Reading Comprehensive

When I re-entered the full-time workforce a few years ago after a decade of solitary[隐士，独居] self-employment, there was one thing I was looking forward to the most: the opportunity to have work friends once again.

几年前，当我在独自创业十年后重新进入全职工作时，有一件事是我最期待的:再次有工作上的朋友的机会。

It wasn't until I entered the corporate world that I realized, for me at least, being friends with colleagues didn't emerge as a priority at all.

直到我进入企业界，我才意识到，至少对我来说，与同事成为朋友根本不是我优先考虑的事情。

This is surprising when you consider the prevailing emphasis by scholars and trainers and managers on the importance of cultivating close interpersonal relationships at work.

当你想到学者、培训师和管理者普遍强调在工作中培养亲密的人际关系的重要性时，你会感到惊讶。

So much research has explored the way in which collegial （同事的）ties can help overcome a range of workplace issues affecting productivity and the quality of work output such as team-based conflict, jealousy, undermining, anger, and more.

因此许多研究探讨了大学生的的方式(同事的)关系可以帮助克服一系列职场问题影响工作效率和工作质量的输出如团队冲突、嫉妒、破坏,愤怒,等等。

Perhaps my expectations of lunches, water-cooler gossip and caring, deep-and-meaningful conversations were a legacy of the last time I was in that kind of office environment.

也许我对午餐、茶水间闲聊、关心他人、深入而有意义的谈话的期待，是我上次在那种办公室环境中留下的遗产。

Whereas now, as I near the end of my fourth decade, I realize work can be fully functional and entirely fulfilling without needing to be best mates with the people sitting next to you.

然而现在，当我快到第四个十年的时候，我意识到工作可以是完全有用的，完全令人满意的，而不需要和坐在你旁边的人成为最好的伙伴。

In an academic analysis just published in the profoundly-respected Journal of Management, researchers have looked at the concept of "indifferent relationships".

在刚刚发表在备受尊敬的《管理杂志》(Journal of Management)上的一篇学术分析中，研究人员研究了“冷漠关系”的概念。

It's a simple term that encapsulates （概括） the fact that relationships at work can reasonably be non-intimate, inconsequential, unimportant and even, dare I say it, disposable or substitutable.

这是一个简单的词,封装(概括)这一事实关系在工作中合理可以non-intimate,无足轻重,不重要,甚至,我敢说,一次性或可替换的。

Indifferent relationships are neither positive nor negative.

冷漠的关系既不是积极的也不是消极的。

The limited research conducted thus far indicates they're especially dominant among those who value independence over cooperation, and harmony over confrontation.

迄今为止有限的研究表明，他们在那些重视独立甚于合作、重视和谐甚于对抗的人群中尤其占优势。

Indifference is also the preferred option among those who are socially lazy.

冷漠也是那些在社交上懒惰的人的首选。

Maintaining relationships over the long term takes effort.

维持长期的关系需要努力。

For some of us, too much effort .

对我们中的一些人来说，太多的努力。

As noted above, indifferent relationships may not always be the most helpful approach in resolving some of the issues that pop up at work.

如上所述，在解决工作中出现的一些问题时，冷漠的关系并不总是最有帮助的方法。

But there are nonetheless several empirically proven benefits.

尽管如此，还是有一些经验证明的好处。

One of those is efficiency.

其中之一就是效率。

Less time chatting and socializing means more time working and（产出）.

更少的时间和社交意味着更多的时间工作和聊天(产出)。

The other is self-esteem.

另一个是自尊。

As human beings, we're primed to compare ourselves to each other in what is an anxiety-inducing phenomenon.

作为人类，我们倾向于将自己与他人进行比较，这是一种引起焦虑的现象。

Apparently, we look down on acquaintances more so than Mends.

很明显，我们看不起熟人甚于看不起朋友。

Since the former is most common among those inclined towards indifferent relationships, their predominance can bolster individuals' sense of self-worth.

由于前者在那些倾向于冷漠关系的人群中最为常见，他们的优势可以增强个人的自我价值感。

Ego aside, a third advantage is that the emotional[情感的] neutrality[neutrality中立] of indifferent[关系冷漠的] relationships has been found to enhance[提高，加强] critical[批评的，爱挑剔的] evaluation, to strengthen one's focus on task resolution, and to gain greater access to valuable information.

撇开自我不谈，第三个好处是，人们发现，冷漠关系的情感中立性有助于提高批判性评价，增强人们对任务解决的注意力，并使他们更容易获得有价值的信息。

None of that might be as fun as after-work socializing but, hey, I'll take it anyway.

这些都不如下班后的社交活动有趣，不过，嘿，我还是要参加。