IELTS Writing Task 2: seeing both sides

Whatever your real opinion is, it's important to be able to see both sides of the argument when preparing IELTS writing topics.

For example, in yesterday's lesson the speaker talked about the advantages of teleworking. To complete our preparation of this topic, let's think about the possible disadvantages of teleworking. Feel free to share your ideas in the "comments" below this lesson, and we'll look at a possible question next week.

Comments

[gaye]

Disadvantages
1.to be concentrate to work become more difficult.
2.it is harder to prove some issues since there is no witness.
3.may be people tend to place importance their work less since there is no superviser at their home.
4. people may put on weight. Commuting can be seen as an activity for human body.

[Tracy]

from my perspective, teleworking makes it difficult for employers to communicate with colleagues efficiently and this may reduce productivity. Employees working from home may be distracted easily by household issues too.

[Aada]

1. Easily get distracted by TV, computer games, etc.
2. Need some level of skills on how to use computer
3. Lack of F2F communication with employer and colleagues which may cause some misunderstanding
4. Stay too much time at home without interacting with people may give rise to some psychological problems like depression

[Andris]

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[nazanin]

-it causes less social communication between co-workers.
-People's daily activity may be decreased.The less active they become, the more health problem they get.
people can do different things at the same time. so they can not focus on their work properly.

[Monica]

1. They are have extra utility bills have to pay.

2. Some people are not able to have space for working at home.

3. Not everyone enjoy working and living at the same places.

[Diego Maradona]

Hi Simon,

Could I ask you a question:

If my IELTS Writing task 2 question ask me such as advantage or disadvantage/ agree or disagree, then can I discuss both side of this? Hope to see your reply soon. Thank you.

Regards.

[Sophia]

1.It is difficult to communicate with coworkers and superiors without reserve. This can lead to misunderstanding between them.
2.It is hard to divide one’s time between work and home.
3.Directors cannot check exactly how individuals approach their tasks, because most of them report only results or give an intern report, not all about their job.

[Lincoln]

Businiss perspective
1: employer might lost control of a project, it is huge for the company.
2: probably increasing human cost because teleworking needs an extra ability to use the internet effective besides their own professional ability.
3: it has negative influence on team building.

employee perspective.
1: it might distracted by household issues which impacts productive.
2: laziness is human nature, employee tend to put less important on work because there is no supervisor.
3: some work needs employees work together. obvisourly, teleworking cannot achieve that.

[TQH]

1. Some jobs cannot be done at home like hospital factory....
2. Less social interaction leading to some metal disorder
3. Less mobility may develop health problem such as obesity.
4 it not suitable for everywhere. Because some areas have bad IT infrastructure.

[lina]

1- The social aspect of work would be decreased.
2- The competitiveness spirit would also decrease, as workers will not be able to notice the development of their colleagues.
3- people have to be committed to be able to finish their works .

[Trung]

1. Depend on digital infrastructure such as: the internet or electric system...
2. Can not transfer sufficiently information
3. Managers can not control their employees comprehensively

[rauf]

disadvantages
less human interaction-fewer oppurtunities to meet people,share ideas with colleagues and seniors
difficult to work as a part of team,in office based situation
greater temptation to spend time on non work related ativities
disturbance of persnal and family life

[Chiao]

1. chance to have face-to-face communication would decrease, and people would be not so intimate as before.

2. there is still problems to show the picture in mind pretty clear by technology.

3. no one can make sure the connection between two sides is always in best condition.

4. the time difference of two areas is hard to overcome, because people in one side always have to wait for the response from the other side

[sami]

There are several disadvantages to do work at home. Firstly, it makes you feel lonely which might become a concrete reason of a depression ,even though you are interacting with your coworkers and employers via electronically devices. Secondly, people engaged in telecomunicating tend to put on an immense weight that most probably leads to an obesity , which would be resulted in various other health problems such as heart attack , diabetes etc. Finally , from a security perspective , all data that companies are providing to their employers , that are accessable on their on own place, would might be able to get hacked easily by their rivals. This is the main reason why some companies security systems are unable to protect their files from getting hacked.

[sami]

There are several disadvantages to do work at home. Firstly, it makes you feel lonely which might become a concrete reason of a depression ,even though you are interacting with your coworkers and employers via electronically devices. Secondly, people engaged in telecomunicating tend to put on an immense weight that most probably leads to an obesity , which would be resulted in various other health problems such as heart attack , diabetes etc. Finally , from a security perspective , all data that companies are providing to their employers , to make it accessable for workers so they can use it on their on own pace, would might be able to get hacked easily by their rivals. This is the main reason why some companies security systems are unable to protect their files from getting hacked.

[pearl]

There are a range of drawbacks to teleworking. From company's perspective it does not allow employees to work in a practical office environment. There is no face to face interaction between the employees and the employers , and I would argue that team work would be negatively affected by this if conversations are only based on telephones. As a result it can be a major impediment for company's progression. From individual perspective, if people only rely on telephones and work from home , they will miss out on the social experience that a traditional office environment offers. The relationship between colleagues will not build up and employee's social life may suffer. There is also a drawback in terms of health. Having conversation for long hours over phones can be damaging to brain. Also , people are no longer required to commute to work, therefore more people will lead a sedentary life style, resulting in a society with increasingly overweight population.

