Script for Listeners

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How to Be a Good Employee
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Welcome to Spotlight. Im Liz Waid. And Im Adam Navis. Spotlight uses a special
English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in
the world they live.

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Imagine this. Jessica is a young woman. For two years, she has been a computer
programmer. But this morning, Jessicas manager fired her. Jessica no longer has a job.
She is very surprised. She always came to work on time. And she always completed her
work. She even had a university degree! So, why did this happen?

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Jessicas boss thought she spent too much time on social media during work hours. He
told Jessica to not use Facebook or Twitter at work. But Jessica did not think it was a big
problem. So, she continued doing it. Jessicas boss was disappointed. He knew she was
intelligent. He knew she could have been doing much more for the company.

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Being a good employee is very important for achieving success. Today's Spotlight is on
how to be a good employee.

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One of the most important qualities of a good employee is honesty. Employers need to
be able to trust their workers. Employees should never lie to their employers, even when
telling the truth is difficult.

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Imagine a young man named Jason. Jason travels around the country selling medicine
to hospitals and doctors. Jason has a mobile telephone for his job. He is only supposed
to use this phone for work. But sometimes, Jason uses his work phone to call friends.
Recently, he has been using his work phone for personal calls a lot. And Jasons boss
has begun to suspect. Yesterday, his boss came to talk to him:

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Jason, you had a really large phone bill this month. Really? I did not notice. It is probably
because I made a lot of international business calls this month. Jason, please
remember the company policy about phone use. No using work phones for personal
calls. Oh, I know the policy. I never do that It must have been the international calls.

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Jasons boss was giving him a chance to tell the truth. But Jason chose to lie. After their
conversation, Jasons boss looked at Jasons phone records. He confirmed that Jason
was lying. If Jason had told him the truth, he would have let Jason keep his job. But
Jasons boss could not keep an employee that he could not trust. So, he fired Jason.

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Another important quality of a good employee is working hard. Good employees always
try their best. Sometimes, jobs can be challenging. Other times, employees can lose
interest in doing the same job over and over. But in all situations, it is important for
employees to do their very best.

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Imagine a young woman named Sarah. Sarah works for a company that sells car parts.
She enters sales information into the companys computer system. Sarah is good at this.
But, when there is not a lot to do, she gets bored. Sarah could ask her boss for extra

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Script for Listeners

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work. But instead, she likes to talk to her co-workers. And Sarahs talking often keeps
other people from doing their work.

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Sarahs boss is named Jim. Jim has asked Sarah many times to stop talking so much.
One day Jim was talking with his boss.

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Jim, every time I visit your offices, I see that one young woman talking and laughing.
Who is she? Her name is Sarah. She does talk a lot during work. Does she do her work?
Well, yes... Most of the time. She can be very good at her job. That is why I have not
wanted to fire her. Have you warned her not to talk so much? Yes, I have. She stops
talking for a little while, but it does not last. I will talk with her again.

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If Sarah does not stop talking, her boss may have to fire her. To be a good employee,
she must decide that working hard is more important than talking.

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The third important quality of a good employee is a positive attitude. No job is perfect. It
can be easy to feel and speak negatively about problems at work. But good employees
stay positive. They concentrate on the good parts of their job instead of the bad parts.
And if there is a conflict at work, good employees try to fix the problem.

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Imagine a woman named Angela. Angela is having a problem at work. She sells
educational materials to schools. She is also responsible for sending the materials to the
different schools. Yesterday, one of her schools called the company. They said the
materials did not arrive on time. Angelas boss was not happy with her. He yelled at her.
And he did not give her a chance to explain.

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Angela knew she had finished her job on time. She recognized that the people who
worked in the mail room had made a mistake. It would have been easy for Angela to
blame the mail room or become angry with her boss. But instead, she stayed positive.
And she decided to talk with the people in charge of mail:

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Hello. Do you have time to talk now? Sure. What do you need? I know you have a
difficult job. Thanks for all you do. Thanks! Last week I gave you some materials to
send to a new school. Did you get them? Oh yes, we did. One of our workers was sick
that day. So we sent them off late. Sorry! Thank you for telling me. Next time, if there is
a problem like that, please ask me for help. It is very important that the schools get the
materials on time. So I would be happy to help if you need it.

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Angela stayed positive with her boss and with the people who made the mistake. Instead
of making excuses, she made sure the problem would not happen again. Any employer
would be happy to have Angela as their employee!

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Being honest. Working hard. And staying positive. These are three qualities that will
make you a better employee! Shawnice Meador is a business education expert. She told
Forbes magazine, "Being better at your job can only help you. The better you are, the
more people notice, and the more that chances for success may happen at work in the
future.

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