工作四天，休三天？这样的好事你是不是也幻想过？近日，英国一些公司开始考虑将工作日调整为四天，英国工党影子内阁大臣约翰·麦克唐奈也曾在访谈中提及，欧洲国家中，英国的工作时间最长但是效率却比较低。事实上，在世界上生产率最高的一些国家中，人们的工作时长远低于英国普通工人。受此影响，英国正在考虑让员工多休一天。不过这一措施能否真正落地，还有待进一步观察。
本篇课程首发于2019年3月11日，节选自 The Scotsman
https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/four-day-week-read-this-and-you-ll-be-convinced-it-makes-sense-angela-crawley-1-4885042
文本难度：
话题难度：
UK Considers Four-Day Workweek
① Work is increasingly consuming every aspect of our lives. From commuting to undertaking long hours and checking emails out of the office – it’s difficult to know when the working week starts and ends.
② In the UK, people work some of the longest hours in the EU and clock up around £32 billion worth of unpaid overtime – all whilst suffering the longest pay squeeze in 200 years.
③ They do so because there is a belief that working longer hours equals greater productivity.
④ But that is not necessarily the case. Some of the most productive economies in the world work far fewer hours than the average UK worker.
⑤ Take Germany for example; UK productivity is 26 per cent below that of Germany, and Germans spend far less time at work than the British.
⑥ This is because worker productivity relies not just on the amount of hours put in, but on the well-being of staff and, as studies show, shorter working weeks can mean fewer sick days, fewer in-work accidents and mistakes, and higher worker motivation on the job.
⑦ As a result of these recent studies, many UK companies are now looking at the feasibility of a four-day workweek. The Labour Party is also looking at the possibility of making this a future national policy.
⑧ What will the British do with their extra day off? Watch more Netflix of course!
▍生词好句
consume /kənˈsju:m, kənˈsu:m/: vt. 消耗；消费
commute /kəˈmju:t/: vi. （搭乘车、船等）通勤
undertake /ˌʌndəˈteɪk, ˌʌndərˈteɪk/: vt. 从事；开始做
clock up: 赢得；达到
whilst /waɪlst/: conj. 同时；时时
rely on: 依赖于
feasibility /ˌfiːzəˈbɪləti/: n. 可行性；可能性
▍词汇拓展
1. commute: to travel regularly some distance between work and home
She commutes to the office by train every day.
她每天乘火车上下班。
She commutes from Oxford to London every day.
她每天从牛津到伦敦通勤。
· someone who commutes is a commuter
Thousands of commuters were delayed because of the bad weather.
成千上万的上班族被恶劣的天气阻隔在了路上。
The train was packed with commuters.
火车上挤满了乘客。
2. undertake: to do or begin to do something, especially something that will take a long time or be quite difficult to do
The directors of the company have decided to undertake a risky solution.
公司的董事们决定采取一种有风险的解决办法。
The government will undertake serious measures to reduce crime.
政府将采取严厉措施减少犯罪。
3. clock up: to collect or achieve a large number of something
On the trip, we clocked up over 18,000 miles.
在这次旅行中，我们走了18000多英里。
The team has clocked up three gold medals and two silver medals already this year.
该队今年获得了三枚金牌和两枚银牌。
4. pay squeeze: a period of time when wages do not increase at the same rate or the same percentage as other things
Property prices are increasing; the price of everyday goods is increasing; but salaries are not increasing at the same rate or the same percentage.
5. productivity: a measure of the efficiency of a person or machine, factory, system. We measure productivity by comparing inputs with outputs.
There are many different ways to measure productivity but a simple one is to measure all the hours that a person works (input), and then look at what the person produces in that time period(output).
A comfortable working environment will increase productivity.
舒适的工作环境将提高生产力。
The new software system has improved the company's productivity.
新的软件系统提高了公司的生产力。
The management are looking for ways of improving productivity.
管理层正在寻找提高生产力的方法。
6. to put in: to spend (time) especially on some occupations or jobs
I put in six hours overtime last week.
上周我加班了六个小时。
7. well-being: feeling healthy and happy
People who do yoga get a feeling of well-being.
做瑜伽的人有一种幸福的感觉。
8. feasibility=possibility
We're looking at the feasibility of building a new shopping centre.
我们正在研究建造购物中心的可行性。
Our IT engineers are investigating the feasibility of developing a new system.
我们的IT工程师正在研究开发新系统的可行性。
The Labour Party is also looking at the feasibility of making this a future national policy.
