BBC Learnings · Section 2

Life in the modern office

Have you seen my pen, Sam? It's not on my desk.

Level: B2 · 93 sentences

Transcript

  1. Have you seen my pen, Sam?
  2. It's not on my desk.
  3. No, I haven't touched your pen, Neil.
  4. And someone's taken my coffee mug too.
  5. Ever since we started hot desking,
  6. People in this office think they can do whatever they like.
  7. Neil doesn't like the new rule about office hot desking –
  8. the system where workers don't have their own personal desk,
  9. but use any available desk on a temporary basis.
  10. Maybe he should look for another job
  11. and quit the nine to five
  12. a phrase describing jobs which start at 9am
  13. and end at 5pm
  14. the normal hours that people in offices work from Monday to Friday.
  15. Maybe I should quit.
  16. I loved working from home during the pandemic.
  17. No early mornings, no crowded trains and no-one using my pens!
  18. As the Covid pandemic slows down,
  19. more and more people are returning to work in the office.
  20. In this programme, we take a look at life in the modern office.
  21. And of course, we'll learn some useful vocabulary as well.
  22. But first, I have a question for you, Sam.
  23. As you know, I am not an office lover.
  24. Besides disappearing pens,
  25. workers have plenty of other complaints about office life.
  26. from co-workers who never do the washing up to fighting over spaces in the car park.
  27. But according to a 2021 survey by Metro newspaper,
  28. what did British workers vote the worst thing about working in an office?
  29. Was it A, printers not working, B, people speaking too loudly,
  30. or C, co-workers leaving empty milk cartons in the fridge?
  31. I see stealing pens isn't on the list, so I'll say A, printer's not working.
  32. That really makes me mad.
  33. OK, Sam. I'll reveal the correct answer later in the programme.
  34. Nowadays, most modern offices are open plan – large spaces without internal walls dividing them up.
  35. The idea is to create a sense of togetherness,
  36. but many employees prefer having their own space and use all types of objects to mark out their personal territory.
  37. These could be anything from family photos and holiday souvenirs
  38. to homemade cakes and biscuits placed at the end of a desk
  39. to allow people to grab a biscuit and start a conversation.
  40. Researcher Harriet Short travelled around Britain interviewing office workers
  41. about the types of objects they used to decorate
  42. and mark out their workspace.
  43. Here she is telling BBC Radio 4 programme Thinking Aloud
  44. about one young woman
  45. who stuck photos and postcards onto strips of cardboard.
  46. She had created this sort of montage on this strip of paper and would roll it up daily.
  47. She had a little plant as well
  48. and she would take it to whatever desk
  49. she was working at and would pin it up to a sort of low-level desk divider.
  50. And so there's that sense of,
  51. however temporarily they might be in a particular space in the office,
  52. there is still evidence in this research
  53. that people want to feel comfort
  54. and settled and have some sense of familiarity.
  55. The woman Harriet interviewed used photos and postcards to create a montage,
  56. a piece of work made by putting together several different items,
  57. often in interesting combinations.
  58. Her photo montage reminded her of the people and the places she loved outside of work.
  59. For Harriet, this shows that people want workspaces to have a sense of familiarity
  60. the feeling of knowing something so well
  61. that you feel comfortable and relaxed.
  62. Harriet also interviewed hairdressers working in beauty salons about the marks and stains found in their workplace.
  63. Here she tells BBC Radio 4's Thinking Allowed,
  64. about a strangely shaped mark on the floor of one hair salon.
  65. A sort of half moon scuff mark that goes right round the back of the chair.
  66. So literally she's worn out the floor.
  67. It's exactly where a hairdresser would tread for many, many hours of the day.
  68. And she took the photograph and she showed it to me and she said, this is me.
  69. You want to know about identity and it represents a hard graft.
  70. Harriet interviewed a hairdresser whose salon floor had been worn out,
  71. damaged by continual use after being walked on again and again as the woman cut people's hair.
  72. For her, the worn-out floor symbolised hard graft.
  73. or hard work.
  74. Whatever your job, we all spend most of each day at work,
  75. so it's important to have a workplace that's safe,
  76. comfortable and familiar, where people don't steal your pens.
  77. Oh Neil, you sound like the office workers in that newspaper survey.
  78. Yes, let's return to my question, which was,
  79. according to a 2021 Metro newspaper survey,
  80. what is British workers' number one complaint about working in an office?
  81. I guessed it was the printers not working.
  82. Was I right?
  83. You were wrong, I'm afraid.
  84. In fact, the top complaint was people speaking too loudly, another of my pet hates.
  85. OK. Let's recap the vocabulary from this programme
  86. on the 9 to 5
  87. work which happens during normal Monday to Friday office hours.
  88. Hot desking is where office workers do not have their own permanent desk,
  89. but use a different desk each day.
  90. A montage is made by putting together different items in interesting combinations.
  91. A sense of familiarity is a feeling of knowing something so well that you feel comfortable and relaxed around it.
  92. When something is worn out from overuse, it's old or damaged.
  93. And finally, hard graft is a slang phrase meaning hard work.