B2 – Upper intermediate
Fridays are awesome. Fridays are the best. It reminds us that we survived the week and that the weekend is coming. Yet, for some employees, Thursdays are what they look forward to.
Read the article then express your thoughts about different work schedules.
Although the workweek varies from country to country, the majority of people in the majority of places around the globe work five days per week. Some cultures maintain an older, six-day workweek. A few countries and/or businesses have reduced the number of days work to four, but instead require employees to work longer hours. The four-day workweek has begun to demonstrate massive positives. This suggests that people may soon say, “TGIThursday!”
With a four-day workweek, companies immediately reduce energy costs. The buildings are closed for three days. This saves millions of dollars for the largest employers. Employees also feel more refreshed after longer weekends, which lead to less stress, fewer health problems, and a drop in absenteeism. Productivity increases too.
Vocabulary Questions:
- What does “TGI” stand for in “TGI Thursday“? “This suggests that people may soon say, “TGI Thursday!” Use the expression in a sentence.
- What does “around the globe” mean? “Although the workweek varies from country to country, the majority of people in the majority of places around the globe work five days per week.” Give two (2) synonyms or similar expressions and use ‘around the globe’ in your own sentence.
- What does “absenteeism” mean? “Employees also feel more refreshed after longer weekends, which lead to less stress, fewer health problems, and a drop in absenteeism.” Use this word in your own sentence.
Discussion Questions:
- What are your thoughts on a four-day workweek?
- What are the positives and negatives of a four-day workweek?
- Would a four-day workweek likely be adopted in your country? Would it work? Why or why not?
- For you, what is the ideal number of working days a week and why?
- Do you think longer days off could help decrease absenteeism and increase productivity? Share your opinion.
19 replies on “TGI Thursday!”
In my opinion, four-day workweek can work or cannot depending on each context (company/sector, personal situation, etc.).
Companies can save money if they are closed three days a week, but they should pay the same salary to theirs employees even if the productivity is reduced.
Employees have one more day off, but they should work more hours per day. This fact, can produce more fatigue during the day and reduce the productivity, since people are less productive after working several hours.
I think this approach couldn’t work in Spain because our society is not ready for that. I am pretty sure that employees should work harder or even extra hours in order to finish all the required tasks. Or in the contrary, if the productivity decreases, companies could take severe measures to reduce costs.
Welcome to the Phoneenglish blog! Good job sharing your opinion on the four-day workweek.
Take a look at how this sentence can be revised:
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From my point of view it depends, if you have a critical job like being a president of a country or a CEO of a multinational company a four-day workweek wouldn’t be ideal as these kinds of jobs have an amount of responsibilities and duties that cannot be fulfilled in four days.
On the other hand, this type of work model would be very beneficial for more common jobs as it would allow people to have more time to enjoy life, disconnect from work and recharge batteries. For this reason, I believe that companies should adopt this model for non-critical jobs as it would help to reduce sick leaves, burnouts and it might even increase productivity.
Finally, one thing that I would like to point out is that unfortunately, I think this work model would only work for countries that are rich and developed as governments might have more tools to guarantee that companies follow the law than other countries that are not developed.
Welcome to the Phone English blog! Hope this exercise helps you practice and improve your English writing skills.
Take a look at how you can revise this sentence a little:
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It’s a good idea as long as the company can afford it. But I think that the company has to have a good structure and a good scheme of planification to can face this situation/change the schedule.
In my country? Yes, of course. Why not? How long more options to worker, more options to change the company and get a good balance to work/family and/or friends.
The week has a 7 days. If you work 4 days, you will have 3 red days. You will be able rest more time and face four-day workeek with more energy!
My opinion is only good for me, because if you ask this question to 100 people, I’m sure that you will get 100 differents results. Smeller of armits? haha.
Welcome to the Phoneenglish blog. Hope this writing exercise helps you develop your skills further.
Here is a sentence you can express better:
Keep practicing to be better and better at writing or expressing your thoughts.
On one hand the companies would save a lot of money (as it says on the text) closing the office three straight days and the employees would be more than happy to have an extra vacation day each week, so they would be willing to work a few more hours a day, for instance 2 on a 40-hour work.
