BBC Learning English
6 Minute English Workaholism
Kate: Hello, I’m Kate Colin and this is 6 Minute English. Today I'm here with Jackie
and we’re talking about people who work too much.
Jackie: Hi Kate, yes most of us spend the majority of our lives at work and our
working patterns can vary widely ( широко различаться). Some people 'clock-watch' all day (смотрят на часы), waiting for the moment when they can leave and go home, while others voluntarily (добровольно) do unpaid overtime (неоплачиваемая переработка) spending many evenings and weekends at work. They find it difficult to stop and can't help thinking about work even when they're supposedto be relaxing at home (должны отдыхать дома). It's similar to an addiction and is sometimes called workaholism.
Kate: What about you? Jackie?Do you think you're in danger of becoming a workaholic?
Jackie: Oh, no, I think, that’s very unlikely. I like my social life too much.
Kate: Before we go any further, here's my question for this week.
In the UK, how many hours are in the standard working week?
a) 20
b) 40
c) 60
Jackie: Well, I’d like to say 20, but I think it’s actually 40.
Kate: OK – we'll check your answer later on.
We'd all like to have the right work-life balance. Can you tell me what this means?
Jackie: Well, a work-life balance means to get the right combination of working and
enjoying our personal life, spending time with friends, relaxing, playing sport
etc. Technology plays a big part in disrupt ing (нарушать) many people's work-life balance
because when we have mobile phones and laptops, we are able to work all the
time, wherever we are (где бы ни находились).
Kate: Now we're going to hear from a former workaholic who worked as a lawyer in the City of London and had no work-life balance. How many hours would he sometimes be required to work a day, and what were the effects of doing this?
You may have a 2/3 month period where you're working, I don’t know, 18-20 hours a day. You spend all of your conscious hours (сознательные часы) in the office. One (человек) is physically tired as in that you're not getting enough sleep. Generally in those periods, eating becomes a secondary issue as well.
Jackie: He said that sometimes he would be require d (требовать) to work up to 20 hours a day!
Unsurprisingly, his symptoms were tiredness (усталость) and the physical effects which come with not eating properly as he said eating becomes a secondary issue (вторичный вопрос).This means that it becomes less important than something else.
Kate: Now listen to what else he has to say. He uses the expression the norm. This means that something is normal and we use it describe standard behavior (поведение). What does he say is the norm.
In that environment the vast majority of your colleagues are working as hard as you, so you're just used to operating in that type of culture, it's seen as the norm. You start thinking that
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late hours or having to work the weekends is standard practice, to be expected - nothing special. Most large city institutions I think expect burn out (большинство городских учреждений ожидают, что на работе работники будут сгорать).
Jackie: He said that as most of his colleagues were working as hard as he was, he started to think that working in the evenings and at weekends were the norm and to be expected. Doing that was nothing special.
Kate: He also uses the term burn out. What does this mean?
Jackie: To burn out is a term we use to describe the experience of long-term physical
and emotional exhaustion (истощение), usually work-related. People in certain professions
are apparently more likely to experience burn out (люди определенных профессий вероятнее всего горят на работе), such as lawyers, or city workers as well as soldiers and emergency service workers (работники аварийных служб).
Kate: In this final clip, he mentions the emotional problems that come from overwork. What does he say they are?
1) frustration (разочарование ) – that you literally (буквально) spend your entire life working 2) anxiety (тревога) – when you're that busy, it's very hard to switch off (переключиться). And 3) terrible feelings about where your life is going and whether there's more to life than this. (есть ли в жизни чего-то больше, чем это)
Jackie: He said the emotional burdens are frustration, when you worry you are
spending all your life working, and anxiety, when hard to switch off and relax and
terrible feelings of wondering (думая) if there's more to life than that.
Kate: So it seems there are a lot of physical and emotional problems that come from
working too hard. Now we're going to hear from a psychologist (психолог) called Oliver
James. You'll hear the word productivity (производительность труда) – this means the level of output (уровень отдачи на работе) that you can achieve (достичь) within a certain time. For example, if you are a productive person you manage (удается) to do a lot. He's going to talk about why there are good
reasons (причины) why we should stop people from working too hard. What are they?
Workaholism definitely (определенно) doesn't make for higher productivity and many studies have shown that. All that happens is that people spend a lot of time working ineffectually (неэффективно) so they get very tired (устают), people become less creative, they become more obsessional ( помешанный, маниакальный ), more bogged down ( увязший в работе).
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Jackie: He said that workaholism doesn't actually make for higher productivity. He said
that all that happens is that people spend a lot of time working ineffectually so they get very tired, less creative and they become more obsessional, more bogged down.
Kate: When are people most productive?
The most productive work is done when people don't work long hours, when they have