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 Crunch01 on Fri, 13/03/2020 - 12:01

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Work-life balance is important when you have many children. I work hard at office or at plant but I forbid myself to work at home. Like that I spend a lot of time with my family, it's very precious for me.

Submitted by shahhoseini on Fri, 06/03/2020 - 06:35

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My job is a modern-work type. This style is acceptable for me but maybe it can be sometimes is boring for my family.

Submitted by Rodrigo Gabriel on Tue, 25/02/2020 - 01:01

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Muy bueno esto! I love!
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Submitted by mehrazin on Sun, 09/02/2020 - 17:38

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Unfortunately its not easy for me to manage work-life balance as my work place is a full service job and it necessitates our presence physically but the modern technology has got helpful advantages with it and that’s a wonderful approach to make us so comfortable and have an easy access to work live whenever we are at weekends or while we are on holiday . I respond the work emails and provide our clients needs via whats app on my mobile phone.

Submitted by lio_2028 on Fri, 24/01/2020 - 16:37

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hmm ..how i can manage my time ? actually as i work as programmer , so i can be work as freelancer so that's should i schedule my time alone ,however i have some restricted time from manager everyday like 5 hours each day, i should finished hours thats what should i do to make business work well.
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Submitted by Smiley1 on Mon, 11/11/2019 - 08:01

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I’m sometimes snowed under and feel stressed, but since I like my job which is enjoyable, I can’t help but control myself and try to strike the balance.
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Submitted by Rafaela1 on Fri, 04/10/2019 - 14:38

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How do you manage your work–life balance? Oh.... it's a tough question for me at the momen! ੈ✩‧₊˚₍ᐢ⸝⸝› ̫ ‹⸝⸝ᐢ₎

Submitted by LKARINAM on Tue, 24/09/2019 - 01:05

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I work nine hours per day, however my boss is flexible with my working hours. He allows me take time for other things like make personal paperwork, travel and other personal moments. I have my mail in my phone and forever I response the important mail of my job no matter the day of the week.