Учебник Английский язык

way of attracting and keeping employees. Telecommuting helps those with families spend more time together, it results in less pollution, and it allows employees to work where and when they want to. Low employment means that companies have to work hard to find employees, and offering telecommuting is something that employees like.

4.Change the group and prepare the list of advantages and disadvantages that people could get if they telecommute.

5.a) Read the magazine article about advantages and disadvantages of working from home. Put each quotation in the correct category in the chart below. The first one has been done for you.

Does working at home really work?	Advantages	Disadvantages
the work place
the working day
commuting
technology
efficiency
costs
motivation		1
family

Working from home

What do people really think about working from home? We interviewed a cross section of people from different

industries about their experiences of teleworking. As you will see, there was quite a wide variety of opinions. 1 ‘There is no getting away from the family. When you

work in an office you get a chance to escape and meet new people.’

2 ‘I think us home workers get more done in a shorter time. There are no phone calls or colleagues to slow you down.’

3 ‘Without journeys to and from the office you don’t get a chance to relax and prepare your mind before you work, or to wind down before you get home. I miss the separation between home and leisure time.’

4 ‘You do get to see more of your children. The problem is, though, that you’re supposed to be WORKING.’

5 ‘You don’t have to sit in traffic jams or walk to work in the rain. Or listen people talking loudly on their mobiles on the train.’

6 ‘I think financially you miss out on perks like subsidised refreshments or travel.’ 7 ‘Life is definitely cheaper for the employee. You save on things like transport and smart clothes. It’s also cheaper to have lunch at home.’

8 ‘It’s a bit dangerous for workaholics. You can easily find your working time creeping into your leisure time.’

9 ‘Sharing ideas and problems with your colleagues can make you more productive in some jobs. And the gossip can be really inspiring!’

10 ‘Space can be a problem. Rooms can become an unpleasant mix of home and office.’

11 ‘You don’t have to work with those obsolete office computers and the company intranet which always seems to be down.’

12 ‘The flexibility is great. You can work at five in the morning or on a Sunday afternoon.’

13 ‘I like the freedom. You can open the window, play music and generally make yourself comfortable.’

14 ‘It can be difficult to get down to work. You have to be very self-disciplined.’ 15 ‘If you have a technical problem, you’re on your own. There’s no IT expert to call on.’

16 ‘No boss cracking the whip!’

b) Compare you list with the opinions you’ve read. Do you have the same ones?

6. a) Find in the article words and phrases which mean the same as: a relax

b queues of cars and lorries unable to move forward c benefits not included in your salary

d people who can’t stop working e out of date and no longer useful

f informal exchange of news and information g start

h trying got make people work harder

b) Complete the sentences with the words from a).

1 As I have to travel so much I miss out on all the office _______.

2 When I get home, I like to ______ by listening by some classical music with a glass of wine.

3 My boss is a complete ______. She just doesn’t know how to relax and turn off. 4 It’s better to have a higher salary than _____ like a company car or free meals. 5 The problem with buying a computer is that in a couple of years it’s ______.

6 I find it difficult to ______ the accounts and usually leave them until the last minute.

7 I leave home very early to avoid getting caught in _______ on the way to work.

8 _______ is part of any manager’s job.

c) Are the sentences in b) true for you? If not, change them so that they are.

Pay

VOCABULARY THROUGH THE CONTEXT

Wages, salary and benefits

My name's Luigi and I'm a hotel manager in Venice. I get paid a salary every month. In summer we're very busy, so we work a lot of extra hours, or overtime; the money for this is quite good. Working in a hotel, we also get nice perks, for example free meals!

I'm Ivan and I work as a waiter in Prague. I like my job even if I don't earn very much: I get paid wages every week by the restaurant. We get the minimum wage: the lowest amount allowed by law. But we also get tips, money that customers leave for us in addition to the bill. Some tourists are very generous!

I'm Catherine and I'm a saleswoman based in Paris. I get a basic salary, plus commission: a percentage on everything I sell. If I sell more than a particular amount in a year, I also get extra money - a bonus, which is nice. There are some good fringe benefits with this job: I get a company car, and they make payments for my pension, money that I'll get regularly after I stop working. All that makes a good benefits package.

