By 28 [DREADING Ta Do you work at home or do you know anyone who does? Do yourthey enjoy it ‘Tb Homeworkng s generally on the increase, Why do you think that st 2a Read the article and check your answer to Exercise 1b. 2b Read the article again and find the following information, 1 how long Sunjit has lived in England 2 how long Sunjit has been working at home 3 how many people work from home in Britain nowadays 4 areason why employers might encourage hhomeworking sadvantage for an employee of working from home 6 three methods of communication mentioned by Sunjit VOCABULARY: expressions | connected with time and work 3a Match the expressions with their meanings. 1 time-consuming a) organising your time cffectively 2 time management) taking up a lot of time ©) how much time you spend at work and home ¢) use time doing something 3 workstation 4 work-life balance 5 spend time ©) the place in an office where a person works, especially with a computer 3b Complete the text with the words and expressions from Exercise 3a, te got a fulltime job and I'm tired all the time. 1 don’t need to improve my !___ skills as | organise my time efficiently. But Ido have to? __(a fot of) commuting to work and its very 3___ One way I could save time would be to look at homesvorking. My boss might like that as she could reduce the number of |__| could stay in touch with the office by email and phone. I'm not a workaholic. What | want isa better 5__ so | can be with my family more ofthe time. EE) HOMEWORKING ES Working-from-home dream now a reality unfit Patel Isa graphic designer with a well-known. publishing company. He has lived in England since hhe was five, He lives in South London, and: He prefers working from home because he ean spend more time with his family and have a better work-ife balance. Sunjit isn't alone: in Britain, there are 2.1 million people who work from home at present. In addition, about eight mlllion people spend some time working in the home rather than in an office. This is almost twice as many as ten years ago. ‘This rapidly-growing trend towards working from. hhome is the same in many countries. But what are the reasons for i? The main reason is technological easy ‘access to broadband and the availability of phone and video-conterencing, These enable people to use their home as an office in an efficient and cost-effective way. Other reasons for homeworking are the benefits to both employers and employees: office space is costly, so ifan ‘organisation can reduce its workstations, it may be able fo move to a smaller site. Employees often work better at hhome: travelling to work can be very time-consuming and tiring. Many homeworkers save a lot of time if they don't ‘commute and they can start the day fresher and therefore ‘work more efficiently; parents with young children appreciate the flexibility that homeworking allows and are ‘more relaxed. Suni ate 5), SAMA SSHES oe etee ete ‘ean tell ou that homeworking requires special skills like self-discipline and time management, I've known. ‘my boss and colleagues for a ong time now, which really hhelps because you've got to trust each other. You also need to have regular contact, by phone, email or video conferences, and you need to make regular tips to your office. Otherwise you really miss out on the gossip and on’ the social side of work.” Not everyone agrees with Sunyit though. This response ‘to/a query about hhomeworking was recently posted on the Internet: “The only people who can work from home {axe those who do an unnecessary job. Can surgeons work from home? Ambulance drivers? Firefighters? If you car ‘Work from home fulltime, you have a pointless job.’ Fortunately for Sunjit and the 2.1 million ike him, not ‘many people think that way!HOMEWORKING oP PEA 4. Work witha partner to discuss the following. 1 What are he disadvantages of homeworking fom the employers point of view? 2. Would you like 1 work rom home? What would be the athantage/sadvantages for yout 3 Do you agree with the opinion in the last paragraph of the article? GRAMMAR: present perfect continuous 5a Look at the two BIBER sentences in the text. Which of these statements about the present perfect continuous are true? 1 Ibis formed with have/has + been + -ing. 2 Its used to talk about an action that finished a long time ago. 3 ‘tis used to talk about an action that continues to the present 4 tis often used with the time expressions since and for 5b Look again at the highlighted sentences. Complete the rule with for or since. We use __ +a point in time (when the activity started) and + a period of time. Remember that we do not usually tse state verbs in the continuous form eg. be know understand Language reference and extra practice, pages 138-139 5c White sentences using the present perfect continuous, unless it is not possible to use the verb in the continuous. Use since and for when. appropriate 1 Cristina / work as a designer / she graduated. Cristina has been working as a designer since she graduated. 2 1/ know Yukiyo / six months. 3. How long/ Mohamed / study engineering at university? 4 Fuat live in Istanbul / he got a job there. 5 Marianna / work at home / two years. 6 1/not live here / very long, 7 JiFtyun / understand the problem / yesterday morning 8 Mark nd Julie / teach / same college /a ye [LUsTENING 6a FEB Listen to five people talking about working {rom home. What is each person's job? 6b Listen again. How long has each person been ‘working from home? Do they lik do they give? 7 Complete the extracts with the present perfect simple or present perfect continuous of the verbs in the box. be take leam live work (2) translate pay 1 from Italian to English for most of my career. 2 from home for 12 years, since my frst child was born 3 ___a lot more for heating. 4 from home as a website designer since | left my Tast job in 2004. guitar lessons for the last six months. a new language since January. abroad for five years. (never) 8a HED Correcting politely Listen to this short dialogue. Underline the main stress in what B says. 4: So you've been working in Shanghai for six months? 1: No, actually 've been working in Shanghai for two ‘months 5 6 iz 8 a moming person. ‘Bb Listen again and repeat the dialogue with a partner. Then practise some more dialogues. Student A; turn to page 158. Student tum to page 161 SPEAKING 9 Work with a partner. Talk about things you've been doing for some time, using since and for 1"ve been revising for my exams since Monday and I ‘haven't been sleeping properly. m really tired atthe ‘moment. So far, Pve revised English and Arabic. (vem ERD 25