#0460 – Working in a Bad Economy, - Ang, mater, ESL Podcast McQuillan Jeff mp3+PDF

#0460 – Working in a Bad Economy

#0460 – Working in a Bad Economy, - Ang, mater, ESL Podcast McQuillan Jeff mp3+PDF

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
English as a Second Language Podcast
www.eslpod.com
ESL Podcast 460 – Working in a Bad Economy
GLOSSARY
economy –
the financial system where things are made, bought, and sold in a
particular country or region
* How much of Florida’s economy depends on tourism?
to take its toll –
to have a negative or bad influence on someone or something;
to make something more difficult; to make someone more tired or older
* Smoking cigarettes for 20 years really took its toll on her health.
to lay off (someone) –
to take away someone’s job; to tell a person that he or
she no longer has a job at a particular company; to fire someone
* When the company decided to move its operations to Asia, thousands of U.S.
workers were laid off.
workforce –
the group of people who work for a particular company or in a
particular industry or country
* The U.S. workforce needs more nurses and engineers.
salary –
the amount of money that one receives in one year for one’s work, no
matter how many hours one actually works; not an hourly rate
* Do you think $65,000 is a good starting salary for a chemical engineer?
it goes without saying –
a phrase used to show that what one is going to say
next is very obvious, easy to understand, and already known by almost everyone
* It goes without saying that people who are nice to others have more friends.
bonus –
money received for one’s work in addition to the money that one
normally receives, usually because one has done one’s job very well, or because
the company has made a lot of money in a particular period of time
* If the company makes $1 million this year, we’ll all get end-of-the-year bonuses.
freelancer –
independent
contractor; a person who works independently for
many different companies at the same time and is not employed by any one
company
* He is a graphic designer who works as a freelancer for many clients, helping
them design brochures and newsletters.
hourly rate –
the amount of money that one is paid for one hour of work, where
one receives payment only for the number of hours worked
* What is the minimum hourly rate in Iowa?
1
These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2009). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.
English as a Second Language Podcast
www.eslpod.com
ESL Podcast 460 – Working in a Bad Economy
to flood (something) –
to be very numerous; to have such large numbers of
something that they overwhelm what was there before
* Teenage girls flooded the concert hall as soon as the doors were opened.
job market –
the group of people who are looking for jobs and the group of
companies that are looking for new employees
* The job market for accountants is very competitive.
to pick and choose –
to have many options to choose from; to have many
choices when deciding something
* How long does the average shopper take to pick and choose what he or she
wants to buy in our store?
overtime –
time worked in addition to one’s regular working hours, usually after
one has already worked 40 hours per week and usually paid at 150% of one’s
normal hourly rate
* During the snow storm, many city employees worked overtime to clear the
roads.
to compensate –
to pay someone for one’s work; to give someone something in
return for the work he or she has done
* Do you think people should be compensated more if they produce better results
than their co-workers do?
to bill –
to send someone a piece of paper stating how much that person is
supposed to pay for a product or service
* There must be a problem in the store’s computer system because we were
billed twice last month.
by the hour –
each hour; per hour
* That parking garage charges by the hour: $2.75 per hour on weekdays and
$1.25 on weekends.
to not know how good (one) has it –
a phrase used when someone is
complaining about something when there actually isn’t any need to complain
because he or she is already in a very good situation and just doesn’t realize it
* Many college students complain that they don’t have enough free time, but they
don’t know how good they have it. Just wait until they have to work full-time and
support a family!
2
These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2009). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.
English as a Second Language Podcast
www.eslpod.com
ESL Podcast 460 – Working in a Bad Economy
to walk a mile in (someone’s) shoes –
to experience something as another
person experiences it; to live someone else’s life; to have someone else’s
experiences
* I wish my boss could walk a mile in my shoes! He has no idea how hard I work
each day.
ditto –
an informal word used when one completely agrees with what was just
said; an informal word used when one wants to repeat exactly what another
person has said
* - I wish we didn’t have to go back to work tomorrow.
*
- Ditto!
______________
COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
1. Why is Lex’s company laying off its workforce?
a) Because it gave out too many bonuses last year.
b) Because it wants to work with freelancers instead of employees.
c) Because it is losing money in the bad economy.
2. According to Lex, what is one advantage of working as a freelancer?
a) A freelancer can decide which projects to work on.
b) A freelancer is paid overtime.
c) A freelancer has to work hard to get clients.
______________
WHAT ELSE DOES IT MEAN?
economy
The word “economy,” in this podcast, means the financial system where things
are made, bought, and sold in a particular country or region: “Coal exports are a
big part of that country’s economy.” The phrase “false economy” refers to
something that one does to try to save money, but actually ends up being more
expensive: “They tried to save money by not getting the oil changed in their car,
but it was a false economy, because then they had to make a much more
expensive repair a few months later.” The phrase “economies of scale” is used
to talk about the way that it is often cheaper to make or buy many things at once,
3
These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2009). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.
English as a Second Language Podcast
www.eslpod.com
ESL Podcast 460 – Working in a Bad Economy
rather than one at a time: “Big families can benefit from economies of scale
when, for example, they buy huge packages of rice or toilet paper.”
to compensate
In this podcast, the verb “to compensate” means to pay someone for one’s work:
“The small company wasn’t able to pay people very much, but it compensated
them for their work by giving them a lot of vacation time and good health
insurance.” The verb “to compensate” also means to make up for something
bad, or to do something to counter-balance something bad: “When Jaroslav
wasn’t able to go to his daughter’s basketball game, he compensated by taking
her to the zoo the next day.” Finally, “to overcompensate” means to try to do too
much of something, usually because one feels bad about something that
happened: “Some parents who work long hours and don’t spend very much time
with their children try to overcompensate by buying them lots of expensive
presents.”
______________
CULTURE NOTE
“In hard times” (when the economy is bad), companies try to “cut back” (reduce
their costs and save money) in many ways. One way to cut back is to “eliminate”
(get rid of; stop having) “perks,” or the benefits of working in a job. For example,
a company might stop providing free coffee, “snacks” (food eaten between
meals), or water for its employees. A company could also eliminate perks by
taking away “company cars” (cars that are owned by a company but that an
employee can drive for professional and personal use) or cell phones.
Companies can also cut back by not having their regular holiday parties and
“employee appreciation days,” which are days when the company does nice
things for its employees, like taking them and their families to a pizza restaurant
or to go bowling. These are things that employees generally like to have, but the
company can save a lot of money by getting rid of them.
Unfortunately, the easiest way for a company to cut back is to lay off employees.
If a company is in a “dire” (very bad, serious) situation, it might lay off many or
most of its employees and not replace them with new employees. A company
that is in a “slightly” (a little bit) better situation might only lay off a few
employees. Sometimes a company will lay off some of its oldest employees so
that it can hire new, cheaper employees. A new employee who just finished
4
These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2009). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.
English as a Second Language Podcast
www.eslpod.com
ESL Podcast 460 – Working in a Bad Economy
college doesn’t have to be paid as much as someone who has worked in a
company for 20 years, but sometimes he or she can do the work just as well as
someone with more “seniority” (the amount of time that one has worked in a
company).
______________
Comprehension Questions Correct Answers: 1 – c; 2 – a
5
These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2009). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.
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