Workaholism

　　Workaholism 工作狂
Kate:  Hello, I’m Kate Colin and this is 6 Minute English. Today I'm here with Jackie and we’re talking about people who work too much.
　　Jackie:  Hi Kate, yes most of us spend the majority of our lives at work and our working patterns can vary widely. Some people 'clock-watch' all day, waiting for the moment when they can leave and go home, while others voluntarily do unpaid¹ overtime² spending many evenings and weekends at work. They find it difficult to stop and can't help thinking about work even when they're supposed to be relaxing at home. It's similar to an addiction（上瘾） and is sometimes called workaholism.
　　Kate:  Do you think you're in danger of becoming a workaholic?
　　Jackie:  answersKate:  Before we go any further, here's my question for this week. In the UK, how many hours are in the standard working week? a) 20 b) 40 c) 60Jackie:  AnswersKate:  OK - we'll check your answer later on. We'd all like to have the right work-life balance. Can you tell me what this means?
　　Jackie:Well, a work-life balance means to get the right combination of working and enjoying our personal life, spending time with friends, relaxing, playing sport etc. Technology plays a big part in disrupting many people's work-life balance because when we have mobile phones and laptops, we are able to work all the time, wherever we are.
　　Kate: Now we're going to hear from a former workaholic who worked as a lawyer in the City of London and had no work-life balance. How many hours would he sometimes be required to work a day, and what were the effects of doing this?
　　Clip 1 You may have a 2/3 month period where you're working 18-20 hours a day. You spend all of your conscious hours in the office. One is physically³ tired as in that you're not getting enough sleep. Generally in those periods, eating becomes a secondary issue as well.
　　Jackie:He said that sometimes he would be required to work up to 20 hours a day! Unsurprisingly, his symptoms were tiredness and the physical effects which come with not eating properly as he said eating becomes a secondary issue. This means that it becomes less important than something else.
　　Kate:Now listen to what else he has to say. He uses the expression the norm（标准，规范）. This means that something is normal and we use it describe standard behaviour. What does he say is the norm.
　　Clip 2 In that environment the vast majority of your colleagues are working as hard as you, so you're just used to operating in that type of culture, it's seen as the norm. You start thinking that late hours or having to work the weekends is standard practice, to be expected -nothing special. Most large city institutions I think expect burn out.
　　Jackie:He said that as most of his colleagues were working as hard as he was, he started to think that working in the evenings and at weekends were the norm and to be expected. Doing that was nothing special.
　　Kate: He also uses the term burn out. What does this mean?
　　Jackie:To burn out is term we use to describe the experience of long-term physical and emotional exhaustion⁴（疲惫）, usually work-related. People in certain professions are apparently⁵ more likely to experience burn out, such as lawyers, city workers as well as soldiers and emergency service workers.
　　Kate:In this final clip, he mentions the emotional problems that come from overwork. What does he say they are?
　　Clip 3 1) frustration⁶ - that you literally⁷ spend your entire life working 2) anxiety - when you're that busy, it's very hard to switch off. And 3) terrible feelings about where you life is going and whether there's more to life than this.
　　Jackie: He said the emotional burdens are frustration, when you worry you are spending all your life working, anxiety, when hard to switch off and relax and terrible feelings of wondering if there's more to life than that.
　　Kate:So it seems there are a lot of physical and emotional problems that come from working too hard. Now we're going to hear from a psychologist called Oliver James. You'll hear the word productivity （生产率，生产能力）- this means the level of output that you can achieve within a certain time. For example, if you are a productive person you manage to do a lot. He's going to talk about why there are good reasons why we should stop people from working too hard. What are they?
　　Clip 4 Workaholism definitely doesn't make for higher productivity and many studies have shown that. All that happens is that people spend a lot of time working ineffectually so they get very tired, people become less creative, they become more obsessional⁸（摆脱不了的）, more bogged⁹（陷入困境） down.
　　Jackie:He said that workaholism doesn't actually make for higher productivity. He said that all that happens is that people spend a lot of time working ineffectually so they get very tired, less creative and they become more obsessional, more bogged down.
　　Kate:When are people most productive?
　　Clip 5 The most productive work is done when people don't work long hours, when they have Holidays and when they take weekends and have evenings.
　　Jackie:He said the most productive work is done when people don't work long hours, when they have holidays, take weekends and enjoy evenings.
　　Kate: So there we have it - it seems that working long hours isn't really worth it at all. We're all much better off taking holidays, weekends, enjoying ourselves in the evenings and have good work-life balance/ Let's have a look at the vocabulary we've come across:
　　workaholism - a condition where someone works all the time and finds it difficult to stop work-life balance -the right balance between working and our personal life, spending time with friends etc a secondary issue - this means that something comes second in importance to something else. the norm - we use it describe standard behaviour to burn out is term we use to describe the experience of long-term physical and emotional exhaustion, usually work-related. productivity - this means the rate at which a company or country makes goods. What are themain reasons Kate: So finally to the question I asked you earlier - how many hours are in the standardworking week.
　　Jackie: And I said 40.
　　Kate: You were correct. 40 hours evens out at 8 hours a day, leaving us time to enjoyour evening and weekends…. That’s all we have time for today - until next time. Goodbye!

(本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)

1 unpaid   

adj.未付款的，无报酬的

参考例句：

• Doctors work excessive unpaid overtime.医生过度加班却无报酬。
• He's doing a month's unpaid work experience with an engineering firm.他正在一家工程公司无偿工作一个月以获得工作经验。

2 overtime   

adj.超时的，加班的；adv.加班地

参考例句：

• They are working overtime to finish the work.为了完成任务他们正在加班加点地工作。
• He was paid for the overtime he worked.他领到了加班费。

3 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

4 exhaustion   

n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述

参考例句：

• She slept the sleep of exhaustion.她因疲劳而酣睡。
• His exhaustion was obvious when he fell asleep standing.他站着睡着了，显然是太累了。

5 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

6 frustration   

n.挫折，失败，失效，落空

参考例句：

• He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。

7 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

8 obsessional   

adj.摆脱不了的

参考例句：

• She is obsessional about cleanliness. 她有洁癖。
• Obsessional personalities commonly ruminate excessively about death. 有强迫症的人通常过多地思考死亡的问题。 来自辞典例句

9 bogged   

adj.陷于泥沼的v.（使）陷入泥沼， （使）陷入困境( bog的过去式和过去分词 )；妨碍，阻碍

参考例句：

• The professor bogged down in the middle of his speech. 教授的演讲只说了一半便讲不下去了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The tractor is bogged down in the mud. 拖拉机陷入了泥沼。 来自《简明英汉词典》