Episode 175

EPISODE 175
LEVEL A2

READING COMPREHENSION

 

Company pays its workers to sleep

A company in the USA is paying its employees to sleep more. Staff at the insurance company Aetna will get $300 a year added to their salary if they get at least seven hours of sleep a night. That works out to just over an extra dollar for each night the employee sleeps over seven hours. The idea behind this scheme is employee performance. Human resources officials say employees will work better if they have slept well. They add that a workforce that is more awake and alert will mean the company will perform better. Staff can either record their sleep automatically using a wrist monitor that connects to Aetna’s computers, or manually record how long they have slept every night. There are a number of studies that warn that not sleeping enough can affect our ability to do our job. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine said that the average worker in the USA loses 11.3 working days of productivity a year because of not getting enough sleep. This costs companies about $2,280 for one worker. It estimates that the US economy loses $63.2 billion a year because workers do not sleep more than seven hours a night. A 2015 study in Europe by the Rand Corporation found that staff who slept less than seven hours per night were far less productive than workers who had eight or more hours of sleep. The staff at Aetna also receive extra cash if they do exercise.

 

Exercise 1

Find in the text expressions which mean:
1. personel
2. pensja
3. plan
4. urzędnik
5. siła robocza
6. badanie
7. zdolność
8. wydajność

 

Exercise 2

Match these words from the two columns to form collocations:

1. insurance                    worker
2. employee                    resources
3. human                        performance
4. average                       day
5. working                      cash
6. extra                           company

 

Exercise 3
Change the form of the words in brackets to fit the context of the sentence:

A company in the USA is paying its (employ) 1._____________ to sleep more. Staff at the (insure) 2._____________ company Aetna will get $300 a year added to their salary if they get at least seven hours of sleep a night. The idea behind this scheme is employee (perform) 3._____________. Human resources (office) 4._____________ say employees will work better if they have slept well. Staff can either record their sleep (automatic) 5._____________ using a wrist monitor that connects to Aetna’s computers, or (manual) 6._____________ record how long they have slept every night. There are a number of studies that warn that not sleeping enough can affect our (able) 7._____________ to do our job. A 2015 study in Europe by the Rand Corporation found that staff who slept less than seven hours per night were far less (product) 8._____________ than workers who had eight or more hours of sleep.

 

I know English idioms!

The topic of this lesson’s reading text is sleeping. It’s a topic area which is very rich in idiomatic expressions. Let’s study but a few:

• to sleep on something (= to give yourself some thinking time; przespać się z czymś)
• to sleep rough (= to spend a night in the open air; spać pod gołym niebem)
• not to sleep a wink (= not to be able to sleep at all; nie zmrużyć oka)

 

Phrasals, phrasals…

 

English phrasal verbs are also rich in sleep-related examples. Here are some:

• to flake out (= to fall asleep because you’re very tired; zasnąć ze zmęczenia)
• to sleep in (= to get up later than normal; pospać sobie)
• to sleep over (= to spend a night at another person’s house; przenocować u kogoś)

 

Grammar corner

A sentence of our text reads: “There are a number of studies that warn that not sleeping enough can affect our ability to do our job.”
The underlined expression (enough) is a common structure which can translate as “wystarczająco”. The interesting thing is where “enough” finds its place in a sentence. Let’s study these examples:

• I don’t have enough money to buy a house.
• They employed enough workers to complete this project.
• She was satisfied enough – I didn’t have to push harder.
• He answered quickly enough for me to finish the presentation.

 

GLOSSARY
staff – personel
insurance company – firma ubezpieczeniowa
added – dodany, dodatkowo
salary – pensja
at least – przynajmniej
to work out – tu: przeliczać się na
scheme – plan
performance – wydajność
human resources – zasoby ludzkie (dział w firmie)
official – urzędnik, pracownik
workforce – siła robocza
awake – rozbudzony
alert – czujny
to perform – osiągać wyniki
to record – rejestrować
automatically – automatycznie
wrist – nadgarstek
to connect – łączyć się
manually – ręcznie
a number of – liczne
study – studium, badanie
to warn – ostrzegać
enough – wystarczająco
to affect – wpływać na
ability – zdolność
average – średni, statystyczny
to lose – tracić
working day – dzień roboczy
productivity – wydajność
to estimate – szacować
billion – miliard
extra – dodatkowy
cash – gotówka
to do exercise – gimnastykować się

 

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