ESL WORKSHEET - Four-day week at work

LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS

DOES A FOUR-DAY WORK WEEK WORK?

LinguaHouse
Mar. 1, 2024

Mixed Levels: A2-B1 (Pre-Intermediate) and B1-B2 (Intermediate)
Type of English: Business English
Tags: Business Law; Management; Companies and Jobs; Human Resources (HR); Giving Opinions; 16-18 Years Old; 18+ Years Old; Article Based
Publication date: 03/01/2024

This lesson looks at the idea of a four-day week and the problems and benefits that come with it. Students will read an article on the subject and listen to a podcast with a manager talking about what happened when they introduced a four-day week. Exercises focus on related vocabulary, vocabulary of change, as well as reading and listening skills and offer students the opportunity to discuss questions on the topic. An optional extended activity looks at the difference between the use of would and used to (by Joe Wilson).

• CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in American English (L3).
• CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in American English (L4).
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in American English (L3).
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in American English (L4).
• CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in British English (L3).
• CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in British English (L4).
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in British English (L3).
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in British English (L4).
• CLICK HERE to download/listen to the audios (Am/Br English).

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Host: Good morning and welcome to the podcast. Today, we’re talking to Shaun Edwards - welcome Shaun!
Shaun: Thanks for having me.
Host: Now, Shaun is a team manager at Brodie Industries which switched to a four-day work week last year, is that right, Shaun?
Shaun: Yes, in April.
Host: Great, so you’ve been doing this for over a year now. Why did your company make the decision to switch to a four-day work week?
Shaun: Our senior management team could see that there was a trend towards a four-day work week with other companies in our industry and a growing number of large companies in other industries are doing the same. We wanted to make sure that we offered jobs that would attract the best employees. There was actually a recent survey which showed that 83% of workers in the country wanted to work four days a week, so it’s clearly not something which is going to go away.
Host: So, what were the main difficulties you had to begin with?
Shaun: Our teams are all usually working on projects and each person is an important member of the team. So, to begin with, we had different people having different days off in the week. So, there was always someone who wasn’t there on a particular day and there was nearly always a need for the person who wasn’t there to answer a question! So, it slowed things down a little as a consequence. We kept online records of what everyone was doing, but keeping the records updated and finding the information that was needed when someone wasn’t there produced more work for everyone.
Host: So how did you deal with those difficulties?
Shaun: Most of our projects naturally finish on a Friday because we’re working with other companies who finish then. So due to this, we ended up deciding that we would have everyone in the office Tuesday to Friday. Now we don’t have to worry about tracking what everyone is doing as much, and it has made working together much easier.
Host: What benefits have there been from the four-day work week?
Shaun: First of all, the number of days off that people were taking off sick has dropped. To be honest, I think some people were taking sick days because they were stressed and needed to do things at home. Now it’s much easier for everyone to organize their personal lives with the extra day. Everyone seems to be much more relaxed, I’ve noticed. On Tuesday morning, everyone has had time to spend with family and friends and they’re ready to get their work done. We’ve also expanded the number of people on our team. Because the company is spending much less on energy bills because the office is empty three days per week, we have been able to employ more people and give better service to our customers. This has meant we are actually making more profit than we were when we were working five days a week.
Host: So do you think the change has been positive or negative?
Shaun: It’s definitely been a positive development in how we work, and I don’t think there’s anyone, including myself, who would want to go back to a five-day week. The advice I would give to companies who are planning to do the same is to think very carefully about how it will work. It has to be managed well, because if it’s not, it will feel as though everyone is trying to do the same amount of work in the same amount of time and that won’t be popular with anyone. If you’ve got happy employees, then everyone wins.
Host: Thank you so much for your time today, Shaun. That was really interesting. Next, we’re going to talk to Arif about his experience as an employee… (fade)

Adapted from: https://www.linguahouse.com/esl-lesson-plans/business-english/does-a-four-day-work-week-work. Accessed on March 1, 2024. © 2008–2024 LinguaHouse.com. All rights reserved.