The working-from-home revolution

Level 2 l Upper intermediate

1 Warmer
Many people are now working from home. Which of these jobs could be done from home and
which cannot?

er construction wor
ker journalist tea
che
doctor lawyer
bank er
drive lice offic r
computer
programmer
r po
pilot
2 Key words
Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text. The paragraph numbers are given to
help you.

productivity pandemic remotely lockdown adapt

shift run on resistant costly restriction

1. A __________________________ is an occurrence of a disease that affects many people across the whole
world. (para 1)
2. A __________________________ is a situation where people are not allowed to leave their homes. (para 1)
3. A __________________________ is a rule, action or situation that limits or controls someone or something.
(para 1)
4. A __________________________ is a change in something. (para 1)
5. __________________________ is the rate at which goods are produced, especially in relation to the time,
money and workers needed to produce them. (para 4)
6. If you work __________________________, you do not go to a workplace but work from home on a computer.
(para 4)
7. If meetings __________________________, they continue for longer than expected or planned. (para 4)
8. When people __________________________, they change their ideas or behaviour so that they can deal with
a new situation. (para 6)
9. If people are __________________________ to something, they are against it. (para 9)
10. If something is __________________________, it is very expensive. (para 11)

3 Find the information

Find the following information in the text as quickly as possible.
1. What percentage of the UK workforce worked from home before the coronavirus pandemic?
2. Which company is the world’s biggest employer in the marketing and advertising sector?
3. How many people does this company have working from home?
4. How many people does Jellyfish Pictures employ?
5. According to three-quarters of US chief financial officers, what percentage of their workforce will become
permanent work-from-home employees?
6. Which three business sectors does the article mention as ‘likely, long-term losers’?
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NEWS LESSONS / The working-from-home revolution / Upper intermediate

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The working-from-home revolution
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
From boardroom to spare room: the executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said. “We know that
working-from-home revolution most people can’t work from home as easily as
many of our employees can.” The companies
Mark Sweney
that are most able to adapt to homeworking
18 April, 2020 are sectors such as media, tech and financial
1 Before the coronavirus pandemic, 1.7 million services. For others – airlines, high-street shops,
people mainly worked from home in the UK or car manufacturing – it is impossible.
about 5% of the country’s 33 million workforce. 7 But change is happening where it can. A US
Since the pandemic, millions more have also survey found that three-quarters of chief financial
started working from home. And there have been officers believe that at least 5% of their workforce
warnings that some lockdown restrictions could – who worked in company offices before – will
stay in place into 2021, so companies are facing become permanent work-from-home employees
a sudden cultural shift in how we work. after the pandemic ends. Of those CFOs, 17%
2 Mark Read, the chief executive of WPP, believe a fifth of staff will move to working from
the world’s biggest employer in the marketing home and 4% believe that half of employees will
and advertising sector, welcomes a become remote workers.
working-from-home revolution but says it is 8 The lessons learnt from lockdown could lead to
not right for everyone. “If you said to me five a more rapid and widespread “virtualization” of
weeks ago that I would have 100,000 people business practices, according to one investor.
working from home and we would function fine, “It is clear to us that we are likely to see an
I’d say you were mad,” he says. “One of the increasing virtualization of business life,” says
most common questions I get is about working Jamie Ross, of Henderson EuroTrust. “Remote
from home longer term. There is interest in it, working has gone much more smoothly than
but there is also a demand to come back to an many companies feared. We will see more
office. Junior employees and those in shared people working from home, smaller office spaces,
accommodation find homeworking much more more online meetings and less business travel.”
difficult than senior executives with houses
and gardens.” 9 From that perspective, the likely long-term
losers are airlines, hotels and the commercial
3 For one London-based animation and special property sector. It will also change some
effects business, Jellyfish Pictures, working from industries that have been under pressure but can
home has been a surprise success. Jellyfish, adapt at least. The publishing industry has had
which employs about 250 staff and has worked the technology to allow many staff to work from
on films including Star Wars: The Last Jedi, has home for years, but many companies have been
continued to work on projects despite shutting its resistant to the idea.
five UK studios at the beginning of March.
10 The impact of the coronavirus has increased the
4 “What we have learnt from this is that there hasn’t long-term pressures on publishers, but the cost
been any reduction in productivity,” the Jellyfish savings from being able to reduce office space
founder, Phil Dobree, says. “Some practices
will make the idea attractive to them.
have improved, such as communication, which
is actually more regular and efficient remotely. In 11 “Coronavirus has concertinaed a lot of
the office, meetings often run on unnecessarily, change we have been seeing over the last
or people don’t communicate enough – now number of years in just three months, and flexible
they are.” working is one of them,” says James Wildman,
the chief executive of the Cosmopolitan owner,
5 The speed with which Silicon Valley companies
Hearst UK. “Office space is costly and high
such as Google, Facebook and Twitter ordered
density, and a lot of people will be uncomfortable
their employees to shift to homeworking in late
with that even after the virus. Forward-thinking
February and early March makes a challenging
managers were already pushing flexible
transition for many companies look easy.
working, but in more traditional industries, like
6 “Most Facebook employees are fortunate to be newspaper publishing, there has unfortunately
able to work from home,” the company’s chief been a delay.”
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NEWS LESSONS / The working-from-home revolution / Upper intermediate

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The working-from-home revolution
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
12 City banks were some of the first to split their says. “There’s a lot of waste. A lot of people travel
operations, sending thousands of staff to work abroad for one meeting, and I think those days
from home. John Cronin, a financial analyst, says are over.”
bosses will soon realize that most banking roles –
© Guardian News and Media 2020
including research, trading and sales – are desk
First published in The Guardian, 18/04/20
jobs that can ultimately be done from home. “This
will be a revolution in terms of how we work,” he

4 Comprehension check
Are these statements true (T) or false (F) according to the text?

1. Senior executives find working from home more difficult than junior employees.
2. The founder of Jellyfish Pictures believes that communication has improved while employees are working
from home.
3. Mark Zuckerberg believes that media, tech and financial services companies can adapt more easily to
remote working.
4. Most American chief financial officers believe that half their employees will become remote workers.
5. The idea of reducing office space is attractive for publishing companies.
6. Banks were among the last companies to ask staff to work from home.

5 Find the word

Find the following words and phrases in the text.

1. a noun meaning the total number of people employed by a particular company (para 1)
2. an adjective meaning difficult to deal with or achieve (para 5)
3. a noun meaning the process of changing from one situation to another (para 5)
4. a noun meaning the process of moving to a situation where everything is computerized (para 8)
5. a noun meaning a way of thinking about something (para 9)
6. a verb meaning squeeze or press together (para 11)
7. a two-word adjective meaning planning for the future (para 11)
8. an adverb meaning after a process or activity has ended (para 12)

6 Two-word expressions
Match the words in the left-hand column with those in the right-hand column to make expressions from
the text.

1. cultural a. practices
2. special b. property
3. remote c. shift
4. business d. space
5. commercial e. effects
6. office f. working
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NEWS LESSONS / The working-from-home revolution / Upper intermediate

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The working-from-home revolution
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
7 Word-building
Complete the table using words from the text.

noun adjective
1. finance
2. tradition
3. culture
4. commerce
5. fortune
6. cost

8 Discussion
Discuss the statements.

• The age of business travel is over.

• If you work from home, you should be paid less.

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Published by Macmillan Education Ltd. © Macmillan Education Limited, 2020.

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NEWS LESSONS / The working-from-home revolution / Upper intermediate

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