Compensation 1

My name's Alan. I'm a specialist in pay and benefits. Compensation and remuneration are formal words used to talk about pay and benefits, especially those of senior managers. Compensation package and remuneration package are used especially in the US to talk about all the pay and benefits that employees receive. For a senior executive, this may include share options (BrE) or stock options (AmE): the right to buy the company's shares at low prices. There may be performance-related bonuses if the manager reaches particular objectives for the company.

Compensation is also used to talk about money and other benefits that a senior manager (or any employee) receives if they are forced to leave the organization, perhaps after a boardroom row. This money is in the form of a compensation payment, or severance payment. If the manager also receives benefits, the payment and the benefits form a severance package.

In Britain, executives with very high pay and good benefits may be referred to as fat cats, implying that they do not deserve this level of remuneration.

1. Xavier and Yvonne are talking about Xavier's new job as a photocopier salesman. Complete the conversation, using words from A opposite.

1	X: I get paid every month.
	Y: I see. You get a salary , not wages.
2	X: 1 usually have to work late: I don't get paid for it, but I get a percentage for
every photocopier I sell.
	Y So you don't get............................	but you do get............................	That's good.
3	X: The people in production get a...........................	if they reach their targets.
	Y: Oh right. They get an extra payment for producing a certain amount.
4	X: The company pays for medical treatment too. and the company restaurant is
fantastic.
	Y: Wow! The......................................................	sound very nice.
5	X: And they've given me a ......................................................		to go and visit
clients.
	Y: So you don't have to buy a car, then.
6	X: What's more, the company pays in money for us to get when we don't work
any more.
	Y: Yes, it's important to get a good............................
7	X: The total......................................................	is brilliant.

Y:Yes, all that extra stuff is really worth having.

2.Which expressions from vocabulary could be used to continue each of these newspaper extracts?

1FAILED AIRLINE BOSS GETS MASSIVE PAYOUT

Shareholders are angry that despite very poor results, Blighty Airlines’ CEO, Mr Rob Herring, is leaving with Ј3 million in his pocket. They say it is ridiculous to ‘reward’ bad

performance with this sort of...

MEGAFONE CEO GETS Ј10 MILLION 'THANK YOU' AFTER TAKEOVER

The directors of Megafone, the world’s largest mobile phone 3 company, yesterday voted to give Mr Chris Ladyman, its chief executive, a special payment of Ј10 million for negotiating the company’s takeover of Minnemann. The directors referred to this as a ...

2MULTILEVER'S EXECUTIVE PAY

It was today revealed that Mr Carl Lang, head of consumer foods giant Multilever, earns a basic salary of $22 million with stock options potentially worth an additional $10

million. Other payments bring to

ANGRY SHAREHOLDERS

$35 million his total ...

ATTACK EXECUTIVE PAY

National Energy’s sharehojders yesterday attacked the directors of the company for paying themselves

4too much. Profits fell by 30 per cent last year, but directors are being paid 30 per cent more. They should be paid 30 per cent less, said one shareholder. ‘These people are just...’

READING

1. Match up the following words with the underlined words in the text.

Remuneration

cash	commission	executive directors		cost-of-living
allowance	deducted	fringe benefit		incentive
salespeople	increments	salary	potential	evaluate	earning

Most of the full-time employees at our headquarters in Manchester earn an annual salary, divided into twelve monthly payments. Income tax is automatically

(1) subtracted from the salary each month, along with National Insurance contributions. The staff in our London office also receive a London (2) weighting, because living and working in the capital is more expensive. Unlike many public sector jobs (civil servants, teachers, nurses, and so on) our staff do not receive

(3) automatic increases to their salary every year. Pay rises are given according to merit, and there is no fixed pay-scale. We have an appraisal system in which the managers (4) assess the performance of their subordinates every December. The (5) senior managers are also paid a bonus at the end of the year if the financial results are good, on top of their basic (6) remuneration, which is already rather high.

The sales force earn a basic fixed salary, plus (7) a percentage of the value of their sales, which is obviously an (8) encouragement to higher productivity. On the other hand, the (9) reps do not receive overtime pay if they work long hours.

The (10) potential income of the most successful ones is higher than that of some of the managers.

The hourly paid staff-cleaners, canteen workers, and so on - receive their wages in (11) notes and coins in a pay packet every Friday. Of course this is after all deductions such as tax and insurance contributions.

