Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.
The speaker argues that employees should keep private lives and personal activities separate from workplace as much as possible. The speaker believes that private lives and personal activities will interfere people's work. However, this is not always the case. Moderate involvement of personal activities in workplace could improve performance of employees. In the following analysis, I will give my reasons and examples.
Both work and private life are indispensable part in our life. Private life will affect our performance at work the more or less. Appropriate allowance of private life in workplace gives us necessary flexibility at work, thus can actually benefit our work. For example, it is better to allow an employee to make necessary private call for a personal situation rather than have the employee to ask for leave of absence. Little personal situations that may interfere work could be solved in this way to save time not only for the employee and but also for the organization. Also, if the employee really has some difficulty in private life, a discussion of the difficulty with the manager or other co-workers to seek available help will relieve the employee's stress and foster collegiality, which will ultimately benefit the organization. In the same manner, even no one is in such a difficulty, occasional activity such as company picnic or buffet party can boost employees’ morale by giving them chances to communicate personally.
Moreover, moderate allowance of personal activities in workplace may also improve the creativity of people. This is especially important for such innovative company or organization whose survival depends on its employees' creative work. Those people who faced with more rapid changes are under great stress, which, if accumulated, will largely impede their creativity. In order to improve those people’s productivity, some companies at California have successfully introduced a new flexible working environment into workplace, allowing employees bring their personal belongings such as family photo or even their pets, and personal activities such individualized decoration to office.
Admittedly, employees should prevent excessive personal activities that have negative effects in workplace. Too much chat or too many private telephone calls will distract employees' concentration on work. Also, such personal relations as romance between employees are better to be kept in confidential, so that those relations would not disrupt or demoralize or offends other employees. But still, an employee appears to be aloof-who shares nothing personal with others-may be resented by coworkers who perceive them as arrogant, unfriendly, or uncooperative. The ill will and lack of communication that likely to result may ultimately harm the organization.
In the final analysis, private life or personal activity will exert positive effect in productivity if mixed properly in workplace. Although bringing personal life in workplace might be counterproductive under certain circumstance, it is generally beneficial if small does of personal life is injected into workplace. |