Work: the Daily Grind We Can't Do Without

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 740.

Pre-reading discussion.

Imagine that you are through with your education and you are going to start work.

1. What would be most important for you:

- financial independence?

- intellectual stimulation?

- a part to play in society?

- a feeling of being valued?

2. Would you like to get a well-paid job which would take up most of your time or would you prefer something easy but, naturally, with a relatively low salary?

3. Would you like to work at home keeping in touch with the office by e-mail?

4. How important do you think work is for older people?

A man dies and finds himself in a palace attended by servants and surrounded by every conceivable luxury. For a week he indulges in all the pleasures he never had the time, the money or opportunity to enjoy when he was alive. Then one evening an angelic butler appears and asks him if everything is to his satisfaction.

‘Perfect,' says the man. ‘But tomorrow I'd like to do something different. Some work, perhaps.'

‘Not possible,' says the angel.

‘Why not?' says the man. ‘This is heaven, isn't it?'

‘No,' says the angel. ‘Quite the reverse, in fact.'

Work might seem like hell but however much we might think we loathe it, our psychological need for work is real. Everyone wants to be valued, and wages and salaries are the hard proof that we matter.

Not any old work qualifies, however. No matter how worthwhile or demanding they might be, child-rearing, housework and voluntary employment tend to be regarded as non-jobs, hardly better than hobbies. In our work-centered culture, a ‘proper' job means paid employment. Being paid for a job is our stake in society. It's good for our self-esteem.

Of course, we would all prefer to work to be useful, interesting and congenial, as well as paid. But you don't have to enjoy your job to derive psychological benefits from it. In fact, our attitude to work is more masochistic. According to psychologist Dr John Harworth, the constraints of a job, such as the need to overcome our own resistance to unenjoyable tasks, actually contribute to our sense of well-being.

The need to be in a particular place at a particular time, working as part of a team towards a common goal, gives us a sense of purpose and structure that we find difficult to impose on ourselves. Also, as the roles of the sexes become blurred, the modern workplace is an arena in which men can assert their identity and where women can create a new one. “I love my husband,” says one female junior executive, “but I have to admit that the office is where I feel most fulfilled.”

Although genuine workaholics are uncommon, many of us are ‘job junkies' without knowing. When we are deprived of work we become irritable, unkempt, lethargic and unable to enjoy the expanse of leisure which, paradoxically, unemployment opens up for us. For people who are made redundant, the plunge into unemployment can be particularly cruel. At a stroke, they have lost their livelihood and the foundation of their lives. To be told you are not needed is bad enough, but it does not end there: you still have to live in a work-driven culture that tends to regard the jobless as outsiders and victims of sloth and incompetence.

Information technology may end up making even the workplace itself redundant. Offices are extremely expensive, a drain not only on company profits but also on the time and energy of employees who spend large parts of the day commuting to and from them. Almost half the British workforce are now employed to process different kinds of information on computers. They don't in fact need an office in order to do their work. All that is necessary is a power outlet, a telephone line and a computer.

Already more than two million British employees are what have come to be known as ‘teleworkers'. Some work from home full-time, keeping in touch with headquarters by email and phone. Others ‘hot desk,' logging on to a time-shared workstation for one or more days a week.

Many employees welcome the break with tradition, claiming that teleworking has improved their lives enormously. ‘I used to spend two hours a day commuting,' says Bridget, an educational consultant with two children. ‘Working from home not only gives me more time for work and for my family, but has allowed us to move out of town – something that was impossible when I was tied to the office.' But though commuting on the information highway may be preferable to sitting in a traffic jam, not everyone has the temperament for it.

A report from Swansea University psychology department came to the conclusion that the ideal teleworker is a self-sufficient and introverted individual. Steve, who works from home as a software designer for a bank, does not fit this profile. ‘I liked the office culture,' he says, ‘the gossip and team spirit. Working from home can make you feel cut off.'

Various employers have reported that teleworking has improved productivity, in some cases by up to 50 per cent, but some of them are discovering the downside. The unsupervised worker may be an unseen ghost in the machine who causes irreparable damage but who goes undetected until it is too late.

Whatever the advantages of teleworking, it is a siren song that neither employers nor workers are likely to resist. After all, we were conditioned to the nine-to-five working day, a routine imposed by convention rather than the particular tasks in hand, and there is no reason we can't be conditioned out of it.

(From ‘Advanced Gold' TB by S.Burgess)

Choose the best answer to the following questions.

1. What does the story given at the beginning of the article imply?

A. It's good to indulge in pleasures.

B. People can't do without work long.

C. Pleasures are boring.

2. Why aren't child-rearing, housework and voluntary employment regarded as ‘proper' jobs?

A. They aren't worthwhile.

B. People don't have to qualify to get such jobs.

C. They are not paid for.

3. By saying ‘our attitude to work is more masochistic' the author of the article means that people

A. derive satisfaction from overcoming resistance to unenjoyable tasks.

B. have to do the work they don't like.

C. are masochistic by nature.

4. Women find work psychologically beneficial because

A. the roles of sexes have become blurred.

B. they love their jobs more than their husbands.

C. at the office they can create a new identity for themselves.

5. Why is unemployment considered particularly cruel to those who are made redundant?

A. They lose the foundation for their lives.

B. People tend to regard those who are made redundant with contempt.

C. Being told we are not wanted is a blow to our self-esteem.

6. How can information technology affect jobs and work?

A. More and more people will be able to work at home.

B. Most people will work with computers.

C. Information technology will help save a lot of money.

7. Some people prefer to become ‘teleworkers' because

A. working from home saves them a lot of time and gives them the freedom they need.

B. it means breaking with tradition.

C. they hate traffic jams.

8. Many people are against working at home because

A. they are not self-sufficient.

B. they love gossip.

C. at home they feel isolated.

9. What disadvantages can teleworking have for some employers?

A. Unsupervised workers can become lazy.

B. Unsupervised workers can damage the equipment.

C. Teleworkers may be unqualified.