CELPIP Speaking Task 7: Expressing Opinions Practice

I firmly believe office employees should have flexible starting and finishing times, and I can think of several strong reasons. First, people simply aren't productive at the same hours — some do their sharpest thinking at dawn while others come alive in the afternoon, so allowing them to work when they're at their best benefits both the individual and the employer. Second, flexible schedules ease a very practical problem: rush-hour congestion. When staff aren't all funnelled onto the roads and transit at nine o'clock, commuting becomes faster and far less stressful. It's also a lifeline for working parents, who can handle the school run without sacrificing their careers. Now, critics rightly point out that coordinating meetings gets trickier, but that's a minor obstacle — most companies solve it by fixing a few "core hours" when everyone is present and leaving the rest of the day flexible. Weighing it all up, the gains in productivity, wellbeing, and work-life balance clearly outweigh the small scheduling cost, so I wholeheartedly support flexible hours.