Section 2 - Unit 2 Have you a Tea-Room?

Section 2 - Unit 2 Have you a Tea-Room?

1.We have all walked through modern office blocks where the workers are busily tapping away at keyboards. They have their mugs of tea, or coffee, as they work. Some have a packet of something to nibble in the drawer; but how do they manage to make one packet of chocolate digestives last one whole week? There is an area by the wall somewhere with a water geyser perpetually on the boil, and a stack of mugs. There is a palpable air of activity. Productivity must be booming, one thinks. But is it?

2. How many of these people working late of their own volition, want to obtain a result before going home, and will beaver away happily until well after dark to achieve it? Damned few! Yes! It may seem wonderful to have a constant flow of liquid refreshment at the desk, not to need a tea, or coffee, break – because the whole working day is a tea break. Yet, who wants the tea when the ambience, all too often, is that of a concentration camp?

  3. Why not escape from the desk with a cup of tea from time to time? Perhaps, take your break in a comfortable chair, talk about last night’s football results or discuss work, seek or offer advice, arrange a game of squash, play bridge. Or, network and enjoy some refreshment at the same time!

4. What will the boss say, however? If he has any sense, he will also come and join you. Perhaps, he supports another team? You can discuss the merits of the players and show him how competently you can present a case. He will realise that the tea-room is an ideal place for informal meetings with his staff, where any number of day-to-day problems can be sorted out over a cup of tea, and where anyone who needs a tender warning about something can be quietly given it without the march to The Office. If, as a consequence, the communication process improves, the boss may even dispense with a layer of middle management ‘twixt you and himself’. He will then no longer need to have expensive Off-site Meetings, where his middle managers experienceFree Expression. He can spend some of the savings on light refreshments for his staff to enjoy!

5. If you, or a colleague, have a problem with some aspect of work, share it with everyone in the tea-room. One of your colleagues will, doubtless, have had similar difficulties in the past and will have discovered a ridiculously simple solution. To your surprise, you will find he is more than happy to share his experience and answers with you over a cup of tea. Both of you will then go back to your desks with added commitment and make a positive contribution to the work of the group.

6. Every team has its ‘specialists’. They are normal people in their everyday lives, but there are those special situations where they seem to excel all the time. It may be that they format new documentation with consummate ease. Maybe, they can bake excellent butter sponge cakes decorated as fax machines… The true specialist can train anyone to fulfil his role.

7. Who will be trained? Keen, eager people: the raw recruits. Released from the inhibitions of the office environment in the relaxed atmosphere of a tea-room, they have the confidence to ask dumb questions. This is, in fact, the best place to find solutions to problems; and conduct training. In the tea-room, old-hands, freed temporarily from the modern technologies they often do not fully understand, will invariably offer advice. These people, who know all about the way things happen and what the final product should look like, will give free information communicated with an honest confidence. Why have lots of knowledge, if you cannot share it effectively with others? The Boss should observe the information flow between these people.

8. Situations like these occur in tea-rooms worldwide every day. These are all natural human interactions. There is much that can be said for the idea of fixed tea times during the working day away from one’s precise place of work. Suggesting this will make Asset Managers cringe. This room is only being used 4 hours a day

9. But let us say we allow staff to enjoy staggered breaks. The morning coffee is between 10.00 and 11.00. Lunch is sometime between 12.00 and 2.00. Afternoon tea is between 3.00 and 4.00. The tea-room can then be used by time-conscious executives to have their meetings. And, since the room is required for refreshment, these meetings must never over-run, unless they are scheduled after afternoon tea… Who wants to work late anyway?

I/ The reading passage describes a number of Implications for the working environment provided certain Conditions are met. Match each condition in list A with its Implication in list B. There are more implications in list B than you will need, so you will not use all of them.

List A - Condition

List B - Implication

1. Provided people share and solve problems together, 2. If the atmosphere in the tea-room is totally relaxed, 3. Should bosses relax with their employees, 4. When tea-rooms are used as a multi-purpose venue, 5. If communication between boss and staff is improved,

A. the tendency for meetings to over-run is avoided B. the employer will recognise the positive contribution to team-work. C. they will work harder as part of a team. D. a layer of management will perhaps be removed. E. some executives will be able to work later. F. more experienced staff will have an opportunity to train the more inexperienced staff. G. they will see tea-rooms as an informal opportunity to meet staff and solve problems. H. there will be more off-site meetings for middle managers. I. the boss will see how information is exchanged between staff members.

1.      2.      3.      4.      5. 

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II/ Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in the reading passage? Write Yes if the statement agrees with the views of the writer, No if the statement contradicts the views of the writer or Not given if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this.

 1. A variety of snacks should be provided in tea-room.
 2. It is surprising that office workers make a packet of chocolate digestives last for a week.
 3. The writer suggests workers could, at times, change the setting for their tea breaks.
 4. Specialists excel in their everyday lives.
 5. Tea-rooms are the best places to ask facile questions.

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III/ Using no more than two words from the passage, answer the questions below.

1. How many people voluntarily work late?

2. On what can the money saved by avoiding off-site meetings be spent?

3. What should Asset Managers do if the tea-room were used only 4 hours per day?

4. What do older and experienced people not always understand?

1. How many people voluntarily work late?

2. On what can the money saved by avoiding off-site meetings be spent?

3. What should Asset Managers do if the tea-room were used only 4 hours per day?

4. What do older and experienced people not always understand?

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