Hi Simon and all, I would be delighted if someone give some feedback about the paragraph .

[neet]

However,I believe that telecommunication has a number of negative effects .Firstly,since people started working via emails and video conferences,they have forgotten the importance of social interaction.A case in point is that nearly all age groups prefer to talk on mobile phones or internet rather than get together socially .This leads to a lack of the sense of belonging,which only comes when we talk face to face.Secondly,more and more people are increasingly overweight because they tend to do less walk and more desk jobs.

[Martin]

Hi Simon,

This is definitely good advice.

In addition to this, I also suggest my students to try to "challenge" the writers (or speakers) by further thinking or questioning about the issue. Many newspaper articles today are not very complete or could even be doubtful, and that's where students can somehow get involved and try to come up with their own opinions or viewpoints.

The whole idea is to expand their general knowledge.

Cheers,
Martin

[Aria]

Disadvantage from employer prospective

1- As manager main role is directing of each person in a team work, it is difficult to do this while the group are scattered in different places.
2- It is difficult to keep up the standards of job such as following the schedules, job progress or employees presence.
3- Teleworking cannot be applied for some technical services which need employees’ presence such as plumbing or nursing.
4- Lack of face to face contact affects the quality of the management.

Disadvantages for employees:
1- The security and future for employee’s carrier can be compromised as there is no physical presence for company.
2- Staying all day at home can be boring and decrease the performance.
3- Lack of socialize environment at work can affect the productivity as there is no contact or interaction with others, related or unrelated to work during the day.
4- Staying at home throughout the day can be detrimental to physical and psychological states of the employees.

[Aimey]

-the work performance of employees cannot be monitored by managers/ supervisors.

-As employees are able to work comfortably from home, efficiency and effectiveness could be a problem. Unlike home, office present a competent and professional environment that will boost the work performance of employees.

-The guidance from superior of the delegated tasks may not be easily available, which may induce errors and mistakes.

-These side effects could result in failure in overall company performance and development progress.

-Personally, employees will lack the skills of communication with stakeholders, problem solving and networking. These would affect an individual's personal development.

[MOHAMED BEN HASSAN]

There are many downsides for working remotely from the convenient office at home. First, there are many distractions at home such as childern, and and many often have temptations to watch TV or talk on phone with friends. These things could affect how much work everyone does. Second, people who converted home into the place of work have no opportunity to meet other employees, and they usually miss the competition feeling and team-work skills.Moreover, those people often lose the social working life and colleague's help when they are in need, which in turn might cause feeling of loneliness and depression.

Simon, could you tell me whether it is a good paragraph or not and how to improve it.
Thank you,

[anhtran09]

Disadvantages of teleworking:
+ Less contact with Co-Workers
+ Less access to office equipment
+ Require some initial start up costs

[Jacy]

-stay too much time at home and in front of computer
-less contact with co-workers
-It causes social communication problems with people

[Jeong]

*Business
-It is limited to talk about important business. Sometimes face to face meeting is more helpful to sucess business.
-cause misunderstanding.

*Individual
-usually not hold on the phone long time with stranger because people know its just advertising and promotion things.
-can not trust 100% so its lack of credibility.
-flexibility working time make workers lazy and less of concentration in some cases

[Monica]

Home-based jobs can bring multiple drawbacks. Firstly, employees tend to be easily distracted by household issues, thus significantly lowering their working efficiency. This is particularly true for those weak at self-displine while required to work remotely under no supervision. Secondly, lack of face-to-face communication with colleagues and managers can greatly undermine workers' sense of belonging in workplace. distant conversation such as MSN, for instance, are highly unlikely to substitute for a comfortable chat with workmates over lunch.

[Linda]

1.The communication among co-workeers is less efficient;
2.It is easy to be disturbed when working at home;
3.Employees will have higher electricity bill and phone bill;
4.Employees will have fewer opportunities to go outdoors and have a real contact with others, which may make them feel be isolated from the outside world;
5.It causes confusions for employees who may have difficulties to tell private life from work.

[JENA]

Disadvantages:
1. the interactions with others decrease,people may feel isolated
2. less time to go outside, cause health problem,eg.obesity
3. instead of face-to-face communication,teleworking communication may cause misunderstanding
4.in term of wages, it will become difficult for managers to manage teleworking workers performance

[kasia]

-no social interaction while working from a home office
-time management could become an issue for some as it is easy to get distracted by other family members
-postponing some of the assignments thinking that time is not an issue since I'm working at home therefore can do it later
-getting discouraged since there is no competitiveness and the surroundings unchangeable on every day basis
-some health issues may evolve while performing a sedentary work
-neglecting one's appearance since there is no need to look decent at home office (silly idea but true)

[Felisa]

Disadvantages of teleworking
Business side
1.human training cost could increase
2.difficult to follow the progress of projects
3.difficult to develop team building

Personal side
1.Hard to focus due to mixture of work and life
2. misunderstanding resulted from lack of face to face communications
3.can have health problems because of less social and physical activities

[Sidney Hua]

The drawbacks of tele-networking

From personal view,
1. becoming less social interactive with other people.
2. This tempted the worker to do everything on the computer and thus becoming more lackadaisical.

