Lifestyle in Britain. Дворжец О.С. - 121 стр.

portraits and I enjoy black and white photog-             in a sense, but one I’ve extremely en-
raphy, but colour work pays better.’                      joyed. I don’t know what I’m going
As she was unemployed, her local Jobcentre                to do, whether I’ll go back to it, or
put her in touch with the enterprise team at              whether I’d really like to look for
South Thames TEC (Training and Enterprise                 something else to do.
Council). They were able to give her an enter-       P:   One of the benefits of working in an
prise allowance of £40 per week to get her                office is the social aspect – you are
started.                                                  working with a team of colleagues
‘I was one of those people who couldn’t wait              who often become your friends too.
to leave school. At 16 I went into a boring of-           Have you found this? Can you tell us
fice job which I hated. I started to think that           about your relations with colleagues?
doing a degree would widen my options. I did         B:   In the past, I’ve had various different
a one year part-time A level course, and then             jobs and just worked with wonderful
at 24 went to North London Polytechnic to do              people. In the last several years,
a degree in French and film studies. Having               though, the experiences haven’t been
had experience of working, I was keen to                  good, and I don’t think it’s the offices
make the most of the opportunity to study.                so much as the times, people chang-
As the course came to an end I still wasn’t               ing, people seem to be caught up
sure what I wanted to do. Self employment                 more in their own worlds, than they
appealed to me as it offered challenge and                used to be. There used to be more
variety, though I knew there wouldn’t be paid             camaraderie, people used to be more
holidays or sick leave. Since I started I’ve              helpful and there were fewer barriers
learned a lot about the practical aspects of              to break down. Now I find it’s more
running a business and marketing myself. I’m              of a cut-throat world, people are out
getting better at dealing with customers – in             for themselves, not just in the office
knowing what they are looking for. I’m hop-               but in everyday living – people seem
ing the business will build up steadily.’                 a lot more isolated.
                                                     P:   So it seems office life is changing,
Tapescript 3                                              and perhaps not for the better. What
                                                          would you say is the most important
P = Presenter       B = Barbara                           factor that makes somewhere a pleas-
                                                          ant place to work?
P:   These days, fewer and fewer people              B:   Having camaraderie with the people
     work in factories or outdoors, on the                that you work with, people working
     land, and the majority of school and                 together as a team, not isolated peo-
     college leavers today will find them-                ple who are doing things for their
     selves working in an office. So is that              own ego, wanting to outshine every-
     something to look forward to or not?                 body else. I think you have to work as
     With me today, I have Mrs Barbara                    a team and have a goal. You know,
     Mayor, who’s going to tell us about                  the goal is to get the job done, or the
     her experience of office work. Bar-                  project or whatever it is at the time.
     bara, can you begin by telling us what          P:   Most people think of the working day
     you do?                                              as being 9 to 5, but many companies
B:   Well, I’m not working at the present                 have introduced flexible working
     time and I haven’t since before                      hours, so employees have a certain
     Christmas of last year. I’ve always                  amount of choice about when they
     been employed as a legal assistant.                  start work and when they finish. This
     Unfortunately, my last office closed                 takes into account people’s circum-
     down, partly I think due to the econ-                stances, like whether or not they have
     omy. Things weren’t going well and                   children, and the fact that everyone
     they just weren’t making any money,                  has a slightly different rhythm of
     so it was kind of a forced retirement
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