Fill in the gaps in the article extracts with the words in bold below:

 

mirror                   catch up on                     turnover               prompted

efficiency    reduction              attend         obligations           eye-opener

 

(…) A global pandemic that 1. ………. many Americans to reassess the role of work in their lives has many organizations giving more weight to balance, mental health and burnout—whether that be with tools like AI assistants or new policies for time off. I chatted this week with the coaching company Exos about the results of their four-day workweek pilot, and how it’s helped employees. Note: They don’t call Fridays “off” days, but “you do you” days—the one rule is no interacting with coworkers, whether in email or meetings. (…)
At Exos, a fitness and coaching firm, the majority of employees work four days and then have what the company calls a “You Do You” Day—one where they can take time off, 2. ………. work, or 3. …….. to personal matters. (…)
Of course, Exos’ four-day week pilot helps 4. ………. the company’s approach to well-being coaching, which promotes the idea of employees taking time for “strategic recovery”—whether for their bodies or their minds—when trying to improve their fitness or leadership skills. (…)
(…) Exos measured its results (…) —and found real benefits that 5. ……….. what other research supporting four-day workweeks have shown. Following the addition of “You Do You Fridays,” for instance, Exos says 91% of workers think their time is spent effectively at work, compared with 64% before the pilot.
Meanwhile, they report seeing a 34-point 6. ……….. in the percentage of employees who felt burnout at least some of the time, falling from 70% before the pilot to 36% after. (7. ………. rates also fell, though it’s worth noting the period overlapped with a cooling hiring market.)
“Flexibility in how you get your work done has been a real 8. ……… ,” says Hill. “We realized the world had changed. We felt like a lot of the conversation around this idea of more condensed work, and more intentional recovery … we realized there isn’t a choice.”
Hill says Exos has been able to make the four-day week arrangement work by focusing on “readiness” in their culture and taking intentional breaks. Exos encouraged “microbreaks” by limiting meetings to 25 or 50 minutes, and worked on improving meeting agendas and goals to boost 9. ……… . It also pushed for Tuesdays and Thursdays to be dedicated to meetings, while gearing Mondays and Wednesdays to individual work to help people avoid the “task switching” that can slow productivity.
When it comes to Fridays, workers don’t necessarily spend it on the beach—they can take it off, of course, or use it for family 10. ……….., or catch up on work. “It could be doing a lot of independent work, it could be time with your family,” Hill says. “Our rule is you can’t engage with your coworkers” (…).

 

In order to read the whole article/check your answers, go to: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenamcgregor/2024/04/01/four-day-workweeks-include-you-do-you-days-at-this-company/?sh=4ea1cb225535

Key: 1. prompted; 2. catch up on; 3. attend; 4. highlight; 5. mirror; 6. reduction; 7. turnover; 8. eye-opener; 9. efficiency; 10. obligations

 

Glossary

• to get behind – to endorse or support
• roster – a list of people’s names, often with the jobs they have been given to do
• to gear – to make something ready or suitable for a particular purpose

 

Practice makes perfect

Read the first 5 paragraphs of the article:

https://hbr.org/2023/12/how-to-actually-execute-a-4-day-workweek

and answer the questions below:

1. How does the number of job applicants change when the word “remote or hybrid” is put into the job description?

2. In which sectors are job posts advertising a four-day workweek most commonly seen?

3. What percentage of companies adopted the policy of a four-day workweek as a permanent change in 2022?

4. What beneficial changes were noticed by all the companies participating in the pilot program?

5. What challenges did the program pose for Rivelin Robotics?

 

Fill in the sentence gaps with the words in bold below. Make sure you use the right form of verbs.

 

prompt                 get behind            eye-opener          

turnover                         gear                       mirror

1. If the top management team doesn’t ………. this project, it’s never going to work.

2. Colleges are not always ………. to the needs of their students.

3. Japan’s recession has ……….. consumers to cut back on buying cars.

4. In fact, the book and the show closely ………. each other.

5. For me, the visit was a real ……….. .

6. The large number of temporary contracts resulted in a high …………. of staff.

 

Key: 1.get behind; 2. geared; 3. prompted; 4. mirror; 5. eye-opener; 6. turnover

 

Explore more to create your own teaching-learning experience!

 

The Case for a 4-Day Work Week

Watch:

 

 

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