BUSINESS NEWS LESSONS

Keep work emails within working hours

1 Warmer

a. Living in an age of advanced technology and immediate communication has made it simple
for work contacts, clients and customers to reach us at any time of day or night.

•  ow could keeping employees within easy reach at all hours of day and night benefit a company
H
and how could it prove to be a hindrance?

• Do any of these advantages and disadvantages also apply to the employee?

• Does your employer contact you outside of working hours?

• How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed that?

2 Key words

a. Read the definitions and complete the sentences with key words found in the article.

1. became much larger (1) Adam was delighted with the productivity of his team and to reward them

for sealing the deal with a new client, he treated them all to a lunch

from a top-rated burger bar.

2. not able to speak or to make a sound (3) Live recordings are a great way for enterprises to

connect with their audiences over social media, but it is essential to

devices and ensure noise doesn’t disrupt the flow of the presenters.

3. preventing you from concentrating on something (4) Hans was trying to concentrate on writing the

sales forecast, but all he could hear was the sound of Janine tapping

her fingernails on the desk and sighing.

4. the mental and physical condition of having no energy left, or becoming ill after a period of very

hard work (6) She had been trusted to care for the mental wellbeing of her colleagues and a major

aspect of her position was to note signs of and assess the level of
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work her colleagues were facing.

5. someone who answers questions, especially on a questionnaire or for an opinion poll (6) The PR

team were horrified to read a comment from one suggesting that the

company’s leading cleaning product contained a toxic ingredient.

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6. groups of numbers that represent facts or that describe situations (7) If the

are to be believed, people are moving out of cities in record numbers,

keen to escape the confines of the concrete jungle and swap it for open green spaces.

7. extra hours that someone works at their job (7) Sick of putting in long hours of

, she decided to hand in her notice and spend more time at home with

the children while her partner continued to work full time.

8. something new and unusual (9) Salted caramel brownies and red velvet cake were very popular

desserts that emerged in the last decade, but the picture-worthy treat

currently kicking up a storm on social media channels is avocado ice cream.

9. total number of people who work in particular companies, industries or areas (10) Many

have found themselves on the frontline and are expecting a significant

pay rise once we emerge from this pandemic.

10. describing something in a way that makes it seem better, worse, larger, more important etc than

it really is (12) The report found that they had significantly their tax

contributions and that they were liable to pay hundreds of thousands in tax payments.

11. an abbreviation of a longer word meaning the science and technology of sending information by

telephone, radio, or television (13) Several companies are competing

for the biggest market share, but only one is clearly outrunning the rest when it comes to

super-fast internet connections.

12. to stop the telephone or computer connection between people (14) He found it impossible to

