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The World of Jobs

Speak out

1. Describe the working environments in the pictures.
2. What are advantages and disadvantages of working in each place?
3. Describe your ideal work place.

Task 1.

a) Look at the picture story and match sentences with each picture.

b) Reproduce the story looking at the pictures.

Task 2. Read the text.

Are you happy with your work-life balance?

Although majority of people say that they work “for the money”, salary isn’t actually the only thing that they think about. Recently, re- search has shown that people consider many different factors to be of importance when they make their career choice. A worldwide survey of students showed that after graduation they would be looking for jobs that allowed them  to balance their personal lives with their work lives, so it’s not always a full-time job. They are ambitious and optimistic about their career prospects, and look at their working future in a different way to their parents.

For example, Katsuro works as a shop as- sistant in one of big supermarkets in Japan. He says: I work part-time and I am fully satisfied

with my life. I’ve chosen a lifestyle that gives me enough money and quite a lot of free time. But my father, on the other hand, works more than 70 hours a week for a car company. Sometimes he has to work night shifts. I think, it’s madness. Lots of Japanese people do overtime. There’s an expression in Japanese, karoshi, which means “to die because you work too hard”. A lot of people in Japan get ill or die because they work too much. I think my generation is different. We don’t want our lives to be ruled by work. I work a few hours a day and get good wages. I spend the rest of my time seeing my friends and playing baseball.

It’s not just the younger generation who think like this either. There has been an increase in the number of middle-aged employees who are moving away from highly-paid executive positions into less stressful jobs.

David is a project manager for a big software company in the USA. He says: Work con- ditions in our company are great. Our office is in a park zone; there’s no dress code. Also there’s a canteen and a gym. So the staff don’t have to worry about their lunch and can regularly keep fit. But personally I’m not satisfied with my work-life balance at all. I work overtime – at least 50 or 60 hours a week. So I don’t have much time for myself or to see my children. I communicate with my wife by leaving messages on the fridge. We almost don’t see each other because we work different hours. Our work gets extremely stressful when we have deadlines – sometimes I and my team even skip our lunch. A few weeks ago I missed my son’s birthday because it was another project deadline. I earn а lot of money but I don’t have enough time for my private life. Is it worth it? I want to live for myself not when I retire but now.

Task 3. Answer the following questions.

1. Why not many young people want to have a full-time job?
2. What does the Japanese phrase ‘karoshi’ mean?
3. What is the difference between young and old generation in Japan, according to Katsuro?
4. What are the working conditions in David’s company?
5. Is David satisfied with his work-life balance? Why?
6. How does David’s work harm his family life?
7. Which of the two situations is more typical for your country?
8. Would you prefer a part-time or a full-time job?

Task 4. Match the words to their definitions.

Task 5. Complete the text with the given words.

Nowadays in many countries around the world there is not enough __________ for every- body and many people are looking for a __________. If they are lucky enough to find one it is often __________ (only a few hours a day) not full time, or it is a               job (only for a few months) not a permanent one. Many jobs involve working long __________ and often the working__________ (e.g. salary, holidays) are not good. To get a good job, it’s important to have __________e.g. a university degree)  and some __________.