Desk Job Makeover

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Desk Job Makeover
(MSNBC, 2012)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#47130236
And helping people to become more fit is becoming a growing movement in this country to get office
workers up from their desks.
NBC’s Anne Thompson with that story tonight.
Working here, Pat Tarentino is going nowhere in her job. To the encouragement and delight of her
employer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.
Now we look at this, it’s, it’s… we’re walking the talk.
The effort Jason Robart leads here is part of a growing trend to get America’s cubicle-bound workforce
out of their chairs and moving.
There are six walk stations at Blue Cross’s three Boston area locations. Workers sign up for one-hour
shifts on the treadmills. At no more than two miles per hour, Pat and her colleagues could work on
computers and phones.
I wanted to check in on our project.
-See, I would think this would be distracting!
-No.
-No? It helps focus your mind?
-It helps focus. It gives.. sometimes, if you’re just reading e-mails, you know, the clock’s kinda ticking in
your head and you come up with ideas, of a solution that you were working at your desk.
The results Blue Cross says are more productive, engaged and active workers.
We are seeing people walking up and down the stairwells and not taking the elevator, much more so than
they have in the past.
The only requirement, proper footwear.
And for those of you wondering, is this really necessary, consider this: in 1960 almost half of all
American jobs required some kind of moderate physical activity. Today, less than twenty percent do.
Frightened by studies linking prolonged sitting at work with higher obesity and cancer rates, twenty-sixyear-old Amanda Johnson is standing at her desk, and getting her Trip Advisor colleagues to do the same.
It keeps you awake, it’s a lot easier to walk around and talk to my colleagues, and I just think that… you
know it makes me be a better worker.
More than ten percent of her fellow workers are on their feet in their cubicles.
Increasingly, meetings are held standing, they are shorter and participants are no longer distracted by
Smart phones or Blackberries.
People stopped bringing their devices with them, ‘cause they knew they weren’t gonna be able to use it
anymore.
Standing or walking, American workers try to improve their fitness and focus.
Anne Thompson, NBC News, Boston.
Vocabulary
1.
2.
3.
4.
makeover
more fit
a growing movement
to get office workers up from their desk
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
nowhere
delight
to walk the talk
trend
cubicle-bound workforce
10. sign up for one-hour shifts
11. treadmills
12. check in
13. distracting
14. it helps focus your mind
15. the clock’s kinda ticking
16. you come up
17. engaged
18. the stairwells
19. requirement
20. proper footwear
21. consider this
22. some kind of
23. linking
24. prolonged sitting at work
25. it keeps you awake
26. her fellow workers
27. increasingly
28. are held standing
29. their devices
30. ‘cause (oral)
31. weren’t gonna (oral)
changement de look (“relooking”)
meilleure forme
tendance croissante
faire les employés (sédentaires) se lever de
leur bureau (= fauteuil)
nulle part
grande joie
expression: joindre le geste à la parole
tendance
les employés sédentaires (‘liés’!) dans leur
box
s’inscrivent pour des séances d’une heure
tapis de jogging
me renseigner
gênant, qui empêche de se concentrer
cela aide votre esprit à se concentrer
(= is kind of) l’horloge fait tic tac dans la tête
vous arrivez à trouver
impliqués
cages d’escalier
condition requise
des chaussures adéquates
prenez ceci en compte
une forme ou une autre (d’activité physique)
mettant en relation
le fait de rester assis longtemps au travail
cela vous empêche de dormir / garde éveillé
collègues
de plus en plus
ont lieu debout
leurs appareils
= because
= weren’t going to