from work when he was on holiday, but his wife decided she had had
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enough of interruptions and deliberately removed the laptop from their suitcase.
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 BUSINESS NEWS LESSONS
We should pull the plug on pointless
after-hours emails
IN A BURNOUT EPIDEMIC, THE RIGHT TO SWITCH OFF IS NEEDED MORE THAN EVER
BY PILITA CLARK
1 Imagine buying a supersized, sugar-soaked tub of
peanut butter ice-cream and finding a message on
the label headed: “Ten top tips to lose weight.”
2 If you think tip one could well be, “Give up peanut
butter ice-cream”, then you do not think like Tim
Cook, the boss of Apple.
3 Last week, Apple announced its iPhones would soon
have a “powerful tool” called Focus to better manage
the blizzard of bleeps and pings that can make both
concentration and relaxation hopelessly hard. Users
will be able to muzzle Twitter if busy at work or mute
work emails on the weekend.
4 Or they could do something even more effective: turn
the distracting device right off or delete its attention-
sapping apps. Apple would of course prefer you did
neither, since it makes money from both its App store
and from selling iPhones. But you can see why it is
keen to look as if it is doing something to quell the
digital din.
5 A draining, always-on work culture was a problem
before the pandemic and has worsened
considerably since.
6 We are in the middle of a “burnout epidemic”,
according to Jennifer Moss, a US workplace
expert who co-authored a survey of workers in
46 countries last year. Most said work was getting
worse, she wrote in the Harvard Business Review.
As one respondent said: “Emails start at 5:30am
and don’t end until 10pm, because they know you
have nowhere else to go. For single people with
no families it’s worse, because you don’t get to say,
‘I need to go take care of my kids’.”
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7 Those words are backed up by official statistics in the
UK showing people working from home last year put
in six hours of unpaid overtime a week on average,
compared with 3.6 hours for those who never worked
at home.
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8 Considering homeworking is here to stay
post-lockdowns, in part because many employees
want it, that spells trouble. Long working hours
kill hundreds of thousands of people a year, a
groundbreaking World Health Organization study
said last month. More than 55 hours work a week
can be risky, it found.
9 No wonder governments around the world are
facing rising pressure to give workers something
long considered a suspect novelty — the right to
disconnect.
10 This is spreading faster than one might think, and
not just in docile, white collar workforces. Police
in the Australian state of Victoria recently won the
right to switch off after hours in what their employee
association said was the first deal of its kind for a
law enforcement agency. People were “sick of feeling
like they’re on duty 24/7”, and needed a chance to
rest and recover, the association said. Too many
after-hours work messages were trivial or could
easily wait.
11 Ireland brought in a code of conduct on the right to
disconnect in April and Canada is looking at a similar
move, as are other nations. 
12 This is good. Fears that such measures will stifle
employers’ flexibility are exaggerated. “It’s not about
nine-to-fiveism,” says Andrew Pakes, research
director at the UK’s Prospect union, which is pushing
for disconnection rights. “It doesn’t mean people
will say, ‘It’s 5.02pm so I’m not going to answer that
email’.” Nor does it mean a blanket, one-size-fits all
approach is needed. That’s not what happened in
France, where a law requiring companies with more
than 50 staff to negotiate agreements on how best to
switch off has been in place for more than four years.
13 Workers at the Orange telecoms company in France
do not have to answer work messages on the
weekend, days off or evenings — or when doing
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training, a spokeswoman said. At other companies,
workers returning from vacation can spend a full
day catching up on what they missed without having
to deal with clients or internal meetings, said Alex
Sirieys, international sector head at France’s FO-Com
trade union.
14 Sirieys says not all disconnect policies are perfect.
“It depends on the will of the CEO,” he told me last
week. Success also relies on workers and managers
simply talking to each other, he added, and using le
bon sens, or common sense. Either way, the ability to
switch off always made a lot of sense and never more
so than it does right now.

Pilita Clark, 13 June 2021.

© The Financial Times.
All rights reserved.
Articles republished from the Financial Times.
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3 Understanding the article

a. Are these statements about the article correct? Tick (✓) the correct statements.

1. Labels on tubs of peanut butter ice cream offer dieting advice and enable customers to lose
weight as well as enjoy their favourite treat.

2. Apple is rebranding its famous iPhone, providing several impressive new functions and giving the
newest model the more memorable name: Future Focus.

3. Apple is making it easier for iPhone users to mute notifications from Twitter and their email,
allowing them to concentrate on work without distraction.

4. The pandemic has pushed people to work even harder, with workers in the US claiming that they
receive emails earlier and later in the day, making it hard to switch off outside of working hours.

5. Companies are focusing on staff with families, suspicious that they are allowing themselves to
become distracted by their children and demanding that they work longer hours than single staff.

6. Despite longer working hours, staff want working from home to become a regular occurrence once
the pandemic has ended and businesses have headed back to the office.

7. The World Health Organization has found that working longer than 25 hours a week leads to
higher levels of stress and negatively impacts on workforce productivity.

8. Canadian police officers working in Vancouver have won the right to disconnect after working
hours and this trend is spreading across the country.

9. Andrew Pakes suggests that disconnection rights won’t result in pedantic behaviour and employees
won’t take the new rules to mean they must shut off a few minutes past the end of the working day.

10. France has introduced several switch off rules that vary across companies, including not answering
emails during training or on the weekends and being able to catch up after taking leave.

4 Business Language

a. Add the words and phrases from the word pool to the correct column in the table.

epidemic    bleeps and pings    burnout    lose weight

mute    muzzle    pandemic    switch off
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Communication Health
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5 Business Language

a. Match the prefix with its meaning.

