Activity 3

W
ork–life balance
Read what four people have to say about their working hours to practise and improve your reading skills.
Preparation task
Match the definitions (a–j) with the vocabulary (1–10).
Vocabulary Definitions
1. …h… idle chit-chat a. a regular journey between work and home

2. …d… parental leave b. to be allowed to decide what to do by yourself
3. …j… to bounce ideas off c. to record the time you begin work d. a period of time
a parent takes off work to take care of their new child
4. …f… to wear someone out
5. …c… to clock in e. calculated according to how many hours you work
6. …g… to make a concession f. to make someone very tired
7. …e… paid on a pro-rata basis g. to give or allow something in order to end an
8. …i… a freelancer argument or conflict
9. …a… a commute h. talk that is informal and irrelevant to work
10. …b… to be left to your own i. a person who sells their services or work by the devices hour or day
j. to share ideas with someone in order to get feedback on them
Reading text: Work–life balance
Ronan
I work in a fairly traditional office environment doing a typical nine-to-five job. I like my job, but it’s
annoying that my commute to work takes an hour and a half each way and most of my work could really
be done online from home. But my boss doesn’t seem to trust that we will get any work done if left to our
own devices, and everyone in the company has to clock in and out every day. It’s frustrating that they feel
the
need to monitor what we do so closely instead of judging us based on our task performance, like
most companies do these days.
Jo
I used to do a typical five-day week, but after I came out of my parental leave, I decided that I wanted to
spend more time with my children before they start school. After negotiating with my boss, we decided to
cut my working week down to a three-day work week. This of course meant a significant cut in my pay
too, as I’m paid on a pro-rata basis. I’ve since noticed, though, that my workload hasn’t decreased in the
slightest! I’m now doing five days’ worth of work in three days, but getting paid much less for it! I find
myself having to take work home just so that I can meet the deadlines. It’s wearing me out trying to juggle
work with looking after my children and my family, but I don’t dare to bring this up with my boss because
I think he feels as if he’s made a huge concession letting me come in only three days a week.
Marcus
I work for a global IT company, but because their headquarters is in the States, I do all my work online from
home. That means that I don’t waste time commuting or making idle chitchat with colleagues. I work on a
project basis, and this flexibility is very valuable to me because it means that I can easily take some time off
when my children need me to go to their school performances or if I need to schedule an appointment
with the dentist. The downside is that without clear office hours, I tend to work well into the evening,
sometimes skipping dinner to finish a task. It can also get quite lonely working on my own, and I sometimes
miss sharing ideas with colleagues.
Lily
I’m a freelancer and work for myself. This is great because I am in control of what I do and how I spend my
time. At first, I was working from home, but I found it really hard to concentrate. There were just too many
distractions around: housework that needed doing, another cup of tea, my family members wanting my
attention for various things. So I started to go to a nearby café to work, but the Wi-Fi connection wasn’t
ideal and I found myself drinking too much coffee. In the end, I decided to rent a desk in a co-working space
with five other freelancers like myself. I liked getting dressed to go to work in the morning and being able to
focus in an office environment. The other freelancers do similar kinds of web-based work to me and so it’s
nice to have workmates to bounce ideas off as well.
Tasks
Task 1
Circle the best answer.
1. Ronan would prefer it if he …

a. wasn’t left to his own devices.
b. could spend more time commuting and less time in the office.
c. could work from home and be judged based on task performance.
d. could trust his boss more.
2. Jo wanted to reduce her working hours because she …
a. thought she would be more efficient and productive when she was at the office.
b. wanted to bring her work home.
c. wanted to go on parental leave.
d. wanted to spend time with her children.
3. Jo is unhappy with her three-day work week because …
a. she didn’t realise how much the change would affect her economically.
b. she now hast to spend more time looking after her children and her family.
c. she has more deadlines to meet.
d. her workload has remained the same although she’s reduced her hours.
4. In Marcus’s opinion, which of these is a disadvantage of working from home?
a. You spend a lot of time in the house.
b. It’s easy to get distracted by your family.
c. You tend to work later.
d. You end up eating more as you have access to the fridge all day.
5. Why did Lily not like working from home?
a. She found it lonely.
b. Her family didn’t like her working.
c. She didn’t have a good Wi-Fi connection.
d. There were a lot of distractions.
6. What solution did Lily find most suitable for her working needs?
a. Renting an office space to work from.
b. Working from a café.
c. Working for an employer.
d. Working for other freelancers.
Task 2
Are the sentences true or false?
Answ
er
1. Ronan’s boss thinks his employees will not be as productive if they work from True False
home.
2. Ronan thinks that the performance of employees should be judged according to
how much time they spend in the office. True False
3. Jo is paid the same for a five-day work week as she is on a three-day week.
True False
4. Jo feels exhausted trying to manage both a five-day workload and childcare.
5. Although Marcus sees the benefit in not having idle chit-chat, he misses interacting True False
with his colleagues.
6. Lily didn’t like working from the café because the coffee wasn’t very good. True False
True False
Discussion
What are the advantages and disadvantages of your working situation? What would you change if you
could?
R: About my working situation, a student of a federal institution, it is possible to say how tired it can be
sometimes, because of the high demand of activities and tests, but it is also very rewarding, one time we
can improve our future curriculum, and, therefore, grow our potential job opportunities.

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W

1. …h… idle chit-chat a. a regular journey between work and home

9. …a… a commute h. talk that is informal and irrelevant to work

1. Ronan would prefer it if he …

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