Business view,
1. It would be impossible for some business that demand regular meetings and teamwork skills
2. Workers would get discouraged due to lack of competitiveness and professional environment while working at home.

[khoory]

Isolation
Often, professionals working from home complain of isolation and loneliness given their removal from their bosses and coworkers and th is can be very depressing to some. Distractions
Although office distractions are avoided by working at home, different distractions may arise. Interruptions from children, work, neighbors, friends, family may be very disruptive and special efforts must be made to make it known that you are actually working and unavailable for interruption within work hours despite your physical presence at home.

Danger of being overlooked for promotion
The danger of being overlooked for promotions and career development opportunities is quite real when you are away from the office and other more visible employees are actively and aggressively vying for them.

Need for high self-discipline
Working from home is not for anyone. It takes a lot of dedication, self-control and discipline to motivate yourself to persevere in working at home alone over the long run without succumbing to the distractions and losing drive and momentum.

[safaa]

1.it's boring and this lead to less production
due to no contact with real work environment.
2. Health problem as result of less movement, long hour sitting and less contact with people.
3.Missing of the spirit of team work.
4. Absence of friend ship between employee which lead to decrease the enjoy.

[Thiri]

1. If no self-discipline, it will be very difficult to finish the tasks.
2. More sedentary lifestyle, chance of becoming obesity
3. Little chance of discussion between boss and staff
4. Individual will lose of social skill by having little chance to communicate with co-workers

[Musa]

disadvantages
-It may result to low productivity and low quality product.

-it may be difficult to gain experience since you are always alone on the task.

-Chance for improvement may be slim.

-self discipline may not be there.

-there may be a less concentration since there is no one to monitor the job.

-Lack of exercise, may bring about some other illnesses.

-employer employee relationship is absent.

advantages:

No office expenses.

it makes task accomplishment very convenient.

transportation cost reduced.

business run as one wishes.

[Sukhpal Singh]

Hi Simon
Would you please tell me that for what purpose ielts asks about occupation, reason to take the exam , country intended to move etc. Lookin forward for your reply
Thank you

[Anvar]

Firstly, people become antisocial.Secondly, it brings in one's life obesity which is harmful to health. Hence, people, who work alone, are not aware of the teamwork skills. Finally, in general, he or she will be depend on technology and therefore without electronic gadgets they are not able to run businesses.

thank u Simon

[Khatir]

Business perspective disadvantage:
1. Lesser influence on employees and production.
2. System failure issues, accidental or intentional ( hacking).
3. Demand for extra training for employees on independant self-regulated work environment.
4. Loss of feedback that is adopted to enhance future plans and adjustments.

Employee perspective downsides:
1. Violation of sanctity of the home and family relationships.
2. Loss of the social contact and relationships encountered in the workplaces.
3. Increased sedentary lifestyle and isolation along with their physical and mental health problems.
4. Loss of exchange of experience and apprenticeship.
5. Decreased interest and creativity brought about by competitiveness at workplace.

[anmol]

i given general exam on 5th i wrote arond 220 words in task 2 coz of less time.how much bands thy gona deduct for that? pls help.

[doga]

Hi Simon,

just like anmoli i could also write like 240 words just a bit lower than the expected word limit.. I realized it at the end of the task 2 session, so, i wonder if there is any rule on how much point i might lose due to this problem.. Would you please comment on this ?

[Typhanie]

business:
1.lead to timezone problem->work overtime or in the night shift. hard to keep the whole time in the same page.
2.greatly depend on network technology->system/network failure problems pose threat to serious business impact.

personal: 1.might mix work with life. for example, ppl may have to take care of children while working in the home office.
2. less face-to-face communication with colleagues->feel lonely

[Firoz Ahmmed]

Hi Simon,

How are you. Please find my points below.

Disadvantages are:

1. Social interaction and bonding will be decreased.
2. Communication gap between employee and company management would be limited.
3. People can loss their interests on office and its benefits.
4. Creativity and productivity of employee can be hampered.

Thanks,

Firoz

[Sure]

Hi Simon,

I have the same question as Diego Maradona did.If my IELTS Writing task 2 question ask me such as advantage or disadvantage/ agree or disagree, then can I discuss both side of this?
Another question is: logical cohesion word such as furthermore, moreover, does great work?
Hope to see your reply soon. Thank you.

Regards.

[Sure]

1. cosy and familiar living environment and chaos at home may distract the attention of employees, and then lower the work efficience as well as the quality of performance. Obviously, it will exert pernicious impacts on the future career development of employees and the profits of their companies in a long term.

2. it may make a threat to the physical and psychological health of workers.
3. some tasks which involve the cooperation of different departments at the same time cannot approached by teleworking pattern.

[Anh]

_ Personal relationship will be less concerned
_ Less motivators
_ Harder for manager to handle workers

[ishtiaque]

i have to say @pearl's paragraph is quite good and natural to me. Though it almost passed 4 years.

[ishtiaque]

@Aria's ideas are good too.