Full video

0:00

Hello and welcome to Real Easy English.

0:02

In this podcast, we have real conversations in easy English

0:06

to help you understand. I'm Neil.

0:08

And I'm Beth.

0:10

You can watch a video of this podcast

0:13

and find a worksheet to help you learn on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

0:26

Hi Beth, how are you today?

0:27

I'm very good, Neil. How are you?

0:29

I'm very well. What are we talking about?

0:32

Today we are talking about work and the office.

0:35

An office is a place with desks and computers where people do their jobs.

0:41

OK. We are in a studio in the office,

0:44

but we'll go back to the office after this.

0:46

Yes we will. So, Neil, where do you work?

0:50

Do you work at home or do you work in the office?

0:53

Well, I do both of those things.

0:56

I work in the office usually three days a week,

1:00

and I work from home two days a week.

1:03

OK. I'm the same.

1:06

We have the same schedule. So,

1:08

yeah, at home twice,

1:10

where I have a sort of place that could be considered a home office.

1:16

Do you like working in the office?

1:19

I do like working in the office.

1:22

I think it's easy to get work done in the office

1:27

because it's an office environment.

1:29

It's a workplace.

1:32

But I also quite like working from home sometimes

1:36

because, commuting – London is a big city.

1:39

You know, coming to work and going back

1:42

is really tiring if you do it every day.

1:44

Yeah, I know what you mean.

1:47

I... I like working from home occasionally,

1:51

but I definitely prefer being in the office.

1:55

I think being with colleagues around you and I need people,

2:00

and then I can work better.

2:01

Yeah. So, what's wrong with working from home?

2:05

A lot!

2:08

I think, when you're in the office,

2:11

yeah, it's louder than at home,

2:14

but I like having the people around me.

2:16

I like being able to have conversations.

2:19

I find it's easier to work in an office environment

2:23

because everyone else is working.

2:26

But I feel more lonely at home because it's just me.

2:30

So, yeah.

2:33

Yeah, I understand what you mean.

2:36

I also have a bit of a problem with working from home,

2:39

because the boundary or the line between work and home is not so clear.

2:46

So when you finish your day, you close your computer

2:51

and you think, oh, hang on, I'm still at home.

2:54

This is where I've been working all day.

2:56

And sometimes you feel like you should be doing things for home

3:00

when you're actually working.

3:02

Yeah, it's a bit weirder.

3:04

Like, it's... it's strange being at home because it's harder to know

3:10

whether you should be working or doing a bit of housework. In the office,

3:15

it's easier to just sit and be with your laptop, be with your colleagues

3:19

and just be... be working.

3:23

Have you ever worked somewhere that is not an office?

3:26

Yes. So, I used to work at a farm.

3:30

It was a farm park.

3:31

So, lots of children playing and there was a cafe.

3:35

There was a play area, go-karts, being with animals.

3:39

So, lots of different areas.

3:42

And it was fun.

3:43

Lots of variety.

3:44

So, that wasn't an office.

3:46

What about you?

3:47

I've worked in all kinds of places,

3:50

especially when I was a student.

3:52

I worked in factories, farms.

3:56

I've worked in restaurants, bars, all kinds of places

4:00

that are not offices.

4:01

You've done it all.

4:02

I've done it all.

4:10

Let's recap some of the vocabulary we heard in this podcast.

4:14

We had 'office' – a place with desks

4:17

and computers where people go to work.

4:20

Sometimes, at BBC Learning English, we work in the office.

4:24

We had 'working remotely', which we often also call 'working from home',

4:30

and that means working somewhere that isn't the office,

4:33

for example, your home.

4:34

But it could also be a cafe or something.

4:37

And we also had 'colleagues' –

4:39

these are the people that you work with.

4:42

And we compared working from home with working from an office,

4:47

and we used lots of comparatives.

4:48

So, it's harder to concentrate at home

4:52

or it's more difficult to get your work done in the office.

4:56

Yes. And it's louder in the office, but sometimes that's better.

5:01

That's it for this episode of Real Easy English,

5:03

you can test what you've learned with a worksheet,

5:06

which you can download for free from our website,

5:08

bbclearningenglish.com.

5:10

Bye!