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Hello, lovely.
I'm Maria.
And my name is Rory.
And we are the hosts of the IELTS Speaking for Success podcast.
The podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills, along the way.
We've started this podcast to give you gorgeous grammar and fabulous vocabulary for a high score.
For a Ben 9 score.
Oh, Rory, where are you?
I'm in my office.
Do you like it?
Oh, in your office?
Yeah.
Yes, I love it.
Actually, if this is going on video, this will be the first time other people have seen my office as well.
So shall we talk about offices?
Yes, that's our coincidence for today.
Huge coincidence.
Dear listener, we have our super-duper premium episodes.
And this week, in part two, Rory is going to describe a person he only met once but wants to know more about.
And in speaking part three, we're going to be talking about making friends.
In the description of this episode, you can find a link that will take you to a list of all platforms where you can get our premium super duper episodes.
Rory, are you excited about our premium?
I am so excited.
Yes, I'm always excited in our premium.
In fact, all the time, not just for the free stuff.
Have you ever listened to any of our premium episodes?
Never!
I don't have time.
I have essays to write and to grade.
Rory, in the description of this episode, you can find the link.
So I should use this link to listen to it when I am not buried under work.
Yes.
If you get a year subscription, that would be wonderful.
If I did it.
English.
Yes.
How lovely.
You record the episodes and then you pay for them to listen to them.
Yes, it's almost like it's a complete waste of time.
Rory, let's talk about offices.
Do you work in an office?
I do, actually.
I'm privileged enough to have a home office that I can do all my university work and teaching and podcasting from.
Is it common for people in your country to work in an office?
Well, probably not as common as it used to be since we've had the pandemic, and people have been working from home a lot more.
Still, you do see people heading off there from time to time, probably to justify the expense, to be honest.
Where do most of your friends work?
Well, I think the majority have pretty hands-on jobs, so they work in nursing, teaching or the care industry more generally.
Some of them still work in offices, but that's a rarity these days.
Would you like to design an office?
I could probably do the basics like what I would want, but the more technical aspects would be lost on me.
I like the idea of an office with a desk that I could stand at, rather than the current setup, which would probably be better for my back now I think about it.
Aside from that, I like the idea of having greenery and lots of sunlight, but that's about the extent of it.
What kind of office would you like to work in?
Well, unless it's my current one, which still has its flaws, or the ones I suggested designing then, to be honest, I wouldn't like to work in an office at all.
I don't like the idea of being confined in a space where you're forced to go to every day and you can work from the comfort of your home and you get minimal interference that way.
So, first of all, we say to work in an office.
Can I say to work at an office?
You probably could, but the most common one is to work in an office.
And if I work in an office, I say that, okay, I'm an office worker or what?
I just work in an office.
Yeah, well, I mean, both of them are fine.
Probably an office worker is better because it describes a person and it brings these two ideas together.
So yeah, but I don't think it makes too much of a difference.
So kind of, I'm an accountant, I'm an office worker.
Yes.
Or even better, I'm an accountant, so I work in an office.
Oh, yeah.
Or I'm an IT specialist and I work in an office.
But you said that it's your office, but isn't it a study office?
Oh, yeah.
Maybe if I was a millionaire or living in the 19th century, probably.
I think study is like a really old fashioned way of just saying a home office, though, isn't it?
Especially now, because studies used to be for, like I say, upper middle class people.
But now lots of people work from home and they're not just upper middle class.
They could be working class or lower middle class.
And then you talked about the difference between the pre-pandemic times and post-pandemic times.
And the office work has changed, right?
That's a little.
Yeah, I was going to say that's a bit of a cheat for anything that people say to do with now.
So, like, is it common for people to work in an office?
Or is it common for people to do anything?
Because then you can say, like, oh...
It used to be this way, but people have been doing something more often.
So you get used to in there and you also get have been plus ing for your present perfect continuous.
Yeah, and it's nice to say, like, it used to be since we've had the pandemic.
Yep.
Oh, there's Present Perfect in there as well.
