Jobs in a workplace director [member of the board of acompany] executive! zck v/ [important person who makes big decisions] administrator [person who runs the ofice day-to-day] skilled worker [trained to do specific tasks, e.g. buildinga computer] _ unskilled worker [doing ajob that needs no training] receptionist [visitors must check in with them] public relations officer [gives information ‘about the company tothe media] union representative [looks after the staff's interests] researcher [investigates and develops new products] supervisor [makes sure workers are doing their job properly] een ‘The best way of getting to work (NOT job) depends on where you live. Wish me luck in my new job (NOT work), Job refers toa particular role or position. Jack’s got a new jab as a researcher. Work refers to activities that you do. Jack's work is very demanding. Trades and professions Collocations of words connected with work It’s not easy to get/find work round these parts. 've been offered work / a job in Paris. ‘What d'you do for a living? I'm in publishing/banking, etc. It’s hard to make a living as a freelance writer [earn enough money to live comfortably] She's not prepared to take on that job. {suggests ‘having personal responsibilty’) TSTSTSRIIIN {© do shiftwork or to work shifts rights one weok, daysthe nex week} tobecnflexistime feible working hours] towork nine-to-ive [regula day work] SOTO 0 go/be on strike [industrial dapute] to get the sack [tivown out ofyourjob] tobe fired (moreormalthan’getthe sack often usednlitec speech: "You're red) tobe made redundant [thrown out, no longer needed} tobe laid off (more informal than‘made redundant) to be on take maternity (woman) or paternity (man) leave [betoreaterthebithofababy] tobeon/takesick leave [iiness]_totake early retirement (etie a 55] Tobea workaholic love worktoo much) tobe promated [ect higher postion] toapply fora job [tin forms, et]Exercises Which of the job titles in A opposite would best describe the following? 1 The petson who represents the workers’ interests in disputes with the management in a factory anion represental 2 Aperson who has a high position in a company and whose job itis to make important decisions... 3 Animportant person inacompany whositsontheboard. en 4 Aworker whose job requiresno special training, for example, an office leaner. 5 Aperson generally in charge of the day-to-day organisation of acompany/department. 6 Aperson whose jobitis to keep an eyeon the day-to-day work of other workers. Choose job or work to complete these sentences. 1 I'llpay forthe plumbing , work 2 Vdliketoapplyfora ..............inyour office. 3 Youshoulddelegatemore _.to your personal assistant. 4 Let’sstop fora coffee on ourway home from _..ifa museum wouldn't be as tiring as one in a restaurant. hen it’s finished. Using the expressions in C opposite, say what you think has happened /is happening. 1 ’mnotworking now; the baby's due in three weeks. iby le 2 He's enjoyinglifeona pension, although he’s only 58. 3 Oneweekit’ssixto-two, the nextit’s nights. 4 They'vemade her General Manageras fromnext month! 5 6 7 Iwaslateso often, Ilost my job. | get in atnine o'clockand gohome at five. Your trouble is you are obsessed with work! Which obs do these people have? Would you call the following a trade, aprofesion or an unskilled job? Fillin the collocations. Vdlove to + geé/have a job in journalism, but it’s not easy without qualifications. Since Ihave to earn a _ somehow, Ilhave to get seomWherever | can find it. Ive been - su 80M part-time work editing a new book, but I’m not sure | want to Wee Think of five people you know who work fora living, Can you name their jobs in English? you can't, look them up in a good bilingual dictionaWye ee i a iy Ng In my mid-twenties | joined the staff of a language school. The pay ‘wasn’t brilliant but | could make a living’ and there were many aspects of the job that | enjoyed. The other members of staff were nice and | enjoyed teaching the students. A few years later, after e returning from maternity leave, | decided to go part-time. Luckily | was able to do a job-share’ with another woman who had a small f child. Then the school began to go through a dificult period and had 5 to lay off staff’. | decided to go freelance’. |had managed to b upa network of contacts and this gave me a good start. | soon had a substantial volume of work — private students and marking exams — { _g_ 2nd was able to earn a good living. earn enough to live (can also be used just to referto _ dismiss staff because there is no work for them ‘one’s job and how one earns one's money: She mokes todo allving as a hairdresser) “work for several different organisations rather 2 situation where two people share equal parts of the than working fulltime for one organisation same job People usually do work, NOT sake work. if we talk about people mi create work for other people to do, After graduating, | practised medicine® for 2 number of yearsin London. | managed to carve a niche for myself? as a specialist i dermatology. Then | realised I needed some fresh challenges and so | did a job swap for a year with my opposite number’ in a clinic in Vancouver. When | returned, | went back to my old job and also took Lup the post’ of editor ofa leading medical journal. | held that position for a number of years. 