PRE-INTERMEDIATE

In company interviews: Units 13–15

Before you watch
1 Read the statements and tick ( ) the ones you agree with.
• I believe face-to-face meetings are the best meetings.
• If you use social media, sourcing the right candidate for a job is very easy.
• A company should describe its firing process clearly.
• I find managing my time very difficult.
• I use different methods for organizing tasks I have to do.

While you watch: Air travel

2 Watch the video. Tamar Brooks says that business travel has changed. What is the main reason?

3 Watch the video again. Are the sentences true (T) or false (F)? Correct the false ones.
a Due to the economic slowdown, people don’t want to have meetings.
b People prefer conference calls for cost reasons.
c There is no reason to do business travel now.
d Tamar used to travel once a week and now travels once a month.

While you watch: Hiring and firing

4 Watch the video. What is the main challenge for Tamar when …
a … hiring staff?

b … firing staff?

5 Complete the description of the firing process with the passive form of the verbs in brackets.
a If targets are not achieved (not achieve), then the informal process begins.
b The employee’s activities (review) on an informal weekly basis.
c Then the formal HR process (start).
d A monthly meeting (hold) between Tamar and the employee.
e The employee (give) a verbal warning and then a written warning.

6 Do you know the informal and formal processes for hiring and firing at your company?
Are they similar to Tamar’s company?

While you watch: Time

7 Watch the video. Complete Tamar’s method of managing her tasks.
email

I split out tasks by day, week, (a) and

(b) . Then I can find the:
•  (c) tasks – people scream at you!
•  Medium tasks done over a (d) time period.
•  Strategic (e) – I have three or four of these.

At the beginning of every day, I decide to do:

•  A number of (f) tasks.
•  One (g) task.
•  Every (h) , I set aside time to start working
on (i) long, strategic task.

In Company 3.0 Pre-intermediate © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2014 INTERVIEWS 13–15 1

 PRE-INTERMEDIATE

After you watch

8 Think about Tamar’s method of managing tasks in 7. Answer the questions.
a What are the advantages and disadvantages of this method?


b Would this method work for you in your job? Why? / Why not?


c How do you plan and organize your work? Write a short description using 8 to help you.

In Company 3.0 Pre-intermediate © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2014 INTERVIEWS 13–15 2