Câu hỏi 25849 - Đọc 2 - EN24

Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)

Early morning in California, and Elizabeth Safran, a public relations consultant, is dealing with a huge number of e-mails. Everybody in the small company works from home and relies on e-mails and instant messaging to stay in touch. Elizabeth worries about her work-life balance and thinks that ‘technology makes us more productive, but everyone is working all the time – weekends, evenings. It is too much.’

Five o’clock Friday afternoon in the , Paul Renucci, managing director of a systems integration company, switches off his computer. He now works at home and is off to pick up his children. In the past, it would take him two hours to get home from the office.

Ms Safran and Mr Renucci represent different side of a modern problem: the capacities of the latest communications technologies, such as e-mails, texts, messaging and video conferencing, make it difficult to draw the line between work and leisure and raise important questions about the nature of ‘flexible working’- where employees can work where and when they choose.

There are three issues here. First, does the rise of portable, networked devices such as the Blackberry and Palm Treo really damage an individual’s work and life? Second, what is the effect of these devices on traditional workplace relationships? And third, how do individuals manage them?

A Microsoft survey found that where flexibility had increased, so had productivity and employee morale, together with lowered stress levels and staff turnover.

However, individuals can suffer technology-related stress as work moves into their free time and from the complexity of the gadgets they must use, such as mobile phones where manufacturers try to persuade customers upgrade more frequently.

Statement: It takes Paul a long time to get to work.