'm now hoping to go abroad again and so am \ letting everyone know that lam open to offers. ing work, it means that they g. A baby makes a lot of work for its parents - but it's worth I. 2 worked as a doctor 2 someone doing the same job in a different location ? make a special position for myself * started work After graduating in economics, | did the usual thing of putting, together my CV! and applying for jobs. | got a very tempting offer from an investment bank and accepted it. | was put on a fast-track ‘scheme’ and was moving up the ladder” fast. However, one day | had a change of heart. | realised I'd stopped enjoying the excitement. | felt | needed to get my priorities right®.| decided that other aspects of my life should take priority over’ my work. | handed in my resignation and moved to the country. * y= curriculum vitae, a written description of * being promoted your education, qualifications, sills and career “my attitude or mood changed 2 system for rapid training and promotion of 5 give importance to the right aspects of life talented staff be more important to me than Common We say someone is underExercises Match the beginning of each sentence with its ending. 1 My husband and ido of contacts. 2 Circulate the report to all members the staffin our company. 3 Jonas has been happier since he went of work this month. 4 [hope it won't be necessary to lay of staff 5 It's not easy to make parttime. 6 Meeting people is the best aspect a job-share. 7 Marian was the last person to join off many of our staff. 8 Anna will be going on maternity of the job. 9 Try to build up a good network aliving as an actor. 10 We've hada ridiculous volume leave next month. Complete the conversation using words from the opposite page. Megan: Did you know my son’s in Australia at the moment? He’s doing a job swap with his opposite (1) sesnnnmsnnnny Hh BeFSOM WhO (2) sunsnnsnsnnnnn-a Similar position to his in the company's Sydney office. José: Wow, that's good! But I thought he wanted to go to the States this year? Megan: Well, yes. He did have a very tempting (3) from 2 company in New York and he was about to accept, but then he had a (4) ....-nm:nnonn OF heart, José: So, have you met the exchange person from Sydney? Megan: Yes, he’s been to dinner a couple of times. He'd like to settle here in fact and has asked us to tell everyone he’s (5) to offers from any companies that might be interested. Maybe your firm might be interested? José: Perhaps. We could do with someone with good Australian contacts. But we could really do with someone who could (6) a post before the end of the year. Megan: That could work out perhaps. He certainly seems very nice. And he'd be motivated to do well for you because he’s so keen to stay here. José: And do you think your son will stay in Australia? Megan: | hope not. 've told him to get his priorities (7) wenn -n-mnmnn « Being near his mum should (8) priority over Australian beaches and sunshin Rewrite each sentence using the word in brackets. The recession meant that the company had to make some workers redundant. (Lav) Your family should really be more important to you than your work. (PRIORITY) Nita soon gained several promotions at work. (LADDER) Harry hates his new boss so much that | think he'll soon leave. (RESIGNATION) Vic eams good money as a freelance journalist. (LIviNG) Ineed to write down all my qualifications and experience before | apply for jobs. (cv) My father always wanted to work as a doctor ina rural community. (PRACTISE) Correct the seven collocation errors in this paragraph. George makes a life as a sports reporter on a local newspaper but he is under high pressure at work at the moment. He’s had far too much work to make recently. He's been put on a fast-train scheme for promotion and they're really pushing him. It’s so hard that he's thinking of handing cover his resignation and going freelancing. It wouldn't be easy but I'm sure he'd soon work a niche for himself as a sports journalist.Ty Cui § | Discussing job applicants Guy: So which of these applicants do you think we should interview? They all seem to fit the job description quite well to me. It’s quite a daunting task to narrow the list down to just one person. | Lisa: | agree. So, lets start by taking up references for these ten people. Guy: OK So why did you pick these ten out ofthe fifty who applied? Lisa: Well, these ten all seem to be people who realise the importance of working asa team, They've al shown that they ae capable Al“ of mastering new skills. And they're all clearly comfortable with taking on responsibility Guy: Did you