Ways of Working PDF

2 Ways of working A Working hours ‘I’m an office worker in an insurance company. It’s a nine-to-five job with regular working hours. I need my swipe card to get into the office. The work isn’t very interesting, but I like to be able to go home at a r...

2 Ways of working A Working hours ‘I’m an office worker in an insurance company. It’s a nine-to-five job with regular working hours. I need my swipe card to get into the office. The work isn’t very interesting, but I like to be able to go home at a reasonable time.’ Note Note You can also say clock BrE: flexitime in and clock out. AmE: flextime ‘I’m in computer programming. There’s a system of flexitime in my company, which means we can work when we want, within certain limits. We can start at any time till 11, and Swiping a card finish as early as 3 – as long as we do enough hours each month. It’s ideal for me as I have two young children.’ ‘I work in a car plant. I work in shifts and I have to clock on and clock off at the beginning and end of every shift. I may be on the day shift one week and the night shift the next week. It’s difficult changing from one shift to another. When I change shifts, I have problems changing to a new routine for sleeping and eating. When the company is selling lots of cars, they ask us to work overtime – more hours than usual for more money.’ ‘I’m a commercial artist in an advertising agency. Unlike most other people in my department who commute to work every day, I work from home and avoid the long journeys that some commuters experience every day. That’s the benefit of teleworking or telecommuting – working from home and using the computer and phone to communicate with other people.’ B Nice work if you can get it All these words are used in front of job and work. satisfying, stimulating, fascinating, exciting – the work is interesting and gives you positive feelings dull, boring, uninteresting, unstimulating – the work is not interesting repetitive, routine – the work involves doing the same things again and again tiring, tough, hard, demanding – the work is difficult and makes you tired C Nature of work + noun human contact long hours My work involves teamwork I like / dislike / prefer / enjoy + -ing working with figures dealing with customers solving problems 12 Business Vocabulary in Use Intermediate  Exercises 2.1 Look at the six expressions (a–f) from A opposite. Which person (1–6) is most likely to do each of the things described? a work in shifts 1 A designer in a website design company. Has to be in the office, b work under but can decide when she wants to start and finish work each day. a flexitime 2 A manager in a department store in a large city. Lives in the system country. c telecommute 3 A construction worker on a building site where work goes on d commute to 24 hours a day. work 4 A worker in a chocolate factory in the three months before e clock in and out Christmas. at the same time 5 A technical writer for a computer company. Lives in the country every day and visits the company offices once a month. f work overtime 6 An office worker in a large, traditional manufacturing company. 2.2 Look at the words and expressions in B and C opposite. Five people describe their jobs. Match the jobs (1–5) with the descriptions (a–e) and put the words in brackets into the correct grammatical forms. 1 accountant 2 postwoman 3 flight attendant 4 software developer 5 teacher a ‘Obviously, my work involves (travel) a lot. It can be quite physically (demand), but I enjoy (deal) with customers, except when they become tired and anxious about arriving. This doesn’t happen often, but it can be very frustrating for us and the other passengers.’ b ‘I love my job. It’s very (stimulate) and not at all (repeat): no two days are the same. The children are fine: you see them learn and develop. The parents can be more of a problem.’ c ‘I was good at maths at school and I like (work) with figures. But my job is much less (bore) and routine than people think. The work (involve) a lot of human contact and teamwork, working with other managers.’ d ‘You’ve got to think in a very logical way. There’s a lot of teamwork between the developers. The work can be mentally (tire), but it’s very satisfying to write a program that works.’ e ‘Of course, it involves getting up quite early in the morning. But I like (be) out in the open air. And you get a lot of exercise. I walk two or three miles every day.’ Over to you If you work, answer these questions. If you don’t work, answer these questions. Do you have a nine-to-five job? Do you have What sort of working hours would you like to clock on and off? Is there a flexitime to have when you start working? system in your organization? Are there people Would you like to work from home? who do shiftwork in your company? What kind of job would you like? Complete Could you do your job working from home? If this sentence in five ways to talk about so, would you like to? yourself. What do you like most about your job? What do you like least? I’d like a job that involves … Business Vocabulary in Use Intermediate 13