In small groups, discuss the issues below. Report to another group.

1. The word "workaholism" is a combination of two words with opposite connotation "work" and "alcoholism". Are these connotations positive or negative to you?

2. Being hooked on work, a workaholic would say, "I have no life". Then, why do you think they continue putting in long hours at work?

3. The dictionary defines a workaholic as "a person who works most of the time and finds it difficult to stop working in order to do other things" (Source: Collins COBUILD English Dictionary. London: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1998). List things, activities, relationships etc., workaholics have to sacrifice.

5. Skim the text and do the tasks given below. Here are the words you may need:

futon – хлопчатобумажный матрац

intravenous – внутривенный

whizz – амер. сл.: молодчина; ловкач

horrified awe – шокирующий страх

slip – плавно переходить

start-up – новая/недавно созданная фирма, компания

tick – работать

what makes smb. tick – что движет кем-л.

dedication – посвящение

enterprise – предприятие

mergers-and-acquisitions – слияние и поглощение

pursue – преследовать

World-class workaholics: are crazy hours and takeout dinners
the elixir of American success?

Chris Strahorn's parents haven't seen much of him lately. They're usually asleep by the time he gets home, anywhere between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. And he's often asleep when they leave for work. If his car is in the driveway, they know he made it back. (Sometimes his father says "hi" to the car.) If not, it's a safe bet that Strahorn, a "24-year-old computer programmer at an Internet start-up called the Tomorrow Factory, has pulled another overnighter, grabbing a few hours of sleep on his futon. Most of his colleagues prefer the sofa that the company has thoughtfully provided. Strahorn likes the relative calm and quiet of his cubicle. He sleeps under his desk, for the darkness, and close to his computer, for the warmth.

Wherever he has slept, he tends to have breakfast at the Morning Brew Coffee Co. in the same small South San Francisco building as the Tomorrow Factory. The Morning Brew was there first. When the Tomorrow Factory moved in over the summer, the founders installed a door between the two places. Thanks to that piece of foresight, the Tomorrow Factory's thermoses are kept steadily filled with freshly ground Sumatra. Some of the employees, says Strahorn, think it may be time to add a "direct line – an intravenous tube".

Young computer whizzes with stock options may not be broadly representative of the con­temporary work force. But in one respect – crazy hours – the Silicon Valley ethos speaks for America these days. Between 1977 and 1997, the average workweek (among salaried Americans working 20 hours or more) lengthened from 43 to 47 "hours. Over the same years, ac­cording to James T. Bond, vice president of the Families and Work Institute, the number of workers putting in 50 or more hours a week jumped from 24 percent to 37 percent. Scarcely a decade ago, Americans viewed the work habits of the Japanese with horrified awe. Now, according to a recent report of the International Labor Organization, the United States has slipped past Japan to become the longest-working nation in the advanced industrial world.

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