“SPEAKING” (AS A EOI C1 EXAM)

Speaking time: 4-4’30 minutes.

Options

A. Talk about the flexibility of working conditions.

 Working from home vs. working in an office with coworkers

 Having a long commute
 Flexible working hours
 Enjoying a full range of perks

B. Talk about job satisfaction.

 Key factor to finding job satisfaction

 Job satisfaction and gender
 Relationship between job satisfaction and age
 Work life balance in families with children and job satisfaction

C. Talk about telecommuting. Advantages and disadvantages

 Isolation and loneliness

 Distractions
 Flexibility
 Work/life balance

500 words approximately

Due to a current situation marked by the health emergency that has caused a large part
of the population to have been forced to stay at home, society has had to experienced
changes in its daily life. Among them, the work and most concretely: face to face work.

In this way, during the lockdown many questions have arisen about telecommuting, its
virtues, and its failings. Afterwards, I will try to make a general approximation around
this topic.

First, I want to say that a vast percentage of population lives in small flats where the
different home activities are carried out in the same space. For example, during the
lockdown a lot of people has decided to do sport. It is very likely that this activity has
been perfomed in spaces like the living room, the bedroom or even the kitchen. This
fact means that spaces building with a concrete purpose are using for other things. This,
in the working context, may cause some problems. Among them, distractions or
mismatches in the work-life balance.

So, If you do not have a concrete space for work, is probably that while you are
working, for instance, in the living room, you start to think about aspects related to the
space: what movie are you going to see tonight, take a nap on the sofa, for example.
This produce that the worker to be distracted and not know how to differentiate between
work and personal life.

The suppression of concrete spaces for working has caused, so, an expansion of work to
all aspects of our lives. It seems that the schedules do not exist, and we must do things
related to our work all the time. This situation is exemplified to perfection in the case of
woman. Recent and several studies have demonstrated that working women, during the
lockdown, have been harmed by teleworking as they had to work but also take care of
their children. Their work performance has decreased but also their well-being since
they have snowing under with work and home tasks.

It is true, on the other hand, that if the space conditions are favorable, working at home
allows to conciliate work and personal life. You can decide your free time, the changes
of your schedule, is very useful for emergencies, hassle situations and son on. So, in
ideal conditions telecommuting may be a excellent option to conciliate work and private
lives.

Finally, I would like to mention that a job is not only doing a concrete task but also
know people whom you share an aspect of your life. The face to face work allows to
establish relationships and building the feeling of working class. However,
telecommuting removes the social face of work provoking the isolation of the worker.
The worker will start to talk less with his colleagues, a fact that even may rebound in
labor terms. Work should be a place where individual work is combined with teamwork,
developing skills such as active listening, pooling of ideas, debates. Nevertheless, with
the telecommuting these things could be disappear.

Again, I have to say that regarding this issue telecommuting have benefits. You have to
work in a more independent way, I mean, no one is breathing down your neck. I
suppose if you are a worker that likes individual and independent work is a good
solution.

In summary, I find telecommuting an interesting tool, I do not think that this way of
work only have problems but I keen on in a debate that fully analyzes all the aspects
about work at house. We do not see telecommuting as the perfect tool to solve all
existing labor problems.