On the other hand, despite the companies save money closing an extra day, they still have to pay the same salary to the employees and I think the performance would reduce. I say that because most of the workers are not concerned that their interest should be in line with their employers, because the more revenue and performance the companie has can lead to better work conditions etc(if the firm has good values). Due to the sane reason, adding extra-hours from monday to thursday will lead to “I have more hours to do the sams job, so I am going to work very chill” and the performance of the company would be affected, at least as I see from the Spanish mentality.
In my opinion, the best option is flexible working hours. I know that it is not possible in every job, but in those who are th should trust in the employee integrity and give him the facility to organise himself. Of course not every company can do that and not every employee has what it takes.
To conclude, from where I see it, if we had enoungh integrity and work ethic, the four-day workweek would be the best option for both, employer and employee. I think this model is possible to apply in the most cultural advanced countries, such as the Netherlands, the Escandinaves, Denmark, Austria, Swiss, Canada, Japan, etc…
Welcome to the PE blog! You’ve written your responses very well.
Take a look at this sentence and see how it can be improved a bit:
Here’s to more entries from you!
I am totally agree with the four-day workweek! It would be great because the employees could feel more relaxed and less stressed. Many times, with only two days off there’s no time to do everything that one likes, so sometimes, a new week starts with a lots of pending things. Three days off meaning more opportunity to travel, meeting friends, having fun! From the point of view of the companies four day workweek increase the productivity and the motivation of the employees and reduce the cost so it could be a great opportunity for both. I think that the implementation of this depends on the job, but first here in Spain people should be a little bit more open minded about it. Probably a trial time would be a good idea to see if it works!
Thank you for answering our questions for this lesson. You did a very good job here. Keep it up!
Here’s one sentence you can improve a little bit.
I think it would be a very good idea because it would permit to be focused on work from Monday to Thursday, and later have a disconnection and be focused on private life forgetting the job. Maybe it would be healthy since an intellectual point of view.
It could be a great idea to be adopted in my country but I believe we’re so far from this point because cultural reasons. But definitely it could work and improving life of people, and companies too. Always knowing that there’re kinds of work where it’s not possible.
Hi! Welcome to Phone English blog. Thank you so much for taking the time out in answering our questions for this lesson. You did very well.
Here is how you can express this sentence a little better:
Keep practicing your writing skills through this exercise.
1. I think is a good idea since people would have more time to combine personal time and work time.
2.I don´t think is likely to be adapted in Spain but I think it could work due to people could rest more time and go to work more rested and with energy to be equallly or even more productive than a full workweek
Welcome to PE! Thank you for taking the time in answering the questions on your lesson.
Here are better word choices in this sentence:
I think is a good idea since people would have more time to combine personal
timeand work time.I think it is a good idea since people would have more time to consolidate their personal and work time.
Looking forward to your next entry.
I think a four-day workweek is an excelente idea, because although, I love to work, frequently I need more time to do several actitivies that I love to do and, in this way, I could do it during a long week-end without stress.
I don´t think this subject could be adopted in Spain, I´m sure most of the people would love it, but I think our economic system couldn´t support it.
We would travel to the beach and the montain frequently, I would go more to the museum, I could go with a friend each weekend to drink a cup.
Well done expressing your thoughts on four-day workweeks. It would be a dream to be able to enjoy an extra day off, wouldn’t it?
Here is how you can say these two sentences a bit better:
I´m sure most
of thepeople would love it, but I think our economic system couldn´t support it.> I´m sure most people would love it, but I think our economic system couldn´t support it.
I would go more to
themuseum, I could go with a friend each weekend to drink a cup.> I would go more to museums, I could go have a drink with a friend every weekend.
Good job! Keep going with your practice writing through this exercise.
I agree with the first reply but I woulld say more that it’s depend of kind of work.
In any wards of hospital I think it’s necessary a continuos controls during five days almost. In a business it’s possible do four-days workweek.
It’s possible in case of works handmade it would be also necesary work five days to mantain the machine
Another possibility is do less hours a day, but during five days a week.
Thanks for taking the time out answering these questions. Keep it up!
I agree with the first reply but I woulld say more that it’s depend of kind of work.
> I agree with the first reply but I would say more that it depends on the kind of work.
Until then.
If I think about the satisfaction of th employees it could be a good idea, and maybe they would be more productives because they would be happier and it would impact on their work.
On the other hand, I think that it´s necessary to know the skills and weaknesses of workers to make a decision.
Also It´s important to know the culture of the country. In Spain I think it would be impossible to do that because the society wouldn´t do better their job.