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

Download
Worksheet92.63 KB

Language level

Average: 4.3 (51 votes)
Do you need to improve your English listening skills?
Join thousands of learners from around the world who are improving their English listening skills with our online courses.
Profile picture for user alessandro.it

Submitted by alessandro.it on Thu, 08/02/2024 - 21:12

Permalink

I work in a shop, so for me it is impossible to use the flexibility explained in the interview. I think that for people who work in an office, flexibility can be a good thing if concerns the possibility to choose to start working from 8 to 9 a.m. and finish earlier or later. However, I believe everyone should be feel free to decide if working at home, because it could be sound as if you were always working. The result could be negative psychological effects and
as a consequence worsen working performances.

Submitted by dhuha on Fri, 17/11/2023 - 04:20

Permalink

how to download the audio file

Hello dhuha,

If you're using a computer, you can right-click on the audio player and choose 'Save as' to download the audio in mp3 format. If you're using a phone or tablet, it depends on what kind you have, but you should be able to download the audio there too.

Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team

Submitted by pikanov on Mon, 23/10/2023 - 03:11

Permalink

My opinion about work-life balance is we must organize our time, sometimes at work, and the rest of our lives. Working from anywhere or at home sometimes means we can work anywhere at any time instead of prioritizing flexibility.

Submitted by Safe_Mode on Wed, 18/10/2023 - 09:25

Permalink

I like to work in the evenings because during the day when it's warm and sunny I like to walk a bit or for example ride the bike or make some deals while some organizations I need working. Sometimes I work at the weekend if I didn't have time to do some tasks on weekdays

Submitted by marcialopes on Tue, 29/08/2023 - 21:28

Permalink

As someone from the healthcare industry, I often found it challenging to balance my work and personal life. Weekends and national holidays were typically not available to me, and I even had to work on Christmas and New Year's Eve. This made it difficult to spend time with my loved ones and participate in sports activities. Additionally, my work schedule from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. disrupted my circadian rhythm and added to the struggle of achieving a work-life balance. Although I am no longer in that job, I shared this example to illustrate how deeply my work impacted my life outside of work.

Submitted by isamorandi on Wed, 14/06/2023 - 13:59

Permalink

I'm a university student, and I'm trying to balance my study routine and my free time. Sometimes, especially on week test, I struggle a lot with it, however, I try my best to rest and do the things I want during this period.

Submitted by PGkiliris on Sun, 23/04/2023 - 10:34

Permalink

I have been working remotely from home as an IT engineer since 2005, so I consider that challenge to be many years old. It's very difficult to balance work and life when working remotely. Although I have tried to make rules, there are always exceptions. Ultimately, it depends on your flexibility with your company and customers to find a balance

Submitted by Sliang on Wed, 05/04/2023 - 07:46

Permalink

Balancing work and life can be a significant challenge for me, and I've struggled to achieve it. After a long day at work, I often feel too tired to engage in hobbies or leisure activities in the evenings. On Saturdays, I usually sleep in to recover from the busy workweek. However, I still have to attend to household chores such as grocery shopping and cleaning, as well as allocate time for practicing my driving skills. On Sundays, I spend time preparing meals for the upcoming week's lunch boxes. Unfortunately, all of these tasks leave me with little time for leisure activities. For instance, I've been wanting to go fishing for a few weeks, but I haven't been able to find the time.

Submitted by Abu23 on Mon, 09/01/2023 - 17:10

Permalink

I am working on week days just 4 night shift, On weekend some time take overtime but actually weekend spend with my family and go to sports , dinning etc.