ESL WORKSHEET - Jobs and Business

LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS

REMOTE WORK AND MONEY

LinguaHouse
Mar. 2, 2023

Level: Pre-Intermediate (A2-B1)
Type of English: Business English
Tags: Business People; Companies and Jobs; Desk Work; Money and Finance; Banking and Finance; Describing a Job; Jobs; Developing an Argument; 16-18 Years Old; 18+ Years Old; Vocabulary Lesson
Publication date: 03/02/2023

This lesson looks at the vocabulary around distance working (working from home and remote working) as well as the financial vocabulary needed for employees in that situation to reclaim expenses. Exercises focus on reading and listening skills and provide students with the opportunity to discuss questions on the subject (by Joe Wilson).

• CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download/listen to the audio in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in British English.
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in British English.
• CLICK HERE to download/listen to the audio in British English.

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Speaker 1: Obviously, people have been working from home for a long time. I’m in the publishing business and I usually work from home two to three days a week. I find I can concentrate a lot better out of the office, especially if I’ve got a lot of reading to do, and I need to prepare for meetings. It’s just me and my dog, so it’s a pretty relaxed environment. Remote working seems to have become more popular in the last ten years. I still commute to the office and I’m available for online meetings when I’m at home. But with remote work, you might live in a different part of the country or even a different country completely and never go to the office at all. I have a friend who works remotely for a company based in Germany and he’s never met any of his colleagues in person, but he talks to them every day. Personally, I like the mixture of quiet at home and getting to see people in person in the office. I’d get too lonely working remotely.
Speaker 2: I’ve been working remotely for the last three years now and I think it creates more possibilities for your life. It’s quite exciting, I think. First of all, I can live where I want. I really like hiking and mountain biking, so I can live out in the country and don’t need to live close to an office in a town or city and deal with a commute every day. That time you would spend on commuting you can invest in your personal life, so I think it’s a lot better for your welfare. I usually start work around 7 am because I just need to wake up and make a coffee and I’m ready to go. But you can bet I’m going to be ready to go out for a walk or get out on my bike at 4. If I’m particularly busy, I can work a little more at night. Plus, there are so many remote working opportunities now that I feel as though my prospects have improved. I work in software development, so if I decide to get a different job, a new company will know that once they hire me, I can start working straight away. I don’t have to go and find out where everything is in the office or get keycards or any of that stuff. I can just focus on the work.
Speaker 3: For my company, it makes sense to offer remote work as a possibility because it means I don’t have limitations on where I can employ people from. If you need people to come to an office, then you’re mostly going to be choosing people who live in your own country, or just in the city or town where you live. Obviously, people can move, but then you’ve got to work out how long that will take and you may need to provide expenses, etc. If I allow remote working, I can employ people from almost anywhere – and I don’t have to worry about finding them a desk and all the expense that comes with having an office to run. Also, to be honest, I think people are a lot more productive when they’re in their own homes. In an office, there are a lot of meetings and a lot of chats. It’s very easy for people to do very little work. When people are working at home, it’s much easier for them to engage in the work that they’re doing without distractions.

Adapted from: https://www.linguahouse.com/esl-lesson-plans/general-english/snack-for-success. Accessed on March 15, 2023. © 2008–2023 LinguaHouse.com. All rights reserved.