工党也在研究使这成为一项未来的国家政策的可能性。
▍ A few more facts
a. It's not a new idea.
In fact, in 1965 experts predicted that, with the arrival of computers, our working weeks would drastically reduce - perhaps even to just 20 hours a week - we are still waiting for this to happen.
b. Why do we have a five-day workweek?
The five-day workweek is completely man-made.
No natural events occur every seven days.
In Europe about 3000 years ago, people believed there were seven planets in the universe, so they planned their days around the seven planets (now of course we know there are 8 planets).
Employers and factory owners realised that you can't ask your workers to work seven days a week so they gave them a day off (Sunday – for religious reasons). Later only about 100 years ago, this was extended to two days, and that's our traditional 'weekend'.
c. Do any countries have a different system?
Netherlands / Holland: many people work only 29 hours a week (they can do that 29 hours in 3-4-5-6 days)
Germany as we know – many companies are using a four-day workweek / and many companies are reducing the weekly working hours.
d. advantages and disadvantages:
advantages:
It helps to improve overall productivity.
It motivates employees to work harder.
A three-day weekend is a great idea.
It means less commuting.
People will have fewer health issues and improve a feeling of well-being.
disadvantages:
Longer working hours – some companies might ask workers to work the same number of hours in four days instead of five.
A four-day workweek doesn't suit everyone and every business.
e. What do I think?
A 21-hour workweek would distribute work more evenly across the population, reducing both the problems of overwork and unemployment, creating a balance in the workforce.
Technology now allows people to work when and where they want, so do we actually need to set working times or to fix a workplace at all? Surely it would be better if our employers gave us assignments, tasks or projects and said 'you have one month to complete this work' - then we could choose when and where we do the work. Surely this is the most productive system – of course the problem is most people are really bad at time management so we would need to learn how to organise our own work time.
consume /kənˈsju:m, kənˈsu:m/
vt. 消耗；消费
commute /kəˈmju:t/
vi. （搭乘车、船等）通勤
commute: to travel regularly a distance between work and home
She commutes to the office by train every day.
她每天乘火车上下班。
She commutes from Oxford to London every day.
她每天从牛津到伦敦通勤。
· someone who commutes is a commuter
Thousands of commuters were delayed because of the bad weather.
成千上万的上班族被恶劣的天气阻隔在了路上。
The train was packed with commuters.
火车上挤满了乘客
undertake /ˌʌndəˈteɪk, ˌʌndərˈteɪk/
vt. 从事；开始做
undertake: to do or begin to do something, especially something that will take a long time or be quite difficult to do
The directors of the company have decided to undertake a risky solution.
公司的董事们决定采取一种有风险的解决办法。
The government will undertake serious measures to reduce crime.
政府将采取严厉措施减少犯罪。
clock up
赢得；达到
clock up: to collect or achieve a large number of something
On the trip we clocked up over 18,000 miles.
在这次旅行中，我们走了18000多英里。
The team has clocked up three gold medals and two silver medals this year.
该队今年获得了三枚金牌和两枚银牌。
whilst /waɪlst/
conj. 同时；时时
pay squeeze
薪酬缩水
pay squeeze: a period of time when wages do not increase at the same rate or the same percentage as other things
Property prices are increasing; the price of everyday goods is increasing; but salaries are not increasing at the same rate or the same percentage.
productivity /ˌprɒdʌkˈtɪvəti, ˌproʊdəkˈtɪvəti/
n. 生产力；生产率
productivity: a measure of the efficiency of a person or machine, factory, system. We measure productivity by comparing inputs with outputs.
There are many ways to measure productivity but a simple one is to measure all the hours that a person works (input) then look at what the person produces in that time (output).
A comfortable working environment will increase productivity.
舒适的工作环境将提高生产力。
The new software system has improved the company's productivity.
新的软件系统提高了公司的生产力。
The management are looking for ways of improving productivity.
管理层正在寻找提高生产力的方法。
rely on
依赖于
rely on
依赖于
put in
投入了……
to put in: to spend (time) especially on some occupations or jobs
I put in six hours overtime last week.
上周我加班了六个小时。
feasibility /ˌfiːzəˈbɪləti/
n. 可行性；可能性
feasibility=possibility
We're looking at the feasibility of building a shopping centre.
我们正在研究建造购物中心的可行性。
Our IT engineers are investigating the feasibility of developing a new system.
我们的IT工程师正在研究开发新系统的可行性。
The Labour Party is also looking at the possibility of making this a future national policy.
工党也在研究使这成为一项未来的国家政策的可能性。
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