Work–life balance
Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and do the exercises.
Preparation
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 chit-chat 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.
My name ıs Asude and I am from Turkey.I have just finished my school and now I am preparing for university exam at home.There are so much advantage and disadvantages.It makes me feel comfort because I dont like being around so many people and I have a lot of free time for my hobbies.Sometimes i am bored because of being alone for hours but i feel like i will get what i want
I work from, so I'm left for my own device. There are the huge amount of advantages: you don't waste your time on commuting, you can manage your working hours and take some break if you need, for example, to visit your dentist and there is no your boss who wants totally control everything you do, but the main disadvantage is I feel a bit lonely. I don't make some any iddle chit-chat but I'd like, actually and sometimes I don't even leave my home for thw whole day, so my smart watches are really angry. 'Where are your 10 000 of steps?': they say.
I am Neo, a software engineering student at Chiang Mai University. What I would say would be a bit irrelevant to this topic, but I am very erudite and conscientious self-taught engineer and I was wholly dedicated into programming even before I started university. I covered all basic knowledges, backgrounds, and other essential things about programming and which mean I am passionate about my career. After I accomplish four years program at university, I would apply for entry level job. However, I would not consider that job to be too breath of fresh air or flexible because I believe that in order to be competent and skillful at that field, we have to take full accountability and proactively push ourselves earlier as much as possible. By doing so, we would later become accustomed with our position and even get promoted. From my own perspective, working from home strengthens productivity and performance of software developer. Nonetheless, we need to spend times working in office with team members in order to bring well-conceived ideas up to each other and maintain coherent teamwork.
To me, my job is close to perfect. I work remotely from home, and I love it. I’m a psychologist with a master’s degree in clinical and health psychology, and I give online consultations. Because of that, I work from 9 to 6 p.m., and that’s the biggest disadvantage: I need to stay in the same place all day, and that place has to be quiet and private. So, for me, it’s impossible to work in cafés or coworking spaces. Sometimes I would like to work on a terrace or sunbathe, but it’s not possible. It doesn’t matter to me, because I really love working from home. I keep my dog company, I clean the house, and I do all kinds of tasks whenever I want. At the end of the day, I feel much more energetic to meet my family, play with my nephews, and be with the people who really matter.
Hi,I’m Tutku.I’m a doctor who works in neurology.This job has many advantages and disadvantages.It is important that you choose the one that suits you best.I think ı love my job altough sometimes workload is very havyar,ı have to work night shifts 5 times per a month and I need to juggle work and motherhood . One advantage is that Salaries are paid on a Pro-rata basis and that is good.I feel I have already deserved it because ı have made some concessions in my life. I suit up ,go to work and ıt makes me feel happy and confident .Neurology and the brain are full of mystery and I want to discover them day by day
I am a fresh graduate majoring in Chemistry Education, currently working part-time as a chemistry tutor. Teaching is truly my passion, but my income as a tutor is not enough to cover my living expenses. To manage this, I take on several other part-time jobs besides tutoring. As a chemistry tutor, I work from afternoon until night, which suits me well since I’m not a morning person. However, my real goal is to work as a full-time chemistry or science teacher at a school, not just as a tutor.
Just few years ago I started to work as a school teacher and although I love my job I'm aware that there are both positive and negative things about it. Since I'm not a tenured teacher yet, I have to move to different cities even every 2 or 3 months a year; for me that's the biggest problem: try to organize trips by car or public transport and bear the costs for all these trips. However, there are some advantages too: quite flexible working hours, make experience and receive support by more experienced colleagues that help me to improve my skills and to find my own teaching style... and of course get in touch with so many children and teenagers every day it keeps you open-minded.
Hi, I'm Rose. Since I was a third-year student , I work for myself as a freelancer tutoring other English learners. And what I'd figured out was that it would be more efficient if I dedicate my English Fluency Journey spending more time on that without any distractions like school attendance and activities I have to participate. I love the way I manage my time though. As I want a Bachelor Degree in Education and to be a competent teacher, it's worth studying at college. On the other hand, I don't want to be a government employee for a long time because there is low salary high workload for those teachers. I want to make more money since I believe I deserve more. So my plan was to focus on my English Fluency Journey and then, make more money using my abilities.
My name is Mohammed, and I am from Sudan. I am a high school student, but I have recently finished my final exams and am now waiting for my results, hoping they will be 90% or above. After completing my exams, I started working online from home and continued learning English because I want to study at a university abroad in the future.
Working from home sometimes feels challenging, especially when I have deadlines. However, the best part is that I do not need to commute or deal with phone calls, and I can start working whenever I want. Occasionally, it can get boring or distracting, so I try to limit the time I spend on social media or hanging out with friends. On the other hand, working remotely can be tough for some people because they might get bored or end up doing unproductive things. Many people prefer working in an office environment where they can have face-to-face interactions.
In my opinion, we should choose a work setting that suits our needs and lifestyle. While many people might find traditional workplaces more motivating, I appreciate the flexibility and convenience of working from home, especially at this stage in my life.
Hello British Council Readers,
My name is Merve, and I'm from Turkey. I am a computer engineering student at İstanbul Aydın University, and I’m a senior student. Hopefully, I will be finishing soon. I don't have a job yet, but I’d like to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of my future job. Let's start with the advantages.
One of the main advantages is that I can work wherever I want. However, this might change depending on the company. It could be a full-time job, which means I would need to go to the office five days a week. Or, it could be hybrid, where I go to the office some days and work from home on others. It might even be completely remote, allowing me to work from home all the time. Personally, I hope it will be remote, but if it’s not, I’ll be fine with any of the options. I’m happy with all of them because I really like my job.
Let’s assume it’s remote. This means I can eat whatever I want at home, drink coffee all the time, and take breaks whenever I want. I also don’t need to get up early or wear a suit for work. I can work in my pajamas or wear whatever clothes I like. Plus, I don’t need to wear makeup. Although, I might wear makeup occasionally. You may be wondering why it could be bad not to wear makeup or work in pajamas. The reason is that if I stay in pajamas all day and don’t take care of myself, I might end up letting myself go. That would make me feel upset in the long run, so I can’t let myself go all the time for my long-term happiness. Actually, this could be a disadvantage of my job. So, I will make sure to stay mindful of my appearance.
Now, let’s talk about salary. I have some bad news about that. Before AI became so popular, software engineers had very high salaries and relatively easy jobs. But since AI became more common, many of my friends are getting more job offers, but for lower pay. It’s really sad, but that’s okay as well. Most jobs are facing the same issue due to AI advancements.
I’ll probably have flexible working hours, but it will likely be 8 hours a day, including break time, just like most jobs.
That’s all that comes to my mind. Maybe one day, when I get a real job, I’ll add the things I experience and see as well.