3. Answer questions 1-5 by choosing a, b, c or d.

1. Why are the minutes of meetings important for a company?

A. They provide a clear history of the firm and its evolution.

B. They concentrate scattered memos and directives in one synthetic

document.

C. They reflect decision making and control over company life.

D. They record any individual disagreement with company decisions.

2. Why do managers consider it important to be invited to meetings?

A. They can impress their superiors.

B. All the important company decisions are taken at meetings.

C. It makes them feel that their opinions are of importance to others.

D. They can share problems and anxieties.

3. According to shop-floor workers, where do managers really work hard?

A. at their desks

B. in meetings

C. on visits to company production areas

D. on business trips

4. Why are meetings comforting for the managers who participate in them?

A. They can show off their talents.

B. They make them feel they belong to a team.

C. They are a welcome break from daily routine.

D. They are a useful alibi for inaction.

5. What, according to the writer, are the essential functions of meetings?

A. planning and controlling company activities

B. reassuring managers and conferring legitimacy on decisions

C. asserting authority and judging one's peers

D. sharing problems and censuring mistakes

4. Does the author approve or disapprove of meetings? What pros and cons does he bring? Sum up his arguments.

■ 4.7 I. Easy Does It

Relaxing isn’t easy. I know -I have tried it.

I can see, therefore, why Japan's Ministry of Inter­national Trade and Industry should want corporations to have full-time "leisure advisers". It seems an idea worth copying.

A start should, perhaps, be made at the very top. Captains of industry often find it hardest of all to relax.

Workers at least have the excuse that they need to protect their job and pay off the mortgage. Many tycoons have all the money they could ever hope to spend. So why don't they ease up?

Some buy a luxurious yacht, a beach house, or even an island, but seldom make use of these expensive leisure facilities. "I don't have time for a holiday," they insist.

What they usually mean is that they could find the time, if pressed, but that they don't want to.

Some consider themselves so indispensable that their business would collapse if they were not around to supervise every detail.

Some are prisoners of their own success: they sit on so many boards of directors, and have such a heavy schedule of appointments, that they "haven't a moment to spare".

But more often than not the plain truth is that they don't know how to ease up. No-one has ever told them how to do it.

You can't be a frantic executive one day and a leisurely beachcomber the next: the contrast is too great. The bronzed young drifters who make it look simple have had years of practice.

Put a captain of industry on a beach and he tends to get bored and restless. He misses the pace, the action.

Invite him to play tennis and he will probably decline, because he fears that he will look foolish - he prefers to play games in the office, where he is a proven winner.

If he has a holiday home, or stays in a plush hotel, he will be on the telephone six times a day, doing what he does best. Relaxing is for wimps.

So what can a "leisure adviser" do for him - or, increasingly, her?

The basic task is to change attitudes, and gradually to introduce him to various leisure activities.

Some experts believe in playing what is known as the "fear card". The executive is warned of the risk of "burnout" and told that, if he doesn't take care of his health, the business will suffer.

Does he realize what it would cost if he had to go into hospital? More, much more than a holiday. That is the bottom line.

But I believe in a more positive approach. A good start is to persuade him that holidays are a "psychological investment", and that it is perfectly feasible to combine business with pleasure.

This has to be done step by step: the cold turkey treatment is rarely effective.

They can take work with them. (A recent survey by the Hyatt Corporation showed that nearly half of the executives questioned do so.) For a captain of industry, holidays are ideal for strategic planning.

They can call the office, though the aim must be to reduce the number of calls as the holiday progresses.

They can have faxes sent to them, though the staff should try to cut down on the rolls of fax paper: one should be sufficient after a while.

They can be persuaded to take up golf. It is not only a pleasant (and healthy) way of going for a leisurely walk, but it can also be good for business.

Some of the biggest deals of the past decade have begun with a casual remark on the golf course, and bankers have acquired some of their most lucrative clients while blasting their way out of a bunker. It no doubt helps to explain why golf has become the favourite sport of senior executives throughout the world. If he needs that little extra push, show him the formula developed by a British leisure expert:

RP = T/2 + (Z - 4) = CD = CA

The RP stands for rest period, and you needn't bother with the other stuff. The formula proves convincingly that a few days on the golf course are absolutely vital.

There are plenty of courses in the sun. Executives should be reminded that this is the time of the year when it becomes imperative to embark on inspection tours of overseas subsidiaries in places like Florida, Australia and Jamaica.

Once the initial leisure training period has been completed you can try to hook him on other activities which are every bit as challenging as a take-over bid. He can climb mountains, ride river rapids, go scuba diving. He may well end up making a happy discovery: leisure can be fun.