The pace of today's working life blurs the line between personal time and work time, and it increasingly mixes one's personal lifestyle and work style. And as companies are trying hard to attract and keep young people for their technical skills and enthusiasm for change, office culture is becoming an extension of youth culture. This may be no bad thing. For most of human history the middle-aged have ruled, but in the future, they will have to share power with fresh-faced youths.
今天的工作生活节奏模糊了个人时间和工作时间之间的界限，越来越多地混合了个人生活方式和工作方式。随着公司努力吸引和留住年轻人，以提高他们的技术技能和变革热情，办公室文化正在成为年轻人文化的延伸。这可能不是坏事。在人类历史的大部分时间里，中年人一直在统治，但是在未来，他们将不得不与新面孔的年轻人分享权力。
There have been a number of reasons for this change and the most dramatic of these is technology. Children have always been more expert than their parents at something, but usually a game or a fashion, not the century's most important business tool. The Internet has started the first industrial revolution in history to be led by the young. Though there have been youth revolutions before, none of them made a big change the way the Internet has. Throughout the 20th century, if a young person wanted to enter an American company, they needed to leave their youth behind. They got a haircut, and probably a suit or at least a tie. Now the same hair, same clothes, even nearly the same hours apply to office and home.
造成这种变化的原因有很多，其中最引人注目的是技术。孩子们在某些方面总是比他们的父母更擅长，但通常是游戏或时尚，而不是本世纪最重要的商业工具。互联网已经启动了历史上第一次由年轻人领导的工业革命。尽管之前有过青年革命，但是都没有像互联网那样做出重大改变。在整个20世纪，如果一个年轻人想进入一家美国公司，他们需要抛弃自己的青春。剪头发，可能还要穿西装，或者至少打领带。现在，同样的头发，同样的衣服，甚至几乎相同的时间都适用于办公室和家庭。
Had it not been for the Internet, this change could not have happened. However, it did not happen because of the Internet only; the corporate restructurings of the 1980s and 1990s broke down traditional hierarchies. In many companies, seniority-based hierarchies have been replaced by hierarchies based on performance. The abilities to please your superiors are no longer the most valued skills. Today's employees stay with companies only as long as they feel challenged and rewarded; moving from job to job is now a sign of ambition.
如果没有互联网，这种变化就不可能发生。然而，并不仅仅是因为互联网；80、90年代的公司重组打破了传统的等级制度。在许多公司，基于资历的等级制度已被基于绩效的等级制度所取代。取悦上司的能力不再是最重要的技能。如今的员工只有在感到挑战和奖励时才会留在公司，跳槽是雄心勃勃的表现。
The rise of the young is a good thing, because it gives them more opportunity to put their ideas and energy into practice at their most creative stage in life. Nowadays youth and youth qualities seem to dominate, but the experience and maturity of older employees should be put to good use, too.
年轻人的崛起是一件好事，因为它给了他们更多的机会，让他们在生活中最具创造力的阶段将自己的想法和精力付诸实践。如今，年轻人和年轻人的素质似乎占主导地位，但年长员工的经验和成熟也应该得到充分利用。
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