Home office or at officeWork–life balance
Read what four people have to say about their working hours to practise and improve your
reading skills.
Before reading
Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and do the exercises.
Preparation task
Match the definitions (a–j) with the vocabulary (1–10).
Vocabulary Definitions
1. …… idle chit-chat
2. …… parental leave
3. …… to bounce ideas off someone
4. …… to wear someone out
5. …… to clock in
6. …… to make a concession
7. …… paid on a pro-rata basis
8. …… a freelancer
9. …… a commute
10. …… to be left to your own devices
a. a regular journey between work and home
b. to be allowed to decide what to do by yourself
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
e. calculated according to how many hours you work
f. to make someone very tired
g. to give or allow something in order to end an argument or conflict
h. talk that is informal and irrelevant to work
i. a person who sells their services or work by the 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.