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 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
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.
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.
I usually try as much as possible to set specific times for my outings, hobbies, doing exercises ahead. Sometimes, it works out. other times it doesn't. In that case I try to compensate the activities I have missed later.
I have started in my career path with managing work-life balance. Probably I think it is really important to handle your ordinary life with work-life balance. I think family stand firstly everyone rather than work and anything.
I have never tried any serious job due to my age - I am only eighteen thus I have just started my university study. But sometimes it is easy to observe something common between these two distinct stages of life. For example in Russia you must always stick to timetables and strict rules. You have lots of commitments and if you once appear to be behind schedule many difficulties are expected. So ,as your work? studying requires you to be in charge of your personal success which you are to use to build decent career ladder. As for me, I don't distinguish my studying and my personal life because I believe It helps me to maintain my well-being. Someone might say that such a lifestyle oblige a man to turn life into immortal abstruse studying but If you are able to deal with routine duties without repudiating happiness and satisfaction from education you precisely will remain easygoing for entire life
I've just started my job at a very important position in a company. I don't have a work-life balance because I have to reach many goals in a short period of time to drive sales.
I usually take a day off just on Fridays.
Well, I scheduled everything that I will do it Godwilling.
I try to don't have dead time. I work, exercise and when I am free I do something like studying, being with my family and friends. I try to make a balance in my life.
I'm student at University of Medicine. You know, I must study hard about medicine. Social life is important for me. For instance; playing tennis, walking, cycling, dancing and being with friends and family. I try to finde all of things. They are supporting to me for studying. I am good at scheduling. I think, I have to that. :)