実践ビジネス英語 ディクテーション (3/2,3)
こんにちは。NHKラジオ「実践ビジネス英語」”Talk the Talk”のディクテーションです。
Lesson 22のテーマは、‘Workplace Flexibility’（職場の柔軟性）でした。Vignetteでは、大手企業の間に遠隔通勤の社員を職場に戻す動きがあることや遠隔通勤の人の生産性などが話題になりました。「遠隔勤務者は昇進に非常に重要なpersonal contacts（社員同士のつきあい）の機会を逃す可能性がある」という指摘がありました。そこ？
“Talk the Talk”ではHeatherさんがremote work（遠隔通勤）についての見解を話されています。
Workplace Flexibility
（S: 杉田敏先生 H: Heather Howardさん）
S: Now, at the beginning of our current vignette, Chuck Salmans mentions companies that are bringing remote workers back to the office.
One company says it will speed up production and lead to more collaboration.
H: You know, my father has often said that governments have to be very careful about introducing tax breaks and other benefits.
Because once they’re introduced, it can be very, very difficult to take them away.
Tax payers, i.e. voters, don’t like it.
This seems like a similar situation.
I think a company could really damage morale among its employees by doing away with remote work.
And as Paul Pearson says, highflyers can easily get hired by companies that will let them work away from the office.
So some top staff might decide, “Nope, sorry, I like working at home, so goodbye, I’m off to Company X.”
That’s certainly not good for productivity or collaboration.
And for some people, working from home can be a necessity.
What about a working mom, for example, who can’t arrange child care services or needs to pick her child up at a certain time?
What’s she going to do?
S: You have experience with remote work, right, Heather?
H: Yes, I’ve never done it personally, but there have been a few staff who’ve worked remotely for our paper.
For example, there was an editor who worked in our office for many years, and then worked from home for about a year.
He said he felt much more productive at home because people weren’t constantly speaking to him and distracting him from the task at hand.
S: Would you like to do remote work?
H: We talked about this once in late 2013, but my answer would be slightly different now.
At that time my daughter wasn’t in daycare yet, and I didn’t like the idea of being at home for eight hours, but spending most of that time away from her.
Now however, she is in daycare and it would be nice to have a couple of days a week when I didn’t have to go into the office.
Lidia Grace is right when she talks about people being deluged with information, and it can be hard to deal with that in a stressful office setting.
Even in the best office, we’re not really relaxed; we can’t be.
We have to be on our best behavior and look presentable.
It would be nice sometimes to work in sweatpants and not have to think about my hair.
That said, I don’t think I’d want to work remotely every day.
I like interacting with people in my office, going out to lunch and asking their opinion on various things.
I’d miss that if I was always at home.
S: How about “summer Fridays”?
H: I’m in, but that wouldn’t work in our business, unfortunately.
A company like Alex & Alex could pull it off.
But you can’t have a newspaper finished at noon the day before publication.
Though, it does seem like a good idea all around.
Most people will probably spend some kind of money if they are let out early.
Even if it’s just cake and coffee at a café somewhere.
They could go browsing in department stores, meet friends for dinner and drinks, all kinds of things, all of which pumps money into the economy and helps create jobs for more people.
お読み下さり、ありがとうございます♪
