When Work Pays But Passion Fades
Grammar: Professional register — hedged opinion and instrumental framing
A Business English English lesson exploring work.
What's in this lesson
A Business English ESL lesson on work, practising professional register — hedged opinion and instrumental framing. The worksheet has a reading, target vocabulary and discussion questions.
From the reading: When Work Pays But Passion Fades
After six months away from the office — spent with her children, baking, exercising and managing a household — a British professional is preparing to return to the workforce. The redundancy she experienced had, unexpectedly, given her something: time. But now that the time is ending, the job she has accepted feels hollow. The salary is real. The enthusiasm is not. She has written to advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith at The Guardian, asking a question that many professionals are quietly thinking: how do you get your mojo back when work no longer feels meaningful?
Vocabulary
- at the office door
- drink the water you swim in
- get your mojo back
- move the needle
- career break
- financial mechanism
- instrumental relationship
- intrinsic motivation
- performative enthusiasm
Discussion questions
- Do you separate your identity from your job?
- Has your attitude to work changed over the past few years?
- Is it possible to be excellent at a job you do not care about?
When Work Pays But Passion Fades
Grammar: Professional register — hedged opinion and instrumental framing
What's in this lesson:
Full lesson plan with reading, grammar, vocabulary, and discussion.
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