Ways Of Working

‘I’m an office worker in an insurance company. It’s a nine-to-five job with regular working hours. I need my swipe card to get into the office. The work isn’t very interesting, but I like to be able to go home at a reasonable time.

‘I’m in computer programming. There’s a system of flexitime in my company, which means we can work when we want, within certain limits. We can start at any time till 11, and finish as early as 3 – as long as we do enough hours each month. It’s ideal for me as I have two young children.’ ‘I work in a car plant. I work in shifts and I have to clock on and clock off at the beginning and end of every shift. I may be on the day shift one week and the night shift the next week. It’s difficult changing from one shift to another. When I change shifts, I have problems changing to a new routine for sleeping and eating. When the company is selling lots of cars, they ask us to work overtime – more hours than usual for more money.’ shift = a period of time worked by a group of workers who start work as another group finishes ‘I’m a commercial artist in an advertising agency. Unlike most other people in my department who commute to work every day, I work from home and avoid the long journeys that some commuters experience every day. That’s the benefit of teleworking or telecommuting – working from home and using the computer and phone to communicate with other people. Nice work if you can get it! All these words are used in front of job and work: satisfying, stimulating, fascinating, exciting = the work is interesting and gives you positive feelings dull, boring, uninteresting, unstimulating = the work is not interesting repetitive, routine = the work involves doing the same things again and again tiring, tough, hard, demanding = the work is difficult and makes you tired