automatically eliminate the two who'd previously taken industrial action’? Lisa: One of them ~ I'd also heard rumours about his involvement in a professional misconduct case. He was certainly relieved of his duties” at ARG under mysterious circumstances. But the other was standing up for a woman who'd been wrongfully dismissed”, even though he knew he might lose his own job. So he sounded good to me. Guy: Fair enough, He must have strength of character to risk losing his own livelihood. Lisa: That's right. So could we pencil in a meeting for considering the references? And then I'd better leave you and go and clear my desk* before | go home. Guy: Yes, sure, How about Friday at 107 2 gone on strike 4 deal with all the papers on one’s desk (also used 2 (formal) dismissed when someone is clearing their desk because they 2 (formal, legal) unfair dismissed are leaving their job) ery TULLE If workers refuse to work, they go on st | Conversation about a new job ‘Alexa: | hear your brother's landed a fantastic new job. David: Actually it’s not as good as he hoped. He's got a terribly heavy workload and that means working some very unsocial hours. He also complains about. having to do lots of menial tasks around the office, running errands forhis boss. Alexa: But he's paid well? David: Notreally. Hejust about gets a living wage”. And al, > the overtime is unpaid. ‘Alexa: Hellljust have to throw a sickie® from time to time. David: Yes, | suggested he did that too, but he says he's afraid of getting the sack‘ if he does. He feels there might be some prospects for him there eventually, even if he isjust being used as sweated labour® at the moment. ‘Alexa: Well, with any luck he'll eventually find that he can realise his potential® there. David: | hope so. But they have a very high turnover of staff and it won't be easy for him to stay the course’ ‘Alexa: No, but he's very deter 1ed, isn'the? So let's hope it all works out. * informal) got 2 new (and usually a good) job * workers who are paid very ttle enough money to live on ‘and work in very bad conditions + (informal) take a day off work pretending to be sick “ achieve all that he is capable of * (informal) being dismissed * remain there until heis successfulExercises Find a collocation in A that matches each definition. 1 to make a provisional date for a meeting 6 unfairly sacked 2 analarmingly difficult task 7 tobe deprived of your source of income 3 to become skilled at doing new things 8 behaviour unacceptable for someone in 4 to request statements from referees a particular job 5 tohave the skills required for a job Complete this paragraph using words from the box in the appropriate form. be fit land run sweat_—_take Charlotte was surprised but happy t0 (1) ..m:mmnmmm jOb On her local newspaper as soon as she left university. She was surprised because she didn’t feel that she (2)... the job description, but she was happy because she had always dreamt of working as a journalist. So she didn’t really mind when she found that she was spending much of her time (3) errands for the editor. Her brother said she was just being used as (4) labour but she felt confident that there (5) ...0.0.m:«mm-G00d prospects for her there. She was sure she would soon have the chance to (6)... ‘on more responsibility. Complete each conversation using a collocation from the opposite page to make B agree with what A says. 1 A: Ithink that Adam will leave his new job before the year is out. B: Yes, | agree. | don’t think he'll either. 2 A: Had you heard that they may fire some members of staff? B: Yes, | did hear a rumour that some people might . 3 A: Inflation is so high that | don’t seem to earn enough to live on any more. B: No. | don’t feel !€a4M cen snes MYSELF, 4 A: Has the HR manager been removed from his job? B: Yes, he was yesterday. 5A: Uhope the workers don’t decide to go on strike. B: Yes, it would be very unfortunate if they decide to - 6 A: It's going to be hard to decide which of the job applicants to shortlist. B: Yes, | don’t know how we are going to... nn ‘Answer these questions about your own work or ask someone else these questions and write down the answers. 11 What kind of menial tasks does your job involve? Do you think this job will allow you to realise your potential? Do you ever have to work unsocial hours? Ifso, why? If not, why not? Does there tend to be a high turnover of staff at your workplace? If you do overtime, is it paid or unpaid? Have you ever thrown a sickie? Ifso, why? If not, why not? Have you ever taken or would you ever consider taking industrial action? In your job is it necessary to work as a team? Do you have a heavy workload? ON T-tamn te} Itwill probably be particularly useful for you to learn work collocations that relate to your own professional life. Look on the internet for information in English about the job that you do or are interested in doing in the future. Make a note of any interesting collocations that you come across.