Because we are in the insurance business we all get at least one (12) perk - cheap insurance policies.

2. Look at the set expressions given below, and decide if they refer to earning a high or a low salary?

1.Believe me, they pay peanuts.

2.He really is one of the fat cats.

3.He's rolling in it.

4.I don't know where he finds the time to spend it.

5.I earn an absolute pittance.

6.It's hardly worth getting out of bed for.

7.It's nothing to write home about.

8.She earns a fortune.

9.She must be absolutely loaded.

10.We're talking serious money here, about 120K.

11.If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys!

WRITING

Summarise the whole information you’ve leant about working conditions and write a composition ‘Working conditions I dream about’.

Project work: Organize a survey. Interview a group of working people about their working conditions. Find out if they are satisfied with their job or not. Present the result in the class with help of Power Point. Use tables and graphs.

Part 4 PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF MANAGEMENT

Building relationships and communication

1. Discuss these questions.

1. What are the most important relationships for you a) at your place of work or study? b) outside your place of work or study?

2. What benefits do you get from each relationship?

2. Answer the questions in the quiz. Suppose how good you are at building relationships.

1 You are in a room with a group of people who don't know each other. Do you wait for someone to say something?

introduce a topic of conversation? introduce yourself?

2 When you are introduced to people, do you remember

their name? their face? their clothes?

3 On festive occasions, e.g. New Year, do you send greeting cards to everyone you know? send e-mails?

reply only to cards received?

4 Do you think small talk is enjoyable?

a waste of time? difficult to do well?

5 Do you prefer

not to socialise with colleagues? to socialise often with colleagues?

to socialise with colleagues only if you have to?

6 Do you like to have conversations with people who share your interests? with almost anyone?

with people who are your social equals?

3. Ward Lincoln, Business Relations Manager with an international training organisation, is talking about areas for companies to consider in order to build strong business relationships. What factors do you think he will mention?

Read the interview and check the predictions you made.

INTERVIEWER - Ward, what are the key factors in building good business relationships?

WARD LINCOLN - I believe that relationships, business or otherwise, are about trust. And in order to gain trust, you must be honest; you must be transparent, clear. Don’t promise what you can’t deliver. There is nothing worse in a relationship than being let down. It is also about being clear, being explicit - people present their products in brochures, pamphlets, flyers, e-mail, videos. All of those media –they’re all very effective, but it must be clear. The customer must understand very quickly, what you are selling, what price you’re selling at. The speed of that information, the speed of the response -it must consistently be fast. The restless customer of the 21st century does not have time on his or her hands and there are a million other providers, all ready and eager to sell to that customer. In order to continue that relationship, maintaining the relationship, consistently answer their queries, respond quickly in a simple format.

VOCABULARY

1. The verbs below are often used with the word relations. Use them to complete the table.

break off	build up	cement foster cut off	develop	disrupt
encourage	establish	endanger improve	jeopardise	maintain

strengthen promote restore resume damage sour undermine

Positive meaning	Negative meaning
build up relations	Break off relations

2. Choose the correct verb in each sentence.

1 Sales staff who are impolite to customers disrupt / damage the reputation of a company.

2 We are planning to promote / establish branch offices in Singapore.

3 By merging with a US company, we greatly strengthened / maintained our sales force.

4 Our image has been fostered / undermined by poor after-sales service.

5 Thanks to a new communications system, we are souring / improving relations with suppliers.

6 A strike at our factory resumed / disrupted production for several weeks.

7 We could not agree on several points so we broke off / cut off talks regarding a joint venture.

8 The success of our new product launch was resumed / jeopardised by an unimaginative advertising campaign.

9 In order to gain market share in China, we are building up / cutting off a sales network there.

10 Relations between the two countries have been endangered / fostered by official visits and trade delegations.

3. Match the following sentence halves. Then make five more sentences with the verbs in Exercise 1 and 2.

1 Widespread rumours of a hostile take-over bid are certain 2 The Accounts Department's very slow payment of invoices

3 The long-term contracts, which will run for the next five years,

4 The excellent relations the company enjoys with the local community 5 As a result of the government's imposition of currency controls,

a are a credit to its highly effective PR Department.

b have cemented relations between the two companies.

c its close relations with several major foreign investors have been jeopardised. d is causing stormy relations with some of the company's suppliers.

