Work–life balance

Work–life balance

Listen to a radio interview about maintaining a good work–life balance to practise and improve your listening skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.

Preparation

Transcript

Presenter: Good morning, everyone. On today's show, we've got Chris Svensson with us, the author of No more nine to five, the new best-selling book about work–life balance in the current working world. Good morning, Chris. Thanks for coming.

Chris: Thanks for having me, Anna.

Presenter: So, Chris, tell us about your book and how the concept of a work–life balance has been changing?

Chris: Well, in the more traditional workplaces, people's working lives and their private lives are, or were, clearly divided. People often work from nine in the morning until five or six in the evening. People sometimes stay late in the office and work in the evenings. This is called working overtime.

Presenter: OK, and what else?

Chris: Well, in these environments it isn't common for people to work at the weekend or while they're on holiday. They can clearly separate their working lives and their private lives. And the evenings, weekends and holidays are free to focus on non-work areas of life, such as hobbies, interests, sports, spending time with the family and friends, and so on. It's important and healthy not to spend all your time just working, right?

Presenter: Right! So what has changed? How are things different now?

Chris: Well, for a start, most people can now access their work emails from their mobile phones. So they are more likely to quickly reply to an important mail in the evening or at the weekend. The same goes for laptops. It's easier to access your work in the evenings from home or even from your hotel when you're on holiday.

Presenter: That doesn't sound like much of a work–life balance. It sounds like all work.

Chris: Exactly, but this new mobility brings a lot of advantages with it. More people are now able to work flexibly, so if they need to leave the office early one afternoon to be with their family, they can catch up on work that evening from home or somewhere else.

Presenter: That sounds good. So, what you're saying is that although traditional divisions between work and life are fading, many employees now have more freedom to do their work from different locations and at different times.

Chris: Yes, that's it.

Task 1

Task 2

Discussion

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Average: 4.3 (51 votes)

Submitted by mouna99 on Tue, 26/05/2020 - 15:26

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I manage my life-work balance by writing down my to do lists

Submitted by IBRAHIM HAMID on Sat, 09/05/2020 - 14:10

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I think I'm abled to manage my work- life balance, because i'm feeling comfortable, although I'm working sometimes evening, weekends, and in a holidays,but for my private life I give most rest of time to my family, and I am contact my friends through the different occasions, social media.
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Submitted by Rafaela1 on Thu, 07/05/2020 - 15:42

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I found one of the ways to reduce stress is to clear out my mind by watching a funny drama or comedy which makes me LOL!

Submitted by mostafa mohamm… on Tue, 05/05/2020 - 06:20

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i'm in my last year in the college, didn't work until now , but i think its so important to separate between working lives and private lives , so important to have a time staying with families and practice your hobbies , i wish i could do this when in the near future

Submitted by Vincent_MARTIN… on Thu, 30/04/2020 - 14:20

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The work flexibly is a bad beheavor for work life and private life. Cause we aren't able to focus on all tasks at same time, so that's a wrong way for work and that's the worst situation for our close familly! We have to care about our familly life more than our work, not up side down!
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Submitted by vanenglish on Tue, 28/04/2020 - 03:07

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How do you manage your work–life balance? I always try to do my tasks according the schedule of the day. In fact, I really achieve it but some days there are many workload.
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Submitted by OlaIELTS on Fri, 24/04/2020 - 12:51

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I manage my work-life balance by combining the traditional and modern approach.

Submitted by vilma caram on Thu, 26/03/2020 - 21:10

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I think you should be your free time : all free Maybe sometimes you respond messages if it are important or urgent my free time is untouchable.

Submitted by JOSEFINA on Thu, 26/03/2020 - 02:47

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today we carry out exercises Reported verbs Reported Speech Future Plans

Submitted by jazmin marquez on Wed, 25/03/2020 - 22:40

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Currently, I work fixed hours, my working hours are from 9.30 to 17.30. But, this schedule is my decision because I have my own business, so in many cases I have so many tasks that I end up working hard from home or from anywhere every day.