Oh, and Present Perfect continues.
Wow.
Yeah.
And then like people have been working from home a lot ever since.
Right.
So, yeah.
And to work from home.
What else can we say?
Like work from home, trapped in their homes.
Now do we use this word telework?
Because in some oh god, if it was the 1990s, maybe teleworking i have been teleworking, working using the telephone yeah, so we kind of don't do that.
Oh sorry, that's just really funny, Yeah.
And then about your friends.
You said that the majority of your friends have hands-on jobs.
Hands-on?
They have jobs on their hands?
Yes.
Well, yeah, they work with their hands.
I guess hands-on is probably not the best way to describe it, but it was the only word that I could think of in the moment.
So they work with people.
Actually, that might be a better collocation, to be honest.
They work with people.
But by hands-on, I just meant they're involved very heavily in their work.
You don't have to be physically present to be hands-on, to be honest.
You just have to be involved somehow.
So the idea is still there, but I probably should have said they spend most of their time working with people directly, and that would be much better.
And when Rory talked about designing his own office, he said something really bizarre.
He said that, I like the idea of an office with a desk I could stand at.
And I think this is a very strange thing.
So instead of like sitting down at a desk, Rory would prefer to stand at it like a horse.
Like a horse.
Horse.
I don't know why horse came to your mind there.
It's just like...
You just stand at a desk as opposed to sitting down.
Because if I'm sitting like this, I have to be conscious.
Actually, I'm not doing it now.
I have to be conscious about not craning my neck forward or you screw up the muscles in your neck doing that.
So you would prefer a standing desk?
Yes.
A stand desk.
Rather than like a regular desk and a chair.
Yeah.
They probably have some sort of special name like orthopedic desks or something like that.
But I don't know what that means.
So I'm just going to stick to stand desk or desk I could stand at.
Because there's a modal verb.
Modal verbs are important.
Where?
Everywhere.
Ah, could stand.
Okay, yeah.
Yes.
And also Rory added that he would like some greenery and lots of sunlight.
Greenery like plants, flowers, Scottish, I don't know, cacti.
No, I don't think they would grow inside.
But yeah, something green would be nice.
But something green that I wouldn't have to take care of.
Yeah.
So, dear listener, if you talk about designing your own office, you can mention I'd like to have lots of greenery, lots of sunlight.
Also, you can say, I'd like an open space office.
What else do we have?
This open space.
Open client offices yeah, open plan offices.
So you have like an office with cubicles and you have an open plan office where it's like you can see everyone, and I think they're both horrible ideas and you should.
If you're working in an office, then go, just go home, Yeah.
Or you can say like I'd prefer my own office.
Right, so.
Would you, though?
Would you?
Yeah.
Yeah.
In your home, though.
With a jacuzzi in it.
Not in, like, a building far from your home.
People used to think that was, like, a really big sign of, like, how...
Well, how successful they were, like, oh, do I have the corner office in a law firm?
And you're just sort of like, get a life, would you?
Sorry, I don't believe in this at all.
But can you imagine having an office, your own office, in your own building, in your own Rory's company?
And you would have your office and you'd have jacuzzi there, you'd have this whiskey wardrobe and...
I have this.
It's called my house.
Podcasting area.
It's where I am now.
Do you have a jacuzzi in there?
I do not have a jacuzzi, but really there is a gym like a 10 minute walk up the road from where I live.
I could just go there for the jacuzzi.
I can't go there now, but I will go there tomorrow, probably.
Oh, that's nice.
Plus, imagine if you have this in your house, it's going to be a lot of effort with the maintenance.
I can see that just being a pain.
You would hire people to do it for you.
Yes, but also, it's just a lot of extra work for everybody.
I'm sure they have better things to be doing with their time.
You disagree.
Oh yeah, no, that's fine.
Yeah, so you can say, like, I wouldn't like to work in an office.
I wouldn't like to work in any office, to be honest.
And Roy said that he doesn't like the idea of being confined in a space you are forced to go to every day.
So to be confined in a space...