e to strain relations between the two leading French software companies

4. Two managers are talking about building relationships with agents. Put the conversation in the correct order.

a)Well, I hope you get a result. I must be going. I’ve got to draw up an agency agreement myself, I’ve put it off far too long already.

b)What exactly was the problem?

c)Yes, my job was on the line. Our results were terrible. We tried to build up market share but it just didn't happen. We just managed to hold on to what we had.

d)Unfortunately, our agent let us down. We thought we could count on him to boost sales but he had no commitment, no motivation.

e)He should be. He’s got a very good track record. We’d set up a meeting on Friday, but he had to call it offsomething came up.

f)How’s it going in France, Gina? We didn’t do too well there last year.

g)Well, I suppose you terminated his contract then.

h)Good. Let’s hope he'll be better than the last one.

i)Alt the best. Speak to you soon.

j)Yes, there was no way we could renew it. We sounded out a few possible replacements and found someone else. We get on really well.

5. Work in pairs and role play these situations.

1.The owner of a department store visits Moscow to find a supplier of amber jewellery. He/She phones a Russian contact recommended by a colleague. The owner wants to find out if the Russian is interested in doing business with his/her company.

2.You are networking at a conference about sports goods. You are a Sales Manager for a sports goods company. You are at a conference and see someone who you met briefly last year at a trade fair. a) Reintroduce yourself b) Find out if the person is interested in becoming an agent for your company.

READING

1. What area of business do you think the company American International Group (AIG) is involved in? Is it a) tobacco? b) insurance? c) oil? d) packaging? Skim the article quickly to find the answer.

AIG knows everyone in Asia

By Shawn Donnan

AIG, American International Group, has grown from a small Shanghai-based underwriting agency into the world’s largest 5 insurer by market value. It has a capitalisation of $166bn, and is firmly embedded in Asia's corporate culture. Indeed, with roots dating back more than half a century, and the constant focus on the region by Maurice Greenberg, its Chairman, AIG has an unrivalled scale of operations and a wealth of political and business connections.

For other US and European insurers, the company is both a benchmark and a powerful competitor. ‘They know anyone who is anyone in Asia.’

However, in order to continue to prosper, AIG will have to succeed in China - probably the insurance market with the 25 biggest untapped potential in the world. After 17 years of lobbying by Mr Greenberg, AIG was the first foreign insurer to be allowed into China, in 1992. It now operates in eight cities but admits making only ‘a small profit’ in the country. Today, turning its pioneering presence into a commercial success is AIG’s biggest challenge. In China as with the rest of Asia, AIG’s main advantage over its competitors is its long-standing presence. The group was founded in Shanghai in 1919 by Cornelius Vander Starr, a 27-year-old American entrepreneur.

That historical accident, and Mr Starr’s quest to expand to the rest of Asia in the ensuing 10 years, are still benefiting the company. Over the past nine decades, AIG built on those foundations through endlessly pursuing close relationships with Asia's governments, regulators and powerful businessmen.

Edmund Tse, who runs the Asian operations and life assurance worldwide, says AIG’s policy is to build relationships with as many influential people as possible. ‘If you want to do business, you have to be friends with senior leaders,’ he says. ‘You need to be friends with the head of state, the minister of finance, the minister of trade, the [central] bank governor and the insurance regulator.’

AIG believes its three decades spent courting China will be rewarded with unrestricted access to its vast insurance market. ‘The Chinese always remember good friends,’ says Mr Tse.

But if its ‘friendship’ with China is not enough to tap the country’s potential, AIG may lose its main growth engine. And without a strong Asia, AIG would be a much weaker company.

AIG may be a company of 80,000 employees and 350,000 affiliated agents in 130 countries but much of its success is down to individual relationships.

Many of those relationships have been forged by Maurice Greenberg, the company’s chairman and chief executive.

Mr Greenberg says that playing the long game has given AIG an edge, particularly in terms of investing in emerging markets. He courted the Chinese for 17 years before being granted a licence in 1992.

Mr Greenberg knows quite a few people. His style has always been to discuss big issues - corporate, political and economic - with anyone he meets. One analyst refers to AIG as a ‘sovereign corporate nation’ as Mr Greenberg insists on representing the company in high-level discussions. ‘If you’re dealing with the premier or president of a country, he is not thrilled to have a deputy come and see