AN INTERVAL SCHEME

Bob has been behaving strangely lately. Actually, everyone in his

company has been behaving in an unusual way. They have been upbeat
more often and complaining less often. That is all because two weeks
ago the board of the bosses implemented a new rule: an average
working day should last 8,5 hours. But this working day should include
from 2 to 4 obligatory intervals (60 minutes all in all).

Why so many? The managers have read some research which says that
that the more breaks you take the more efficiently your brain works
and the more you are likely to come up with good ideas. Also, when
you have breaks you stop thinking of work problems, and start thinking
about more pleasant things – you can call your friends, family, you can
chat with your colleagues over a cup of coffee or – you can relax in a
newly opened relax-room. Yes, Bob’s company provides its workers
with relax-rooms – two per floor.

There are two kinds of relax-rooms: a quiet room and a fun room.
Quiet rooms are furnished with beds, comfortable sofas, armchairs,
hammocks as well as books to read and music to listen – in headsets
of course. Fun rooms provide entertainment such as: darts, TV,
billiards or a punchbag (helpful in releasing your stress).

The employers have decided that their workers’ performance will be

better when they work less than the regular 8 hours and take more
breaks. The breaks make them fresh and less anxious. This
accelerates the pace of work. In result, the employees perform the
same tasks as before in a little shorter time. So the company is not losing its precious time. The employees
have to stay longer on the company’s premises, but on the other hand their working hours are shorter than
they used to be and they don’t get stuck in one place for longer than 3-4 hours.

So far so good, but how long will it continue to be a success? How long
will it be before the workers become bored or start overusing the
intervals?

According to the text…

1. What is the benefit of having so many intervals?

2. Why do you think there are two types of rooms? Which would you visit more often?

What can be dangerous about the quiet room?

3. Does it pay off for the employers to let their employees work only 7,5 hours?

4. Would you like to be made to work in this manner?

5. Can you foresee any other problems that might occur with the interval scheme?
 EXERCISE 1 Match the words from the columns to make expressions

accelerate anxious
implement a task
on the company’s stress
get stuck in the office / in a traffic jam / at work
perform premises
feel / be new ideas /rules
release the pace of work

EXERCISE 2 Match synonymous expression

1. Accelerate a) a break
2. Implement b) set sth free, get rid of sth
3. On the premises c) make sth faster
4. an interval d) use sth too much
5. get stuck e) cheerful, energetic
6. beneficial f) be profitable, be worth doing
7. anxious g) valuable
8. per form h) possession (land + buildings)
9. release i) happen, show up
10. upbeat j) be trapped
11. occur k) bringing advantages
12. precious l) do
13. pay off m) worried+stressed
14. overuse sth n) introduce, start

EXERCISE 3 Substitute the underline part of the sentences with a synonymous expression.

1. Pregnant women shouldn’t drink too much coffee.

2. When she was driving a country road, her car got trapped in mud.
3. It was a good idea to work more on Friday. Now I have all weekend free.
4. We were amazed to see that finally the first rose showed up in our garden.
5. Our boss introduced a new stupid rule: no personal calls at work.
He was too afraid we would call our families too much from our business cell phones.
6. You can make your learning process faster if you read books in English.
7. How many breaks do you have at work?
8. Why are you so stressed and worried?
9. This change in the system turned out profitable for the company.
10. It wasn’t worth buying this watch. It broke down after a week.
11. How do you get rid of stress?
12. We had only three tasks to do but we didn’t manage to complete them on time because some problems
happened.
13. She’s an energetic and positive person, isn’t she?
SPEAKING

1. which duties at home do you perform daily?

2. how do you release stress?

3. what food is beneficial for your health?

4. What will you do if snow occurs tomorrow?

5. what do you overuse?

6. when are you most upbeat?

7. when are you anxious?

8. when you drive a car – do you prefer upbeat or calm music?

9. what is the most precious object you possess?