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

Exercise

Task 2

Exercise

Discussion

How do you manage your work–life balance?

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Language level

B1 Intermediate

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Firstly I must say to establish work-life balance is not very easily theme. Particularly in the traditional work places, if you desire to fix your work hours, it will be misunderstood. I mean, when your working hours is over , however you may still look at chef's face to leave. How can I manage? I think you can adjust your working hour if you have a good relationship with boss and there is a trust between you and your boss. You must induce your chef to your arriving to the house doesn't mean that you will lost with your job. You can follow your important documents and your interviews.

Now I'm not working but when I was, I used to spend all day working less sundays and holidays, when I got home I just ate and went straight to bed netflix music and sleep.

During COVID-19, it's a challenge to strike the balance between personal life and work at a home.... :|

I don't have job for now, so I’m trying to spare all day focus in studies, but sometimes I don’t feel really focus and that put me angry, I prefer modern workplaces but sometimes that kind of works at the end require more time because is based on results and not just go to the office and work doing the same every days.

I hope I would follow in Traditional workplaces because I prefer running at weekends and in the day I have fixed working hours. Modern workplaces can be used by others I hope flexible working hours would be fine for students because they can manage their time, or even at weekends or while the holiday you could work.

I manage my work-life balance by spending about 12 hours for work and sleep about 12 hours per day. A good work-life balance, isn't it? ;)

It can be said that in these times it is very difficult since we are in a peculiar situation but we have to take what we have and find what to do to enjoy our time to relax.