Instead of the pub after work, they get naked together here
下班后不去泡酒吧，却来这里赤裸相见
I’ll never forget the first time I sat naked, thigh-to-thigh on a wooden sauna bench with my boss. It was week one of a new job with a computer start-up near Heidelberg in Germany. I’m from Scotland, where socialising after work means going to the pub for drinks. I never dreamt it would involve standing outdoors with colleagues, snowflakes falling on my bare skin.
我永远不会忘了我第一次脱光了衣服、肩并肩、和我的老板坐在桑拿房里的木凳上的情景，那是我在德国海德堡附近的一个计算机创业公司上班的第一天。我来自苏格兰，一般来说下班以后和同事们的交往就是去酒吧喝一杯。我从来没有想过，要在寒冷的冬天、要和他们一起站在户外，雪花飘落在我赤裸的身体上。
For me it was a seismic culture shock. But in Germany, Holland or Finland it’s not unusual to visit a sauna with colleagues. And in Finland it’s perfectly natural to have seen your boss without a stitch of clothing.
对我来说，那是令人震惊的文化习俗。但是在德国、荷兰或芬兰，在桑拿房里和同事们欢聚一堂并不是什么了不起的事，而且，在芬兰，见到你的老板一丝不挂的天体简直就是一件非常正常的事情了。
“Finland is quite an equal country. We don’t have strict social classes,” says Katariina Styrman, chief executive officer of The Finnish Sauna Society in Helsinki. “It’s quite normal to go to the sauna with your boss. It’s a place where you should forget about titles and salaries.”
“芬兰是一个非常平等的国家。他们没有严格的社会阶层，”Katariina Styrman，赫尔辛基的芬兰桑拿协会的CEO说。“和老板一道去蒸桑拿是件正常的事，那是一个可以放下名份和级别差异的地方。”
In this northerly nation of nearly 5.5 million people, there’s about one sauna for every two people, she says. Most companies have their own in-house sauna.
在这个北方的国家将近5百5十万人口中，每两个人就拥有一个桑拿房，她说。有些公司还在办公室配备自己的桑拿房。
Unlike Germany, where saunas are mixed, the Finnish tradition is that — outside the family circle — men and women visit the sauna separately. Even so, for non-Finnish newcomers, the first session in the log cabin with colleagues might not be quite as relaxing as it’s meant to be. “It was a bit of a stepping stone to get over,” says Kristof Minnaert, a Belgian who moved to Helsinki in 2013 to join the staff of game developer Remedy Entertainment. The company’s studio and offices in Espoo have a rooftop sauna. “You have to be naked to get in there. It’s kind of frowned upon if you do wear a towel or swimming shorts,” adds Minnaert, 30, a senior character technical artist.
与德国不同，那里的桑拿房是男女混合的，而芬兰的习俗是——除了与家人以外——男人和女人都是分开蒸桑拿的。尽管如此，对于那些新来芬兰的人来说，最开始和同事们一起进入小木屋的感觉，还不能享受它本应有的那种轻松自如。“好像还是需要一段时间才能克服的，”Kristof Minnaert说，他2013年从比利时搬到赫尔斯基，加入一个叫做Remedy Entertainment的游戏公司。这家公司在埃斯波的工作室和办公室的楼顶上有一个桑拿。“你得脱光了才能走进去。如果你披着浴巾或穿着泳裤进去，是会被人侧目的，”Minnaert，这个30岁的资深人物技术设计师说。
After three years, however, he’s grown at ease with the Friday evening ritual of a sauna with colleagues, where it's also common to sip a beer and then step outside onto the open-air terrace sans clothing. He and his team spend between one and three hours in the sauna each week and while they don't formally conduct meetings, they do talk about work and, sometimes, end up with good ideas to pursue back at their desks.
但是，三年之后，他对于每周五晚上和同事们在桑拿房里的庆祝方式已经驾轻就熟了，喝杯啤酒，和光着身体在户外阳台上走动之类也都是普通的不过的事情了。他和他的团队每周都会花一到三小时在桑拿房里，而不是很正式的开会，但是他们却是在谈论工作，而且有的时候，还能产生不少好的主意，然后再回去伏案继续工作。
“It’s a bit like going to a bar but with less drinking and in a sweaty environment,” he says. “It’s nicer in winter because it can get to minus 30 degrees Celsius outside on the terrace. When you go back inside you feel really revitalised.”
“就好像去酒吧，只是没有喝那么多酒可却出很多汗的一个环境罢了，“他说。“在冬天零下30度的阳台上，这个感觉更好。当你重新回到房间里的时候，你会有精神焕发的感觉。”
Thanks to an invitation from his boss, Minnaert has also been to The Finnish Sauna Society’s members-only club near Helsinki where traditional wood-burning “smoke saunas” are set among silver birches overlooking the Baltic. Here, ex-presidents and other leading figures mingle in the nude with fellow sauna-goers and have the chance to jump off the pier and plunge into the sea — even in winter, when a hole is sawn through the ice.
感谢他的老板的邀请，Minnaert还去过芬兰桑拿协会在赫尔辛基附近的会员专属俱乐部的传统的烧木头的“烟熏桑拿”，它坐落在银色的白桦树林中，俯视着下面的波罗的海。在这里，前公司主席和其他高管们都赤裸裸与其他的蒸桑拿的人们在一起，有机会从码头上跳进海水里，即便是冬天也不例外，把冰凿出一个洞来。
Finn Tommi Uitto, senior vice president of global product sales, mobile networks at telecommunications multinational Nokia, explains, “In the sauna there are no titles, no clothes. There are no egos. It’s only you and your thoughts and your words and the same applies to the other person, so it’s much more human being to human being and all the unnecessary decoration is gone.”
