years.
　　五十年一直干着同样的事情未免太过漫长。在我认识的人中，与我同龄的律师、教师、管理者、出版商和医生，几乎都厌倦了自己从事的行当，无法忍受再干上二十年。

　　One of my slightly younger Financial Times colleagues has just quit journalism and started to train to be a doctor a couple of days after her 40th birthday. Many people thought she was mad, but it actually makes perfect sense.
　　英国《金融时报》一位比我年小一些的同事最近辞去了记者工作，在刚过40岁生日没几天，就开始接受医生资格培训。很多人都认为她疯了，但这实际上是十分有意义的事。

　　She'll qualify in her mid-40s, become successful in her mid-50s and then, just when medicine is beginning to seem a bit less charming to her, she'll be 70 and it will be time to retire. She will have applied to her career a tip I always try to apply to my social life: to leave a party when you're still having a good time.
　　她将在45岁左右取得行医资格，在55岁左右获得成功。当医生这一职业对她的吸引力开始减弱时，她就已经70岁了，该退休了。她在职业生涯中所应用的这一妙招，是我一向试图应用在社交生活中的：在心情依然欢畅时离开宴会。
　　
　　译者/岱嵩