It's just like you're there, and you're stuck there, and you can't go anywhere else.
A lighter version might be confined to a space, because that means that you're just supposed to be there, but confined in a space is closer to being trapped.
But the whole idea is that it's bad for you and I don't like it.
Yeah.
To be confined in a space, it's negative, right?
So it's not something really positive.
Confined to prison.
Yeah, usually prison.
So like an office, like a prison.
And then you can say like, you can walk from the comfort of your own home.
So from the comfort of your own home.
Yeah, nice one.
Yeah, they say that soon they're going to introduce this online IELTS and you can take IELTS from the comfort of your own home, sitting there in your PJs pajamas, half naked, with a cup of coffee.
And you can take all IELTS parts online, even speaking.
So they kind of announced it last year and they said that we would have it this year, but still nothing.
So I don't know, maybe Cambridge people are still working on this online.
Doesn't that sort of violate the spirit of having an exam to test English if you can just be in your home and you can look up anything that you need for the test?
That's cheeky.
No, no, no.
Because they have this high-tech cheating anti-cheating system and they're going to track your eyes.
And if they see something suspicious, they will not issue a certificate.
So they will say, like, you are cheating.
Yeah, so there are rumors about this anti-cheating system.
So yeah, pretty high-tech stuff.
Anyway, so Rory, what's your final word about offices?
I don't like offices.
Are you an office person?
I am not an office person.
I believe in freedom and the freedom to work from home if you choose to.
If you choose to work in an office, then you're very strange.
And I would like to have a conversation with you about that and tell you how wrong you are.
Yes, if you enjoy working in an office, could you please call Rory?
Rory, what's your phone number so we can call you?
You can get me on Telegram or Instagram.
That's fine.
I will do an Instagram live with anyone who wants to talk to me about the merits of working in an office.
The supposed merits of working in an office.
That's fine.
Yes Rory, could you post a post on Telegram about this office thing and people who, if you enjoy working in an office?
Please attack Rory with your arguments, with your convincing arguments for working in an office.
I don't think anyone's ever going to make a convincing argument about working in an office.
Well, let's see.
We had a good discussion about Batman.
Is Batman a superhero or no, which he is?
Batman is not a superhero.
He is in fact a detective.
No, he is a superhero.
No, he is not.
He is a detective.
Money is not a superpower.
If having money was a superpower, then Bill Gates would be a superhero.
And he is not a superhero.
Decidedly not so.
Just Yeah, so you see we are having a fruitful discussion now so we can have something of the sort about the offices.
Is it a fruitful discussion if both of us leave with both of our points of view totally reinforced?
We're not continuing this, all right?
Okay.
Because you're wrong, and you know you are.
That is usually what someone says when they're losing the argument.
Anyway, dear listener, thank you very much for listening.
Thank you for watching.
Bye-bye.
Hugs and kisses.
Bye.
Bye.
Rory, let's talk about offices.
Do you work in an office?
I do, actually.
I'm privileged enough to have a home office that I can do all my university work and teaching and podcasting from.
Is it common for people in your country to work in an office?
Well, probably not as common as it used to be since we've had the pandemic, and people have been working from home a lot more.
Still, you do see people heading off there from time to time, probably to justify the expense, to be honest.
Where do most of your friends work?
Well, I think the majority have pretty hands-on jobs.
So they work in nursing, teaching, or the care industry more generally.
Some of them still work in offices, but that's a rarity these days.
Would you like to design an office?
I could probably do the basics like what I would want, but the more technical aspects would be lost on me.
I like the idea of an office with a desk that I could stand at, rather than the current setup, which would probably be better for my back now I think about it.
Aside from that, I like the idea of having greenery and lots of sunlight, but that's about the extent of it.
What kind of office would you like to work in?
Well, unless it's my current one, which still has its flaws, or the ones I suggested designing then, to be honest, I wouldn't like to work in an office at all.
I don't like the idea of being confined in a space where you're forced to go to every day and you can work from the comfort of your home and you get minimal interference that way.
Thank you.