Finn Tommi Uitto，诺基亚全球产品销售的副总裁，解释说，“在桑拿房里，没有职位，没有衣服，没有自我意识，有的只是你自己、你的想法、你的语言，其他人也都是如此。所以在那里，人与人之间的关系更加纯粹，那些没有意义的装饰都不存在了。“
Nokia has an in-house sauna at each of its three sites on Finnish soil. “It’s a given,” says Uitto. “Any Finn applying for a job in a Finnish company would expect that there is a sauna.”
在芬兰境内的诺基亚的三个地方，都有自己的桑拿房。“这是一个标配，”Uitto说，每个芬兰人在申请芬兰公司的工作时，都知道那里会有一个桑拿房。“
Earlier in Uitto’s career the sauna was also often used as a place to do business, he says. As well, teams would get together in the sauna to celebrate company successes and milestones, rather than going out to a restaurant or pub. But in recent years, however, the sauna has become less of a focal point, partly because Finnish firms have become more global and also schedules are tighter, he says. Also, since women and men visit the sauna separately, for many it no longer feels like a fair way of holding business discussions.
在Uitto早年的从业生涯中，桑拿房还是被用来谈生意的地方，他说。而且，团队还会在桑拿里庆祝公司取得的成功和发展，而不是去餐厅或酒吧。但是在近年，桑拿没有像之前那么重要了，部分原因是因为芬兰公司已经变的国际化了，日程也比以前更紧密了，他说。同时，因为在蒸桑拿的时候，男人和女人不能在一起，这样讨论工作也显得不那么公平了。
“It doesn’t seem right to split the team in two,” Uitto says.
“把一个团队分成两个部分，也不太对劲。”Uitto说。
Know the customs
了解风俗习惯
While saunas are popular in other northerly countries such as Sweden, Russia and the Netherlands, customs and etiquette vary greatly.
桑拿文化在其他的一些北方国家也相当盛行，诸如瑞典、俄罗斯和荷兰，但是风俗习惯和礼节却是千差万别。
Jan Feller, deputy managing director of the German-Finnish Chamber of Commerce in Helsinki, has worked in both countries. “For the Finn, the sauna is the place where you go to be yourself and with other people,” says the 41-year-old. “In Germany it is almost purely about health and well-being.”
Jan Feller，是位于赫尔辛基的德国-芬兰商会的副执行总监，在这两个国家都工作过。“在芬兰，桑拿房是一个你可以与他人在一起、做自己的地方，”41岁的他说。“但是在德国，这纯粹是为了身体健康和精神愉悦。”
In Finland, sauna-goers pour water on the coals themselves, but in Germany there is often a sauna master employed to do this at regular intervals, he says. “Just the fact that you have written rules on the wall in the sauna in Germany is something Finns smile about,” Feller says.
在芬兰，去桑拿房的人都是自己在炭上浇水，但是在德国，是有一个专门雇佣的桑拿师按照固定的时长去浇水，他说。“在德国桑拿房里的墙上的各种规则，都是会被芬兰人嘲笑的。”Feller说。
In Germany and the Netherlands you wouldn’t expect to find a sauna at your workplace. But if you take part in after-work sports with colleagues, there might well be a sauna at the sports club or gym.
在德国和荷兰，在工作的地方是不可能找到桑拿房的。但是如果你下班后和同事们一起健身运动，在俱乐部或者健身房，是经常会有蒸桑拿的地方的。
When Sam Critchley, founder of retail marketing app company Spaaza, first moved from his native UK to Amsterdam 18 years ago, he went to play squash with colleagues. After the match, everyone headed to the sauna area and stripped off. Nobody would have minded his wearing swimming trunks, but as the only non-Dutch person there he wanted to fit in. So he sat down in the steam room and took off his towel, he says.
当Sam Critchley，Spaaza，一个零售推广APP公司的创始人，18年前刚从英国搬到阿姆斯特丹的时候，他和同事们去打壁球。比赛完，大家都去蒸桑拿，脱了衣服，没有人会在意他穿着游泳短裤进去，但是作为唯一的一个非荷兰人，他很想能够融入。于是，他在充满蒸汽的房子里坐下来，然后把浴巾摘下来，他说。
“Suddenly this woman appeared out of the steam — a colleague — and asked me, ‘Are you coming to eat afterwards?’. Then she opened the door and I could suddenly see on the pine benches three or four female colleagues sitting in a row,” recalls the now 43-year-old. “My instant reaction was to put my hands on my crotch.”
“可是，突然，一个女人出现在蒸汽房外面——是一个同事——还问我，”你一会儿是不是也一起去吃饭？“然后，她开门进来，这时，我才突然看到在凳子上坐了一排我的三、四个女同事，”现在43岁的他说：“当时立刻的反应，就是用手捂住我的裆部。”
重点单词汇总
get over：克服
revitalised：使恢复元气，使具有新的活力;
ego：自我;自负;自尊心;自我意识
fit in：融入
crotch：裤裆;（人体的）胯部，两腿分叉处;
联系客服
