来源：《华盛顿邮报》
原文刊登日期：2022年3月3日
Two years into the pandemic, daily life is finally starting to feel more normal. The White House has dropped its mask mandate for those who are vaccinated. So have Congress and many states, workplaces and school districts. President Biden and other top officials are rightly describing the virus now as “endemic,” meaning it isn’t gone, but the risk level is low enough that it’s safe to resume the bulk of normal in-person activities without masks.
疫情爆发两年后，人们的日常生活终于开始变得更加正常。白宫已经取消了对接种疫苗者的口罩强制令。国会和许多州、工作场所和学区也是如此。拜登总统和其他政府高级官员正确地将新冠病毒描述为“地方病”，这意味着它还没有消失，但风险水平足够低，可以在不戴口罩的情况下恢复大部分正常的线下活动。
So why haven’t all federal workers returned to the office? A logical next step, it would usher in a much-needed revival of downtown D.C. The nation’s capital remains largely a ghost town, especially in the central areas that are dominated by federal workers and white-collar professions such as law, consulting and media. Many jobs at restaurants and hotels downtown have still not returned. D.C.'s unemployment remains near 6 percent, and the leisure and hospitality sector is down more than 23,000 jobs. Metro ridership continues at anemic levels. On a peak day in late February, it was just 170,000, which is a tiny fraction of the 626,000 who rode Metro on an average day in 2019. Metro is facing severe budget shortfalls and desperately needs more riders to return to maintain service.
那么为什么所有的联邦工作人员还没有回到办公室呢？合乎逻辑的下一步是，华盛顿特区市中心将迎来亟需的复苏。美国首都华盛顿在很大程度上仍是一座鬼城，尤其是在以联邦工作人员和法律、咨询和媒体等白领职业为主的中心地区。市中心餐馆和酒店的许多工作岗位仍然没有恢复。华盛顿特区的失业率仍然接近6%，休闲和酒店行业减少了23000个工作岗位。地铁的客流量持续低迷。在2月下旬的高峰日，这一数字仅为17万人，与2019年平均每天乘坐地铁的62.6万人相比微不足道。地铁面临严重的预算短缺，迫切需要更多乘客返回以维持服务。
Mr. Biden spelled it out in his State of the Union address: “It’s time for America to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again,” he said. “We’re doing that here in the federal government. The vast majority of federal workers will once again work in person.”
拜登在国情咨文中详细阐述了这一点：“是时候让美国重新开始工作，重新填满我们伟大的市中心了。我们在联邦政府中这样做。绝大多数联邦工作人员将再次线下工作。”
Now, he needs to back that up with action. About half of the 2.1 million civilian federal workers were still working remotely at the start of the year, and some do not yet have clear plans for an in-person return.
现在，他需要用行动来支持这一点。今年年初，210万联邦文职人员中约有一半仍在远程工作，一些人还没有明确的线下返回计划。
Returning to the office doesn’t have to mean five days a week. Many companies implement a “hybrid” work structure with several days in the office and several days at home. Some businesses are incentivizing workers to return by offering perks including meals, prizes or permanent offices or desk space to those who come in at least a certain amount of time a week. Workers want flexibility, and many federal employees can likely still work some days from home.
回到办公室并不意味着要一周五天。许多公司实行一种“混合”的工作结构，在办公室工作几天，在家工作几天。一些企业正通过向每周至少来工作场所一定时间的员工提供餐饮、奖品或永久办公室或办公桌等福利来激励员工重返工作岗位。员工需要灵活性，许多联邦雇员可能仍然可以每周在家工作几天。
But it’s important to remember that only 15 percent of U.S. workers still had the privilege of working from home in January. The vast majority of Americans have had to keep commuting to their jobs in hospitals, grocery stores, warehouses, public safety and more. There is a big divide in American society between who can work from home and who can’t right now.
但重要的是要记住，在1月份，只有15%的美国员工仍享有在家工作的特权。绝大多数美国人不得不在医院、杂货店、仓库、公共安全等地方上班。在美国社会，谁可以在家工作、谁不能在家工作之间存在着巨大的分化。
The return of federal workers — at least in a hybrid capacity of two or three days a week — would be a true signal that the nation is finally heading toward a new normal.
联邦工作人员的回归——至少是每周两到三天的线下工作——将是一个真正的信号，表明国家终于走向了新常态。