UNIT N° 5

IB PRESCRIBED THEME: SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

LESSON N° 01: THE WORKING WORLD
Class: 5th A, B, C and D Date: From: August 9th to 13th
Purpose: Know about the possible changes of the way of working after the pandemic
Learning evidence: A written speech
Approaches to teaching Approaches to learning IB Profiles
- Based on inquiry - Thinking skills - Inquirers - Open
- Conceptual understanding - Research skills - Knowledgeable minded.
- Develop in global and local - Communication - Thinkers - Caring
concept. skills - - Risk – takers
- Focused on effective teamwork and - Social skills Communicator - Balanced
collaboration - Self- management s - Reflective
- Differentiated to meet the needs of skills. - Principled
all learners informed by
assessment

EYES ON ME
ACTIVITY 1. Welcome back to the English challenge of the week! As a starting point, take a look at the
picture to brainstorm answers for the following questions: (You can consult a family member his
opinion about these economic matters)

The pandemic has truly deepened our global inequality

1. To what extent do you agree with the caption?

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2. Will the future of our work change after the pandemic is over?
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3. In what ways can unemployment become an opportunity for
improvement during the pandemic?

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LET´S OBSERVE AND READ
Activity 2: We know how Covid-19 changed our interactions and school studies, but how about work?
How will it change in the long term? Let’s read this article from BBC Worklife to find out:

More than seven months have passed since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a
pandemic. Hundreds of millions of people have lived through lockdowns. Many have made the abrupt
shift to working from home; millions have lost jobs. The future looks uncertain. We don't know when, or
if, our societies might return to normal – or what kind of scars the pandemic will leave.

Today, we’re starting by looking at the issue of work: how the pandemic has normalised remote work,
and what that might mean. Will we go to the office again – and, if so, how often? What impact will a
‘hybrid’ way of working have on how we communicate, connect and create? Will work-from-home be
the great leveller in terms of gender equality and diversity? And what will work mean if our offices are
virtual and we lose those day-to-day social interactions?

We’re also examining what happens to people who can’t work from home as well as those whose jobs
depend on a steady flow of traffic into urban hubs. Can we learn from Covid-19 and build better safety
nets for the most vulnerable workers? And if the future is digital, how do we make sure swathes of the
global population aren’t left behind?

“We all know that work will never be the same, even if we don’t yet know all the ways in which it will be
different,” says Slack co-founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield. But we’ve started asking the questions –
and here’s what our experts had to say.

Chinmay Tumbe: Professor of Economics, Indian Institute of Management

Which divides between workers will deepen?
The pandemic is starkly reframing societal inequalities between those who have good bandwidth
connectivity and those who don’t. The former can work from home, choose to live remotely, exercise at
home and accumulate their savings in a world with limited opportunities for instant gratification. The
latter are either struggling or out of work, stalling mortgage payments, climbing down the nutrition
ladder and dipping into their savings. This includes a large class of migrant workers, desperate for
normalcy to resume, as work from home is not feasible and work near home is not available.

Unemployment and growing inequality could thus herald new political opportunities, if not outright
revolutions. The post-pandemic world will also be interesting: a resumption of the consumerist
economy with reduced time-horizons (why postpone purchases and exotic vacations when life can be so
short) as well as a nostalgia for the possibilities that the lockdown offered us – of streets without cars,
of clean air and of spending quality time with family. Expect more suburbanisation and multiple-home-
ownership for the wealthy and a strong urge to upgrade digital skills among those not so well-off but
who want to thrive in the new age high-bandwidth society.
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Elisabeth Reynolds: Executive Director, Task Force on the Work of the Future,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
What happens to the workers that remote jobs leave behind?

For those who can work from home (approximately 40% of US workers largely from the higher educated
quartile), our daily experience of work will change significantly. Commuters will gain an hour back on
average in their day and estimates suggest that post pandemic, some portion of the week will involve
working from home – from one to three days a week. A hybrid model is likely to emerge that will try to
balance the efficiencies gained by remote work with the benefits of social interactions and to creativity
and innovation generated by working in person with others.

But the greatest challenge that we face regarding work is what happens to the other 60% of workers
who can’t work from home. The decline in daily commuters as well as business travel has a knock-on
effect on those whose jobs support and serve these workers and offices. A full one-in-four workers are
in the transportation, food service, cleaning and maintenance, retail and personal care industries. These
jobs, often concentrated in cities and lower paid, are disappearing or are at risk of disappearing in the
near term. We need to shore up the social safety net and invest in ways to further skills and increase
access to education and training for our most vulnerable workers.

LET'S PRACTISE
Activity 3: Read the text carefully and identify whether the statements below are true or false. Tick the
correct response then justify it with a relevant quotation from the text.

1.- Nearly all of US workers are largely from the higher educated quartile.

Justification true false

1 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

2.- Three years have passed since WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic.

Justification true false

2 …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………

3.- The pandemic does not make social discrimination.

Justification true false

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3 …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………….

4.- A full one-in-four workers are in the transportation, food service, cleaning and maintenance are well
paid.

Justification true false

4 …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………

5.- Elisabeth Reynolds is concerned about what happens to the other 60% of workers.

Justification true false

5 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Activity 4: Choose the correct answer according to the text:

1. Those who have good bandwidth connectivity

a) don’t struggle for instant gratification
b) struggle for work
c) are out of work
d) can’t work from home

2. those not so well-off

a) struggle out of work
b) exercise at home
c) can work from home
d) are so well-off

3. Why will the post-pandemic world be interesting?

a) because people will spend a lot of time
b) because there will be no viruses anymore
c) because people will spend a lot of money
d) because people will have enough tech skills

4. What are some of the benefits of A hybrid model?

a) not commuting to work

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 b) no exposure to viruses
c) a combination of online skills and social interactions
d) a combination of social interactions and secure payment

5. What could happen to jobs that do not rely on connectivity?

a) cannot be hard to find
b) can disappear
c) can become varied and interesting
d) are in the great cities

6. The article suggests that

a) we should increase training for our potential workers
b) We should support our society by giving them jobs they need
c) The rich should share their riches with the poor
d) we can improve their education and skills to help find a better job

LET'S REFLECT

Activity 6. What strategies did you use to answer the questions above?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……….………..…
How else do you think jobs can change after the pandemic?
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………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……….………..…

References
● Fogarty P., Frantz S., Hirschfeld J., Keating S., Lafont E., Lufkin B., Mishael R., Ponnavolu V.,
Savage M.and Meredith (2020).Coronavirus: how the world of work may change forever. BBC
Worklife.Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20201023-coronavirus-how-
will-the-pandemic-change-the-way-we-work