(B2.1 Unit 1: the week) Average worker wastes 2 hours a day

Lead in:

MY TIME:

In pairs / groups, talk to each other about how much time you spend each day doing different things. What takes up most of your time at home? What takes up most of your time at work or school? Do you waste a lot of time during each day? Talk about your time management skills.

"Average worker wastes 2 hours a day"

1. TRUE / FALSE:

Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

a.	The average worker wastes 25% of his/her working time.	T / F
b.	Companies did a secret check on their workers.	T / F
c.	Company bosses thought workers wasted an hour a day.	T / F
d.	Many executives think time wasting is beneficial to a company.	T / F
e.	Drinking tea and coffee is the biggest time waster.	T / F
f.	Almost 40 % of employees waste time by daydreaming.	T / F
g.	Many employees complain that they do not have enough work to do.	T / F
h.	Women waste much more time than men.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

a.	completed	extraordinary
b.	idled away	daydreaming
c.	amazing	upset
d.	angered	private
e.	beneficial	discovered
f.	personal	filled in
g.	confessed	sidetracked
h.	staring into space	admitted
i.	distracted	wasted
j.	found	favorable

Read and check

Time is money and according to a new 

survey, workers waste 25 per cent of working time on non-work related matters. That’s a lot of company money down the drain. A poll of 10,000 respondents by Salary.com and AOL.com indicates an average of 2.09 hours per day is idled away in offices. This is twice as much as company bosses predicted and amounts to a whopping $759 billion in the USA. However, corporate bosses are not rattled by these figures. They said one hour a day of time wasting is factored into calculating salaries. Many executives deem time frittered away to be of benefit to a company. Salary.com’s Bill Coleman called it “creative waste”.

The survey said the top time-wasting activity was using the Internet for personal use – 44.7% of respondents owned up to this. Other big offenders were socializing with co-workers (23.4%), conducting personal business (6.8%) and that most productive of pursuits – spacing out, otherwise known as staring into space (3.9%). Employees indicated the blame for time wasting could not always be pinned on them. The top time-wasting excuse was not having enough work to do (33.2%). Other employee gripes were feeling underpaid (23.4%) and being distracted by co-workers (14.7%). The survey also found that men and women squandered away equal amounts of time.

3. PHRASE MATCH: 

Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

a.	a lot of company money	into calculating salaries
b.	amounts to a whopping	away equal amounts of time
c.	bosses are not rattled by	on them
d.	time wasting is factored	up to this
e.	executives deem time frittered	$759 billion
f.	respondents owned	gripes
g.	spacing	down the drain
h.	could not always be pinned	away to be of benefit
i.	employee	out
j.	men and women squandered	these figures

GAP FILL: Put the words in the column on the right into the correct spaces.

Average worker wastes 2 hours a day

Time is money and according to a new survey, workers waste 25 per cent of working time on non-work related ________. That’s a lot of company money down the ________. A poll of 10,000 respondents by Salary.com and AOL.com indicates an average of 2.09 hours per day is ________ away in offices. This is twice as much as company bosses predicted and amounts to a ________ $759 billion in the USA. However, corporate bosses are not ________ by these figures. They said one hour a day of time wasting is ________ into calculating salaries. Many executives deem time frittered away to be of ________ to a company. Salary.com’s Bill Coleman called it “________ waste”.		idled factored drain benefit matters rattled creative whopping
The survey said the ________ time-wasting activity was using the Internet for personal use – 44.7% of respondents owned up to this. Other big ________ were socializing with co-workers (23.4%), ________ personal business (6.8%) and that most productive of pursuits – spacing out, otherwise known as staring into ________ (3.9%). Employees indicated the ________ for time wasting could not always be ________ on them. The top time-wasting excuse was not having enough work to do (33.2%). Other employee ________ were feeling underpaid (23.4%) and being distracted by co-workers (14.7%). The survey also found that men and women ________ away equal amounts of time.		conducting pinned squandered space gripes offenders blame top

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

Listening

Average worker wastes 2 hours a day

BNE: Time is money and _________ to a new survey, workers waste a lot of working time. A questionnaire __________ by 10,000 employees reports an average of 2.09 hours ___ ___ is idled away in businesses. This is ______ __ much as company bosses thought. It means companies lose __ ________ $759 billion in the USA. However, bosses are ___ _______ by these figures. Many executives think this idle time is beneficial to a company. Salary.com’s Bill Coleman called it “________ waste”.

The top time-wasting activity was using the Internet for ________ ___ – 44.7% of workers confessed to this. Other big ____ _______ were chatting with co-workers (23.4%), personal business (6.8%) and staring into space (3.9%). The top time-wasting _______ was not having enough work to do (33.2%). Workers also complained about feeling __________ (23.4%) and being distracted by co-workers (14.7%). The survey also found that men and women wasted ______ ________ of time.

SPEAKING

GET STUDYING (ENGLISH):

In pairs / groups, think of ways how you can make better use of your time to study English more.

SITUATION	HOW TO USE TIME TO STUDY ENGLISH MORE
Breakfast	• • •
Going to work / school	• • •
Watching TV	• • •
Walking around town	• • •
Surfing the Internet	• • •
Bedtime	• • •

After you have finished, change partners and tell each other about your ideas. Give each other advice on how to make your ideas better.

Return to your original partner and use the advice you got to make your ideas

12-word quiz