Work–life balance
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.
I'm a university student and I would say my study/life balance is getting better this year. Last year, I spent almost all my time in the library, which made me feel tired all the time.
Now, I've realized the importance of the "life" part. I strictly finish my studying by 8 p.m. every day and spend an hour listening to music or reading novels. On the weekends, I make sure to switch off completely and meet my friends.
My current job is a tradicional workplace, but soon I will start in a remote job.
I don't know how will be this transition, but I'm reading a lot to be prepare to this new challenge.
Does anyone have some clue?
When I worked in the office as an accountant for 21 years, I couldn’t manage my work-life balance very well because my job was very time-consuming.
I usually had to work in the evenings every day, and sometimes I went to the office on weekends or holidays.
However, I tried to maintain a good balance between work and life. For example, I planned to work in the evenings only on Saturdays, Mondays, and Wednesdays, and on the other evenings, I spent my time with myself and my family. On Tuesday evenings, we went to the cinema, and on Thursday evenings, we went to the swimming pool.
When I had my last job while trained and studied, always divided hours, days and time at the same time, but that is not a reason to avoid responsibility with my job responsabilities and become a work-life balance healthy
i have 8/8 in preparation
task1 5/6
task 5/6
thats great in the third training on listening skill in this morning
Definitely by putting s schedule for what i am going to do.
I had been working from home in remote since 2020.
It has for me incredible adventages: I don't have to waste time to the office, I take all may meals at home saving money... It's healthy and confortable. On the other side, I usually discover myself doing overtime work (also my partners).
Both sides of the coin.
Actually I need be flexible. In general I can enjoy weekend and holidays to relax but, I try don't see the cellphone or computer in this time because always there are messages to answer.
Never call or answer messages in my vacation time
My management of work-life balance seems more like traditional workplaces. Because even if we use the same
technology as in Europe, our managers don't permit the advantages of flexibility, they are more concerned about
when you start and leave office than how many targets you reach. So I try to disconnect from office during evening and holiday as much as possible
I am a student, so I have a part-time job two or three days a week. To manage my work-life balance, I don't accept overtime and try not to think about work except during working hours.