Answer — Exercise 8
9 - Out of the office·Outcomes Advanced - Student's Book
Question
Listen again. Then work in pairs and answer the questions.
Answer
- one in three mid-week visitors to a UK theme park had phoned in sick, employees spend 8.3 hours a week accessing non-work-related websites, 24% (of working Americans) said they had fallen asleep at their desk, in a toilet or at a meeting. Bolchover’s point is that we slack (are lazy) in the workplace and nobody wants to do anything about it.
- the conspiracy is that it suits both sides to keep quiet – workers have no vested interest in saying they do nothing, and businesses don’t want to say they’re inefficient – they want to maintain their image of being highly efficient.
- Because workers feel a disconnection with big companies. Unlike with small companies, employees don’t see how their small contributions fit into the whole picture
- Bolchover suggests breaking up large companies into smaller competitive units so that workers can see how failure to pull their weight can directly impact on colleagues and the company.