The world's biggest work- from-home experiment has been triggered by coronavirus
新冠疫情下，全球最大的居家辦公實驗已經開展
In an attempt to limit social contact to slow the spread of the virus, known officially as Covid-19,millions of employees in China and other affected areas are currently working from home.
目前，在中國和其他受疫情影響的地區，為了儘量降低社交接觸，阻止新冠病毒(編者按:新型冠狀病毒肺炎正式英文名稱為COVID-19)的傳播，有數百萬員工正在居家辦公。
Tech companies including Tencent, Alibaba and Microsoft have told CNN their staff will work from home for the next one to two weeks, citing health and safety concerns.
包括騰訊、阿里巴巴和微軟在內的科技公司對美國有線電視新聞網(CNN) 表示，為防止健康和安全方面的隱患，其員工將在接下來的一到兩週在家辦公。
Meanwhile, some people face social pressure from employers to go into the office despite government guidance to work from home. Employees in customer service industries or front-of-house roles often don't have the option to work remotely.
與此同時，另一些人卻面臨著來自僱主的壓力，需要進入辦公場所上班，即便政府已經提倡居家辦公。客戶服務從業者和各企業的前臺員工往往無法選擇遠程辦公。
Although digitally-based industries may be better suited to work from home, advocates have been pushing for years to make work more flexible,arguing that it can be done with the right infrastructure, to the benefit of both employees and employers.
雖然數字產業可能更適合居家辦公，但(來自各行各業的)遠程辦公提倡者多年來一直力圖讓工作變得更靈活。他們認為，只要相關的基礎設施到位，這個目標便能夠實現，並讓員工和僱主同時受益。
The movement has been embraced by many parents who say the ability to work from home makes it easier to juggle childcare and a career.Many families who can't afford nannies or day care face a difficult decision when they have a baby,with one of the parents - often the woman - -having to sacrifice career advancement to care for their child.
這項‘遠程辦公運動”已經得到許多家長的歡迎，他們表示，居家辦公能讓他們更好地平衡撫育子女和發展職業的雙重挑戰。許多家庭無力聘請保姆或日託服務，一旦有了孩子，父母們面臨著兩難的抉擇。其中，往往是母親一方不得不犧牲職業發展來換取照顧孩子的時間。
The option to work from home doesn't just empower women一it makes it easier for working fathers to step into that role too, in a step toward gender equality that benefits all parties.
實現遠程辦公，不僅能賦予女性更多自由，還能為在職父親們提供一種選擇，讓他們承擔起監護人的角色，由此促進性別平等，對各方來說都是一件好事 。
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