1. co- a. occur after the stated event or time

2. dis- b. do the opposite of the stated action

3. post- c. collaborate to do something

b. Complete the book review with the words in the wordpool.

co-authored    co-produced    disconnected    disinterested
disorientated    post-pandemic    post-publication

Business Essentials for Entrepreneurs

REVIEW BY JOHANNA BOND

This book needs to be in the bag of every retail entrepreneur! Take this book on every journey with
you and you are going to succeed in business!

Bianca Skinsdale and Ikram Omar’s (a) pocket-sized guide to modern

business helps you to navigate a huge variety of complex markets. Whether you are thinking of
launching a new e-commerce app, opening a physical boutique or manning a market stall, they will
help you to think outside the box and make your business unique.

I expected there to be a major focus on launching online businesses, but they still gave ample
attention to physical sales locations, highlighting the fact that these stores will make a big comeback
(b)  , when shoppers will hit the high street again. This was ideal for me, as
I’m focusing on how to set up a pet grooming salon in a city centre and want to know how to develop
the shop floor to capture people’s attention and add to their glamorous experience. I’m going to be
developing my own pet hair products which will be (c) with a well-known
brand that is already established in the human grooming market.

I already have my premises, which are a little tricky to navigate from the street! The alleyway beside the
building is easy to miss and I had been planning to add a sign at the front of it, pointing in the direction of
the salon. But a friend got lost trying to find me and after reading the book, I knew I had to put extra effort
into making it easy to find and ensuring that clients won’t be (d)  . Skinsdale
and Omar emphasise that if clients can’t find you easily, it will be very off-putting and you will lose
valuable custom.
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After reading the chapter on location, I understood that I needed to make a few adjustments. My
sign would be helpful, but I needed to add some more further up the alleyway. I also needed to add
a map and directions to my website and social media accounts. I got a new mobile phone just for
work and will keep it on the desk – this will allow customers to call if they are having trouble and I’ve
set up a direct debit to cover the bills for any outgoing calls. It’s very important work phones don’t
get (e) or your customers could think you’ve shut down! And lastly but
most importantly – I needed to make sure I showed up on Google maps as this is how most of my
customers will try to locate me. This advice was invaluable – all of my friends have found me easily
after making these changes!
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The chapter describing promotion was also really helpful and I was shocked to find how many different
approaches you can take. Personally, I am (f) in using print materials for
promotion, as many unsuitable customers will throw them away immediately and this is bad for
the environment. The exploration of ways to use social media to create a following and gain more
customers was excellent though and I think every modern entrepreneur will gain a lot from this section
of the book.

I would only make one recommendation for (g) edits and that is for the
authors to write more of a biography so that readers can see which kinds of businesses they have
personally developed. It would be great to get to know their personal stories and how this relates
to the production of the book. But that is the only criticism! Get a copy of this book and watch your
entrepreneurial career take off with a bang!

6 Discussion Questions

a. Discuss these questions.

• How could employers reduce employee distraction caused by staff communication during working
hours? What kind of allowances could be made to improve this?

• Switch off rules introduced by companies are an example of employee wellbeing initiatives. What
types of adjustments are becoming commonplace in your own country to support staff wellbeing
and encourage better work-life balance?

• Both single employees and those with families have a right to enjoy time away from work. How
might each of these workforce demographics face a busy schedule in their personal lives? Are
there any significant similarities or differences between the two?

7 Wider business theme – Effective communication

a. Read the scenario description and complete the task in pairs.

You are a senior manager working for a legal publishing house in the UK. You publish legal books,
journals and online information designed to help lawyers and legal practitioners access the correct
information to help them do their jobs. You are planning to launch a new website that will enable your
customers to reach legal information easily and make their jobs faster and easier.

To help you recreate content to work well online, you are going to enlist the support of an offshore
team of editors to increase productivity and reduce costs. They will help you to rewrite content for an
online environment and write new content that provides your customers with additional benefits. The
new team is relatively small and will be based in the Philippines.

You need to create a plan addressing communication between the team based in the UK and the team
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based in the Philippines. This will include thinking about any barriers the teams might face and how
they can be overcome before you start working together on the new project.
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You should consider barriers including:

• working hours and time zones

• language

• culture

• subject knowledge

• employee wellbeing initiatives

Your plan should also answer the following questions:

• How might the work of each team differ?

• What extra support will the offshore team require to do the job?

• What methods of communication might be most suitable and why?

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