A hard time at work

"Une période difficile au travail"
French C1 writing exercise

Érica went through a rough time at work.

Pay attention to the hints!

Some vocabulary you may want to look up before or during this exercise: "to suffer a panic attack", "to resign oneself to ...", "a long leave of absence", "to be off (work)", "to feel self-conscious", "mental health", "to be away (from work)", "to agree to do", "to put someone at ease", "one way or another", "to burst into tears", "to open up (feelings)", "to feel overwhelmed with", "to only [infinitive] (=to do nothing but...)", "to exacerbate", "to come up with a plan", "to return to work gradually".

I’ll give you some sentences to translate into French

  • I’ll show you where you make mistakes
  • I’ll keep track of what you need to practise
  • Change my choices if you want
Start the exercise

Here's a preview of the text for the writing challenge, when you're ready click the start button above:

A few years back, after suffering several panic attacks, I'd had to resign myself to taking a long leave of absence. At first, I didn't want my colleagues to know why I was off, because I felt too self-conscious to talk about my mental health. After I'd been away for a couple of months, my boss called me and I agreed to meet him at the office. He put me at ease straight away, and wanted to know if he could help one way or another. In the middle of our conversation, I suddenly burst into tears which allowed me to finally open up. I explained that I felt overwhelmed with the amount of work, which only exacerbated the personal issues I was having at home. He listened to me with kindness and compassion and together, we came up with a plan for me to be able to return to work gradually, which was exactly what I needed.

I'll be right with you...