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Pets coming into Britain have to go into quarantine. What's it like and what happens when it's finished?

Find out by doing these four exercises:
 

exercise 1

exercise 2

exercise 3

exercise 4

Answering - the first ten seconds 
The first thing to do when you answer the phone is to understand who is calling and what they want. do these exercises to practise this skill:

exercise 1

exercise 2

exercise 3

exercise 4

 

Hire and fire

If you 'hire' someone, you employ them.

• We hired him on a six month contract.
• I hear that they are not hiring people at the moment because of budget problems.

If you 'fire' somebody, you dismiss them from their job, usually because of something they did.

• I had to fire Sally because she kept on making mistakes.
• If you don't improve, they may decide to fire you.

If you 'make somebody redundant', you dismiss them from their job for economic reasons.

• They are closing down the factory and making 500 people redundant.
• I was made redundant from my last job.

If you 'recruit' people, you persuade them to work for you.

• We need to recruit more young engineers.
• It's difficult to recruit people because our pay is so low.

If you 'headhunt' someone for a job, you approach them because you think they are well-qualified for the job and offer them the job.

• We need to look at the people doing similar jobs in other companies and headhunt the best one.
• He was headhunted at great expense but the job didn't work out and he left.

If you 'hand in (or give in) your notice', you tell your employer that you are going to leave the company.

• She handed in her notice this morning and is leaving at the end of the month.
• He gave in his notice and they told him he could leave straight away.

If a company 'gives someone notice', they tell them that they are going to lose their jobs.

• The company only gave me three days' notice that I was being made redundant.
• We have to give her two months' notice that we are letting her go.

If an employer 'sacks' someone, they fire them.

• They sacked me without notice after ten years with the company.
• I hear they intend to sack him because of his bullying.

If you 'get the sack' or are 'given the sack', you are fired.

• He was given the sack because he kept arriving late.
• If I keep making mistakes, I'm going to get the sack.

'Severance pay' is money paid to workers when they are made redundant.

• The redundant workers were given 26 weeks' severance pay.
• After ten years, I got three days' notice and no severance pay.

If you take legal action against your employer for 'unfair dismissal', you claim that they dismissed you for no good reason.

• He is suing them for unfair dismissal as he says he was only ever late once.
• Dismiss me and I'll take you to court for unfair dismissal. I've done nothing to deserve this.

If you take legal action against your employer for 'constructive dismissal', you claim that you were forced to leave your job because of the actions/behavior of your employer.

• She is making a claim for constructive dismissal because she claims her immediate boss bullied her.
• I'm sure you have the grounds for a complaint of constructive dismissal.

exercise 1

exercise 2

exercise 3

exercise 4
 

Episode 6 - What are the Options? In this episode we look at the options or choices that have to be made. You can watch the video or just listen to the audio. (Chúng ta xem xét về những lựa chọn, những quyết định có thể được đưa ra)

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If you do not see the video - you click here to listen to Audio:

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In this episode we look at the options or choices that have to be made. You can watch the video or just listen to the audio.

DENISE: Now we're looking at the options for handling our on-line orders. They're going through the roof and frankly the lead-time for delivery is blowing out. We need to improve our performance in this area. Any suggestions?

TAN: Well, as I see it, we have three options. The obvious one is to employ more people to do the job. Another alternative is to automate the system more - cut down on the physical handling.

JOHN: And the third option?

TAN: We could outsource.

DENISE: What are the pros and cons?

BARBARA: Well, looking at increasing staff versus automation, we have to consider the cost. Automating has a higher capital cost than putting on more staff. On the other hand, employing more people is more expensive over a long term. If we keep growing, it'll cost more in the long run.

DENISE: How likely is it that we'll see continued growth?

TAN: I'd say it's a certainty.

JOHN: I'd say a high probability. Nothing's certain in business.

DENISE: So what about the third option?

TAN: Outsourcing? Well, it does take the problem off our hands. But we lose contact with our customers.

DENISE: What about the bottom line?

BARBARA: Outsourcing is the cheapest option, and the easiest - in the short term. But if we want to keep the operation in-house, the best option is automating our system. The only down side is, we're taking a risk that our business will keep growing.

JOHN: Which we hope it will.

DENISE: We certainly do.



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We've looked before at formal meetings. Today's meeting is a more informal one, to discuss a specific issue. The discussion is more free-flowing, or uncontrolled. Let's look first at some of the language used by Denise when she introduces the problem.
Now we're looking at the options for handling our on-line orders. They're going through the roof and frankly the lead-time for delivery is blowing out. We need to improve our performance in this area.
Denise says 'we're looking at the options'.

'Options' are different solutions, or answers, to a problem. What is the problem? 'On-line orders are going through the roof'.

'On-line orders' are orders for goods received through the internet, and if they're 'going through the roof', they are increasing in number very rapidly.

The 'lead-time' for delivery is the amount of time it takes from when the order is received to when it's delivered, and if it's 'blowing out' - that time is becoming too long. We use the expression 'blowing out' for something which is becoming too great, in a bad way.