Burnout and work-life balance

What's in the lesson

1. 1Warm-up
2. 2In this lesson
3. 3Guess the words (1)Vocabulary exercise
4. 4Guess the words (2)Vocabulary exercise
5. 5Check the wordsVocabulary
6. 6Useful phrases: protecting your timeVocabulary
7. 7Check your understandingReading comprehension
8. 8Listen: Sana's storyListening comprehension
9. 9Use the new wordsVocabulary exercise
10. 10What does it mean?Grammar exercise
11. 11Sana's message to her teamGrammar exercise
12. 12-ing or to: a change of meaningGrammar rule
13. 13Choose the right formGrammar exercise
14. 14A message to a mentorGrammar exercise
15. 15Say it naturallySpeaking practice
16. 16A workload check-inSpeaking practice
17. 17Let's discussDiscussion
18. 18Wrap-up

Homework

1. 1Homework: closest meaningVocabulary exercise
2. 2Homework: your sentencesVocabulary exercise
3. 3Homework: a welcome emailGrammar exercise
4. 4Homework: an email about your workloadDiscussion

Words

• exhaustion/ɪɡˈzɔːstʃən/

  the state of being extremely tired, in your body or your mind (exhausted: the adjective)

• cynical/ˈsɪnɪkl/

  believing that nothing good will come of something, or that people only care about themselves

• drained/dreɪnd/

  having no energy left, after a lot of effort or stress

• workload/ˈwɜːrkloʊd/

  the amount of work that a person or a team has to do

• prolonged/prəˈlɔːŋd/

  continuing for a long time

• take a toll/ˌteɪk ə ˈtoʊl/

  to have a bad effect over time (take a toll on someone or something)

• boundary/ˈbaʊndri/

  a limit that you set on what you will do or accept (set boundaries)

• overextend/ˌoʊvərɪkˈstend/

  to try to do more than you can manage (overextend yourself)

• push back/ˌpʊʃ ˈbæk/

  to say no to a request, a plan or a deadline, or to argue against it (push back on something)

• unplug/ˌʌnˈplʌɡ/

  to stop using phones, computers and the internet for a while, so that you can rest (also: to pull a cable out of the wall)

Two slides from the lesson

Warm-up

Let's talk about work and the rest of life.

1. How do you know when you've done enough work for one day?
2. What do you do on a Friday evening to leave the workweek behind?
3. Who do you know who works too much? What does it cost them?

Grammar rule

-ing or to: a change of meaning

Most verbs take only one form (enjoy working, decide to leave). These six take both, but the meaning changes:

Verb	+ -ing	+ to + verb
stop	not do it anymore: Our team stopped holding meetings on Fridays.	stop what you are doing, in order to do something else: During the audit, he stopped to explain each number.
try	do it as an experiment, to see if it helps: Try muting the group chat for a day.	make an effort to do something, often something difficult: I tried to reach the client all morning.
remember	have a memory of something you did: I remember meeting our first customer.	not forget a task that you have to do: Remember to log your hours by Friday.
forget	lose the memory of something you did (mostly with never): I'll never forget getting my first paycheck.	not do something that you needed to do: I forgot to attach the file.
regret	be sorry about something you did or didn't do: I regret not negotiating my salary.	formal, before bad news (usually with say, tell, inform or announce): We regret to inform customers that the store will close early on Sunday.
go on	continue doing the same thing: We went on testing the app all weekend.	do something next, after something else: After the welcome, the CEO went on to explain the new plan.

With remember, forget and regret, the -ing form looks back at something that already happened; the to form looks forward to something you have to do (or, with regret to, to the news you are about to give).

The negative: try not to reply at night, remember not to forward the file, regret not + -ing (I regret not taking that job).

try: in advice, both forms are often possible (Try to get more sleep. / Try sleeping with the window open.). The -ing form suggests a test: do it and see what happens.

go on + -ing means the same as keep + -ing: She kept working / went on working until midnight.

Not I regret to not apply (say I regret not applying), and not stop to work when you mean "not work anymore". Like, love, hate and start also take both forms, but their meaning hardly changes (unit 4).