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Course IELTS Focus (band 4.0 – 4.5)

Week11 _Lesson21_Speaking

READING:

Service workers are the happiest staff

New research shows that cleaners are some of the happiest workers in Britain, along with child
carers, medical secretaries, hairdressers, and petrol pump attendants.

The study of 35,000 employees found that the highest levels of job satisfaction were among
those providing personal service, even if the pay is poor. There are highly paid professional and
managerial staff who enjoy excellent pay and conditions, but many of these appear to hate
their jobs. Civil servants lie almost at the bottom of the league table, with solicitors and various
engineers and scientists not far behind.

Michael Rose of Bath University, who led the is study, said a key element of job satisfaction
was the potential to work part-time and unsupervised. A cleaner's job may not appeal to all, but
it has hidden perks. 'You can trim your hours and you don't have a supervisor breathing down
your neck all the time. You can sit in the boss's chair and smoke a cigarette if you feel like it,' he
said. Petrol pump attendants, too, had a choice of working part-time shifts with relatively little
direct supervision.

One explanation offered for the high job- satisfaction rate of medical secretaries - at the top
of the league with 75% of them happy in their job is that they are 'doing something useful'.
Seeing that you are playing a key role in the delivery of healthcare is very satisfying, despite the
low pay scale of £8,000-£15,000.

The study divides overall satisfaction into Material satisfaction such as money, promotion
and security - and Quality satisfaction - which involves the job, relations with the boss and
hours. Taxation experts and prison officers score high marks for material satisfaction but low
marks for quality satisfaction. The profile of carpenters and ambulance staff is the opposite:
high on quality and low on material satisfaction.
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The report strongly warns against the rapid growth of telephone call centres, noting that
telephone staff register some of the lowest levels of job satisfaction. It also gives a warning that
many computer and communications occupations also record 'poor to dismal' levels of job
satisfaction.

Exercise 1: Study the above text and answers the questions below:

1. In which countries were workers studied? Britain

2. How many workers were interviewed as part of the research? 35.000
3. Who was responsible for organizing the study? Michael rose

Exercise 2: Complete each of the following sentences with the correct ending A-G from the
box.

Tip:
• Read through the questions and underline keywords.
• Skim the text until you find the information you need.
• Study the information and choose the best ending.

1 According to the report, petrol pump attendants have the advantage of being able to work
___F____

2 The report suggests that medical secretaries enjoy their work because it is___E___

3 The report considers salary and job security to be aspects of___C____

4 The report found that prison officers have poor___G___

A. key role E. useful

B. long hours F. part-time
C. material satisfaction G. quality satisfaction
D. well-paid
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Exercise 3: Read the whole text again. Look for three True and three False statements. One
statement contains information which is not mentioned in the text. Mark this Not Given.

Do the following statements agree with the information in the reading passage?

1 Some of the people who are happiest in their jobs may be poorly paid. True

2 Solicitors have a high level of job satisfaction. False

3 Working without supervision is an important factor in job satisfaction. True

4 Working as a medical secretary involves long hours and hard work. Not Given

5 Taxation experts have a high level of quality satisfaction. False

6 The report does not recommend increasing the number of call centres. True

7 People working in the computer industry generally enjoy their work. False

WRITING:

Exercise 4: Write two paragraphs on the following topic.

Which is more important in your opinion: families or friends, and why?